Michael Persinger, a professor of psychology at Laurentian University inCanada, published Neuropsychological Bases of God Beliefs in 1987. In it, heargued that a specific neurological condition known as temporal lobe epilepsyproduces psychological states that are similar to the religious experiencesof people like Joan of Arc and St. Paul on the road to Damascus. Temporallobe epilepsy is different from other forms of epilepsy in that temporal lobeepilepsy seizures do not involve convulsions, immobility, or loss of consciousness.Instead, a person having a temporal lobe epilepsy seizure noticesa change in sensory perception, often involving changes in smells, sounds,tastes, and phantom sensations in the skin. Some people also experiencecognitive changes such as déjà vu or jamais vu during a temporal lobe epilepticseizure, and a significant fraction of these people also experience aheightened sense of “religiosity,” including the sensation of an unseen,supernatural presence.Persinger developed a machine, often dubbed the “God helmet,” whichgenerates a weak magnetic field in and around the right temporal lobe ofthe brain of a person wearing it. Approximately 80 percent of people testedwith the “God helmet” sense the presence of an unseen figure nearby,48which they usually interpret as a supernatural entity, such as a God-like figureor the spirit of an absent or dead person. Persinger attributed thisresponse to the neurological “wiring” of the temporal lobes, which he suggestedis “wired” in many people to produce the sensations that most peopleassociate with religious experiences.Vilayanur S. Ramachandran has also linked temporal lobe epilepsy andother neurological effects to religious experiences. Ramachandran based hiswork on the previous research of Norman Geschwind, a clinical psychiatrist.Geschwind described a clinical syndrome (called Geschwind syndrome)characterized by hypergraphia (the tendency to write long, detailedarguments and descriptions, often on religious subjects), hyper-religiosity,fainting spells, mutism (the inability to speak in certain social situations),and pedantism (the tendency to discourse at length on obscure subjects,especially the definitions of words and the fine points of grammar).Geschwind hypothesized that this syndrome is a manifestation of one formof mild temporal lobe epilepsy and suggested that it might explain thebehavior of some hyper-religious historical figures.Ramachandran tested Geschwind’s hypothesis using a lie-detector-likedevice that measures the electrical conductivity of the skin as an indirectindication of emotional arousal. Ramachandran found that people with mildtemporal lobe epilepsy reacted differently to religious words than peoplewho did not have temporal lobe epilepsy. Specifically, Ramachandran foundthat people with temporal lobe epilepsy responded more strongly than nonepilepticsubjects to religious words, less strongly than non-epileptic subjectsto sexual words, and about the same as non-epileptic subjects to neutralwords.Jeffrey Saver and John Rabin also studied the relationship between temporallobe epilepsy and extended their findings to neurological states generatedby the limbic system of the brain and to the neurochemical states generatedby the ingestion of hallucinogenic drugs. They pointed out thatclose to a majority of Americans have reported having religious experiences,characterized by sensations that included the belief that a specificevent was “supposed to happen,” that they were aware of “the presenceof God,” that “God had answered their prayers,” that they were being protected(or at least watched) by an unseen presence (often characterized asthe spirit of an absent or dead person), that they felt the presence of a“sacred spirit in Nature” or an “evil presence” or a profound sensation of“unity with the cosmos.”
نوشته اصلی از سوی Russell
Michael Persinger, a professor of psychology at Laurentian University inCanada, published Neuropsychological Bases of God Beliefs in 1987. In it, heargued that a specific neurological condition known as temporal lobe epilepsyproduces psychological states that are similar to the religious experiencesof people like Joan of Arc and St. Paul on the road to Damascus. Temporallobe epilepsy is different from other forms of epilepsy in that temporal lobeepilepsy seizures do not involve convulsions, immobility, or loss of consciousness.Instead, a person having a temporal lobe epilepsy seizure noticesa change in sensory perception, often involving changes in smells, sounds,tastes, and phantom sensations in the skin. Some people also experiencecognitive changes such as déjà vu or jamais vu during a temporal lobe epilepticseizure, and a significant fraction of these people also experience aheightened sense of “religiosity,” including the sensation of an unseen,supernatural presence.Persinger developed a machine, often dubbed the “God helmet,” whichgenerates a weak magnetic field in and around the right temporal lobe ofthe brain of a person wearing it. Approximately 80 percent of people testedwith the “God helmet” sense the presence of an unseen figure nearby,48which they usually interpret as a supernatural entity, such as a God-like figureor the spirit of an absent or dead person. Persinger attributed thisresponse to the neurological “wiring” of the temporal lobes, which he suggestedis “wired” in many people to produce the sensations that most peopleassociate with religious experiences.Vilayanur S. Ramachandran has also linked temporal lobe epilepsy andother neurological effects to religious experiences. Ramachandran based hiswork on the previous research of Norman Geschwind, a clinical psychiatrist.Geschwind described a clinical syndrome (called Geschwind syndrome)characterized by hypergraphia (the tendency to write long, detailedarguments and descriptions, often on religious subjects), hyper-religiosity,fainting spells, mutism (the inability to speak in certain social situations),and pedantism (the tendency to discourse at length on obscure subjects,especially the definitions of words and the fine points of grammar).Geschwind hypothesized that this syndrome is a manifestation of one formof mild temporal lobe epilepsy and suggested that it might explain thebehavior of some hyper-religious historical figures.Ramachandran tested Geschwind’s hypothesis using a lie-detector-likedevice that measures the electrical conductivity of the skin as an indirectindication of emotional arousal. Ramachandran found that people with mildtemporal lobe epilepsy reacted differently to religious words than peoplewho did not have temporal lobe epilepsy. Specifically, Ramachandran foundthat people with temporal lobe epilepsy responded more strongly than nonepilepticsubjects to religious words, less strongly than non-epileptic subjectsto sexual words, and about the same as non-epileptic subjects to neutralwords.Jeffrey Saver and John Rabin also studied the relationship between temporallobe epilepsy and extended their findings to neurological states generatedby the limbic system of the brain and to the neurochemical states generatedby the ingestion of hallucinogenic drugs. They pointed out thatclose to a majority of Americans have reported having religious experiences,characterized by sensations that included the belief that a specificevent was “supposed to happen,” that they were aware of “the presenceof God,” that “God had answered their prayers,” that they were being protected(or at least watched) by an unseen presence (often characterized asthe spirit of an absent or dead person), that they felt the presence of a“sacred spirit in Nature” or an “evil presence” or a profound sensation of“unity with the cosmos.”
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