UNDER THE MICROSCOPE:MODERN IMAGING techniques can look at the human brain in real time and see what parts are activated as the subject thinks certain thoughts or experiences specific feelings.
Some people experience mystical feelings during prayer, meditation or periods of religious fervour. Biological researchers are interested in the neural basis of this phenomenon, not only to pursue fundamental scientific knowledge but also in the hope that the identification of this neural basis will allow medicine to elicit such pleasurable feelings in people who cannot summon them up otherwise, thereby making people happier, healthier, and better able to concentrate. This research is described by David Biello in Scientific American Mind (October 3rd, 2007).
It has long been felt that religious experience resides in certain parts of the brain. Late 19th-century textbooks on mental illness suggested a link between epilepsy and "religious emotionalism". Recently, Biello reports, neuroscientist Vilayanur Ramachandran, University of California, noted that religious words like "God" aroused a big emotional response in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy. Ramachandran speculates that epileptic electrical brain activity strengthens the links between the temporal lobe and interior regions of the brain governing emotion.
Michael Persinger, Laurentian University, Ontario, designed a "God Helmet" that concentrates electromagnetic fields onto particular regions of the brain's temporal lobe. Persinger's helmet can induce a feeling in subjects of a presence in the room when nobody else is actually present, or a deep state of cosmic bliss that seems to unveil a cosmic truth. Subjects translate their "divine" perceptions into God, Buddha, a benevolent presence or a sense of the wonder of the universe, depending on their individual religious/cultural backgrounds.
Not all religious experiences are the same. The temporal lobe may not be involved in all of them and different regions of the brain are also involved. Buddhist meditation can achieve a feeling of oneness with the universe. Biello reports how the brains of Buddhist subjects have been studied using a special form of Cat-scanning as they reach a state of peak meditation. The brains registered a large drop in parietal lobe activity and increased activity in the right pre-frontal cortex. The parietal lobe normally assists with spatial orientation/ navigation. Its reduced activity in meditation correlates with feelings of dissolution of boundaries and oneness with the universe. Meditation requires intense focus and the pre-frontal cortex deals with, among other things, attention and planning.
The brains of five women were scanned while they were "speaking in tongues" - speaking rapidly in an incomprehensible language during religious fervour. These women were compared to five religious people who were simply singing gospel. The activity of the frontal lobes of the "tongues" women was markedly reduced compared to the gospel singers. Frontal lobe activity is necessary for self-control.
Mario Beauregard, a neuroscientist at the University of Montreal, recently scanned the brains of 15 Carmelite nuns using the technique of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging during three mental states - resting with closed eyes, recollecting a vivid social experience, and having a vivid experience of God. Six different regions in the brain lit up during the spiritual experiences, including the caudate nucleus a part of the brain involved in the feeling of falling in love.
Mystical experiences have positive effects. Meditation improves people's ability to concentrate and it may also delay ageing in the brain. And generally religious people tend to be healthier than those who are not religious. Beauregard hopes if the brain areas that are activated during mystical experiences are reliably identified, then artificial stimulation of these centres could improve immune system function, relieve depression and encourage positive feelings in people who are not otherwise of a spiritual disposition.
Some neuroscientists, to general applause from atheists, conclude that religious experience is merely the result of electrical activity in the brain, and that particularly religious people, such as saints, owe their vivid experiences to particularly strong electrical brain anomalies. But the Carmelite nuns were delighted with their scan results for opposite reasons. The neural correlations with their spiritual experiences simply confirmed to them that God was interacting with them.
On the face of it, the results described here are not surprising. After all, if different and specific parts of the brain are used for language and memory, why would mystical experiences not employ specific brain parts? The question of whether mystical experience is caused by neural activity, or mediated through neural activity, remains open.
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