> Re: brain/spirituality
>
> Moorad Alexanian (alexanian@UNCWIL.EDU)
> Fri, 31 Oct 1997 08:22:21 -0500 (EST)
> At 01:12 PM 10/30/97 -0800, Tamera wrote:
> >At 11:09 AM 10/30/97 -0500, Moorad Alexanian wrote:
> >>There was an article in our local paper titled "Brain lobe linked to
> >>spirituality" which raised the question whether God created the mind or vice
> >>versa. I also saw the issue mentioned in the evening news. Any comments from
> >>anyone?
> >>
> >>Moorad
> >>
> >>
> >Can you give us anymore info on the article? Like, who wrote it, ect.? I'd
> >like to look at it. I'm fairly quiet on here 'cause I'm a student and most
> >of what is said here is way over my head. But...I am a psych major....and
> >this is a huge topic in psych. The whole brain v.s. mind issue.
> >
> >Tamera
>
> Dear Tamera,
>
> The article, "Brain lobe linked to spirituality," was from the L.A. Times
> News Service. The research was done at the University of California at San
> Diego. They reported that the human brain may be hard-wired to hear the
> voice of heaven and was the first effort to directly address the neural
> basis of religious expression. The experiment was done with patients
> suffering from an unusual form of epilepsy. The researchers determined that
> the parts of the brian's temporal lobe--quickly dubbed the"God module"--may
> affect how intensely a person responds to religious beliefs. People
> suffering this type of seizure have long reported intense mystical and
> religious experiences as part of their attacks but also are usually
> preoccupied with mystical thoughts between seizures. This lead the
> researchers to investigate the relationship between the physical structure
> of the brain and spiritual experiences. The researchers determined that one
> effect of the patient's seizures was to strengthen their brain's involuntary
> response to religious words, leading the scientists to suggest a portion of
> the brain was naturally attuned to ideas about a supreme being. The
> scientists emphasized that their findings in no way suggest that religion is
> simply a matter of brain chemistry.
>
> Moorad