Evidence to the Possibility of the Divine

[Jameta]

Something I use frequently, loose just as much, and need to buy the actual study of.
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Dr. Andrew Newberg, a readiologist at the University of Pennsylvania, and Eugene d'Aquili, a psychiatrist and anthropologist, worked together on a study in the 1990s to refrine and test d'Aquili's theory that brain functions were capable of producing religious experiences, ranging from the most profound spiritual experience of mystical union with God to the quiet sense of holiness one feels at prayer.

The team used imaging technology to map the brains of Tibetan Buddhist monks deep in meditation and Franciscan nuns in deep contemplative prayer. the photographic results appeared to be pictures of the brain in a state of mystical transcendence. Newberg and d'Aquili disocvered that instence spiritual contemplation triggers an alteration in the activity of the brain that leads us to percieve transcedent religious experience as solid and tangibly real. So what the Buddhist monks call "oneness with the universe," and the Franciscan nuns call "the palpable presence of God," is not delusional wishful thinking but a series of neurological events that can be objectively observed, recorded, and photographed.

Vince Rause interviewed Newberg and wrote in an article, "The Science of God: Searching for the Divine":

Quote:

Newberg tells me something I'm not sure I can grasp: the the fabled "higher reality" described by mystics might, in fact, be real.

"You mean figuratively real," I say witha troubled squint.

"No," he says, "As real as this table. More real, in fact."

"You're saying your research proved this higher reality exists?" I ask.

"I'm saying the possibility of such a reality is not inconsistent with science," he says.

"But you can't observe such a thing in a scientific way, can you?"

Newberg grins. He hasn't simply observed such a state; he has managed to take its picture.

"Does this mean that God is just a perception generated by the brain, or has the brain been wired to experience the reality of God?" I ask.

"The best and most rational answer I can give to both questions, "Newberg answers, "is yes."

Their research suggests that all these feelings are rooted not in emotion or wishful thinking but in the genetically arranged wiring of the brain.

"Religion thrives in an age of reason," Newberg says.

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Paraphrased excerpt from Soultypes by Robert Norton and Richard Southern.  

[Starlock]

Jameta

Newberg and d'Aquili disocvered that instence spiritual contemplation triggers an alteration in the activity of the brain that leads us to percieve transcedent religious experience as solid and tangibly real. So what the Buddhist monks call "oneness with the universe," and the Franciscan nuns call "the palpable presence of God," is not delusional wishful thinking but a series of neurological events that can be objectively observed, recorded, and photographed.

I have to dispute this connection beacuse there's a leap of reasoning made here, not so much because I disagree with the overal premise. You cannot logically go from saying that spiritual and mystical experiences have verifiable alterations on the brain and from there say that it isn't delusion. Because delusion ALSO has verifiable alterations on the brain.

I got in a discussion on another forum, though, regarding whether or not religious beliefs are delusions. This depends on how you define delusions, and in the discussion, we were defining it from a patholotical (mental illness) standpoint according to the DSM: "A false belief based on incorrect inference about external reality that is firmly sustained despite what almost everybody else believes and despite what constitutes incontrovertible and obvious proof or evidence to the contrary. The belief is not one ordinarily accepted by other members of the person's culture or subculture (e.g. it is not an article of religious faith)."

Given that, since belief in the divine isn't precisely about 'external reality,' beliefs that relate to inner worlds or otherworlds are not applicable. Likewise, it is not counter to what almost everyone else believes and there is no obvious proof or evidence that the divine doesn't exist.

Hope this little splurge was interesting to someone... heh.