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The God spots revealed: Scientists find areas of the brain responsible for
spirituality
Scientists have speculated for years that the human brain features a 'God spot,' one distinct area
of the brain responsible for spirituality.
Now, University of Missouri researchers have completed research that indicates spirituality is a
complex phenomenon and that multiple areas of the brain are responsible for the many aspects of spiritual
experiences.
The new work is based on a previously published study that indicated spiritual transcendence is associated
with decreased right parietal lobe functioning,
+3
New research has indicated that there is no one God-spot in the human brain and that in fact spirituality is
stimulated across all lobes in the brain
Missouri University (MU) researchers replicated their findings. In addition, the researchers
determined that other aspects of spiritual functioning are related to increased activity in the frontal lobe.
More...
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Cloud Nine? Hubble captures 'face of God' in plumes of space dust (although the Second Coming might be delayed, as He is 75
million light years away)
'We have found a neuropsychological basis for spirituality, but it’s not isolated to one specific
area of the brain,' said Brick Johnstone, professor of health psychology in the School of Health
Professions.
'Spirituality is a much more dynamic concept that uses many parts of the brain.'
'Certain parts of the brain play more predominant roles, but they all work together to facilitate individuals’
spiritual experiences.'
+3
Previous research had pointed to the existence of a single God-spot that was stimulated by religious
experience but a new study claims that is not the case
In the most recent study, Johnstone studied 20 people with traumatic brain injuries affecting the
right parietal lobe, the area of the brain situated a few inches above the right ear.
He surveyed participants on characteristics of spirituality, such as how close they felt to a higher power and
if they felt their lives were part of a divine plan.
He found that the participants with more significant injury to their right parietal lobe showed an increased
feeling of closeness to a higher power.
'Neuropsychology researchers consistently have shown that impairment on the right side of the
brain decreases one’s focus on the self,' said Johnstone.
'Since our research shows that people with this impairment are more spiritual, this suggests
spiritual experiences are associated with a decreased focus on the self.
+3
Professor Brick Johnstone of Missouri University's study sees no difference in the mind of a Buddhist or
Christian when religious experiences occur
'This is is consistent with many religious texts that suggest people should concentrate on the
well-being of others rather than on themselves.'
Johnstone says the right side of the brain is associated with self-orientation, whereas the left side is
associated with how individuals relate to others.
Although Johnstone studied people with brain injury, previous studies of Buddhist meditators
and Franciscan nuns with normal brain function have shown that people can learn to minimize the
functioning of the right side of their brains to increase their spiritual connections during meditation and
prayer.
Professor Johnstone's findings claim that even the mind of world-renowned atheist Richard Dawkins is
stimulated in the same way as a Christian or Muslim when they experience their minds version of spirituality
In addition, Johnstone measured the frequency of participants’ religious practices, such as how
often they attended church or listened to religious programs.
He measured activity in the frontal lobe and found a correlation between increased activity in
this part of the brain and increased participation in religious practices.
The research indicated that there are all kinds of spiritual experiences that Christians might call closeness
to God and atheists might call an awareness of themselves.
'This finding indicates that spiritual experiences are likely associated with different parts of the brain,” said
Johnstone.
A belief in God is deeply embedded in the human brain, which is programmed for
religious experiences, according to a study that analyses why religion is a universal human
feature that has encompassed all cultures throughout history.
The researchers said their findings support the idea that the brain has evolved to
be sensitive to any form of belief that improves the chances of survival, which could
explain why a belief in God and the supernatural became so widespread in human
evolutionary history.
"Religious belief and behaviour are a hallmark of human life, with no accepted
animal equivalent, and found in all cultures," said Professor Jordan Grafman, from the US
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, near Washington. "Our
results are unique in demonstrating that specific components of religious belief are
mediated by well-known brain networks, and they support contemporary psychological
theories that ground religious belief within evolutionary-adaptive cognitive functions."
Scientists are divided on whether religious belief has a biological basis. Some
evolutionary theorists have suggested that Darwinian natural selection may have put a
premium on individuals if they were able to use religious belief to survive hardships that
may have overwhelmed those with no religious convictions. Others have suggested that
religious belief is a side effect of a wider trait in the human brain to search for coherent
beliefs about the outside world. Religion and the belief in God, they argue, are just a
manifestation of this intrinsic, biological phenomenon that makes the human brain so
intelligent and adaptable.
The latest study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences, involved analysing the brains of volunteers, who had been asked to think
about religious and moral problems and questions. For the analysis, the researchers used a
functional magnetic-resonance imaging machine, which can identify the most energetically-
active regions of the brain.
They found that people of different religious persuasions and beliefs, as well as atheists, all
tended to use the same electrical circuits in the brain to solve a perceived moral conundrum
– and the same circuits were used when religiously-inclined people dealt with issues related
to God.
The study found that several areas of the brain are involved in religious belief, one within
the frontal lobes of the cortex – which are unique to humans – and another in the more
evolutionary-ancient regions deeper inside the brain, which humans share with apes and
other primates, Professor Grafman said.
"There is nothing unique about religious belief in these brain structures.
Religion doesn't have a 'God spot' as such, instead it's embedded in a whole range of other
belief systems in the brain that we use everyday," Professor Grafman said.
The search for the God spot has in the past led scientists to many different
regions of the brain. An early contender was the brain's temporal lobe, a large section of the
brain that sits over each ear, because temporal-lobe epileptics suffering seizures in these
regions frequently report having intense religious experiences. One of the principal
exponents of this idea was Vilayanur Ramachandran, from the University of California, San
Diego, who asked several of his patients with temporal-lobe epilepsy to listen to a mixture
of religious, sexual and neutral words while measuring their levels of arousal and emotional
reactions. Religious words elicited an unusually high response in these patients.
This work was followed by a study where scientists tried to stimulate the
temporal lobes with a rotating magnetic field produced by a "God helmet". Michael
Persinger, from Laurentian University in Ontario, found that he could artificially create the
experience of religious feelings – the helmet's wearer reports being in the presence of a
spirit or having a profound feeling of cosmic bliss.
Dr Persinger said that about eight in every 10 volunteers report quasi-religious
feelings when wearing his helmet. However, when Professor Richard Dawkins, an
evolutionist and renowned atheist, wore it during the making of a BBC documentary, he
famously failed to find God, saying that the helmet only affected his breathing and his
limbs.
Professor Grafman was more interested in how people coped with everyday
moral and religious questions. He said that the latest study, published today, suggests the
brain is inherently sensitive to believing in almost anything if there are grounds for doing
so, but when there is a mystery about something, the same neural machinery is co-opted in
the formulation of religious belief.
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The Koren Helmet uses a The God Helmet is a popular name given to a laboratory apparatus originally called the"Koren Helmet", after Stanley Koren
snowmobile helmet to hold it's of Laurentian University's Neuroscience Department, who built it according to specifications provided by Dr. M.A. Persinger,
Used as a research tool to investigate the brain's role in religious and mystic experiences, the Koren Helmet has been given
the name God Helmet. A few Journalists gave it this name when they learned that some people had visions of God while
The Koren Helmet applies complex (having an irregular shape) magnetic signals to the head of the person who is wearing
it. The fields don't work by inducing current in the brain. They have patterns that bear information, and magnetic fields that
appear from the electrical activity in the brain pick up the information.
It's a field-to-field interaction, and not current induction. The fields pass into the brain, unaffected by the scalp or skull, because there is no such thing as a
magnetic insulator. Nothing can block a magnetic field 1 2. Some psychologists, not understanding this, have mistakenly claimed that the fields used in the God
Helmet aren't strong enough to reach the brain. Magnetic fields pass "through all head structures with no attenuation and can stimulate the brain without
discomfort" refere nce . (Further Discussion).
independent God Helmet study found that its effects are not from suggestibility, and that they do indeed have an influence on the brain. The subjects (in this
recent and independent study) who received the magnetic fields spoke about their experiences in different ways than those who received no fields. The apparatus
used in this new study was not identical to the Koren Helmet, but it still produced measurable effects in spite of its limitations. (Research Publication)
The Koren Helmet is connected to a PC computer through a 'black box' that cycles the signals through four coils on each side of the head, above over the place
where the temporal lobes of the brain meet the parietal lobes. This is the area of the brain many researchers feel is the source of spiritual and religious
experiences link.
This illustration shows how the signal shifts from one coil to the next. This is a side view. There is also another set of coils
working on the other side. The two coils at the top are no longer used.
The sessions are done in an Acoustic Chamber - a completely silent room. A large part of the temporal lobes ongoing
activity is dedicated to monitoring ambient sound. The temporal lobes are the source of religious and mystic experiences, so
that silence helps a great deal in creating them in the lab. The same chamber also has a layer of electromagnetic insulation,
so that the ambient energy emitted from lab equipment, cell phone towers, and computer monitors is screened out.
screen (a Faraday Cage), the God Helmet research has included some interesting discoveries about the earth's magnetic field.
I asked Dr. Persinger how many people had seen God using the Koren Helmet, and this is
"The problem is producing an environment in which people will report what they experience without
anticipating ridicule on the one hand and not encouraging this type of report (demand characteristics)
on the other.
Thus far, about 20 or so people have reported feeling the presence of Christ or even seeing him in the
chamber (The acoustic chamber where the experimental sessions took place). Most of these people
used Christ and God interchangeably. Most of these individuals were older (30 years or more) and
religious (Roman Catholic). One male, age about 35 years old (alleged atheist but early childhood RC
(Roman Catholic) training), saw a clear apparition (shoulders and head) of Christ staring him in the
face. He was quite "shaken" by the experience. I did not complete a follow-up re: his change in
Stanley Koren shows us the most recent version of the God
behavior. Of course these are all reports. What we did find with one world-class psychic who
Helmet, which no longer has a helmet shell. The unused
experiences Christ as a component of his abilities was we could experimentally increase or decrease
coils have been removed.
his numbers of his reported experiences by applying the LTP pattern (derived from the hippocampus)
The field on-response delay was about 10 to 20 sec. The optimal pattern, at least for this person, looked very right hippocampal. By far most presences are
The attribution towards along a devil to angel continuum appears strongly related to the affect (pleasant-terror) associated with the experience. I suspect most
people would call the "vague, all-around-me" sensations "God" but they are reluctant to employ the label in a laboratory. The implicit is obvious. If the equipment and
the experiment produced the presence that was God, then the extrapersonal, unreachable and independent characteristics of the god definition might be
challenged."
That's the important thing about the God Helmet. Even if only a few people saw God because of it, it creates a host of new questions - questions theology has never
The experiences of those who have come face-to-face with God might just be an example of a very rare
brain activity. If they actually met the true God, then why did they do so in this experimental setting, but not at
The implications for theology are obvious. Perhaps God exists, but has been waiting until humanity developed
enough to find him in the brain before he would appear under any circumstances humans could control.
Perhaps God exists only in our brains. Perhaps he exists, and chose to bless 1% of Dr. Persinger's research
subjects with visions of him, because these people were beloved to him.
Perhaps he exists, but he appears to those with the right neural history in moments when the right pattern of
brain activity is present, and not according to what he sees in their hearts.
There is much more to the God Helmet than just the Koren Helmet alone. There is also a
computer program called complex, authored by Stanley Koren, which allows the computer to
create the signals. These signals are derived from EEG traces that appear in certain parts of the
brain. Just as the brain responds to chemicals with specific shapes, it also responds to magnetic
signals with certain shapes. Because these signals are complex, irregular things, it takes a special
A third component is the acoustic - completely silent - chamber where the sessions take place.
The last component is the 'black box' which converts output from the computer into input for the
Koren Helmet. This box (not shown) is a specialized DAC (digital-to-analog converter). It's the core
of the technology. The rest of the components of the God Helmet are quite common.
Another part of the experiment is that the subjects are told they're going to participate in a relaxation experiment. This makes them expect to relax, but without telling
them what's going to happen. The God Helmet doesn't work as well when the subjects are tense.
The DAC produces the signals that are fed to the magnetic coils (called "solenoids" in the scientific papers). FIrst, one signal is fed to the right side of the brain, and
then another signal is fed to both sides. When the signals are changed halfway through the experimental session, the corresponding shift in brain activity can create
a religious experience.
The God Helmet is a misleading name. It gives the impression that it can produce the experience of God on demand. In fact, only one percent of the subjects had
the experience. In contrast to the one percent who saw God, 80% of the subjects felt a presence of some kind, but did not call it God. Of course, there were
probably some subjects who experienced an appearance of God, but were shy about saying they had seen God in a laboratory. That kind of thing is not only
If you saw god, would you tell your story, just as it happened, if you thought you weren't going to be taken seriously? A lot of people assume that, just because
someone wears a lab coat, they won't believe such a vision can happen, or that they'll think it's a sign of mental illness. Nothing could be further from the truth in this
laboratory, but how would these subjects know that? They had been told they would be participating in an experiment to study relaxation response, and the
The Koren Helmet has also produced visions of demonic beings, out-of-body experiences, visions of other
realities, and a range of other paranormal experiences. It could have been named after any of them, but
journalists prefer more sensational names, and you can't get more sensational than God.
One question that comes up often about the Koren Helmet is whether it's possible to obtain one. The Koren
Helmet is found only in the laboratory where it was made, and is not available to the public. However, a PC
version of the God Helmet, The Shiva Neural Stimulation System, does exist.
The Koren Helmet has more coils than are actually used in experiments. The two on the top are no longer in
use, and the one in the center - between the four over each temporal lobe - is also no longer used. They are
Subject 1
right side.
...
Subject 2
A 21-year-old female with history of diabetes. Amygdala signal applied over both sides
"I felt a presence behind me and then along the left side. When I tried to focus on its position, the presence moved. Every time I tried to sense where it was, it
moved around. When it moved to the right side, I experienced a deep sense of security like I had not experienced before. I started to cry when I felt
Subject 3
body is becoming very hot. . . . tingling sensations in my chest and stomach . . . now both arms. There is something feeling my ovaries. I can
feel my left foot jerk. I feel there is someone in the room behind me."
Subject 4
A 25-year-old man, childhood history of three "mild" head injuries. Chirp signal applied over both sides
"I feel as if there was a bright white light in front of me. I saw a black spot that became a kind of funnel . . . no tunnel that I felt drawn into. I felt moving, like spinning
forward through it. I began to feel the presence of people, but I could not see them; they were along my sides. They were colorless, grey-looking. I know I was in the
chamber but it was very real. I suddenly felt intense fear and felt ice cold."
The most frequent themes and events reported or displayed by subjects who were asked to press one of two hand buttons when they felt a presence while being
exposed to successive sequences of different magnetic field patterns over the right hemisphere or periods of no field. These themes occurred when the fields were
present.
1. A dark, ominous force looming right above the person (as if it was going to descend).
3. The sensation of "blacker than black" during brief periods within a minute of the onset of a specific pattern.
4. Re-experiencing previous altered states, such as haunts, kundalini, and psychotropic drug experiences. (These individuals had not experienced the unusual
5. About 20% of the participants who clicked one or two buttons indicating they were experiencing a sensed presence had no memory of the experience about 15 to
20 min later.
6. Religious figures, images of "priests," and, human skeletons, occurred as "flickering" but repeated phenomena.
St-Pierre LS, Persinger MA. "Experimental facilitation of the sensed presence is predicted by the specific patterns of the applied magnetic fields, not by suggestibility: re-analyses of 19
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