"Except for the point, the still point, there would be no dance, and there is only the dance." ~ T.S. Eliot in "Burnt Norton"

Sunday, October 28, 2012

The God Spot / Koren Helmet

Neurotheology: “The attempt to explain religious experience and behavior in neuroscientific terms.”


In the series “Through the Wormhole,” Morgan Freeman features a study being preformed by neurotheologists whom are attempting to explain the “correlations between neural stimulation and spiritual experience.” Called ‘The God Spot,’ neurologists believe they have specified a part of the brain that, when correctly stimulated by magnetic energy, will provide users with experiences that are comparable to the spiritual and out of body experiences usually associated with God intervention.

To research ‘The God Spot,’ Stanley Koren, a member of Laurentian University’s Neuroscience Department, created a helmet with the directions of Dr. Michael Persinger, that containing magnetic coils that are strategically aimed at the right temporal lobe. Many test subjects claim that when wearing the Koren Helmet they experienced “out-of-body feelings, apparitions floating around them, sensations of weightlessness, and many other strange phenomena.” Throughout all the testing, scientists discovered that about “80% of test subjects experienced remarkable visions and some sensed the presence of something else in the chamber.”

Now the big question is are these visions truly visions of God? The right temporal lobe, the area that the Koren Helmet stimulates, is responsible for auditory perception, processing of speech and vision, and language functions. It seems that the feelings the test subjects encountered may be false. This could be because parts of the brain related to the experiences of the test subjects are being more intensely activated. The inquiry scientists put on the table when debating this experiment is whether or not the "God-Spot" is a region of the brain that evolved so that humans can communicate with a higher power, or a simply region we developed to create a "comfort blanket" for ourselves amidst the violence that we experience in the world.

Other Questions:
What causes some of the test subjects to relate their encounters to a godly like occurrence?
 
Is ‘The God Spot’ a spot that creates the illusion of God or is it the spot that allows communication with god?


LINK TO YOUTUBE VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y02UlkYjSi0

LINK TO ARTICLES

http://questional.com/blog/74-dr-michael-persingers-koren-helmet-the-god-experience/
http://www.darksidecollective.org/GodHelmet.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nigel-barber/the-god-spot-revisited-spirituality-as-evolved-brain-function_b_1779667.html

12 comments:

  1. I feel that no true concrete evidence exists to support that this spot in the brain is directly related to god-like experiences. I feel the reason why some of the test subjects reported god-like experiences is because their classification of a god-like experience is wrong. Why do we attribute things like out-of-body feelings and floating apparitions to an experience with god? Maybe the test subjects could not describe it in another way, using something that cannot be explained, religion, to explain what they encountered. In my view, the data is false because of the nature of it. The subjects themselves determine what they qualify as a god-like experience, meaning the results are not easily reproduced and can vary from test subject to test subject. It is because of this that I feel the Koren helmet only creates the illusion of god-like experiences, depending on how the subject defines a god-like experience.

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  2. I think the people who took part in this experiment had a god-like experience. Everyone has a different way the pray and practice their religion. Everyone is uniquely different, so therefore their experiences with God will be as well. I think everyone has similar yet slightly different places in the brain that are activated. Parts of our brain light up with everything we do in our daily life. So, obviously, there has to be parts of the brain that correspond to praying and god-like experiences. I do not think you can pinpoint it to one specific location, but I think you can find a general area that corresponds to praying and the god-like experiences.

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  3. Maybe the God spot receives spiritual information in the same way the ear receives sound and the eye receives visual cues. In any case it is the brain that converts this information into intelligible thoughts. So, if there is an area of the brain that is stimulated during prayer it may follow that there is some outside stimulus (i.e God) that is being received by that area of the brain. The existence of such a stimulus provides proof that things like prophetic visions and divine inspiration may exist and be caused by a source outside of the mind--one that stimulates the God Spot. Perhaps science has, to an extent, provided proof for the existence of God.

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  4. I don't think you can just stimulate part of our brains to see if there is a section that reacts to spiritual events. Every inch of our brains reacts to different things. If someone were to "poke" one part of my brain I will react a certain way. When someone does drugs it affects the brain by stimulating or blocking receptors in certain areas. In regards to the second question of whether or not this spot in our brains creates an illusion of God. I think that it is possible that when that area is stimulated we can see an image of what we think is God; but there is always a chance that it is just something that happens naturally when that spot is "poked." There could be a spot that is below the surface of our brains that is no where near the "God spot" that could have the same result when probed. So we can't say for sure that if we poke and prod at our brains that we'll be able to talk to or even see God.

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  5. Upon initially reading this article, I actually took the same view-point as Kaitlyn. Due to the abstract nature of the phenomena occuring, in the manner of which it is noted to be occuring, we really cannot pin down exactly what these people are experiencing other than they are experiencing something abnormal. It really gets heavily into what the nature of the mind is, and because of this I think we have to be very careful when analyzing the data because at times we indirectly begin to debate the legitimacy of human emotions. Just throwing a curve ball question into the mix towards the materialist stand-point, if the experience of the helmet is just an illusion of the brain, are all emotions then an illusion of the brain?

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  6. Upon initially reading this article, I actually took the same view-point as Kaitlyn. Due to the abstract nature of the phenomena occuring, in the manner of which it is noted to be occuring, we really cannot pin down exactly what these people are experiencing other than they are experiencing something abnormal. It really gets heavily into what the nature of the mind is, and because of this I think we have to be very careful when analyzing the data because at times we indirectly begin to debate the legitimacy of human emotions. Just throwing a curve ball question into the mix towards the materialist stand-point, if the experience of the helmet is just an illusion of the brain, are all emotions then an illusion of the brain?

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  7. After watching the video about the Koren Helmet I thought the end about the natural stimuli was the most interesting. Natural phenomena such as getting struck by lightning could be close to stimulating “The God Spot”. This leads me to believe that these experiments could be worthwhile. I would be very interested to see what the results would be of stimulating another part of the brain. Is it only the right temporal lobe that can give us these experiences or would the left temporal lobe produce the same results? This issue is very complex because we are still learning so many things about the brain and its functions. However, I think that these experiments could be considered scientifically accurate.

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  8. Devon, I like the question you proposed "If the experience of the helmet is just an illusion of the brain, are all emotions then an illusion of the brain?" It reminded me of Karen Armstrong's "A Case for God," where she asserts that our minds direct our bodies in a way that bypasses conscious, logical deliberation. She talks about certain satisfactions that go deeper than merely "feeling good." Furthermore, she goes on to say that "our scientifically oriented knowledge seems to master reality, explain it, and bring it under the control of reason, but a delight in unknowing has also been part of the human experience." It also reminds me of the "God of the Gaps" argument because I think in a way, people are trying to fill in God as the cause of this out of body, intense, emotional experience.

    In my opinion, the intense phenomena they were feeling was just a powerful and exciting emotion that was brought out by the way they perceive their relationship with God. I think it is not very different from someone's emotional reaction to falling in love. These are all very intensely beautiful experiences, but I don't think it is right to categorize them as coming from "The God Spot." I think in our society, we want to label and categorize things that exceed our conceptual ability. Perhaps all emotions are in fact illusions of the brain. It is hard to fully comprehend the connections between the mind and body let alone the connections between that hybrid and some higher power.

    I also wanted to address the part that says: The "God-Spot" is a region of the brain that evolved so that humans can communicate with a higher power, or a simply region we developed to create a "comfort blanket" for ourselves amidst the violence that we experience in the world.
    --> The diction, in particular the world "evolve" I think can spur some controversy because I think it crosses the idea of the body evolving versus the soul evolving. The brain is a bodily organ; however, the mind has a deep connection to the soul. I think implying that the brain has evolved into possessing some sort of God Spot is a bit of a bold assertion.

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  9. I just spent a half hour typing up my post, and when I went to submit it the internet failed. And it was deleted. As a result I'm just going to type up a quick summary of my ideas.

    In regards to Grace's last comment. The soul does not evolve. It only grows over a lifetime like the human body grows. It cannot evolve because there is no means for hereditary information to be passed down like DNA is able to be passed down from generation to generation. It also doesn't need to evolve because evolution takes place in response to environmental stimuli as illustrated by the Human Origins Exhibit. The soul only needs to grow in its relationship with God and with its experiences. This then suggests that there is no need for a soul evolution over numerous generations.

    In regards to the God spot. The following views are just my opinion and my thoughts on the matter. The God spot is just a means for God to better communicate with human kind. Like our other senses, it is only a tool utilized by our soul to communicate with God. As someone suggested in class it is much like a radio antenna and can pick up desired signals (from God) and undesired signals (from man.) By desired, I mean to say that it picks up signals that are pertinent to its purpose: communication or exposure to God. A radio antenna can pick up signals from a desired station or from undesired stations. It's all subject to who is transmitting at the time.

    I understand these are very undeveloped ideas, and I'm sure we will talk about it more in class. But I do NOT want to waste another 30 mins typing up my thoughts on the matter. Good night.

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  10. I am not convinced that the helmet used in the experiment described produce true visions of God. I find the whole experiment strange actually. The thought of wearing a helmet to try and sense God's presence does not seem right to me. Prayer and communication with God should be held sacred, and not accessed through man made technology. I am not against the mix of science and religion, and I do believe the combination can lead to a deeper understanding of life; however, I feel like this experiment is one situation I am against. I feel like scientists are trying to find easy answers with experiments like these, when really communication with God is something that may not be answered by science. And having faith is all part of accepting this.

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  11. In my opinion the helmet stimulates this area of our brains, and causes (most) of us to have some type of out of body experience. I don't think there is any disputing that. However, the area that I call in to question is whether or not these out of body experiences and visions are actually related to God. This so called "God Spot" may very well cause us to see things that are not actually there...this in no way proves that they are caused by God. My problem with these tests could be argued towards any hallucinogenic. Are people that take mushrooms, LSD and other forms of drugs also experiencing God? I don't think so. There is no proof for this; however, I have to disagree with Colleen on this and say that science should never stop trying to explain God. We, as humans, have the right to reach out and grab for whatever we desire. No great scientists failed once and immediately gave up...that is not a good way to live our lives. Keep pushing for greatness. Thanks for your time, hope you enjoyed my post.

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  12. What makes this so interesting is that the experience has been observed, as sort of Enlightenment, so to speak, where one could feel the presence of another being.

    I would dare ask if this is the same experience one feels when encountering a ‘ghost’ or another phenomenon that would produce the physical image, be it a hallucination or whatnot, of what we would label a ghost. Perhaps the same events that take place when witnessing a ghost outside of the ‘spooky’ setting a ghost is stereotypically found in could be relabeled as an angel, as there are many instances in the Bible where a character is visited by an angel.

    Interestingly enough this questions God’s existence even further by presenting the possibilities that He is/is not real to a more extreme scenario: every ‘god-like’ intervention could have been produced by an unusual magnetic phenomenon or that every instance of communication between God was real and those communications took place via the God Spot. Either way, the God Spot seems to work like another type of receptacle for phenomena (read: sensory organ) like an ear or eye, which means that it only relays things that it detects which, as similarly stated before, could mean that God is real or that he is literally ‘all in our head’.

    I for one would love to experience the sensation of Koren’s Helmet and experience for myself the sensation of ‘not being alone’ by myself.

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