All in the mind?

Dr Michael Persinger, a neuroscientist living in Canada although American by birth, has a theory of everything: God, alien abductions, mystical experiences, feelings of deja vu, pretty well the full panoply of the extraordinary and the supernatural. Basically, it's all in the brain. Yep, the whole caboodle is down to those pesky little neurones misfiring, rather like a car with a faulty transmission suddenly shoving you into reverse when you meant to put it into first.

But how does he know this? It's quite simple, really. He claims he can produce mystical and spiritual experiences in people, and it doesn't take years of self-discipline, personal mortification and contemplative prayer. No, all you have to do is put on a yellow crash helmet, sit back, and relax. (If you think I'm joking about the yellow crash helmet, see here, and scroll down for the photo.) A weak electromagnetic field is passed through the temporal lobes of the brain and enlightenment results. A journalist gives an interesting account of his experiences with the helmet here. As an aside, if Hollywood, with its visions of gleaming metal laboratories, has convinced you that scientific research is glamorous, his description of the experimental set up here will set you straight.

I'm escorted into the chamber, an old sound-experiment booth. The tiny room doesn't appear to have been redecorated since it was built in the early '70s. The frayed spaghettis of a brown-and-white shag carpet, along with huge, wall-mounted speakers covered in glittery black nylon, surround a spent brown recliner upholstered in the prickly polymers of that time. The chair, frankly, is repellent. Hundreds of subjects have settled into its itchy embrace, and its brown contours are spotted with dollops of electrode-conducting cream, dried like toothpaste, giving the seat the look of a favored seagulls' haunt.

Of course, some, not least Dr Persinger himself, have taken this to mean that religion has been explained. In the same way, such critics would no doubt say that a thorough chemical analysis of the consituent pigments of the 'Mona Lisa' would constitute a thorough understanding of La Gioconda's smile. But it occurs to me that if other parts of the brain are stimulated they likewise produce effects: thus stimulating the visual cortex affects sight, other areas recall memories as clear as the moment that produced them. The interesting thing about these is that they correspond to something real. No one would think that by understanding how the brain sees it therefore means that the external world that it sees is therefore explained away. So I would argue that, if Dr Persinger's research is correct, that it actually provides evidence for religion.

Of course, psychology being the field it is, there is now controversy over the methodology Dr Persinger's experiments, and various other things. For a quick overview of the dispute, go here.

Comments

[Theocoid]

Just one of the problems with science as it's frequently practiced—that acceptance of data in a highly controlled and manipulated environment to the exclusion of data gathered in natural contexts.

[Paulinus]

Do you think he points out to her that her emotions are just random misfirings of neurones when his wife tells him she loves him? No, I didn't think so either.