How ghosts and god all in our heads
Tonight I went to the first big event of the Toronto Secular Alliance and what a great experience! The experiments that are being done and its implications are incredible. It has clarified in a simple way a lot of "mysterious" things you'd normally just dismiss. Now I have a lot to say so I''l try and be organized.
Firstly there was Dr. Buckman proposed hypothesis: believing in something, no matter how absurd, help us cope (at least at that moment). The idea is that the world is inherently a scary place and more so the less you know. So we try and understand (or make up a story) the phenomenon around us so it seems less random and threatening by giving it reasons and explanations. If we view religion/spirituality etc as a coping mechanism you can see why people defend their religion so desperately: if there coping mechanism is taken away the foundations of their world are destroyed. If all the ideas they used to get through hardships in their lives was shown to be wrong, reality would set in and they'd have to deal with the full onslaught without any coping mechanism. So if you could actually get through to a religious person and reason with them to show them their beliefs where wrong you'd be pulling out the very foundation of their world perception. No wonder they fight so hard and refuse to give into reason!
Next was Professor Michael Persinger and his experiments. He has been able in a laboratory setting to duplicate and create the feeling and viewing of ghosts as well as holy figures or god. It turns out that a magnetic pulse of only some tens of a nano Tesla (yes nano, its a resonance effect so not much power is needed) to a specific part of the right frontal lobe and then one to the part connecting the two hemispheres will generate the feeling of a presence (to the right or left or behind you). Now this is done in a sensory deprivation chamber with only the helmet on and blacked out goggles. Also it takes around 20 minutes until you have the full effect and it varies slightly per person (provided the same pulse shape is used). People will see things and interpret them in their own cultural way (like seeing a damn Vorlon). So what is happening? Our sense of self is in the left hemisphere and is in the language region of the brain, very grounded. It seems that the right lobe has a similar structure but since the right lobe is surrounded by the region of the brain associated with imagination and special awareness and so when this center is used you get a sense of being with something all around you and larger/greater than you. It turns out people with certain types of head injuries become prone (roughly 75%) claim there is a presence following them (exactly the same as what can be generated in the lab). So that is really interesting especially when you realize that the (AC) magnetic field needed is around what you can get from the earths! So a person who says a place is haunted isn't insane we just should interpret that as being a place of suitable varying magnetic fields. Also it means the person is more sensitive and introspective since those characteristics means a person is much more likely to sense these things.
The point of the talk in the end was to say that if we now understand that heavenly voices etc are simply manifestations of our brain perhaps we can change our reaction to them. See we are hard wired to make some mistakes. We see mirages. We are smart enough to not rush out into the desert after them because we have realized we are being tricked. So if people realize that maybe they aren't speaking to a deity, maybe they'll be less likely to kill in the name of it. So we won;t change what they believe, just merely make the point that the line of communication isn't exclusive so be wary. If we can change the reaction to the "god experience" we'd take a big step. Like telling the Arabs that the Jews can induce these via satellites to try and make them violent and humiliate themselves, maybe they'd think twice about murderciding.
Firstly there was Dr. Buckman proposed hypothesis: believing in something, no matter how absurd, help us cope (at least at that moment). The idea is that the world is inherently a scary place and more so the less you know. So we try and understand (or make up a story) the phenomenon around us so it seems less random and threatening by giving it reasons and explanations. If we view religion/spirituality etc as a coping mechanism you can see why people defend their religion so desperately: if there coping mechanism is taken away the foundations of their world are destroyed. If all the ideas they used to get through hardships in their lives was shown to be wrong, reality would set in and they'd have to deal with the full onslaught without any coping mechanism. So if you could actually get through to a religious person and reason with them to show them their beliefs where wrong you'd be pulling out the very foundation of their world perception. No wonder they fight so hard and refuse to give into reason!
Next was Professor Michael Persinger and his experiments. He has been able in a laboratory setting to duplicate and create the feeling and viewing of ghosts as well as holy figures or god. It turns out that a magnetic pulse of only some tens of a nano Tesla (yes nano, its a resonance effect so not much power is needed) to a specific part of the right frontal lobe and then one to the part connecting the two hemispheres will generate the feeling of a presence (to the right or left or behind you). Now this is done in a sensory deprivation chamber with only the helmet on and blacked out goggles. Also it takes around 20 minutes until you have the full effect and it varies slightly per person (provided the same pulse shape is used). People will see things and interpret them in their own cultural way (like seeing a damn Vorlon). So what is happening? Our sense of self is in the left hemisphere and is in the language region of the brain, very grounded. It seems that the right lobe has a similar structure but since the right lobe is surrounded by the region of the brain associated with imagination and special awareness and so when this center is used you get a sense of being with something all around you and larger/greater than you. It turns out people with certain types of head injuries become prone (roughly 75%) claim there is a presence following them (exactly the same as what can be generated in the lab). So that is really interesting especially when you realize that the (AC) magnetic field needed is around what you can get from the earths! So a person who says a place is haunted isn't insane we just should interpret that as being a place of suitable varying magnetic fields. Also it means the person is more sensitive and introspective since those characteristics means a person is much more likely to sense these things.
The point of the talk in the end was to say that if we now understand that heavenly voices etc are simply manifestations of our brain perhaps we can change our reaction to them. See we are hard wired to make some mistakes. We see mirages. We are smart enough to not rush out into the desert after them because we have realized we are being tricked. So if people realize that maybe they aren't speaking to a deity, maybe they'll be less likely to kill in the name of it. So we won;t change what they believe, just merely make the point that the line of communication isn't exclusive so be wary. If we can change the reaction to the "god experience" we'd take a big step. Like telling the Arabs that the Jews can induce these via satellites to try and make them violent and humiliate themselves, maybe they'd think twice about murderciding.
posted by Eddie | 1:06 AM
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