Do Neuroscientific Explanations of Religious Experiences lead to

Naturalism?

By

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Theol. Anne L.C. Runehov

Lay-out• Introduction• Michael Persinger

– Epelipsy and Religious Experiences– Philosophical problems

• Andrew Newberg and Eugene d’Aquili– Absolute Unitary Being (AUB)– Philosophical problems

• Conclusion

Introduction

• Living in the Age of Neuroscience– Clinical neuroscience, Experimental

neuroscience, Cognitive neuroscience, Affective neuroscience, behavioural neuroscience (the Social neurosciences)

– Increasing interest in mental phenomena (the riddle of consciousness)

– Increasing interest in religious phenomena (the effects of meditation)

• Helpful

Not so much helpful

Brain and mind correlate

Brain generates mind

• Comprehensive ontological naturalistic version based on ontological reductive methods.

• Minimalist ontological naturalism version based on methodological reductive methods

What is Neuroscience?

• First known brain surgery

Neuroscience: roots in early Greek medicine

Nerve energy electircal not spiritual (19th century)

Neuron: basic component similar for all creatures (19th century)

100 billions neurons (today)

• ‘[I]t has been calculated that the number of possible permutations and combinations of brain activity, in other words the numbers of brain states, exceeds the number of elementary particles in the known universe’ (Ramachandran 2003, 4).

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Dark energy and matter: 95% of the universe Dark brain energy: DMN

‘[O]ur conscious interactions with the world are just a small part of the brain’s activity. What goes on below the level of awareness–the brain’s dark energy, for one–is critical in providing the context for what we experience in the small window of conscious awareness’ (Raichle 2010, 33).

• Measurebility, testibility and repeatibility

Michael Persinger

There does not exist any God – religious experiences have nothing to do with any God or Ultimate Reality – it is all about brain activity and nothing else (Persinger).

The Helmet

Newberg & d’Aquili

The fact that one can observe specific brain activity that correlates with

specific religious experiences and that this brain activity is equal for

Everybody who has such an experience indicates that God has to be

real. (Newberg and d’Aquili)

• Epilepsy and Religious Experience

UFO

Poltergeist

Telepathy

Religious experiences ?

Amygdale: The Watchdog

Hippocampus: the diplomat

During an epileptic seizure, the the watchdog takes the diplomat by surprize

Hypothalamus

• Epilepsia (Greek): to lay hold of, seize, attack

• Hippocrates: On the Sacred Disease

• Latin: Morbus Sacer

Only God can throw a person on the ground

like this and bring him or her to life again.

The PPI

• Have you ever experienced a sensed presence despite nobody beside you being in the room?

• Have you ever experienced hearing a voice which was not your own when nobody was talking to you?

• Are you religious? Do you meditate?

Cognitive Kindling• Epileptic seizures can be evoked by

stimulating specific parts of the brain, for example the right temporal lobe. Temporal Lobe Epilepsy (TLE)

Persinger’s Original HelmetMagnetic Stimulation TMS

• Questions1. Vibration, out-of body experiences, spinning

around: RE?2. Double blind study? Implications of

experimenter-interaction?3. Increased RTL activity: TLE, Schizophrenia

and RE but• Decreased FL activity: TLE, Schizophernia• Increased FL activity: RE (Scott Atran)

Different neuroanatomies

4. RE: communication with some Ultimate Reality

TLE and the Saints

• St. Paul, Joan of Arc, St Teresa of Avila, St Birgitta of Sweden, Swedenborg, ...

Vadstena nunnery

Reliquary, shrine  

1303-1373

Did St. Birgitta have Epilespy?

For Against

Tunor: Hyperostosis frontalis interna

Variation of experiences/ already as young

Frontal-lobe epilespsy not TLE

High amount information

Glowing globe Complex writings

Dostoevsjij (But TLE) No record of St.Birgitta having seizures

• Persinger: not very helpful because

(1)Biased questionnaires

(2)No imaging

(3)Biased agenda

Newberg and d’Qquili

• God or Ultimate Reality is REAL

Tibetan Buddhists at meditation

Franciscan Nuns at Prayer

Neural correlations

• Amygdale-Hippocampus-Hypothalamus complex

• Posterior Parietal Lobes (PSPL).

• PSPL: – 3D pictures of the body in space– Self-other and self-world distinction

• AUB: – Feeling completely united with God or UR – No experience of self– No experience of self in space– No experience of self in time

• Cross religions – meditation or prayer techniques

• Neurologically: Total deafferentation of the right and left PSPL

1. If AUB ↔ total deafferentation of the L and R PSPL.

2. 2 different total deafferentations of the PSPLs are not possible

3. All who meditate, regardless of the meditation technique used, will sooner or later experience AUB

4. Those who experienced AUB belonged to different religions

Conclusion

• There cannot be two different AUB regardless of religion.

• Hence: Experiencing AUB has to be equal for all experiencers.

• Consequently, God or Ultimate Reality is real and AUB becomes the invariant element in all religions.

Philosophical problems

Not enough attention to

Cultural-religious-personal aspects

Plasticity of the Brain: Brain are like faced

Total deafferentation: clinical condition

Multiple Realization Principle

Study on Glossolalia

• Individuals speak in an incomprehensive language that has no linguistic structure

• Individuals lack control over vocalization

Decrease in left frontal activity – decrease in thalamic activity

Indicates: expressive language parts are not directly affected: the individual does not speak voluntary!

• Individuals do have complete control over what happens

• Meaning providing experience

Increase in PSPL (contrary meditation and prayer

Indicates: no loss of self or space or time

Increase in limbic area

Indicates: The altered emotional state

• Newberg and d’Aquili: helpful because

(1)Valid Research

(2)Show important and different (!) neural correlations for different RE

(3)However at times speculative

Conclusion• Need for interdisciplinary based

research on religious phenomena.

The whole story• Sacred or Neural? The potential of

Neuroscience to Explain Religious Experience

2007: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen

ISBN 978-3-525-56980-1