What God does to your brain.

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Quote

If religion is merely a product of the mind, then perhaps its effects can be simulated artificially - with potentially powerful results. In the 1990s, Canadian cognitive neuro-scientist Michael Persinger invented a ''God helmet'', which, he claimed, simulated religious experiences by directing complex magnetic fields to the parts of the brain that include the parietal lobe.

Evangelical Christians demonstrated outside the lab where Persinger tested the helmet, outraged at his suggestion that God could be replicated via a machine. But more than 80 per cent of those who wore the helmet reported sensing a presence in the room that many took to be their deity. They also became deeply emotional and, after the experiment, were filled with a sense of loss.

This led Persinger to conclude that divine visions - not to mention every other type of out-of-body experience, from the Virgin Mary being visited by the Holy Spirit to UFO sightings - were probably nothing more than people being subjected to energy fields connected to shifts in the Earth's plates or environmental disturbances.

In 2001, Persinger tried the helmet on possibly the world's most vocal atheist, Professor Richard Dawkins, who reported that his breathing and sensation in his limbs were affected, but insisted he had not seen God. Still upbeat, Persinger argued that earlier tests had shown Dawkins had far less sensitivity than others in the temporal lobes.

Or, perhaps Dawkins is simply lacking the ''God gene'' or VMAT2, to be precise, that controls the flow of mood-regulating chemicals, called monoamines, in the brain.

According to US molecular geneticist Dr Dean Hamer, subjects with this gene were more susceptible to self-transcendent, spiritual experiences. Many neuroscientists now think spiritual tendencies involve genes relating to the brain's dopamine and serotonin neurotransmitters.

Yup, we atheists lack the god gene. Cheesy

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Topic: What God does to your brain.

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OP - July 12, 2014, 08:22 PM

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Reply #1 - July 12, 2014, 11:14 PM

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