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Is
God All in the Mind?
A review by Michael Shermer
Why God Won't Go Away Brain Science and the Biology of
Belief
Andrew Newberg, Eugene D'Aquili, and Vince Rause
Ballantine, New York, 2001. 234 pp. $24.95, C$37.95. ISBN:
0-345-44033-1.
“About
ten years ago, when I began to research why people believe
in God, I asked a colleague in a religious studies program
to recommend the latest path-breaking scientific work in
this area. "William James's 1890 Varieties of Religious
Experience," he responded sardonically. In his opinion, he
explained, the field was largely moribund.
That perception was an exaggeration, of course, but his
point was
that with the exception of a handful of psychologists
teaching at
theological seminaries, mainstream social and cognitive
scientists
had largely ignored the question. The situation has changed
dramatically in the past decade, as the renewed debate on
the
relation between science and religion has exploded onto the
cultural landscape and scientists from a variety of fields
have entered the fray. Why God Won't Go Away presents an
interpretation developed by Andrew Newberg and Eugene
D'Aquili, physicians at the University of Pennsylvania.
Newberg holds joint appointments in radiology and religious
studies, and D'Aquili, now deceased, was a professor of
psychiatry. Co-author Vince Rause is a free-lance writer.
Their breezy and speculative book was written for general
readers, but it provides enough new material, especially on
the neurophysiology of mystical experiences, to hold the
interest of professional scientists.
God won't go away, the authors argue, because the religious
impulse is rooted in the biology of the brain. When Buddhist
monks meditate and Franciscan nuns pray, for example, single
photon emission computed tomography scans of their brains
indicate strikingly low activity in the posterior superior
parietal lobe. The authors dub this bundle of neurons the
orientation association area (OAA). The area's primary
function is to orient the body in physical space; people
with damage to this area have a hard time negotiating their
way around their surroundings. When the OAA is up and
running smoothly, there is a sharp distinction between self
and non-self. When the OAA is in sleep mode--as in deep
meditation and prayer--that division breaks down and,
consequently, the lines between reality and
fantasy are blurred. Is this what happens to monks who feel
a oneness with the universe or with nuns who feel the
presence of God?
Yes, say the authors. They claim to have "uncovered solid
evidence that the mystical experiences of [their]
subjects--the altered states of mind they described as the
absorption of the self into something larger--were not the
result of emotional mistakes or simple wishful thinking, but
were associated instead with a series of observable
neurological events." Although this is an odd distinction to
make, the authors maintain it throughout the book. They
recognize that a skeptic might explain "all spiritual
longings and experiences, including the universal human
yearning to connect with something divine," as delusions
that stem from misfiring brain cells. Indeed, I am one such
skeptic, but I fail to see the difference (outside a minor
linguistic distinction) between a delusion and a decrease in
OAA activity. Delusion is simply a description of what
happens when the OAA shuts down and the brain loses the
ability to distinguish self from non-self. It's still all in
the brain. Unless, of course, one believes these
neurologically triggered mystical experiences actually serve
as a conduit to a real spiritual world where God (or what
the authors call "Absolute Unitary Being") resides. That is,
in fact, what they believe: "our research has left us no
choice but to conclude that the mystics may be on to
something, that the mind's machinery of transcendence may in
fact be a window through which we
can glimpse the ultimate realness of something that is truly
divine." Thankfully they are honest enough to admit that
this conclusion "is a terrifically unscientific idea" and
that to accept it "we must second-guess all our assumptions
about material reality."
”
Is
God All in the Mind?
A review by Michael Shermer
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