http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/20/god-spot-in-brain-is-not-_n_1440518.html?ref=topbar
“We have found a neuropsychological basis for spirituality, but it’s not isolated to one specific area of the brain,” said Brick Johnstone, professor of health psychology in the School of Health Professions. “Spirituality is a much more dynamic concept that uses many parts of the brain. Certain parts of the brain play more predominant roles, but they all work together to facilitate individuals’ spiritual experiences.”
In the most recent study, Johnstone studied 20 people with traumatic brain injuries affecting the right parietal lobe, the area of the brain situated a few inches above the right ear. He surveyed participants on characteristics of spirituality, such as how close they felt to a higher power and if they felt their lives were part of a divine plan. He found that the participants with more significant injury to their right parietal lobe showed an increased feeling of closeness to a higher power.
Since Paul didn't have these experiences at random moments throughout his life, it's possible he had something like an ischemic stroke, or a febrile seizure located just there. Or perhaps it was just the D.T.s.
Is it any wonder that most cultures use music and sometimes dance to induce "spiritual" experiences? The Huffpo piece mentions "meditation" which is actually less common around the world than music and dance as a tool. Could the black church in America and other African-influenced religious practices survive without music? Is it any accident that Rick Warren has a "praise band" and evangelicals use Christian rock to keep the young'uns in line?
Now I have only one more question: would Jesus play a Fender or a Gibson?
9 comments:
p.s. I found a good description of "aesthetic experience"
http://www.collaboration.org/98/spring/text/08.aesthetic.html
Puh-lease. Jesus would rock an Ibanez.
Before we can ask what really happened to Paul on the road to Damascus, we have to establish that there really was a Paul, and that something really did happen to him on the road to Damascus. The road to Damascus story comes from Acts, which was not written by Paul, and the story does not occur in Paul’s epistles.
Okay, let's say, assuming there was a Paul, how this could have happened. There may have been stories floating around about people who had this kind of experience and Paul's story would have seemed reasonable to people in light of that.
I think there probably was a Paul, who is the real source of the Jesus myth.
Mike, I think Jesus played a magic air guitar that only a true believer can hear!
Led Zeppelin is God!!
Or if Paul existed and converted to Christianity, his story was later exaggerated by the apostle Luke as he told it in Acts. Christians even to this day are known to exaggerate stories to support their myths. Why should it have been any different then?
Yep, that could be. There could be a kernel of truth in much of the myth.
Yep, that could be. There could be a kernel of truth in much of the myth.
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