Years ago, I read the old Asimov “FOUNDATION” series ofSCI-Fi novels. Something stuck in my head-that was the Psychologist Gaal Dornicks discovery of the “Second Foundation”-he was studying the brain waves of intellectuals on Trantor, and discovered a phenomemnon he called the “tamper plateau”. Basically, the tamper plateau was a brainwave anomaly the showed that someones thoughts had been manipulated (by the supposedly-mythical “second foundation”).
Could something similar be attributedto “God”? That is, if one studies the brainwaves/CAT scans odfhuman brains, is it possible to discern differences between believers and athiests?
This would be a sufficient proff of the existence of God…has any neurologist ever tried this?;j
:dubious:
…and the room grows very quiet. Everyone looks at their shoes and desperately tries to think of a new topic.
Well, smart-alecky comments aside I don’t know that anyone has.
I suppose it might be possible that a ‘believer’ would show different patterns on say, an EEG, than a ‘non-believer’. But even so I wouldn’t take that as proof of the existence of God. It could much easier just be that ‘belief’ sets up a pattern in brainwaves.
::dons tin foil hat::
Or the other way around.
Intriguing, Captain. Nice thought.
Finding a difference between atheists (which weren’t included in this study) and belivers doesn’t prove a thing though, as long as we can’t determine the truth of said neurally identified believes.
This would only show that there is a biological correlation with a belief or a subjective experience.
Consider: A certain proportion of the population believes that Pat Buchanan should be President of the United States. I’m sure that a detailed brain scan would demonstrate that the brains of such people deviate from the norm – that you could “discern a difference” between Buchananites and normal people.
However, this evidence would not prove that Pat Buchanan should be President of anything.
I recall reading research that epileptic sufferers after a fit, often experiences religious visions or oneness with the world, and had significantly different brain waves.
And that some refused treatment so they could keep having these experiences.
However I’ve had about 3 hours sleep, and can’t find any cites, I tried looking a couple of weeks ago, and couldn’t find any then either.
If anyone has any idea what I’m talking about, please help!
Here is a link to a student’s paper which discusses this. (I wrote a paper on a similar topic a few years ago. I’ll see if I can find some other online sources which discuss this.)
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro01/web2/Eguae.html
You might be interested in Michael Persinger’s work at Laurentian University. He stimulates the right temporal lobe of the brain with an external magnetic field, and many subjects report spiritual experiences of various types.
ABCnews item
A case of spiritual experiences caused by a nearby clock’s EM emissions
Dr. Persinger’s bio