Spirituality Spot Found in Brain
   from:Robin Nixon, special to Livescience
www.livescience.com – Wed Dec 24, 9:19 am ET

What makes us feel spiritual? It could be the quieting of a small area in our brains, a new study suggests.

The area in question - the right parietal lobe - is responsible for defining "Me," said researcher Brick Johnstone of Missouri University. It generates self-criticism, he said, and guides us through physical and social terrains by constantly updating our self-knowledge: my hand, my cocktail, my witty conversation skills, my new love interest ,

People with less active Me-Definers are more likely to lead spiritual lives, reports the study in the current issue of the journal Zygon.

Most previous research on neuro-spirituality has been based on brain scans of actively practicing adherents (i.e. meditating monks, praying nuns) and has resulted in broad and inconclusive findings. (Is the brain area lighting up in response to verse or spiritual experience?)

So Johnstone and colleague Bret Glass turned to the tried-and-true techniques of neuroscience's early days - studying brain-injured patients. The researchers tested brain regions implicated in the previous imaging studies with exams tailored to each area's expertise - similar to studying the prowess of an ear with a hearing test. They then looked for correlations between brain region performance and the subjects' self-reported spirituality.

Among the more spiritual of the 26 subjects, the researchers pinpointed a less functional right parietal lobe, a physical state which may translate psychologically as decreased self-awareness and self-focus.

The finding suggests that one core tenant of spiritual experience is selflessness, said Johnstone, adding that he hopes the study "will help people think about spirituality in more specific ways."

Spiritual outlooks have long been associated with better mental and physical health. These benefits, Johnstone speculated, may stem from being focused less on one's self and more on others - a natural consequence of turning down the volume on the Me-Definer.

In addition to religious practices, other behaviors and experiences are known to hush the Definer of Me. Appreciation of art or nature can quiet it, Johnstone said, pointing out that people talk of "losing themselves" in a particularly beautiful song. Love, and even charity work, can also soften the boundaries of "Me," he said.

The greatest silencing of the Me-Definer likely happens in the deepest states of meditation or prayer, said Johnstone, when practitioners describe feeling seamless with the entire universe.
That is, the highest point of spiritual experience occurs when "Me" completely loses its definition.

"If you look in the Torah, the Old Testament, the New Testament, in the Koran, a lot of Sufi writings, Buddhist writings, and Hindu writings, they all talk about selflessness," said Johnstone.

We may be finding the neurological underpinnings of these writings, he said.

Since this has been known, i believe it refutes any idea of a real religious experience, since it applies to adherents of all religions.

I don't get your argument. How does it refute anything?

That's like meeting God and saying that God doesn't exist because when you met him he didn't mention any religion. . . . . Come to think of it, that's a pretty neat idea.

bindex:

Since this has been known, i believe it refutes any idea of a real religious experience, since it applies to adherents of all religions.

Your miserable argument is flawed.

What of those highly active in the area of charity and yet are areligious?

Besides the Journal of Zygon?

davidylan:


What of those highly active in the area of charity and yet are areligious?

But there are diverse reasons for being charitable that are not all necessarily selfless. I'm not agreeing with the poster, I'm just pointing that out to you. Many corporations donate to charity purely for PR reasons. Many people do too.

davidylan:


What of those highly active in the area of charity and yet are areligious?

But there are diverse reasons for being charitable that are not all necessarily selfless. I'm not agreeing with the poster, I'm just pointing that out to you. Many corporations donate to charity purely for PR reasons. Many people do too.

PS. Thanks for mentioning Zygon. I wasn't aware of it and I'm glad to have found out about it.

Pastor AIO:

But there are diverse reasons for being charitable that are not all necessarily selfless. I'm not agreeing with the poster, I'm just pointing that out to you. Many corporations donate to charity purely for PR reasons. Many people do too.

i agree but i was refering instead to countless selfless citizens who go out of their way to feed the poor on christmas, are usually the first to volunteer to search for missing kids, donate clothes to the homeless e.t.c.

and yet are not religious one bit.

davidylan:

i agree but i was refering instead to countless selfless citizens who go out of their way to feed the poor on christmas, are usually the first to volunteer to search for missing kids, donate clothes to the homeless e.t.c.

and yet are not religious one bit.

I get you. The thing is that a lot of these people are merely not doctrinal. I don't know how you define religion. Many define it as an acceptance and adherence to certain doctrines and concepts. In that case many kind-hearted, selfless people are not religious.

Yet it is also worth considering that many 'religious' people actually lack a single drop of altruism in their bodies.