ABOUT THE RESEARCH OF Dr.Michael Persinger
==========================================
Dr. Persinger is a Neuoscientist at Laurentian U. who has been conducting experiments on 'god experiences' for the last few years. What he actually does is stimulate parts of the brain in his research participants in order to manufacture feelings of religious experience, alien abduction, encounters with ghosts etc. I believe his goal is to "prove" that religion and many other so called "mystical" or unexplained experience can be attributed to reactions in parts of the brain. )
(Just to self-identify, I am not an atheist myself, however, I have followed Persinger for awhile.)
Here is a bit from his bio/research interests at Laurentian:
"As a human being, I am concerned about the illusionary explanations for human consciousness and the future of human existence. Consequently after writing the Neuro-psychological Base of God Beliefs (1987), I began the systematic application of complex electromagnetic fields to discern the patterns that will induce experiences (sensed presence) that are attributed to the myriad of ego-alien intrusions which range from gods to aliens.
"The research is not to demean anyone's religious/mystical experience but instead to determine which portions of the brain or its electromagnetic patterns generate the experience. Two thousand years of philosophy have taught us that attempting to prove or disprove realities may never have discrete verbal (linguistic) solutions because of the limitation of this measurement.
"The research has been encouraged by the historical fact that most wars and group degradations are coupled implicitly to god beliefs and to the presumption that those who do not believe the same as the experiment are somehow less human and hence expendable. Although these egocentric propensities may have had adaptive significance, their utility for the species' future may be questionable."
To which I commented:
So what if Dr. Persinger's research helps us see how GOD does interpenetrate matter! As John tells us: "The Word became flesh ..." Unitheism welcomes such research. The important question is: How, with the help of the media, which loves to headline the
bad news, are we going to get this
good news out there? It could be of great value in helping us deal with the problem of evil in the human body, mind and heart (spirit), the root cause of so much pain and suffering.
====================
Reference:
http://www.wondercafe.ca/discussion/religion-and-faith/atheism-part-2-science#comment-508174
