spirituality/religiosity/paranormal

1. if all human experience is a product of the brain then this is true for religion as well
   1. DSMIV = delusional belief is personal not cultural, religion is culture
      1. Coltheart 2007 - the definition of religion is insufficient - if a belief is held for no good reason then it is a delusion
         1. argumentum ad populum = a belief is not correct just because a lot of people believe in it

1. can be irrational without a pathology - continuum of rationality?
   1. Davis 2001

      Annotations:

      • Davis 2001 - if a belief is so bizarre, implausible, violates logical, physical and biological principles, provides no supporting evidence and is formed or maintained in a manner characteristic of other delusions, then it should be viewed as a delusion
   2. Humes maxim and philosophy of science

      Annotations:

      • Humes maxim = no testimony sufficient to establish a miracle, unless falsehood is more miraculous.  Is it more probable that someone would deceive, was deceived or that the fact related happened?
2. hyperreligiosity a delusion?

   Annotations:

   • hyper religiosity = underlying psychopathology or cognitive style  of information processing

1. Freud, Marx etc - religious belief is pathological in some way - something has gone wrong in the way hyper religious people form and evaluate beliefs
2. James 1902

   Annotations:

   • James 1902: two forms of religion: 1) institutional 2) personal.  the later is more important for understanding psychology of mystical states/spiritual experience.  organised religion = cultural phenomenon, mystical and spiritual states linked to nervous instability and abnormal psychological processes.  distinction between religion as culture and religion as pathology/experience

1. hippocampus and amygdala

   Annotations:

   • hippocampus and amygdala are both subcortical.  hippocampus - memory, spatial processing, reasoning.  amygdala = emotional processing and affective responses.  both are important in seizure, aura and religiosity
2. electrical dysfunction in medial temporal lobe and limbic system are associated with distorted perceptions/hallucinations - which can lead to religious interpretation
   1. Dewhurst 1970

      Annotations:

      • Dewhurst 1970 - 6 case studies of sudden religious conversion in temporal lobe epilepsy. Howden 1872 - specific religious conversion following epileptic fit - aura included entering heaven/converstation with God.  3 days for experience to pass and for soul to be returned to the body (depersonalisation)

1. Devinsky 2008

   Annotations:

   • Devinsky 2008 - hyper function and hypo function could both be important factors in relationship between epilepsy and migraine experience.  many reports of mystical auras in partial seizures.  
2. people with epilepsy more likely to be religious but ...
   1. only if temporal lobe epilepsy (Gloor 1990)
   2. seizure types and religiosity

      Annotations:

      • Devinsky 2008 - ecstatic seizure and experience at time of seizure onset.  intense religious experience continuing long after seizure has ceased.  heightened state of religious conviction - sense of destiny, strong moral beliefs, philosophic interests.  Ictal religious seizures = intense emotions, presence of divine, connected to universe, Gods voice, religious figure, telepathy

1. Ramachandren 1988

   Annotations:

   • Ramachandren 1988 - importance of seizure processes in mystical experience.  seizure produces random intense emotions, not sufficient for experiences to be mystical.  
   1. Kindling

      Annotations:

      • Kindling - repeated seizure can alter structural connections which can facilitate additional emotional salience to experience.  if neural systems supporting emotional processing are strengthened then trivial events feel significant
      1. Remachandren 1997

         Annotations:

         • Ramachandren 1997 - tested those with temporal lobe epilepsy with religious views and compared them to very religious normal controls and non religious controls.  words presented from neutral, religious, violent and sexual categories.  SCR measure of response.  both normal control groups showed maximal response to the sexual stimuli, but the temporal epilepsy group showed increased SCR to religious images and words.  Ictal kindling in generic emotional processing systems cannot be a full explanation - everything should become meaningful.  selective processing for religious stimuli suggests such seizures have selectively enhanced certain neural connections and weakened others.  religious areas = hyperactive = added significance and meaning.  religious specific kindling?

1. Siddle 2002

   Annotations:

   • Siddle 2002 - religious delusions in 24% of hospitalised schizophrenics. 
2. World health organisation 1979

   Annotations:

   • WHO 1979 - religion associated with stable psychotic components in all cultures - delusions of grandeur, persecution.  religious delusions show historical variability, other delusions have remained stable.  also become less frequent over the last century.  Boundary between normal religious belief and psychosis related religious belief?
3. Peters 1999 - a continuum of delusional religiosity?

1. Newberg 2000

   Annotations:

   • Newberg 2000 - religious experiences result as a breakdown in self other distinction which is a function of the superior parietal lobule.  forward model of motor control.  underlies sensation of being connected to the world or with a higher power.  meditation can be linked to decreases in regional cerebral blood flow in the superior parietal lobule
2. Saver 1997

   Annotations:

   • Saver 1997- looked at religious phenomena in epilepsy, NDE, hallucinogen effects, psychotic disorders, dementias. experiences included - excessive self importance, profound joy, harmonious and noetic feelings - all associated with religious experience
   1. limbic marker hypothesis

      Annotations:

      • limbic marker hypothesis - religious and non religious experiences share common neural substrates but religious experiences are generated by super imposition of mystical interpretations on what are ordinary sensations - over attribution of emotional processing

1. overactivity in the limbic system may result in mundane being experienced as the profound.
2. hyperreligiosity is related to underlying dysfunction in neural activity related to emotional processing
3. many patients with temporal lobe dysfunction do not become psychotic or hyperreligous
   1. Coltheart/Maher

Annotations:

• Persinger 1996/1997/2001/2000 - central role for hippicampal/amygdala vulnerability (micro seizures = anomalous sensations with mystical interpretations).  enhanced meaning attached to mundane perceptual events via overactivity in subcortical regions

1. Trans cranial stimulation method

   Annotations:

   • EEG measurements of TLE seizure, generated into a digital series of complex burst patterns, then played through solenoids into brain (rotated and burst fired).  very weak magnetic fields.  calmed to have induced mystical/spiritual experience in 60-70% of participants - sensed presence, OBE, emotional.  experience of and belief in paranormal correlates with epileptic like signs in EEG traces and high scores on measures like temporal lobe instability.  Spiritual experience from limbic dysfunction - hippocampus and amygdala - the GOD spot. -biophysics of this not understood - not clear how such weak fields impact neural processing.  Granqvist 2004 failed to replicate even in a double blind study

1. Landtblom 2006

   Annotations:

   • Landblom 2006 - epileptic patient reported sensed presence as part of aura.  not presented in a religious way, partial complex seizure.  aura the same in all seizures. EEG abnormalities in left temporal lobe.  religious interpretation may depend on cultural background

1. Peters 1999

   Annotations:

   • Peters 1999 - incidence of delusional ideation in NRM.  NRM elevated in terms of delusional ideation and could not be distinguished from psychotic group.  only differed on levels of distress and being less preoccupied by experience
2. Pechey 2011

   Annotations:

   • Pechey 2011 - new questionnaire to look at delusion like beliefs in the gen pop.  out of 1000 people - 91% had weak to strong endorsement of at least 1 DLB, 39% had strong belief in 1 or more DB, 25% had strong belief in at least 1 bizarre belief.  association between DLB and belief in paranormal and religion.  Common mechanism,

Annotations:

• evolution and religion - may have developed from superstitious thinking which would have had survival value. also a way of ensuring the survival of early civilisation.  early civilisations had bizarre causal reasoning - moon and crops - giving everything a TOM - only a small step to idea of a creator

1. religion as a coping mechanism

   Annotations:

   • religion as a coping mechanism - Bentall 1990 - hallucinations are a way of coping with stressful situations.  hyper religiosity can bring comfort - protects notion of self and survival of bodily death.  degree with which it aids coping is debatable

Annotations:

• Sagan - extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.  you cannot convince a believer of anything for their belief is not based on evidence it is based on their deep seated need to believe.  belief is not based on evidence based reasoning