Brain Science:
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Michio Kaku in his book "The future of the Mind" states: " Some scientists ... have speculated that there is a God gene that predisposes the brain to be religious. Since most societies have created a religion of some sort it seems plausible that our ability to respond to religious feelings might be genetically programmed into our genome." Scientist have long sought a specific location in the brain responsible for spirituality- a concept that eventually became known as the God spot. Brain scientists have found regions responsible for human feelings of love, fear, and compassion, but spirituality remained elusive.
But recently researchers Brigham and Women's Hospital have found spiritual acceptance can be localized to a specific brain circuit. The brain circuit is centered in the periaqueductal gray ("PAG" gray matter). . This area of the brain is close to the brain stem and has been located in a part of the brain associated with numerous emotional functions including fear, pain modulation, altruistic behaviors and unconditional love.
The study also goes on to to link the activation of brain spot circuitry with healing of the brain. Several studies of people that were healing from brain lesions ( brain tumor issues) had strong correlations with self-reported spirituality.
Brain Facts:
Over 80% of the global population consider themselves religious with even more identifying as spiritual.
There is a brain spot in the brain but activation of spiritual feelings involve ( as we have studied) brain circuitry, meaning the process of spirituality occurs in all areas of the brain as the religious thought processes back and forth in brain circuits.
So What:
So we may have found where in the brain religious thought centers. But we still do not know "why" and we have not been able to duplicate the process of that thought. Perhaps as we approach this time of year it is appropriate that we think about the "whys" of religion. I used to have once a week or so breakfast with a priest friend of mine. I really enjoyed my time with Father. There was for me, a special time where we discussed the "engineer" part of my brain. We really got into the the father, son and holy ghost concept. My favorite topic was the 'Why". There was this point though,where father said. "Sam what your having trouble with is this "holy ghost" thing and how something you can't see or hear ties things together. He said well maybe we weren't designed to know everything. That maybe we can't and that is the "mystery" of religion.' He loved to talk about the mystery of religion. That got me thinking that maybe there is something just outside the conscious mind. Something that resides in a "spirit" not the logic of the mind." Perhaps that stuck in my memory bank (and probably in my God spot) as important to my study of religon and acceptance of the trinity. At this point in the year perhaps it is appropriate for our God spot to be used to reflect on the trinity and be thankful that we have this time of hope and cheer. To know that, as try as we might to know it all, that there will always be a "spirit In The sky" that guides our brain spot.
Merry Christmas
Sam
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