Posted by Moki on November 03, 1997 at 19:47:41:

`GOD MODULE': Study Ponders: Are Humans Hard-Wired For Religious Bent?

BY ROBERT LEE HOTZ
LOS ANGELES TIMES

NEW ORLEANS -- No one knows why humanity felt its first religious stirrings, but researchers at the University of California, San Diego, have reported that the human brain may be hard-wired to hear the voice of heaven, in what researchers said was the first effort to address the neural basis of religious expression. In a provocative experiment with patients suffering from an unusual form of epilepsy, researchers at the UC San Diego brain and perception laboratory determined that the parts of the brain's temporal lobe -- which the scientists quickly dubbed the ``God module'' -- may affect how intensely a person responds to religious beliefs.

People suffering this type of seizure have long reported intense mystical and religious experiences as part of their attacks but also are unusually preoccupied with mystical thoughts between seizures. That led this team to use these patients as a way of investigating the relationship between the physical structure of the brain and spiritual experiences. Where, Not Why: In a carefully designed experiment, the researchers determined that one effect of the patients' seizures was to strengthen their brain's involuntary response to religious words, leading the scientists to suggest a portion of the brain was naturally attuned to ideas about a supreme being.

``It is not clear why such dedicated neural machinery . . . for religion may have evolved,'' the team reported last week at a meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in New Orleans. One possibility, the scientists suggested, was to encourage tribe loyalty or reinforce kinship ties or the stability of a closely knit clan. The scientists emphasized that their findings in no way suggest that religion is simply a matter of brain chemistry. ``These studies do not in any way negate the validity of religious experience or God,'' the team cautioned. ``They merely provide an explanation in terms of brain regions that may be involved.''

Existential Musing: Until recently, most neuroscientists confined their inquiries to research aimed at alleviating the medical problems that affect the brain's health, and to attempts to fathom its fundamental neural mechanisms. Emboldened by their growing understanding of how the brain works, scientists now dare to investigate the relationship between the brain, human consciousness and a range of intangible mental experiences.

Craig Kinsely, an expert in psychology and neuroscience at the University of Richmond in Virginia, said ``the implications are fascinating.'' ``People have been tickling around the edges of consciousness and this sort of research plunges in,'' Kinsely said. ``There is the quandary of whether the mind created God or God created the mind. This is going to shake people up, but [any conclusion] is very premature.'' Vilayanur S. Ramachandran, the senior scientist involved in the experiment, said, ``We are skating on thin ice. We are only starting to look at this. The exciting thing is that you can even begin to contemplate scientific experiments on the neural basis of religion and God.''

Posted by Spook Central on November 20, 1997 at 05:22:52:

The brain is hard wired with a god module, without one man would never have become more than another animal. He would never have been able to dream, and thus technology, sciences, etc. would never have been thinked into reality. The module is what allows the individual to continue after the corporal decay of the flesh. The module allows the neural net of the human brain to interconnect with the fabrics of the universe, and to register pulses from the same. It allows and creates the sensation and comprehension of being more than the body, both predating it and continuing after.

The module is also what creates dissatisfaction, turmoil, depressions and many of the other ailments that beseige the human mind. The mind extends beyond the flesh and the irritation is what creates the humans capacity to reason, logic, socialize and war. It also is what evolves into the divine.

Sabe

Posted by Mary on November 23, 1997 at 23:20:56:

Temporal lobe epilepsy is really interesting. Other symptoms of TLE besides hyperreligiousity are hypergraphia (writing tomes) hyperphagia, hyposexuality and smelling bad odours. It can often be mistaken for mania or psychosis. HMMM... The last may be why the entity smells bad and why many will be undergoing religious fervor psychosis ie the temporal lobes are coming online in humanity.