Temporal lobe: Is it really the 'God spot' of the brain?

Scientists and researchers around the world have long suspected that religious experiences, such as God's vision, divination, or revelation, are merely brainwashing. The American textbooks of 1892 also tried to find similarities between epilepsy and 'religious sentiment'. The matter was better understood in the middle of the last century.

In the 1950's, Wilder Penfield, a neurosurgeon, used to insert electrodes into the brain and electrically stimulate different parts of the brain to give patients a response. When a patient was stimulated by inserting electrodes into the temporal lobe (see picture), many of them would hear a variety of ‘unseen sounds’, many of which were similar to ‘divine vision’.

This was made even clearer in 1985, when a study by Norman Geschwind, a neurologist at Boston Veterans Administration Hospital, first found an association between electrical misfiring in the temporal lobe and epilepsy. In a similar vein, University of California neurologist Villayanur S. Ramachandran showed in his study that patients with temporal lobe epilepsy are more likely to experience religious experiences such as God-seeing, revelation-receiving.

From these it may be inferred why many of the promoters of our known religions ‘heard bells’, ‘heard unseen voices’, ‘had fever with capun’ or ‘fainted frequently’ before receiving ‘revelation’.

Inspired by the results of such research, Michael Persinger, a professor at Lorentian University in Canada, embarked on another bold venture. He thought that if electrical variations in the temporal lobe were the source of religious stimulation, it would be possible to artificially taste religious stimuli by stimulating this part of the brain, wouldn't it?

Yes, at least theoretically it is possible. Dr. Parsinger did just that. He artificially inflamed the temporal lobe and made his famous ‘God Helmet’ for religious obsession. If you wear this helmet on your head later, it is possible to get a 'religious experience'. About 600 people have been officially tested for wearing helmets since the helmets were made.

About 70 percent of them said they had some kind of unearthly feeling. They felt that some supernatural being (or some spirit) was watching over them. The latai of many experiences is more than a yard. For example, after a woman wears a helmet, she feels as if she has met her dead mother.

To another woman, this supernatural being was so strong that at the end of the test, when the supernatural spirit disappeared into the air, she began to sob and cry. The whole time British journalist Ian Cotton wore a helmet, he was deluded into calling himself a Tibetan monk. The experience of scientist Susan Blackmore seems to be the most interesting in this case.

He described his experience in the journal New Scientist as follows:

"I suddenly felt as if someone was grabbing my leg and twisting it. Then he pushed me against the wall. The whole thing seemed to me like lightning without clouds; But the incident was as clear as daylight. At first I was very angry, then the fear gradually took the place of anger .... ”

Professor Blackmore later said, ‘The experience I have accumulated in Persinger’s laboratory is, in a word, unforgettable. I would be surprised if it came out later because of a placebo effect. '

But not everyone has the same ‘God Helmet’ that works the same way. The famous scientist Professor Richard Dawkins was once invited to demonstrate the effectiveness of the God Helmet. Dawkins is a scientist who specializes in evolution, and is always curious about religion, miracles, and so on. He is a fierce critic of religion. Never mind calling yourself an ‘atheist’. Belief in God is a delusion to him, religion is a virus to him. Many people were curious as to whether wearing such a helmet could instill in their minds any kind of 'religious feeling'.

Richard Dawkins eagerly agreed to be a guinea pig in 2003. Dawkins came to Persinger's laboratory and entered the chamber wearing a helmet. As time came out. 

He told the BBC.

 "I'm very disappointed," There was a great desire to see God. But I didn't get anything except sitting in the chamber and relaxing my head!’’

It seems that rational heads like Dawkins are not suitable for epilepsy. People like them feel that it is not so easy to hear the voice of the unseen, or to give divination. So, believers will say, ‘solid-minded’ people like Dawkins are not fit to be prophets! Do theologians simply say that it takes qualification to get a prophetic man?

But even though he didn't work on Richard Dawkins, he did it in many, including Susan Blackmore, and did very well. They have admitted it themselves. And according to Parsinger, if more than 80 percent of the people in the process he invented had supernatural feelings, it must be said that things like divine feelings may not be out of the brain. In Persinger's words, "God did not create the brain, but the human brain created the mighty God."

Conclusion:

The soul is the earliest human imagination. It is not properly defined and in the eyes of modern science the imagination of the supernatural soul is nothing but a false belief. In this article, I have tried to verify in great detail the concept of soul in the cornerstone of science. What emerges from this is that the matter of the soul does not fit at all with the theories of modern science.

Simply put, science has not found any evidence for the existence of the soul. And as time goes on, the hope of proving the existence of the soul is gradually turning into misery. In fact, new research in neuroscience, psychology, physiology, genetics, and evolution has literally taken the soul off the stage.

That is why Francis Crick, the Nobel Prize-winning scientist who deciphered the twin-spiral (DNA), said, "A modern neuroscientist does not need to resort to the religious concept of the soul to explain the behavior of humans and other animals." In 1921, the scientist Albert Einstein held the same idea, saying, "The idea of ​​a soul without a body is completely meaningless and meaningless to me."

Therefore, there is no logical reason to believe in the existence of the soul if science is to be accepted. Ancient people could not solve the mystery of birth and death from a scientific point of view and resorted to the spiritual concept of 'soul'. Modern research in science has refuted all those old and undefined ideas of meditation. Without the existence of the soul, scientists today are able to explain the behavior, manners, and self-consciousness of other animals, including humans. Have even found various physiological sources of religious unearthly experience.

So my personal opinion is that the soul is an unnecessary and abandoned concept to explain the existence of life, just as ether is an unnecessary and abandoned concept in the eyes of physicists today to explain the movement of light.

But the difference between the soul and the ether is that with the advancement of physics, it was possible to remove the ether, but it was not possible to remove the soul, but the abandoned concept of the soul is still popular with the common people. So many people do nothing for the peace of non-existent souls!

And in order to hypnotize the common unconscious people, the cultivation of this weed has been made very popular by the religious organizations for their own business interests. However, the day will surely come when the majority of people will not have the spirit to explain life and death; Don't spend money on shraddha-peace or milad-mahfil or challisa for the 'otherworldly' peace of the soul. The crematorium will not be destroyed by cremation or burial, but will donate organs such as the cornea, heart, lungs, liver, and pancreas to human service. John can benefit sick people). In addition, the door of practical physiology will be opened for medical students. Arj Ali Matubbar once set an example by deciding to donate his body to a medical college.

In this context, he said,

‘... I have decided to hand over my body to human welfare without turning it into an object of neglect for believers and a molten substance in the grave. With the help of my body, the surgery students of the medical college will master the surgery, and with their help, the sick people will be free from disease and will find peace. And it is these direct feelings that have inspired me to enjoy human well-being through medical donation. '

He was inspired to donate his body to the medical later. Ahmed Sharif, Dr. Naren Biswas, Wahidul Haque and others. The late worldly singer Sanjeev Chowdhury is a new and proud addition to our list. Let me inform these socially conscious worldly people about my life.

Author: Avijit Roy 

Science writer and online activist