Spirituality linked to brain damage

[sandwiches]

I agree. This is not what Ramachandran has observed. In his video he interviews a young man with this condition and shows footage of him while he is having this experience. His experience is not what I would call crazy at all. It is more that he feels a very deep sense of connection with the universe and a revelation of meaning. He seemed to be rational enough during this euphoria and if my memory serves he became passionate about love and stopping war and all that good stuff. To me his expression looked very much like an exaggerated version of a person who feels the spirit of life and creation.

I think this is different from psychotic delusion such as believing you can fly or thinking you are a teapot. It is not a cognitive malfunction as such. It was really as Ramachandran described it: everything suddenly takes on profound emotional significance. And I think this is what makes it seem akin to regular spiritual experience, albeit highly exaggerated.

People have some of the supposedly deepest spiritual experiences under the influences of drugs, whether made by our own bodies or otherwise. I don't think the 'I can fly' bunch are that far off from the "we're all one with the universe" crowd.

 

[BrianOnEarth]

I just found the relevant video clips on YouTube. In YouTube, search for "Ramachandran, the Temporal Lobes and God". There are two parts.

 

[Chesterton]

I just thought of something interesting. It could be true that some of our most brilliant scientists were indeed brain damaged. Just look at the incidence of insanity and suicide in mathematicians.

Hmmm...

Yep.

"There is a notion adrift everywhere that imagination, especially mystical imagination, is dangerous to man’s mental balance. Poets are commonly spoken of as psychologically unreliable; and generally there is a vague association between wreathing laurels in your hair and sticking straws in it. Facts and history utterly contradict this view. . . . Imagination does not breed insanity. Exactly what does breed insanity is reason. Poets do not go mad; but chess-players do. Mathematicians go mad, and cashiers; but creative artists very seldom. I am not . . . in any sense attacking logic: I only say that this danger does lie in logic, not in imagination."
G.K. Chesterton

 

[BrianOnEarth]

Now I am stumped.
When I visit the Richard Dawkins Forum people call theists crazy for being so illogical. In this post, scientists are called crazy for being too logical.
What is wrong with this picture?
(hint: use your logic - but be careful not to go crazy)

 

[Tielec]

Interesting research, but not exactly groundbreaking, following (as it does) on the heels of a much more important discovery of certain... chemicals... that can bring about a feeling of spirituality or "oneness with the universe". I am tempted to be a contrarian and channel Skinner:

"[FONT='Times New Roman','serif']Every science has at some time or other looked for causes of action inside the things it has studied. Sometimes the practice has proved useful, sometimes it has not. There is nothing wrong with an inner explanation as such, but events which are located inside a system are likely to be difficult to observe. For this reason we are encouraged to assign properties to them without justification. Worse still, we can invent causes of this sort without fear of contradiction."[/FONT]
[FONT='Times New Roman','serif'][/FONT]
[FONT='Times New Roman','serif']In other words, tread lightly when making assumptions about unobservable actors that exert force on observable behaviour, especially if said behaviour is self-rated...[/FONT]
[FONT='Times New Roman','serif']Cool article, great to see some neuropsychology popping up in a life and physical sciences forum where we belong [/FONT]

 

[Tielec]

Wow, that post was made much easier to read by all the "Font=" etc... still finding my way around the board, sorry about that.