Is God in your brain? The Answer

Dr. Andrew Newberg of the University of Pennsylvania did much research re the mind’s relationship to God. Dr. Newberg wrote a book called “Why God Won’t Go Away” based on his experiments. In this work, also sometimes referred to as neurotheology, Newberg describes the possible neurophysiological mechanisms associated with religious and spiritual experiences. His initial research included the use of functional brain imaging to study Franciscan nuns in prayer and Buddhist meditators. Newberg has maintained that science and brain imaging studies are only tools to evaluate the brain during such experiences but do not necessarily negate such experiences. Here is an excerpt from an interview that Robert Wright had with Andrew Newberg. It is accessible online through my blog. In Newberg, there are levels of union with God: First we start by having a sense of feeling beauty (sunset, concert...etc), Second, we find a sense of community and love when we pray to God in Church. We have a sense of awe when we praise God in Church. Third: Prayer is a mild relationship with God and others. Fourth: intensive and long experience in prayers and meditation may lead a few people to have ecstasy and union with God (as St. Bernard says in his teaching on the 4 loves.) Two powerful questions: One: Dr. Newberg explains the feeling of oneness with God in terms of the brain lobes. Does not this mean that God is created in our brains? Answer: Dr. Newberg did not suggest that God is created by the brain. Here is what he said in the interview with Robert Wright (an agnostic) about where in the brain he detected the changes of brain activities during meditation by some nuns “That's part of the brain technically called the posterior superior parietal lobe we've sort of dubbed "the orientation area" and it is the orientation area that takes all of our sensory input -- visual, auditory, body sensory input -- and creates for us a sense of our self and a sense of that self's orientation within the world. Our model suggests that when people go through these kinds of experiences, particularly through a meditative or prayer type of practice, that by blocking the sensory input into this area you ultimately prevent that particular part of the brain from being able to do a good job at orienting the self and even creating the sense of self. If you block that out completely you would have a complete loss of any sort of definition or boundary of the self and we think that they may explain why people feel this absorption into some object of prayer or meditation, absorption into God, becoming one with something in the universe or becoming one with God, you have a loss of that sense of self and other or that sense of self and world by blocking the input into that area. I should stop here and go back to the point here that we're talking along a very reductionist path right now which I think is okay and I think is important but I think our ultimate conclusions are actually going to be very far from the reductionist...” It is clear from the above that he is talking about a mechanism in the brain that reflects in the body what is happening in the soul. He emphatically also says “When we look at a mystical experience as being a very profound spiritual state they’re usually associated with very powerful emotional responses whether they are ecstatic responses or very powerful quiescent kind of response or even some kind of combination of the two, they often are associated with a strong sense of becoming one with or becoming unified with God (or the Universe or some absolute nature of the world). Those are probably the main defining characteristics of the most profound types of mystical experiences. But we also look at all types of spiritual experiences along a continuum where we start with base-line reality and the individual discreetness of things in reality -- tables, chairs, cars and things like that -- all the way through very mild experiences that someone may have looking at a sunset or listening to a beautiful Mozart concerto. And then finally, on up to the very powerful kinds of experiences people get after many many years of meditation or prayer and where they ultimately do become absorbed into their object of meditation or prayer... Well a very obvious example is when people go to a church or synagogue and participate in some type of service where they may experience a fairly strong sense maybe of awe, of God, a very strong sense of love, a sense of community with the people that they are with as well as the sense of becoming part of something greater than themselves even though it doesn't necessarily mean that they have a complete loss of that sense of self.” Two: What Dr. Newberg says about experiencing God can be applied to any religion. Does this mean that Christianity is like any other religion? Answer: Dr. Newberg did not speak about the difference between religions. His expertise lies in neuro-scientific research. He himself rejected the reductionist idea of atheism that the brain activities create God. See above. It is not true that Christianity is like any other religion. Christianity is the most profound religion in the world. Christians conquered the world, not by the sword, but by imitating Christ who loved his Father and all people including his enemies. Christ is the one who taught us that God is our father, not a divine stranger. Christianity brought the highest moral values in history and shaped the entire civilization of the West. On the other hand, Eastern religions are man’s search for God while Christianity is God’s response and self-revelation to man. Islam is a Christian heresy (distorted). Although there are rays of truth in other religions, only in Christianity do we know of the true God – a God who is Love itself in the Trinity, a God who out of his love created us and not only that, but also came into history to share our humanity and suffer the most cruel death in order to make us participants in God’s own life. Not only do we have the great Tradition and the Bible, but also the sacraments based on Apostolic testimony and priesthood since the Church was founded by Christ as a perfection of the Judaic tradition. As much as Christians are privileged in the true faith, they are responsible to share this faith with non-Christians. But this does not mean that non-Christians who never knew Christ will all perish. Those who follow the dictates of their conscience and search for God, will find him since God does not wish that anyone should perish. The supremacy of conscience, affirmed in the Second Vatican Council, means that everyone must follow the dictates of his conscience, but only after he has done his best to make it well informed. The bottom line is this: Atheism will never conquer religion neither in philosophy nor in science nor in experience (phenomenology).