"We have systematically removed most of the illusions about ourselves, such as being at the centre of the Universe," says Persinger, who is not religious. "The last illusion, or delusion, is that we are special creations who are looked after by someone in a big-parent kind of way. The only way to verify this is by the scientific method, and my research shows that religious experiences are created by the brain. The experiences are real enough to the person undergoing the experiment, but we are activating the areas of the brain that produce the phenomenon."
Fascinatingly, Persinger is exploring how the Thomas pulse can be used to therapeutic effect: "If you are dying of cancer and I can stimulate you so that you no longer feel the dimensions of the Universe, so that you can see into infinity, you no longer feel that there is an end. That can relieve anxiety."
(a rather novel take on the religion-as-opiate metaphor. Perhaps we can expect to see religious-experience vending machines for the troubled and disconsolate in the future?) (via 1.0)
"POSSESSION TRANCES"-AS-OPIATE (literally)
Catecholamines and opioid peptides increase in plasma in humans during
possession trances
Norie Kawai; Manabu Honda; Satoshi Nakamura; Purwa Samatra; Ketut
Sukardika; Yoji Nakatani; Nobuhiro Shimojo; Tsutomu Oohash
NEUROREPORT 2001;12:3419-3423
Naturally induced possession trances have been observed in healthy people
of many societies. The neurophysiological basis of this phenomenon
remains unknown, however, because of the difficulty in accessing subjects
in trances due to their sacred context. In the present study, we measured
the plasma levels of several neuroactive substances from subjects
exhibiting or lacking possession trance characteristics during Balinese
ded- icatory dramas under natural conditions. The trance group exhibited
significant increases in plasma concentrations of noradrenaline, dopamine
and beta-endorphin, compared with controls who performed
Pfft...just give them some Ketamine, does the same thing :)