|
|
|
|
Slater
SFN Regular
USA
1668 Posts |
 Posted - 05/01/2001 : 11:52:48
|
Dr Andrew Newberg was on Good Morning America today. He is also heavily featured in this weeks Newsweek cover story "God & the Brain" because of the publication of his new book "Why God Won't Go Away." He was tap dancing around answering Diane Sawyer's questions on if "practical Atheist types have a different set up in their brains." He does his damnedest to avoid stating to implications of his research; that religious experiences are not external but a result of the brains physical structure. This guy isn't going to have his funding cut.
What I don't see Newsweek or anyone else mentioning is that this is the same research that John Lilly did back in the '60's with his "sensory depravation box." You lock yourself in this box filled with heavily salted water (gawd help me, I actually did this in 71) and you float in total darkness, absolute quite. Cut off from outside stimuli your brain starts producing its own in short order.
Newberg shows that meditating Zen Buddhists can do the same thing without becoming crusted in salt.
(These days Lilly, more famous for his dolphin work, more infamous for his LSD work, is on Maui. He's teamed up with a couple who sells New Age excursions to have tantric sex while swimming with dolphins)
God seems to be completely out of the equation. Time is recognized by the amygdala, the difference between self and world by circuits in the parietal–lobe. Transcendence isn't so transcendent any more.
|
|
|
Dog_Ed
Skeptic Friend
USA
126 Posts |
Posted - 05/02/2001 : 01:19:39 [Permalink]
|
Yes, as I understand it Zen-type meditation quiets activity in the parietal lobe and this gives rise to the sense of oneness with the Universe often reported by those who meditate. (Medi-taters: potatoes trained to render medical assistance.)
I think the widespread belief in an afterlife--widespread across many human cultures, I mean--arises from an ingrained mental illusion. Imagine the city you live in as you think it will be 500 years in the future. Visualize it carefully. Now notice that as you imagined the future you were forced to give yourself a viewpoint, to give yourself an existence in a time and space you have every reason to believe you will never occupy.
I don't think a sentient being can easily envision a future without imagining a persistent, pseudo-immortal viewpoint. This, I think, helps make the superstition of an afterlife so widespread. |
 |
|
|
sega
Skeptic Friend
USA
73 Posts |
Posted - 05/02/2001 : 15:03:15 [Permalink]
|
If it is the case that all experience can be reproduced by manipulation of the brain then answer this. Red pill or Blue pill
|
|
|
|
Slater
SFN Regular
USA
1668 Posts |
Posted - 05/02/2001 : 17:38:07 [Permalink]
|
quote:
Red pill or Blue pill
The point isn't that religious experience is being reproduced by manipulation of the brain. Religious experience is only brain function.
It's all in ya ead.
|
|
|
|
sega
Skeptic Friend
USA
73 Posts |
Posted - 05/02/2001 : 18:43:07 [Permalink]
|
So thats why all societies have used mind altering substances. Now I get it. Red pill or blue or black or yellow or the clear liquid that makes me puke. Although some people prefer whips and chains to reach their higher states. So religious experiences are like a drug, and that makes church and religion in general what....a hangover, dt's, cravings?
|
|
|
|
@tomic
Administrator
USA
4607 Posts |
Posted - 05/02/2001 : 19:04:05 [Permalink]
|
The opiate of the proletariate?
Sounds like the makings of a new poll 
@tomic
Oh wow, I earned a star with that one! woo woo
Gravity, not just a good idea...it's the law! |
|
|
|
Lisa
SFN Regular
USA
1223 Posts |
Posted - 05/02/2001 : 22:58:34 [Permalink]
|
1) It would be nice if all experience could be reproduced by manipulation of the brain. I've had three beers. If anyone needs me, I'm on the "Excaliber" in the Orion sector.
2) As for the first post, "Tantric sex"? What on earth is tantric sex? Dolphins? I have a rather lively imagination, but this leaves me flummoxed. Now I have to get a very strange and sick picture out of my head.
Lisa
"If I'm on thin ice, I'd might as well dance the whole way across!" |
|
|
|
sega
Skeptic Friend
USA
73 Posts |
Posted - 05/03/2001 : 09:47:07 [Permalink]
|
Tantric sex is a method which allows practicioners, men actually,to have sex for an hour or much longer. Women as you know have this ability already.
|
|
|
|
Slater
SFN Regular
USA
1668 Posts |
Posted - 05/03/2001 : 09:57:21 [Permalink]
|
Tantric sex is a ... uhmm...ohh... when the Hindu bird meets the...ummm...ahh New Age bee...oh, never mind. See for yourself
www.oceanictantra.com
|
|
|
|
Tokyodreamer
SFN Regular
USA
1447 Posts |
Posted - 05/03/2001 : 10:12:27 [Permalink]
|
quote:
1) It would be nice if all experience could be reproduced by manipulation of the brain.
I imagine that theoretically, it can, we just have to figure out how.
quote:
2) As for the first post, "Tantric sex"? What on earth is tantric sex? Dolphins? I have a rather lively imagination, but this leaves me flummoxed. Now I have to get a very strange and sick picture out of my head.
Just to put you at ease, they don't have sex WITH the dolphins, just around the dolphins 
And Tantric sex is when a man can achieve orgasm without ejaculating, therefore maintaining the ability to continue having sex.
|
|
|
|
Lisa
SFN Regular
USA
1223 Posts |
Posted - 05/04/2001 : 02:34:08 [Permalink]
|
Thanks for the info. Learn something new every day. I still think the inclusion of sea mammals is weird.
Lisa
"If I'm on thin ice, I'd might as well dance the whole way across!" |
|
|
|
Tokyodreamer
SFN Regular
USA
1447 Posts |
Posted - 05/04/2001 : 09:41:58 [Permalink]
|
quote:
I still think the inclusion of sea mammals is weird.
I saw it on one of the earliest episodes of Real Sex on HBO. They would swim around undulating with eachother along side the dolphins. And yes, it is very weird
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Topic Locked
