No 'God Spot' in the Human Brain

[tocqueville]

Ker Than
LiveScience Staff Writer
LiveScience.com
Tue Aug 29, 4:45 PM ET


The human brain does not contain a single "God spot" responsible for mystical and religious experiences, a new study finds.

Instead, the sense of union with God or something greater than the self often described by those who have undergone such experiences involves the recruitment and activation of a variety brain regions normally implicated in different functions such as self-consciousness, emotion and body representation.

The finding, detailed in the current issue of Neuroscience Letters, contradicts previous suggestions by other researchers that the there might be a specific region in the brain designed for communication with God.
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In the study, 15 cloistered Carmelite nuns, ranging in age from 23 to 64, had their brains scanned while asked to relive the most intense mystical experience they had ever had as members of the religious order.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20060829/sc_space/nogodspotinthehumanbrain

what about the G-spot ?

[beam me up scottie]

1. You mean the God Spot isn't the G-spot?

It's all in your head, but not in one place:

The study found that mystical experiences activate more than a dozen different areas of the brain at once. One of the regions, called the caudate nucleus, has been implicated in positive emotions such as happiness, romantic love and maternal love.

The researchers speculate that activation of this brain region during mystical experiences is related to the feelings of joy and unconditional love the nuns described.

[tocqueville]

2. how do you activate the G-spot on a nun ?

gotta feeling this thread is going to slide off topic...

[beam me up scottie]

4. I'm not sure I want to know.

Oh, man, and they thought my Zombie Jesus picture was offensive...

[neoblues]

3. G-spot sounds about right...

Depending on how much a person, um, 'stimulates' their, uh, God-spot... they tend to develop fundie-personality characteristics (including hairy fingers (all the better to stimulate the God-spot) and blindness (inability to see reality)). So, researchers say there is no specific God-spot; still, it's plain that stimulation of various regions of the brain results in "altered states" (which, for some at least, resemble 'religious' experiences). Akin to saying that because some women don't seem able to locate the desired G-spot, there is nothing to the concept--or that there isn't such a thing. Just saying that none of these things are absolute and the same from person to person--and of course there is no common/universal 'structure' in the brain that allows for communication with God (and not least because many are completely comfortable with the most probable reality--that there is no "God" as has been described in Christianity/Islam/etc).

[omega minimo]

5. The "God spot" contains the human brain

:think:

[YankeyMCC]

6. So when will they come up with a drug

to activate all these regions together for the same affect? :)

[tocqueville]

7. Well I thought it was called mescaline or psylocybine... nt

[YankeyMCC]

8. Yeah but

the Phram companies are not making a profit from those. I think.

[TechBear_Seattle]

9. With the right combo of drugs and a great marketing campaign... n/t