This is our favorite work of skepticism, offering
what amounts to Grand Unified Theory to explain all manner of
religious and paranormal belief systems.
Unlike other skeptics, who simply attack the beliefs
themselves, neuroscientist
Persinger cuts to the heart of the matter, showing
us how the brain, human evolution
and human psychology predispose us to believe in
the unbelievable.
Persinger argues that
the personal experience of contact with God, as reported by
converts of nearly all religions, can be explained as a disturbance
of the brain's temporal lobe.
This assertion is not merely speculative:
Temporal lobe seizures can be measured in the brains of both
schizophrenics and healthy meditators at the same time they
report godly encounters. God, Allah or some
"higher consciousness" spoke to them, they insist, even though
they can't recall exactly what was said. Such seizures can become
learned behavior, and simply "praying" to God may be enough to
bring them about.
Giving these subjective experiences their power is an innate
human characteristic: egocentricism. This is the tendency of
a person to see himself as the center of the universe -- as
the "chosen one" who God is likely to devote his attention to.
Truly mature people learn to leave egocentrism behind, but there
aren't many of them in human society. Most people are locked in
childishness, and gods provide a substitute for parents.
In the book,
we found no references to alien abduction claims and only
a few to near-death experiences, but it is easy to see how
they would fit into Persinger's theories. There is, in fact,
little in the paranormal domain
that Persinger's theories do not explain. Only
consciousness itself is still a mystery.
-- Glenn Campbell
By Micheal Persinger
