The God helmet

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

Found this mentioned in that same book by Michio Kaku (Physics of the Impossible) that I talked about recently. Some Dr Michael Persinger found that there's a neural center in the right half of the brain which, when stimulated with electromagnetic waves, causes the subject to feel an alien presence.

"Persinger reports that at least 80 percent of his participants (working with the Koren Helmet) experience a presence beside them in the room, which ranges from a simple 'sensed presence' to 'God'."

Wikipedia - God Helmet

Here's the relevant excerpt from a documentary which deals with this discovery:

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Dr Persinger went on as far as to create the so-called "God helmet", a device which, when put on the subject's head, could stimulate said neural center and cause the subject to hallucinate, and feel that someone else was in the room with them. The scientist interprets this as some kind of "division" (or breaking of the symmetry) between the two halves of the brain, a disruption of the links between them and thus, each half starts to perceive the other as an "alien" entity. Ghost, poltergeist, angels, even God. Depending on the cultural background of the particular individual who's being examined.

Now, imagine that this is what happens to an individual in deep Antiquity. What if a select apprentice gifted with particular talent is trained in a Buddhist monastery by some yogi who have learned how to unlock this neural center through physical and mental exercises, then goes back to his country and starts preaching their wisdom and spreading a very topical (for the time) and socially relevant (for his society) message among his people, while using such yogi tricks on people? Would he possibly be perceived as an "enlightened" one, a Messiah, a person possessing divine powers and thus having the authority to speak on behalf of a divine boss? And how would that reflect on said society, and on the chances of establishing a new faith, with its institutions, adherents and all in all, of changing the course of history?

You know what? Fuck that. Let's strike off that part about the Messiah. You guys are right. I should've never had the audacity to even consider implying such a theory is right. You know what? It isn't. Let's say a guy went somewhere, met some people, they taught him some tricks, then he used them on the populace. Let's say his name was... well, let's say it was Muad-dib. OK?

Just curious: Does this hypothesis about the possible inception of religious systems sound too far-fetched, too Dan Brownish to you? Back to you, folks.

Comments

[luzribeiro.livejournal.com]

You are talking about the Lost Years of Jesus, right?

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

Yes, but only partially. I'd like to look a bit beyond that hypothesis.

[luzribeiro.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of this.

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What do they use, some hallucinogenic chemicals?

[3fgburner.livejournal.com]

Something struck me, the first time I heard about this: The ratio of those who do : do not show a reaction to this stimulus, is approximately the same as the ratio of theists : atheists in the US.

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

Could it be a genetic thing? Some scientists claim to have found the "conservative gene" and "liberal gene (http://www.metro.us/boston/national/article/676290--conservative-scientists-liberal-gene-discovered)" (I doubt it, but it does sound fascinating), so why not an inherent genetic proneness (or lack thereof) for supernational experiences/sensations?

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

First, you have to convince me that any of Jesus's message that is congruent with Buddhism or Hinduism and not equally congruent with 1st century Judaism.

Good luck with that.

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

I'd leave that to our resident theologians, thanks. I'd like to stick to the arbitrary hypothetical part. ;)

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

Why would that be a requirement? Why would there necessarily be a message that's specifically congruent with those and not Judaism?

[raichu100.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I wonder, evolutionarily speaking, what the purpose of this neural center could be?

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

Dunnow. The above mentioned self-healing placebo effect, mayhaps? (Just a shot in the dark).

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

I think it's not so much "There is a neural center that exists to give people the feeling of a presence" but more that "There is a neural center that exists to sync up the two halves of the brain and when you send electromagnetic waves through it, it doesn't sync correctly".

That's my hypothesis.

[dierdrae.livejournal.com]

Some things don't necessarily have an evolutionary 'purpose,' but could be simple mutations which never negatively affected survival and thus stuck around. Or, they could also be 'byproducts' of other, necessary functions.

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

Electromagnetic waves into their head? So certain ares are being stimulated similar to taking hallucinogenics?

This sounds like an addiction-less method of dropping acid.

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure acid is addictive actually, but w/e.

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

One issue I have with this is people always claim it as evidence against god. But I don't see it as evidence against god anymore than photographs are evidence against real people.

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

Actually in the study itself, why aren't people claiming that its proof that awareness of other humans is just a figment of our imagination?

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

That's why I dare not go as far as to claim it's evidence for anything, much less for the lack of something.

We know...

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

... that the material Creator of the flat and immobile Earth exists, so it is silly to try to prove that it does not.

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

Wasn't there some research, that was very similar to this, that was the basis of that one scene in Altered States?

Have you noticed...

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

One of the things that I noticed early in life is that if I stare out of a bus window at someone, they turn to look right at me. Sometimes I get a sense that there is something in a particular direction and when I turn to look, there is someone staring at me from that direction. This "God spot" part of the brain may serve the purpose of detecting an approaching predator.

Re: Have you noticed...

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

Or it could serve to disorient people in the most crucial moment so that predators could eat them more easily. ;)

[prog-expat.livejournal.com]

Sounds a lot like how stimulation of the temporoparietal junction produces visions of shadow people (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_people).

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

Thanks, might have to read/watch some more on this.

[mintogrubb.livejournal.com]

Ok, I left Christianity for a bit and delved into ley lines, kundalini, and what you may call 'the paranormal'.

I have come across this, and it does explain - or at least , offer an explanation into a possible cause of haunted houses and the like.

Maybe there are some places on Earth that have what they call ' geomagnetic anomalies'. Well ok, such places do exist, where faultlines in the rocks and stuff like unusual mineral deposits will set up the same sort of conditions in some people as the God Helmet does.

And where people beieve in Ghosts, that's what they see,and where people believe more in angels and in God, this is what comes through when their receptors get stimulated.

But, I don't think that Jesus was into reincarnation, He never talked like Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, or an Ascended Master, and this is why I went back into the Christian faith after a while.