Customer Reviews

Neuropsychological Bases of God Beliefs

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Michael A. Persinger's book deserves serious and dispassionate consideration - devoid of emotion and allegiance to preconceived notions. It may, in fact, be one of the most significant texts - albeit not 'recent' - that exposes the underpinnings of the ubiquitous compulsion to believe in god or supernatural 'influences'.

The evidence presented, for those who are objective, is also more than adequate to satisfy criteria of acceptability to support his underlying hypothesis: that god-belief as well as all supernaturalist-based experience arise in the brain's temporal lobes. Indeed, decades of experimentation, including earlier investigations by Wilder Penfield, reinforce Persinger's conclusions.

We cannot, on the basis of the cumulative experiments, rule out the strong possibility (I would even say probability) that the human brain is fundamentally defective, and may even be hard-wired to predispose uncritical humans toward religiosity and god belief. Also, it is important to note - Persinger's meticulously presented hypothesis and experimental support meets the requirements of the Ockham's Razor Principle: to wit, that theoretical existences are not to be increased without necessity. Hence, it is begging the question for critics to assert that 'not all religious experience can be explained by temporal lobe stimulation'.

The fact is, the ball is in *their* court to show why not, definitively, and that includes submitting a comprehensive hypothesis of their own to account for the spectrum of religious or 'supernatural' experiences. Persinger's results, by contrast, enable us to account for the diversity of religio-mystical experiences without having to postulate their (added)objective 'existence' to our physical cosmos. As Carl Sagan once said: "extraordinary claims demand extaordinary evidence", and the fact is a claim of genuine supernatural origin is more 'extraordinary' than Persinger's - that experiences arise from temporal lobe stimulations.

Persinger's text and his specific evidence also complements many recent advances in brain science and neurology, not to mention the rise of the 'strong AI' (for artificial intelligence) model to describe the brain. Indeed, Daniel Dennett in his own monograph ('Consciousness Explained') shows how a fully materialist model can explain all brain phenomena using a 'virtual machine' model.

The Persinger model and evidence also provides a complementarity with another useful concept - the 'meme' - rendered by Richard Dawkins. As Dawkins' has noted (see his book 'The Selfish Gene'), the meme is the cultural counterpart to the gene - and just as the gene transmits heredity, the meme transmits cultural baggage, and particularly beliefs. In this guise, the 'god-meme' appears, offering the advantage of comfort or at least certainty (in an uncertain world) to those who accept it with 'faith'. It is quite plausible, in this light - that there are chemical receptors in the temporal lobes for 'god-memes' or other memes of supernatural origin (i.e. for afterlives, or salvation).

Finally, Persinger's book presents a nice complement to my own recent book: 'The Atheist's Handbook To Modern Materialism' in which I note (p. 18):

"If the nearly universal need to believe in or worship a deity is grounded in brain architecture or operation then scientists and the general population must know about it. It's too important not to investigate scientifically, especially since the findings could be valuable in informing a more objective light on the issue. Such investigations could also shed light on why a minority group (Atheists) do not share this need to worship or adhere to god-concepts. Do they lack the requisite brain chemicals or wiring? Or, is there a brain self-stimulation dynamic present in believers' temporal lobes that is absent in the temporal lobes of unbelievers?"

At the very least, a positive finding - such as Persinger's excellent book affords, would release the millions of Atheists in the U.S. from being marginalized for not having a specific brain defect inducing them toward religiosity. For this, they ought to be extolled, rather than condemned. At the same time, the refutation of any absolute mode of origin for religious belief might cause believers to be more temperate about pushing their ideas on others. And perhaps, politicians would finally cease invoking an 'almighty' that resides only in their fervid brains.

Michael A. Persinger's book is a major milestone in ultimately attaining the aforementioned ends. And for that he deserves all kudos and commendations. I wholeheartedly recommend this text, and the price is more than worth the insight - for those who are tough enough mentally to accept it!

I bought this book because I saw a documentary with Persinger in it about the effect of magnetic fields on the temporal lobe.

Persinger had developed headgear he called the 'God Helmet' or 'Transcranial Magnetic Stimulator' that produced weak magnetic fields. In his experiments 80% of those who wore the helmet reported extrasensory experiences. Persinger also developed a Tectonic Strain Theory about seismic faults causing intense electromagnetic fields and the effect on the brains of humans living in the vicinity.

I believed (wrongly) this book would be about these subjects. Unfortunately they don't even rate a mention.

The emphasis in this book is far more on the 'psychological' than on the the 'neurological'.

Although Persinger does mention electrical activity in the temporal lobe (including epilepsy) as a cause of "God Experiences" his covereage of the subject is really woefully inadequate--he barely touches it. Eve LaPlante's book 'Seized' covers this far better.

The reviews on this page that emphasise temporal lobe seizures as the basis of this book are very misleading and do not reflect the content of the book accurately. Repeat: There is no indepth treatment of the effect of electrical activity on the temporal lobe.

This book is more about his theories of 'God Experiences' and 'God Concepts' being the delusions of people with mental problems or a lack of intelligence and are actually demeaning and insulting.

Although, I agree with him God beliefs can be extremely destructive in people's lives and there is merit in some of his theories and explanations, his obviously huge antagonism towards God beliefs and experiences wholesale (despite claiming otherwise) makes his explanations biased, unbalanced and emotive.

As someone who is not religious but has had an NDE (near death experience) which I am interested in pursuing a scientific explanation for this book was of little value to me unless I accept the basis of my experience is that I am a dangerous loon.

If he writes another book that focusses on his electro-magnetic theories and experiments, I might still be interested in reading it, but after this book, with reservations.

This is a solid, well-supported work by the scientist who did much of the supporting research himself. For the atheist, agnostic, or skeptic, it provides a thorough, rational explanation for universal religious experiences, which transcends denominations and applies to all faiths.

For the theist, it challenges their faith by suggesting a biological/psychological explanation of religious experiences. Regardless of how subjectively real and compelling these experiences may seem, they can easily be reproduced by electrically stimulating a specific part of the brain, causing the exact same symptoms. I challenge any religious person who is confident in their faith to read this book with an open mind.

Even though this book has been out for a while it's topic is especially contriversial even now...and has spawned many alternative views based on Persinger's experiments. I'd especially like to suggest another Amazon favorite: The 'God' Part of the Brain by Matthew Alper

Dr. Persinger's objective analysis of why religion and "higher power" expereinces are so common in human beings, is a refreshing alternative to the irrational, often single minded view offered by those who would anoint themselves as religious leaders. When taken in the proper context, this book could possibly lead to a revolution, marking our final acceptance that the blind belief in faith and experience is what holds the human race back form its true potential. Once we realize the simple truth that experiences are not mystical but are physiological, then the world will move from the dark ages into a new period of enlightenment. I highly recommend this book to anyone searching for answers to the human question of "why we are here."

I completely enjoyed Dr. Persinger's work and found it both illuminating and profound! I applaud his bravery in telling the truth about the "God Experience." And exposing delusional notions about ecstatic religious experiences. I look forward to his continued research in this area of neural science.

This brilliant book (sadly badly edited) covers the real reasons behind delusions (Joan of Arc, miracles, road to damascus conversions etc.). It all comes down to temporal lobe seizures. The neurological facts are well outlined and it makes for an excellent read.

It is sad that a popular book on this subject has not been produced - by rights it ought to be a world block buster!

Persinger gets one extra star for having an interesting research topic. However, as it is listed below, the book is badly edited. Furthermore, if you take a close look at the research behind it, you will find the logic is faulty.

Persinger's basic claim is that all religious experience is, is microseizures in the temporal lobe. He bases this on some interesting findings in temporal lobe epileptics, some of whom develop a syndrome, which sometimes includes enhanced religiosity.

Now I have a familiarity with that research, but you don't need to have that to see why Persinger's claim isn't supported. Suppose you can demonstrate that the epileptic's religious experiences are induced by seizures and even trace very specifically how it happens. Suppose we knew with certainty that even in normal people, if we stimulate the right areas of brain tissue, it will produce some sort of religious experience.

Does it follow from that finding, the conclusion that ALL religious experience MUST be based on siezure-like brain activity? Not really. We could talk about causation at multiple levels, or alternative causes of the same thing. Psychology is fond of talking about proxal and distal stimuli... among other things. Also, Persinger's metaphysics are bad. Probably no worse than anyone else's, which is to say, bad. There's no reason to find a materialist neuroscience account more compelling than, say, an immaterialist account. OK, enough ranting.

Before you give me an un-useful rating, do you really think anyone should pay sixty bucks for a book written by a half-baked scientist (this work hasn't exactly got him a position at Harvard, contrary to those who think it's groundbreaking). If you really must, take it out of the library and examine the evidence for yourself. But read critically. IT's a magnificent sounding argument if you don't think about it, and accept a lot of anecdotal evidence (he wants to claim he can talk about what caused the experiences of historical figures, even though he has only historical anecdote to rely upon, which is not scientific).

Let me be perfectly honest, I was very interested in Perslinger's studies regarding the TMS (or God Helment) but he high cost of this book seemed rather excessive. I'm not sure of the authors intentions to keep people from reading it, or that he believes that he can make a killing off of it. Perhaps it is a college textbook which usually forces his students to pay enormous prices for his work. What I did find was another book SACRED OR NEURAL? THE POTENTIAL OF NEURO SCEINCE TO EXPLAIN RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCES, by Anne L. C. Runehov which is just as expensive, but basically rips on Perslinger, challenging his conclusions and using scientific method. Her intent was to "examine lack of scientific validity" of his claims. She pinpoints the good doctors motives which became clear. "Persinger's implicit aim for his studies or religious experience is to be able to show that they are illusory and that there is no God or Ultimate Reality. It is his view that all religious belief should be abandoned." This seems to be a book where the tail wags the dog. Like many atheist, he sees the world only through his own perspective and everything must conform to that perspective. She goes on and on criticizing his experiments as faulty and why they are so. Since most people are looking for a book that will do the same, justify their own perceptions, you might want to decide which side of the fence you are on before you decide whose book you should buy. You can get a sampling of her book on google-books. For example, many athiest try to dismiss religious experiments as epilectic seizures. Runehov points out other studies that show that only 6 - 7 % of seizures are associated with religious experiences. Some scholars suggest that the Apostle Paul must have also had epilepsy. Why is it, that every seizure doesn't produce a vision if it happens in the same part of the brain? Did any of Perslinger's 50 experiment participants have a vision or see God, or did they just have more sense of peace and tranquility which they associated as a religious experience. The more I contemplated the weakness of Perslinger's arguments, the more one sees the absurdity of them. To suggest that we get rid of God because religion has caused so many crimes, wars and problems, in the world is absurd. Are ALL crimes and wars caused by religionist? The majority are caused by governments. Shall we also get rid of all governments? The reality is that crimes and war were almost always caused by men who misused their power for personal or political gain, including manipulating people from a 'religious' or 'patriotic' motivation. Are we to look at the majority of spiritual masters and brand them as psychotics with abnormal brain functions? What war did Buddha, Jesus, Ghandi, Lao Tsu, ever start? The religious experience let them to a much higher consciuosness that was ALWAYS accompanied by a greater and increased compassion for their fellow man. Is he really suggesting the world would be better off without these people? Have we ever had an athiest commit a crime? or fight in a war? What part of the brain do their thoughts happen in? Shall we get rid of them too just because we have figured out what part of the brain they were using? Dr. Perslinger, what were you thinking and what part of your brain were YOU using?

Having considerable knowledge of the Science-Spirituality interface (I have presented lectures on this and excited numerous interested organisations with my own book which presents my identification of the physical correlate of the Divine Light (Godhead) with the brainwaves from the brainstem Reticular Activating System, I bought Persinger's book having come across his work on EM field inductions of strange experiences sometimes resembling spiritual experiences, as part of the research on my new book on these matters.
I was appalled by just how crude, ignorant and simplistic Persinger's presentation is. He has the most simplistic understanding of spirituality, presenting all spiritual traditions as being like the most literalist, exoteric forms of Christianity and Islam. Only in regard to these organised religions based on blind faith do his simplistic arguments hold water. His blind faith in materialism, positivism, behaviourism etc. is all too evident. He even thinks that conversions to Christianity etc. is but the same as the conditioned learning of a pigeon which makes associations between certain stimuli and food rewards!!! Very little actual information is given about his own Electro-Magnetic induction work rather than gross, simplistic generalizations about a so-called God experience which is simply reduced to Temporal Lobe disturbances! He has no conception of the Transcendental, continually referring to Space-Time etc. He dismisses the "nonphysical" as simply nonexistent with no hint of any metaphysical considerations of ontology and epistemology. He makes no distinction between theism and non-theism, exotericism and esotericism etc. In his simplistic mocking of scientists who are also religious believers which he links to context-related behaviour (or personae), he seems completely ignorant of the Nature surveys of US scientists showing that the majority remained religious believers throughout the 20th Century - Persinger thus presents the majority of US scientists as naive idiots with his caricatures of the religious believer scientist. One suspects, given his repeated left-wing sentiments, a strong Marxian leaning; i.e. a belief in this modern substitute religion based on the same Judaeo-Christian superstitions he rubbishes.
I could go on but it is not worth wasting one's energy. This is the antithesis of religious literalism, a rather fundamentalist behaviourist, positivist gospel preaching to the converted whose minds have been indoctrinated into the tunnel vision of scientism.
Sutapas Bhattacharya