Why God Won't Go Away (eBook)

M.D. Andrew Newberg, Eugene G. D'Aquili (Autoren)

eBook Download: EPUB

2008 | 1. Auflage
240 Seiten
Random House Publishing Group (Verlag)
978-0-307-49315-6 (ISBN)

Infos

Why have we humans always longed to connect with something larger than ourselves? Why does consciousness inevitably involve us in a spiritual quest? Why, in short, won't God go away? Theologians, philosophers, and psychologists have debated this question through the ages, arriving at a range of contradictory and ultimately unprovable answers. But in this brilliant, groundbreaking new book, researchers Andrew Newberg and Eugene d'Aquili offer an explanation that is at once profoundly simple and scientifically precise: the religious impulse is rooted in the biology of the brain.

Newberg and d'Aquili base this revolutionary conclusion on a long-term investigation of brain function and behavior as well as studies they conducted using high-tech imaging techniques to examine the brains of meditating Buddhists and Franciscan nuns at prayer. What they discovered was that intensely focused spiritual contemplation triggers an alteration in the activity of the brain that leads us to perceive transcendent religious experiences as solid and tangibly real. In other words, the sensation that Buddhists call 'oneness with the universe' and the Franciscans attribute to the palpable presence of God is not a delusion or a manifestation of wishful thinking but rather a chain of neurological events that can be objectively observed, recorded, and actually photographed.

The inescapable conclusion is that God is hard-wired into the human brain.

In Why God Won't Go Away, Newberg and d'Aquili document their pioneering explorations in the field of neurotheology, an emerging discipline dedicated to understanding the complex relationship between spirituality and the brain. Along the way, they delve into such essential questions as whether humans are biologically compelled to make myths, what is the evolutionary connection between religious ecstasy and sexual orgasm, what do Near Death Experiences reveal about the nature of spiritual phenomena, and how does ritual create its own neurological environment. As their journey unfolds, Newberg and d'Aquili realize that a single, overarching question lies at the heart of their pursuit: Is religion merely a product of biology or has the human brain been mysteriously endowed with the unique capacity to reach and know God?

Blending cutting-edge science with illuminating insights into the nature of consciousness and spirituality, Why God Won't Go Away bridges faith and reason, mysticism and empirical data. The neurological basis of how the brain identifies the 'real' is nothing short of miraculous. This fascinating, eye-opening book dares to explore both the miracle and the biology of our enduring relationship with God.

From the Hardcover edition.

Textauszug

In a small, dark room at the lab of a large university hospital, a young man named Robert lights candles and a stick of jasmine incense, he then settles to the floor and folds his legs easily into the lotus position. A devout Buddhist and accomplished practitioner of Tibetan meditation, Robert is about to begin another meditative voyage inward. As always, his goal is to quiet the constant chatter of the conscious mind and lose himself in the deeper, simpler reality within. It's a journey he's made a thousand times before, but this time, as he drifts off into that inner spiritual reality--as the material world around him recedes like a fading dream--he remains tethered to the physical here and now by a length of common cotton twine. One end of that twine lies in a loose coil at Robert's side. The other end runs beneath a closed laboratory door and into an adjoining room, where I sit, beside my friend and longtime research partner Dr. Eugene d'Aquili, with the twine wrapped around my finger. Gene and I are waiting for Robert to tug on the twine, which will be our signal that his meditative state is approaching its transcendent peak. It is this peak moment of spiritual intensity that interests us.1 For years, Gene and I have been studying the relationship between religious experience and brain function, and we hope that by monitoring Robert's brain activity at the most intense and mystical moments of his meditation, we might shed some light on the mysterious connection between human consciousness and the persistent and peculiarly human longing to connect with something larger than ourselves. In earlier conversations, Robert has struggled to describe for us how he feels as his meditation progresses toward this spiritual peak. First, he says, his conscious mind quiets, allowing a deeper, simpler part of himself to emerge. Robert believes that this inner self is the truest part of who he is, the part that never changes. For Robert, this inner self is not a metaphor or an attitude, it is literal, constant, and real. It is what remains when worries, fears, desires, and all other preoccupations of the conscious mind are stripped away. He considers this inner self the very essence of his being. If pressed, he might even call it his soul.2 Whatever Robert calls this deeper consciousness, he claims that when it emerges during those moments of meditation when he is most completely absorbed in looking inward, he suddenly understands that his inner self is not an isolated entity, but that he is inextricably connected to all of creation. Yet when he tries to put this intensely personal insight into words, he finds himself falling back on familiar clichs that have been employed for centuries to express the elusive nature of spiritual experience. 'There's a sense of timelessness and infinity,' he might say. 'It feels like I am part of everyone and everything in existence.'3 To the traditional scientific mind, of course, these terms are useless. Science concerns itself with that which can be weighed, counted, calculated, and measured--anything that can't be verified by objective observation simply can't be called scientific. Although individual scientists might be personally intrigued by Robert's experience, as professionals they'd likely dismiss his comments as too personal and speculative to signify anything concrete in the physical world.4 Years of research, however, have led Gene and me to believe that experiences like Robert's are real, and can be measured and verified by solid science.5 That's exactly why I'm huddling, beside Gene, in this cramped examination room, holding kite string between my fingers: I'm waiting for Robert's moment of...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 10.12.2008
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften
• Themenwelt: Technik
• ISBN-10: 0-307-49315-6 / 0307493156
• ISBN-13: 978-0-307-49315-6 / 9780307493156