Selflessness has a neuropsychological basis

Interesting, if in a frustrating way.

All spiritual experiences are based in the brain. That statement is truer than ever before, according to a University of Missouri neuropsychologist. An MU study has data to support a neuropsychological model that proposes spiritual experiences associated with selflessness are related to decreased activity in the right parietal lobe of the brain.

This study, along with other recent neuroradiological studies of Buddhist meditators and Francescan nuns, suggests that all individuals, regardless of cultural background or religion, experience the same neuropsychological functions during spiritual experiences, such as transcendence. Transcendence, feelings of universal unity and decreased sense of self, is a core tenet of all major religions. Meditation and prayer are the primary vehicles by which such spiritual transcendence is achieved.

“The brain functions in a certain way during spiritual experiences,” said Brick Johnstone, professor of health psychology in the MU School of Health Professions. “We studied people with brain injury and found that people with injuries to the right parietal lobe of the brain reported higher levels of spiritual experiences, such as transcendence.”

This link is important, Johnstone said, because it means selflessness can be learned by decreasing activity in that part of the brain. He suggests this can be done through conscious effort, such as meditation or prayer. People with these selfless spiritual experiences also are more psychologically healthy, especially if they have positive beliefs that there is a God or higher power who loves them, Johnstone said.

“This research also addresses questions regarding the impact of neurologic versus cultural factors on spiritual experience,” Johnstone said. “The ability to connect with things beyond the self, such as transcendent experiences, seems to occur for people who minimize right parietal functioning. This can be attained through cultural practices, such as intense meditation or prayer or because of a brain injury that impairs the functioning of the right parietal lobe. Either way, our study suggests that ‘selflessness’ is a neuropsychological foundation of spiritual experiences.”

The frustrating thing about this, is reading through this crap about "spiritualism." Meditation is a cognitive process that has been shown to have positive effects. It's never that much, really, but it helps lower blood pressure and stress levels. Of course, this is all pretty tentative, since there's a crap ton of absolutely abysmal studies done. Meditation isn't going to solve major problems right now, and not much beyond calming you (unless it helps you concentrate on a problem you can take further action on later -- but so can thinking in general).

Prayer, is bunk. When they say prayer and meditation being used here, it basically seems that they're calling the same process by two different names. You're not invoking a deity that then gives you these experiences -- you have them because of the concentration used in prayer.

That remark about those believing a god loves them being healthier, that seems like an opinion put out. Really, wouldn't you be healthier if you had beliefs that people loved you, in general? The idea that belief god loves you trumping other very strong beliefs about love, seems very dubious. After all, you don't have to be religious to be psychologically healthy, or to not have positive beliefs about god's love to be unhealthy (such as depressed).

But the real core of this, is what makes calling this "spirituality" so stupid: everyone has these basic experiences. They have a neurological basis. So... what's the spirit part of the word for? What's "spirituality" even mean? It's a word completely empty of meaning, that anyone can morph into anything they feel. By it's roots, it should deal with supernatural phenomena, but many people use it for things completely separate from the supernatural.

If what are commonly called "spiritual" experiences are ultimately just normal experiences... what's the use of this word then? If selflessness and transcendence are a part of us all, the religious aspect of it is non-existent.

I've had several of these experiences, and they're fun to me. I distinctly remember when I was much younger (probably 7-9 years old), and while trying to fall asleep I was trying to imagine looking down upon the entire Milky Way galaxy. I changed this slightly to go as if there was a camera looking down on me while I was in my bed, and slowly lifting up off of the earth, through the solar system, and eventually escaping the Milky Way to a point where it could be seen entirely on its own. Really fun imagination exercises, and all throughout this, I do remember feeling an almost quiver in my body, and a sense of enormity at trying to imagine the scale of the entire galaxy. I also knew that I would fail at this, since it's just so large that you can't get there, even if you can imagine extremely huge scales that make you feel dwarfed (but don't worry -- the galaxy is still larger).

But, again, I don't call these spiritual experiences. They're fun imagination exercises that can give you some cool feelings. They can give you a sense of perspective. It's ultimately nothing more than trying to understand what you know, just on a huge scale.

Their ending is quite funny to me.

“Our research focused on the personal experience of spiritual transcendence and does not in any way minimize the importance of religion or personal beliefs, nor does it suggest that spiritual experience are related only to neuropsychological activity in the brain,” Johnstone said. “It is important to note that individuals experience their God or higher power in many different ways, but that all people from all religions and beliefs appear to experience these connections in a similar way.”

Translation: don't take offense! You're religious beliefs are important! You're all special, except that these are common to everyone!