INACS NeuroNews – March 2010
NeuroNews Consciousness Connections Meeting Tuesday, March 9, 2010 6:30p Social, 7:00-9:00p Program Austin Center for Spiritual Living 4804 Grover Note – New Location Visitors are welcome, the meeting is free. Book donations are welcome. Documentary and Panel Discussion “God on the Brain” From BBC Horizon (2003) Rudi Affolter and Gwen Tighe have both experienced strong religious visions. He is an atheist; she a Christian. He thought he had died; she thought she had given birth to Jesus. Both have temporal lobe epilepsy. Like other forms of epilepsy, the condition causes fitting but it is also associated with religious hallucinations. Research into why people like Rudi and Gwen saw what they did has opened up a whole field of brain science: neurotheology. The connection between the temporal lobes of the brain and religious feeling has led one Canadian scientist to try stimulating them. 80% of Dr Michael Persinger’s experimental subjects report that an artificial magnetic field focused on those brain areas gives them a feeling of ‘not being alone’. Some of them describe it as a religious sensation. “…a high probability [Ellen White] had temporal lobe epilepsy” says Prof Gregory Holmes,
