Neurobiology of spirituality

[swilow]

I would say that neurobiology is definitely related to spirituality. I'd also say that you can affect spirituality by affecting neurobiology. But I would not say that spirituality must have a solely physical basis.

Neither. I would say that spirituality has a neuro-biological basis, and neurobiology has a spirutal basis. Theres no difference between either/or.

"A hand thought of as a hand may be beautiful....

found on a battlefield, obviously as a part, not beautiful"....Book of the Damned.

I dunno- I just moved past dualism ages ago because it denies everything. There is no difference between either/or.

Yin yan.

But for humans as physical creatures, to experience something requires a physical component; but physical also relates to things such as magnetism, gravity, light etc. The words physical and spiritual are interchangeable, more often then not- depnds what angle you look from.

Nothing about existence is REALLY known. Its all conjecture- but various probing by scientists and occultists over the years have pointed the way towards meaning- and, if something is real, its real at the time of its reality- ARGHHH

For example- one can summon a 'daemon' and have it "appear" as autonomous, but the truth as accepted by most practitioners is that daemons are aspects of oneself made seperate through various rituals. Nothing CAN exist outside the human mind- if it could or does, we cannot perceive it, so for all intents and purposes, it does not exist.

But- it also does exist if it can be theorised. And it doesn't, all at the same time- and at different times. Nothing is not no thing but a true element; its also the absence of anything.

And now I'm confused....

 

[swilow]

".

Nice, but you should give credit where credit is due....

 

[rpm]

You're assuming here that brain states cause consciousness. As was said before, maybe the brain is an interface between consciousness and the physical world. Who knows? Not us. Correlating brain states with modes of consciousness is not sufficient for causation.

Right. After I posted this I realised that cause was to strong a word. My bad. But all I was talking about the neural mechanisms in which consciounsess exists, which I think are getting to be well understood. I originaly said the physical mechanisms where understood: the nature of spiritual or conscious experience are definatly not.

I really don't think we are saying diffrent things, but I appologise if I'm making out like it's all worked out. I certainly don't think that it is.

 

[Max Power]

René Descartes referred to the pineal gland as the "seat of the soul".

 

[MyDoorsAreOpen]

^ The pineal gland is the third eye, the uppermost chakra. From its anatomy, biologists surmise it's probably a vestigial, very evolutionarily ancient light-sensing device. Even today, the optic nerve runs fibers to it, which regulate its output of melatonin in response to dark environments.

 

[RigaCrypto]

It's getting harder to argue that spirituality and drug use have no common ground, that's all I've got to say.

In my opinion, they have the same sort of connection as between immunity and antibiotics, in a world plagued by spiritual illness. The use of the very general word 'drugs' for them in the English language is spot on.

 

[Solipsis]

It should be noted neurotheology is really just not advanced enough to make very good claims at this point. Furthermore I think spirituality has something to do with a sort of cosmic field of energy that makes the brain like a sort of radiotransmitter for it but not the generator. The more regular brainfunction stops behaving orderly the more you can sense this non-locality, so there is a connection between psychedelics, spirituality and neurology but I think the reason some experiences are so intense is because of the energy that is flowing and not the neurological action per say. Probably its rather the absence of this action that makes you sensitive to it.

 

[Jabberwocky]

*bmuB enurP*