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I thought it just stimulated "spiritual feelings" to significant levels, not actually "change" people's beliefs.
I suppose such stimulated feelings could "impact" a person's beliefs though.
I'll try to read up on it from the primary source and get back to you.
[Edit - could not find much in terms of the primary source. But background info, the apparatus was developed by Stanley Koren and Michael Persinger (RIP 2018), the helmet is less powerful than a fridge magnet and their "studies"(?) have been criticized for not having enough control and have contradicted by many studies and only collaborated by a few. For example, the report that the God-helmet has elicited spiritual, religious and paranormal experiences in the laboratory has been replicated by double-blind placebos and mere sensory depravation. Furthermore, according to scientists, the magnetic signals aren't strong enough to penetrate the cranium, so in the "God-helmet" website it says that the helmet merely "dampens an unknown binding [veiling] factor" to psychic perception. Yet Psychology has already shown that people are highly suggestible and manipulatable.]
Is this the Stanley Coren who wrote The Intelligence of Dogs, How Dogs think (which I am Re reading now) and Why We Love the Dogs We do. How Dogs Think is an excellent read for anyone who does not think that dogs process information and make intelligent decisions upon that information. He is a psychologist in Vancouver.
Is this the Stanley Coren who wrote The Intelligence of Dogs, How Dogs think (which I am Re reading now) and Why We Love the Dogs We do. How Dogs Think is an excellent read for anyone who does not think that dogs process information and make intelligent decisions upon that information. He is a psychologist in Vancouver.
I've already heard from animal research psychologists on TV science shows that dogs can seem to perform a sort of "calculus" in their (subconscious) heads when they play catch at the beach... but I think Stanley Coren might not be Stanley Koren.
Childhood indoctrination into fundamentalist Christianity can do lifelong damage. Would the damage actually be visible on a brain scan? I don’t know...
I read about a scientist recently who created some kind of helmet, that when worn, it can impact or change a persons religious beliefs, It had something to do with stimulating the part of the brain where spirituality/religious beliefs originate. it was very interesting, I forget the name for this helmet, I think they called it the 'God helmet', but I could be wrong. anyone else heard about this?
It does not state that all fundamentalists are brain damaged or compromised, however, it did find that "religious fundamentalism is partly the result of a functional impairment in the prefrontal cortex".
One cannot presume that all fundamentalism is because of prefrontal cortex impairment, however, it certainly explains some of it. Many in the study control group still identified as Christian, but the fundamentalist were the more brain damaged ones.
It would be interesting to see if a similar result would occur with Muslims, Jews, Hindus and other religions before drawing a final conclusion.
From the article:
"These findings are important because they suggest that impaired functioning in the prefrontal cortex—whether from brain trauma, a psychological disorder, a drug or alcohol addiction, or simply a particular genetic profile—can make an individual susceptible to religious fundamentalism. And perhaps in other cases, extreme religious indoctrination harms the development or proper functioning of the prefrontal regions in a way that hinders cognitive flexibility and openness."
They also throw in the caveat, that it only explains about 20% of why people become fundamentalists.
"The authors emphasize that cognitive flexibility and openness aren’t the only things that make brains vulnerable to religious fundamentalism. In fact, their analyses showed that these factors only accounted for a fifth of the variation in fundamentalism scores. Uncovering those additional causes, which could be anything from genetic predispositions to social influences, is a future research project that the researchers believe will occupy investigators for many decades to come, given how complex and widespread religious fundamentalism is and will likely continue to be for some time."
One wonders if these Vietnam vets who were compromised also suffered from PTSD, and if that had any affect on their fervency of belief? It seems the study is silent on that.
Reminds me of the study that marijuana causes brain damage and later, it was found that it was a manipulated study...
Childhood indoctrination into fundamentalist Christianity can do lifelong damage. Would the damage actually be visible on a brain scan? I don’t know...
interesting.
childhood indoctrination into militant atheism can go life long damage. would that damage actually be visible in a brain scan?
or, is fundy theism and millimental atheism a genetic personality disorder passed down? Could we see that in brain scans?
Not surprisingly, someone comes along and deflects. It's in their DNA.
there are study'e that show its possible that a traumatic event effects the proteins in you and then, that concentration gradient, is passed on to the next generation.
Its not an all or nothing proposition either. Its that it can happen, not that it has to happen. Common sense says its valid.
Some of the Brain Damaged clients we have can only relate to very concrete and absolute terms. Kind of like the Autistic character in Rain Man. If someone can only understand a very basic, concrete belief, the fundamentalism, with it's lack of abstract thought and higher thinking will be easier for that person to assimilate as they do not have to think much about it.
And we all know that Fundamentalism discourages free thinking and abstract thought.
Of course, this is NOT an across the board hypothesis, but could be shown in a case by case basis.
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