Why God Won’t Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief

A influência da espiritualidade no cuidado do paciente

“…Durante a meditação e oração foi observado um aumento da área de atenção focada no córtex frontal, enquanto na área do córtex parietal teve sua atividade diminuída. 38 Newberg e dÁquili 39 Estudos também demonstram que, assim como a ativação de áreas corticais, a liberação de neurotransmissores como a dopamina, também está diretamente envolvida com os comportamentos religiosos, pois eles geram uma cascata nos sistemas pré-frontais, envolvidos com impulso, tomada de decisões e julgamento moral, cujo funcionamento é diretamente influenciado pela dopamina, atuando em regiões como a região negra e a região tegmental ventral, que são regiões do mesencéfalo. Desse modo, a religiosidade ativa os níveis de dopamina que agem gerando uma maior sensação de motivação, confirmando a contribuição da religiosidade e espiritualidade na saúde, uma vez que, apresenta uma influência regulatória sobre os sistemas endócrino, autonômico e hipotálamo.…”

Identity and the Brain: The Biological Basis of Our Self

“…Such rituals appear in many different social contexts such as community celebrations, athletic events, ceremonies such as graduations, and holidays on a national level. By having established rituals that help to create a sense of inclusivity among participants, humans engender a sense of exclusivity toward those who are not participants (Newberg, d'Aquili and Rause 2001). Incorporating these behaviors into a larger ideological context makes such rituals very powerful mechanisms for dealing with social exclusivity.…”

“…Further, there are states that might be associated with fundamentalism in which there is a high preponderance of exclusivity and minimal inclusivity. We have also previously argued that this continuum is related directly to the brain's functions and may be specifically associated with alterations in the parts of the brain that establish the distinction between self and other (Newberg, d'Aquili and Rause 2001). For example, the parietal lobe, in conjunction with several other parts of the brain, may be very relevant to this notion of exclusivity and inclusivity since diminished activity in this area appears to be associated with greater experiences of unity and inclusiveness (Newberg, Alavi and Baime 2001; Newberg, Pourdehnad and Alavi 2003).…”

Connection 100 – An Auto-ethnography of my (Mystical) Connection Experiences

“…Taken together, these early experiences completely transformed my view of self, the world, the universe, the nature of reality, and my place in it. I made an early decision to engage in scholarly exploration of these experiences, what some are now calling "emergent phenomenology," but what I have come to call Connection Experiences (CE) 3 because they represent, depending on one's theoretical and ontological predilections, connection to either deeper neurological states (Newberg et al 2001;Newberg and Waldman 2009;Persinger 1987Persinger , 2002Rizzolatti et al 2001) or to a wider (or deeper) realities of Consciousness (Dossey 2012), realities characterized by mystics variously as connection to an "incorruptible one" (Wisse 1990), an "ultimate reality (Happold 1963), a "love-fire" (Boehme 1912), an "inward light" (Kelly 1941), and by scholars and theologians as connection with vast and "ineffable realities (Stace 1960), a "numinous order" (Otto 1917), an "extended mind" (Jahn and Dunne 2009), a "real" real (Underhill 2002), a "supreme and ultimate reality" (Inge 2005, p. 8), and even a "vast intelligence," "marvellous order" (Einstein 1930) or "old one" (Martin and Ott 2013), as Einstein variously referred to the wider reality. This paper is the initial analysis and report of a scholarly exploration and analysis of these experiences that has spanned nearly two decades and has proceeded in four rough stages, the Flow Stage (approx.…”