Mystisten kokemusten neuraaliset korrelaatit

[Kalastaja]

John Horganin artikkeli Discover -lehdestä:

The God Experiments
Five researchers take science where it's never gone before.

Esittelee viisi teoriaa siitä missä ja miten mystiset kokemukset ja jumaluus syntyvät aivoissa. Persingeriä vähän, Strassmania aika paljon.

http://discover.com/issues/dec-06/featu ... periments/


Extreme States
Out-of-body experiences? Near-death experiences? Researchers are beginning to understand how they occur and how they may alter the brain

Samasta lehdestä Steven Kotlerin artikkeli kehostapoistumiskokemuksista (OBE) ja rajakokemuksista (kuolemanrajakokemuksista, NDE). Mukana vähän yleistä juttua mystisistä kokemuksista.

http://discover.com/issues/jul-05/featu ... me-states/


John Horganin blogi on ihan kiinnostavaa luettavaa paramman puutteessa. Marraskuun lopun ja joulukuun alun posteissa lukee uskonnosta ja mystisistä kokemuksista.

http://discovermagazine.typepad.com/hor ... index.html


Ei kannata tietenkään unohtaa Charlien Persinger ketjua:
viewtopic.php?t=651

Eikä missään nimessä John Hopkinsissa tehtyä psilosybiini kokeita:
viewtopic.php?t=417


Muutamia tieteellisiä julkaisuja aiheesta:

Linking Out-of-Body Experience and Self Processing to Mental Own-Body Imagery at the Temporoparietal Junction
Blanke et al.
The Journal of Neuroscience, January 19, 2005, 25(3):550-557


The spatial unity of self and body is challenged by various philosophical considerations and several phenomena, perhaps most notoriously the "out-of-body experience" (OBE) during which one's visual perspective and one's self are experienced to have departed from their habitual position within one's body. Although researchers started examining isolated aspects of the self, the neurocognitive processes of OBEs have not been investigated experimentally to further our understanding of the self. With the use of evoked potential mapping, we show the selective activation of the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) at 330-400 ms after stimulus onset when healthy volunteers imagined themselves in the position and visual perspective that generally are reported by people experiencing spontaneous OBEs. Interference with the TPJ by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) at this time impaired mental transformation of one's own body in healthy volunteers relative to TMS over a control site. No such TMS effect was observed for imagined spatial transformations of external objects, suggesting the selective implication of the TPJ in mental imagery of one's own body. Finally, in an epileptic patient with OBEs originating from the TPJ, we show partial activation of the seizure focus during mental transformations of her body and visual perspective mimicking her OBE perceptions. These results suggest that the TPJ is a crucial structure for the conscious experience of the normal self, mediating spatial unity of self and body, and also suggest that impaired processing at the TPJ may lead to pathological selves such as OBEs.

http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/full/25/3/550


Out-of-body experience and autoscopy of neurological origin
Blanke et al.
Brain, Vol. 127, No. 2, 243-258, 2004


During an out-of-body experience (OBE), the experient seems to be awake and to see his body and the world from a location outside the physical body. A closely related experience is autoscopy (AS), which is characterized by the experience of seeing one’s body in extrapersonal space. Yet, despite great public interest and many case studies, systematic neurological studies of OBE and AS are extremely rare and, to date, no testable neuroscientific theory exists. The present study describes phenomenological, neuropsychological and neuroimaging correlates of OBE and AS in six neurological patients. We provide neurological evidence that both experiences share important central mechanisms. We show that OBE and AS are frequently associated with pathological sensations of position, movement and perceived completeness of one’s own body. These include vestibular sensations (such as floating, flying, elevation and rotation), visual body-part illusions (such as the illusory shortening, transformation or movement of an extremity) and the experience of seeing one’s body only partially during an OBE or AS. We also find that the patient’s body position prior to the experience influences OBE and AS. Finally, in five patients, brain damage or brain dysfunction is localized to the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ). These results suggest that the complex experiences of OBE and AS represent paroxysmal disorders of body perception and cognition (or body schema). The processes of body perception and cognition, and the unconscious creation of central representation(s) of one’s own body based on proprioceptive, tactile, visual and vestibular information—as well as their integration with sensory information of extrapersonal space—is a prerequisite for rapid and effective action with our surroundings. Based on our findings, we speculate that ambiguous input from these different sensory systems is an important mechanism of OBE and AS, and thus the intriguing experience of seeing one’s body in a position that does not coincide with its felt position. We suggest that OBE and AS are related to a failure to integrate proprioceptive, tactile and visual information with respect to one’s own body (disintegration in personal space) and by a vestibular dysfunction leading to an additional disintegration between personal (vestibular) space and extrapersonal (visual) space. We argue that both disintegrations (personal; personal–extrapersonal) are necessary for the occurrence of OBE and AS, and that they are due to a paroxysmal cerebral dysfunction of the TPJ in a state of partially and briefly impaired consciousness.

http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/con ... f59e9f5af1


Neural correlates of a mystical experience in Carmelite nuns
Beauregard & Paquette
Neuroscience Letters vol. 405, Issue 3 , 25 September 2006, Pages 186-190


The main goal of this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study was to identify the neural correlates of a mystical experience. The brain activity of Carmelite nuns was measured while they were subjectively in a state of union with God. This state was associated with significant loci of activation in the right medial orbitofrontal cortex, right middle temporal cortex, right inferior and superior parietal lobules, right caudate, left medial prefrontal cortex, left anterior cingulate cortex, left inferior parietal lobule, left insula, left caudate, and left brainstem. Other loci of activation were seen in the extra-striate visual cortex. These results suggest that mystical experiences are mediated by several brain regions and systems.

ScienceDirect


Cerebral blood flow during meditative prayer: preliminary findings and methodological issues.
Newberg et al.
Perceptual and Motor Skills. 2003 Oct;97(2):625-30.


Meditative practices typically require several coordinated cognitive activities. This study measured changes in cerebral blood flow during "verbal" based meditation by Franciscan nuns involving the internal repetition of a particular phrase. These results are compared with those we previously described in eight Buddhist meditators who use a type of "visualization" technique. Three experienced practitioners of verbal meditation were injected via i.v. at rest with 260 MBq of Tc-99m HMPAO and scanned 30 min. later on a triple head SPECT camera for 45 min. Following the baseline scan, subjects meditated for approximately 40 min. at which time they were injected with 925 MBq of HMPAO while they continued to meditate for 10 min. more (total of 50 min. of meditation). The injection during meditation was designed not to disturb practice. Subjects were scanned 20 min. later for 30 min. Counts were obtained for regions of interest for major brain structures and normalized to whole-brain blood flow. Compared to baseline, mean verbal meditation scans showed increased blood flow in the prefrontal cortex (7.1%), inferior parietal lobes (6.8%), and inferior frontal lobes (9.0%). There was a strong inverse correlation between the blood flow, change in the prefrontal cortex and in the ipsilateral superior parietal lobe (p<.01). This study on a limited number of subjects demonstrated the feasibility of studying different types of meditation with neuroimaging techniques, suggested that several coordinated cognitive processes occur during meditation, and also raised important methodological issues.

PubMed

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Lisään loppuun vielä lainauksen Huston Smithiltä. (Smith kommentoi Griffithsin ynnä muiden psilosybiinitutkimusta) :

"Mystical experience seems to be as old as humankind, forming the core of many if not all of the great religious traditions. Some ancient cultures, such as classical Greece, and some contemporary small-scale cultures, have made use of psychoactive plants and chemicals to occasion such experiences. But this is the first scientific demonstration in 40 years, and the most rigorous ever, that profound mystical states can be produced safely in the laboratory. The potential is great."

"In the end, it’s altered traits, not altered states, that matter. ‘By their fruits shall ye know them.’ It’s good to learn that volunteers having even this limited experience had lasting benefits. But human history suggests that without a social vessel to hold the wine of revelation, it tends to dribble away. In most cases, even the most extraordinary experiences provide lasting benefits to those who undergo them and people around them only if they become the basis of ongoing work. That’s the next research question, it seems to me: What conditions of community and practice best help people to hold on to what comes to them in those moments of revelation, converting it into abiding light in their own lives?"

[Kalastaja]

Luin jokin aika sitten John Horganin vuonna 2003 julkaistun kirjan Rational Mysticism. Horganin esitys rakentuu haastatteluihin mystisten kokemusten tutkijoista, niin neurologiselta kuin filosofiseltakin kantilta. Joka kappaleessa haastatellaan jotakuta ja pohdiskellaan muiden ideoita.

Haastateltuina mm. Huston Smith, Terence McKenna, Persinger, Newberg ja Ken Wilbert. Horganin oma(t) mystinen kokemus tulee 80-luvulta kun hän nautti BZ:tähieman isomman annoksen. Aika paljon juttua on siis psykedeeleistä, vaikka monet haastateltavat pitävätkin niitä vaarallisina ja epäaitoina mystisten kokemusten herättäjinä. Viimeinen kappale kertoo Horganin ayahuascakokemuksesta pienen ryhmän kanssa.

Nopeaa ja helppoa luettavaa, vaikka aihe on hitusen haastava.


Rational Mysticism amazonissa

[Kalastaja]

The Serotonin System and Spiritual Experiences
Borg J, Andrée B, Soderstrom H, Farde L.
Am J Psychiatry. 2004 Sep;161(9):1720-1; author reply 1721.

OBJECTIVE: The serotonin system has long been of interest in biological models of human personality. The purpose of this positron emission tomography (PET) study was to search for relationships between serotonin 5-HT(1A) receptor density and personality traits. METHOD: Fifteen normal male subjects, ages 20-45 years, were examined with PET and the radioligand [(11)C]WAY100635. Personality traits were assessed with the Swedish version of the Temperament and Character Inventory self-report questionnaire. Binding potential, an index for the density of available 5-HT(1A) receptors, was calculated for the dorsal raphe nuclei, the hippocampal formation, and the neocortex. For each region, correlation coefficients between 5-HT(1A) receptor binding potential and Temperament and Character Inventory personality dimensions were calculated and analyzed in two-tailed tests for significance. RESULTS: The authors found that the binding potential correlated inversely with scores for self-transcendence, a personality trait covering religious behavior and attitudes. No correlations were found for any of the other six Temperament and Character Inventory dimensions. The self-transcendence dimension consists of three distinct subscales, and further analysis showed that the subscale for spiritual acceptance correlated significantly with binding potential but not with the other two subscales. CONCLUSIONS: This finding in normal male subjects indicated that the serotonin system may serve as a biological basis for spiritual experiences. The authors speculated that the several-fold variability in 5-HT(1A) receptor density may explain why people vary greatly in spiritual zeal.

http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/con ... 60/11/1965



The neural basis of the complex mental task of meditation- neurotransmitter and neurochemical considerations
Newberg AB, Iversen J.
Med Hypotheses. Volume 61, Issue 2, August 2003, Pages 282-291

Meditation is a complex mental process involving changes in cognition, sensory perception, affect, hormones, and autonomic activity. Meditation has also become widely used in psychological and medical practices for stress management as well as a variety of physical and mental disorders. However, until now, there has been limited understanding of the overall biological mechanism of these practices in terms of the effects in both the brain and body. We have previously described a rudimentary neuropsychological model to explain the brain mechanisms underlying meditative experiences. This paper provides a substantial development by integrating neurotransmitter systems and the results of recent brain imaging advances into the model. The following is a review and synthesis of the current literature regarding the various neurophysiological mechanisms and neurochemical substrates that underlie the complex processes of meditation. It is hoped that this model will provide hypotheses for future biological and clinical studies of meditation.

Science Direct


The Neuroscientific Study of Religious and Spiritual Phenomena: or Why God Doesn't Use Biostatistics
Andrew B. Newberg and Bruce Y. Lee
Zygon, Volume 40, Issue 2, June 2005, pages 469-490.

With the rapidly expanding field of neuroscience research exploring religious and spiritual phenomena, there have been many perspectives as to the validity, importance, relevance, and need for such research. In this essay we review the studies that have contributed to our current understanding of the neuropsychology of religious phenomena. We focus on methodological issues to determine which areas have been weaknesses and strengths in the current studies. This area of research also poses important theological and epistemological questions that require careful consideration if both the religious and scientific elements are to be appropriately respected. The best way to evaluate this field is to determine the methodological issues that currently affect the field and explore how best to address such issues so that future investigations can be as robust as possible and can become more mainstream in both the religious and the scientific arenas.

http://www.andrewnewberg.com/pdfs/2005/ ... Review.pdf


Linkki Andrew Newbergin sivuille, jossa listaa Newbergin julkaisuista:
http://www.andrewnewberg.com/pub.asp


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The Beckley Foundation is an independent trust whose scientific research programme seeks to explore the neural and physiological correlates of consciousness and its altered states, particularly those that promote well-being, whether achieved through meditation, psychoactive substances or other techniques. It is also involved in investigating the impairments in consciousness that can occur with aging, which in diseased states manifests as dementia and Alzheimer's disease, and methods by which this process can be counteracted.

Summary of Current Research Projects:
http://www.beckleyfoundation.org/science/research.html

esim.
- Investigating the Neurobiology of Meditative State
- Investigating Blood Flow and CSF Movement Following
Lysergic Acid Diethylamide Ingestion
- Investigating Altered States of Consciousness induced by Lysergic Acid Diethylamide

[frapathea]

Tää on paska ketju.

[Kalastaja]

Mystiset kokemukset kostaa sulle niiden neuraalisilla korrelaateilla.

[Kalastaja]

Muutama kirja aiheesta:

Jo mainittu John Horganin Rational Mysticism: Spirituality Meets Science in the Search for Enlightenment
Houghton Mifflin. 2003.

James H. Austin
Zen and the Brain: Toward an Understanding of Meditation and Consciousness
The MIT Press. 1999.


James H. Austin
Zen-Brain Reflections
The MIT Press. 2006.


Eugene G. D'Aquili & Andrew B. Newberg
The Mystical Mind: Probing the Biology of Religious Experience
Augsburg Fortress Publishers. 1999.


Eugene G. D'Aquili, Andrew B. Newberg & Vince Rause
Why God Won't Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief
Ballantine Books. 2002.


R. Joseph (toim.)
NeuroTheology: Brain, Science, Spirituality, Religious Experience
University Press. 2002.

Tämä on muuten todella heikko kirja. Muutama ihan hyvä ja tieteellinen artikkeli, mutta aika pitkälti täynnä karmeaa pseudotiedettä pahimmasta kuviteltavasta päästä. Innostaa varmasti kaikki tietämättömät hyökkäämään koko tieteenalaa vastaan. Kirjan toimittanut R. Joseph on täyttänyt monta sataa sivua omilla salaliittoteorioillaan ynnä muulla mytologialla, joka yhdistää Hitlerin, 9/11 iskut, kreationismin, tantra seksin ja kaikkea siltä väliltä. Ihan käsittämätöntä.


Susan Blackmore (toim.)
Conversations on Consciousness: What the Best Minds Think about the Brain, Free Will, and What It Means to Be Human
Oxford University Press. 2006.


B. Allan Wallace
Contemplative Science: Where Buddhism and Neuroscience Converge
Columbia University Press. 2006.


Jensine Andresen (toim.) & Robert K C Forman (toim.)
Cognitive Models and Spiritual Maps : Interdisciplinary Explorations of Religious Experience
Imprint Academic. 2000.
(Special issue of the Journal of Consciousness Studies: Controversies in Science & The Humanities. Vol. 7, No. 11-12. November/December 2000.)

http://www.csp.org/chrestomathy/cognitive_models.html