Originally posted by scottishinnz
Hey mokko,
Long time no speak!! I like your ideas here, however, it's my conjecture that (as you know) the human mind is very good at finding patterns, even when they don't exist. Most people go through bad times in their lives, when they wished things are very different to what they are. Some people have these experiences that you talk about, bu happening to 1 person in 1,000,000,000. At those odds, almost anything can happen!
...it's my conjecture that (as you know) the human mind is very good at finding patterns, even when they don't exist. Most people go through bad times in their lives, when they wished things are very different to what they are. Some people have these experiences that you talk about, but I'd guess most don't. The difference is, the ones who talk about it are the self same people who DID have these "revalations".
Bingo! (and rec’d) That’s pretty much my conjecture as well, and I speak as one who has had such experiences.
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I’d like to expand with some of my own conjectures. In the following, I know that I am not using terms correctly, from the point of view of cognitive science; I don’t have the vocabulary. So I’m using terms like “right brain/left brain,” etc., just as handles for certain functional neurological complexes and brain stuff going on (well, “brain stuff”—that is a valid cognitive term, isn’t it? 😉 ). I hope pawnokeyhole will weigh in with corrections...
Suppose in a moment of stress, or high relaxation, or a reactive relaxation immediately following stress, there is in the brain an increase of “right-brain” functioning that alters our perception in such a way that our focus broadens out. We have that sense of experiencing existence in a much more holistic, “larger” way. Things may seem ambiguous or disconnected or overwhelming... Then the “left-brain” functions begin to reassert themselves, trying to make rational/symbolic/linguistic “sense” of the experience. Suppose further that, at the same time and as part of the same process, the “left-brain” picks up a memory (remember, I’m speaking metaphorically here) of some religious nature—say, a mental image of Krishna (such an image may not be from our own religious background, or it may be). We might experience what’s going on in terms of any of our sensual brain functions: visual, auditory, even olfactory. (Emotional centers may also be triggered in this process.)
[As an analogy, in everyday experience our visual sense apparatus receives sensory stimuli, processed along the appropriate neurological pathways, to be translated in the visual cortex into a visual image: and what we “see” is really that image, whether or not it is accurately reflective of the actual physical world—that’s roughly how I understand it anyway....]
The result is that we have a “religious experience” in which Krishna seems to appear, surrounded by the scent of incense, and speaks to us. And just like the ordinary visual images that we see, it seems to be external to ourselves. I call this process “immediate translation”—i.e., of an otherwise unintelligible experience into an intelligible one, as the brain attempts to form recognizable and “sensible” patterns.
This “mystical” experience need not have any supernatural connotations at all (e.g., in some Taoism or Zen). And although the general literature has traditionally referred to them as “mystical” experiences, even without the supernatural connotation, howardgee convinced me to pretty much drop that term from my vocabulary—or at least to use it very cautiously with the requisite caveats—because it seems to be almost universally perceived, outside that literature, as having to do with the supernatural.
And I think that even those folks who conclude that such an experience represents an actual “revelatory” event (for whatever reasons, valid or not—I don’t want to argue all that here), must, as a matter of intellectual integrity, admit that it might be something akin to what I’m trying to describe. I would say to someone who responds that their experience was just too powerful or profound for it to be anything but God (Krishna, Shiva, the Buddha, whatever), that they might have too paltry a notion of the power of their own brain. (After all, mirages are convincing just because they seem so “real.” )
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I think you’re right, too, Scott, that people who assign religious content to such experiences tend to seek community with others who also do so—Christians with Christians, Hindus with Hindus, Buddhists with Buddhists (although Zennists teach that all such experiences—say in meditation—should be discounted as
makyo, “bedeviling illusions;” and I agree). The common features of such experiences also allow them to discuss them across religions in interfaith dialogue.
The only thing I might disagree with you on is that I tend to think that most people have such experiences, at least in mild forms. (With sufficient data, one could probably construct a statistical distribution.)
It is also possible that such experiences may be connected to some pathology. Some cognitive scientists have attempted research to sort that out, but I don’t recall any of their criteria for differentiating (perhaps evidence, or lack thereof, of other pathological indications). I can’t offer any references; this is from some reading several years ago...
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If pawnokeyhole, or someone else who is involved in psychology or the other branches of cognitive science would correct either my terminology or the substance of my conjectures, I would appreciate it.
Is this "God"
03 Aug '06 13:55
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