The Spiritual Brain: A Neuroscientist's Case for the Existence of the Soul - Softcover

Beauregard, Mario; O'Leary, Denyse

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0061625981 ISBN 13: 9780061625985

Publisher: HarperOne, 2008

Synopsis

Do religious experiences come from God, or are they merely the random firing of neurons in the brain? Drawing on his own research with Carmelite nuns, neuroscientist Mario Beauregard shows that genuine, life-changing spiritual events can be documented. He offers compelling evidence that religious experiences have a nonmaterial origin, making a convincing case for what many in scientific fields are loath to consider—that it is God who creates our spiritual experiences, not the brain.

Beauregard and O'Leary explore recent attempts to locate a "God gene" in some of us and claims that our brains are "hardwired" for religion—even the strange case of one neuroscientist who allegedly invented an electromagnetic "God helmet" that could produce a mystical experience in anyone who wore it. The authors argue that these attempts are misguided and narrow-minded, because they reduce spiritual experiences to material phenomena.

Many scientists ignore hard evidence that challenges their materialistic prejudice, clinging to the limited view that our experiences are explainable only by material causes, in the obstinate conviction that the physical world is the only reality. But scientific materialism is at a loss to explain irrefutable accounts of mind over matter, of intuition, willpower, and leaps of faith, of the "placebo effect" in medicine, of near-death experiences on the operating table, and of psychic premonitions of a loved one in crisis, to say nothing of the occasional sense of oneness with nature and mystical experiences in meditation or prayer. Traditional science explains away these and other occurrences as delusions or misunderstandings, but by exploring the latest neurological research on phenomena such as these, The Spiritual Brain gets to their real source.

About this title

About the Author:

Mario Beauregard, Ph.D., is an associate research professor at the Departments of Psychology and Radiology and the Neuroscience Research Center at the University of Montreal. He is the coauthor of The Spiritual Brain and more than one hundred publications in neuroscience, psychology, and psychiatry.

Denyse O'Leary is a Toronto-based freelance journalist and blogger who specializes in faith and science issues. She is the author of Faith@Science and By Design or by Chance? and has written for The Toronto Star, The Globe & Mail, and Canadian Living.

From AudioFile:

Why do some people feel God's presence, but others don't? Could it have something to do with our genes or the structure of our brains? The authors, a professor at the University of Montreal and a journalist, make a scholarly case for God by pointing out phenomena that cannot be explained by science, such as near-death experiences, premonitions, and the power of prayer. The material is heady, but narrator Patrick Lawlor keeps the experience pleasant with an enthusiastic tone that is appropriately tinged with wonder. Lawlor's voice occasionally takes on a mocking tone as Beauregard acerbically dismisses opposing views. This audiobook requires a lot of the listener but is worth the effort. E.D.R. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperOne
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0061625981
• ISBN 13: 9780061625985
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384