Currently Reading The Spiritual Brain: A Neuroscientist's Case for the Existence of the Soul By Mario Beauregard, Denyse O'leary see related

The Spiritual Brain

The Spiritual Brain

Book Review & Synopsis

This is a new book written by neuroscientist Mario Beauregard with the assistance of journalist Denyse O’Leary. It takes the nonmaterialist position that the mind and brain are distinct. It explains at considerable length the very reasonable flaws with materialism as a philosophy of science. The book delves into a wide range of issues from phobias and placebos to brain patterns during deep spiritual states.

Before discussing particulars, I would like to say I found the book very enlightening in a number of ways. For one, I’ve never held any interest in psychology. This was in part because I didn’t understand it, but in greater part because I frankly never believed anyone else did either. I can see now there is practical value in knowing the mind and brain are distinct and I can also see there’s practical applications for using this kind of knowledge as the basis for effective mental and physical health treatments. Science can no more prove there is God than it can prove there is not God. Even so, the author makes excellent arguments for logically concluding there is more to man than evolved biology. Although this sounds intuitive, it is highly counter-culture to the established materialistic scientific community, particularly to theoreticians in biology and chemistry fields.

Materialism vs. Nonmaterialism

Materialism is the belief that all that exists is physical. This belief rejects the existence of a nonmaterial reality. In other words, materialism refuses to accept the possibility of God or any spiritual realm. Materialists believe the human brain and human mind are the same thing. They say free will is an illusion, religion is concocted as an evolutionary coping mechanism, and spirituality is a hoax or otherwise a defect of some part of the brain.

Nonmaterialism is the belief that reality consists of more than physical matter. As it applies to neurology, it is the belief that the mind is distinct from the brain. The mind is immaterial and exists in conjunction with, but not as an actual part of the brain. Nonmaterialism accepts the possibility of an absolute and transcendent intelligence which I would call God.

Perhaps the simplest allegory is that of a television. The materialist believes the program originates within the TV and that the TV, generating the program, puts it on the screen. The nonmaterialist believes the signal containing the program originates outside the TV and that the TV merely converts the immaterial signal to a physical presentation on the screen. As it relates to humans, the materialist believes we are only what is encoded in our biology. The nonmaterialist believes the mind is the immaterial signal and the brain is the mechanism that translates the immaterial to material (and vice-versa).

Another allegory is a book. The materialist believes the book is the storyteller. The nonmaterialist sees that the book contains words, but the story told by the book came from an external intelligent author. The nonmaterialist thus recognizes the mind is distinct from biology.

Proving the distinction is a bit more involved, but is worth the effort for a number of reasons.

Why do materialist beliefs persist?
The answer to this question will of course depend on your point of view. Of course the materialist will persistently say that they are correct and will deny any evidence to the contrary. Materialism explains the existence of everything apart from a Creator. By eliminating any higher and absolute authority, man elevates himself to the place of highest development. Moral absolutes become irrelevant. When we are reduced to purely biological matter, we are excused from sin by denying sin exists. “Bad” behavior is the result of errant or under-evolved genes. The materialist is allowed to believe in human superiority. The result is freedom to pursue any desire, however grand or debase, without consequence beyond the immediate threats or rewards of society.

Materialism & Evolution

Materialism is the basis for evolutionary theory. Evolution, in its pure materialistic form, is purely atheistic. If all that exists is material, God cannot exist because God is not made of material stuff. Matter either always existed or there was a Big Bang to start things off. Either way, here on our planet we just got lucky enough though chance to have evolved as we have.

Some evolutionists state that Darwin’s theory only proposes development of life, not its origin. Such as these simply don’t follow the theory backward to realize the totality of its implication. Those who do follow it fully are required to accept evolutionary cosmology as the real starting point.

Nonmaterialism & Evolution

“Theistic evolutionists” are those who believe God developed life to its current status through the process of evolution. They are a peculiar group who are constrained to believe in a limited nonmaterial reality. Although this group constitutes a significant fraction of Western society, they compromise revelation from the nonmaterial God with logical arguments and supposed evidence put forward by the atheist materialists.

The author of The Spiritual Brain states plainly that he believes evolution to be fact. At the same time he also states he is a nonmaterialist who believes mind and brain are unique. He goes on to say he believes in an Absolute Mind and claims to have had a personal spiritual experience with this Absolute Mind. His belief in the spiritual realm is the basis of his nonmaterialism and the driving force behind pursuit of neurological science from a nonmaterialistic point of view.

My Opinion
The style of the book is slow at times and somewhat difficult due to the technical language necessary to the discussion. It is an excellent book to learn from, but not the kind of book you curl up to read for pleasure. I like that the author uses many quotes, probably more of which from those of the opposite opinion from his own. For example, he frequently quotes Richard Dawkins and Bertrand Russell as well as important from phychology, neurology, and other scientific disciplines. The book is highly contemporary, but does not ignore the history of his discipline which has led to the current state of affairs.

I would strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in understanding the arguments of materialism and nonmaterialism, particularly as they apply to human consciousness and the relationship between mind and brain.

Chapter 1 “Toward Spiritual Neuroscience”

Materialism and Evolution have so completely permeated the elite scientific community the realm of mental study is based today on the general belief that the mind and brain are one in the same. These people believe the brain created God, not the other way around. They believe the mind can be reduced to complex neurochemistry. They wonder why the general population doesn’t believe as they do.

Free Will. Materialism says we are entirely governed by the laws of cause and effect. Our behavior must therefore be the result of brain activity programmed by genomes. We cannot have free will because pure material biology cannot explain conscious choice.

Altruism. This is a behavior of self-sacrifice for people other than self and kin. It is often (though not always) associated with spiritual beliefs. Altruism cannot be explained satisfactorily in materialist terms except as a brain defect.

Evolutionary Psychology. This is a form of psychology which is largely untestable and unfalsifiable. In other words, it is more of a philosophy than a science. This branch seeks to explain our nature by relationship to our supposed animal forerunners and contemporary friends.

Ape Similarities. Not much of value can be learned by the similarities between man and ape. Far more can be told by the difference. Depending on how you do the math our DNA is 92 to 99% similar, yet we are obviously distinct. There are insurmountable differences in our genes as well as our behavior and thinking. Dogs are better companions for us than chimpanzees.

AI. Science Fiction writers love to make up stories about computers so advanced they become “self-aware.” The presumption is that if you can create a computer powerful enough to rival the human brain it can become conscious. While computers are designed to make logical decisions, those decisions are based on programming created by an intelligent human. Even the most sophisticated computers merely carry out algorithms. Consider the most powerful chess-playing computer, IBM’s Deep Blue, that won against champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. Then, in 2003, Kasparov tied against the vastly more powerful Deep Junior with the highly enhanced X3dFritz program. The wonder isn’t that the computer did so well against a human, but that the human ever won against it at all. The computer can calculate at least 1 million times more possible moves per second. So how did Kasparov even tie? He wanted to beat it. He considers only the best strategies and he understood his opponent was only a machine. The machine’s intelligence is merely the product of its designer’s intelligence. Just as its designers learn to build a better algorith, the champion was also learning how to effectively play against a supercomputer.

Spiritual Nature in a Purposeless Universe. If the materialists are correct, there’s no logical reason for a spiritual nature to exist. A purely material universe is void of greater mind, thus there’s nothing for a “spiritual nature” to tap into. This means human spiritual nature must be a hoax, a flaw in our evolutionary development, or it must be some sort of mechanism for survival of our species.

Materialism is assumptive rather than evidentiary. Materialism is a monistic philosophy. It assumes everything is made of fundamentally one substance, namely matter. Richard Dawkins refers to nature as a blind watchmaker. This is just a philosophical answer to try and explain away what cannot be apprehended in pure materialist philosophy.

Classical and Quantum Physics. Materialism relies heavily on classical physics. Quantum physics reveals there’s more to the universe than classical physics can explain. Materialism requires all events to have material cause. In quantum physics, however, reality is also composed of various force fields. This reality of forces do not obey conventional physical laws. For example, classical physics says two things cannot occupy the same space. At the quantum level, however, fields of force occupy the same space as each other and matter. It is interesting to note that there are more Christian believers in the field of quantum physics than biology or psychology.

Light: Wave or Particle? Light has characteristics of waves and of particles. Whether you treat it as one or the other depends on the application. Why should it be so challenging to comprehend the mind and brain as unique, yet related and cofunctional in a living human soul? The brain appears to function as a substrate interface between the material body and the nonmaterial mind.

RSME (Religious/Spiritual/Mystical Experience). The author of The Spiritual Brain breaks down nonmaterial experiences into three main categories for the purpose of the book. “R” is the religious component. “R” represents the behavior leading to or resulting from spiritual and/or religious experience. “S” is the spiritual aspect. This experience involves nonmaterial mental contact with an Absolute Mind (ie God). These experiences are often life changing, remembered for life, and involve ineffable sensations of love and peace, but include thought as well as emotion. “M” means mystical. Mystical experiences make up most other forms of “higher plain” nonmaterial experience such as feeling disconnected or dissociated from the body, telepathy, telekinesis, and so forth. Mystic experiences are transcendent to the physical world.

Chapter 2 “Is There a God Program?”

This chapter examines the materialist notion that some part of our biologic brain composes a circuit or module evolved for the purpose of causing belief in God.

Man Made God: “If the brain evolved by natural selection…religious beliefs must have arisen by the same mechanism.” - Edward Wilson. “Wouldn’t the fact that all human cultures, no matter how isolated, have believed in the existence of a spiritual realm suggest that such a perception must constitute an inherent characteristic of our species, that is, a genetically inherited trait?” – Matthew Alper.

Matthew Alper Suggests Religion is Genetic. The supposition that religion is genetically inherited is pure speculation and not based on any scientific test (see quote above). Alper suggests fear of death drove natural selection of religion as a mechanism to deal with it. While atheists like to suppose this, evidence suggests life after death is assumed by most cultures, regardless of the religious perception of eternity. Alper also suggests appeals to divinity are a way of seeking to extend life and increase fertility. While is may be true of some religions, by no means is this universal.

Dean Hamer suggests God is in our genetic code. He essentially says we have a certain gene that makes some people predisposed to religious/spiritual/mystical experiences (RSMEs). The evidence is incomplete and unverifiable. It seems highly unlikely for several reasons. For one, genes work in groups to form traits. For another, the nonmaterial nature of RSMEs make little sense in the hard programming of genetic code. Studies of twins, for example, find stark differences as well as amazing similarities between twins. RSMEs are seldom similar in twins.

Chapter 3 “Does the God Module Exist”

This chapter expands from genetic code of the previous to a look at the brain as a biological system. The question is whether God can be reduced to a biological framework. You might as well ask whether man created God. Jonah Goldberg said, “Science is wonderful at explaining what science is wonderful at explaining, but beyond that it tends to look for its car keys where the light is good.” This pithy comment aptly describes the way philosophy extends the valid range of science into the invalid hope of making itself superior in areas where it is not.

Temporal Lobe Epilepsy. Attempts have been made to tie the part of the brain affected by epilepsy with spiritualism. Materialists like to point to epilepsy and certain character traits of certain diagnosed individuals to justify belief in a purely biological explanation. They go so far as to suggest a certain personality type is associated with epilepsy. Evidence suggests this is nonsense.

Chapter 4 “The God Helmet”

This chapter deals with efforts to induce a mystic experience by exposing the brain to controlled weak magnetic fields. This chapter made for amusing reading, but there’s little point in going very deep into its content. The creator of the God Helmet, Dr. Michael Persinger, has largely been ignored in the scientific community in spite of his popularity with pop-science journalists. His work was essentially discredited by independent double-blind testing in 2003. The hope of finding out God is no more than a neurological artifact of a brain exposed to external magnetic force fields has been dashed.

Chapter 5 “Are the Mind and Brain Identical?”

The brain contains 100 billion cells. Each cell is linked by synapses to as many as 100,000 others. The synapses between cells are awash in hormones and neurotransmitters that modulate the transmission of signals and the synapses constantly form and dissolve, weaken and strengthen in response to new experiences. This chapter finally addresses the major question as the foundation of the division in neuroscience. Is the mind the same as the brain, or is it only interface through the brain?

Neuroplasticity. It was long believed neurons were fixed by adulthood. It is now known that adults can “rewire” their brains. Neuroplasticity explains peculiarities like phantom limbs (thinking a hand is there that’s been amputated). If the mind were purely biological it would stand to reason amputees would not “feel” their missing parts. Reorganizing the brain to accommodate the mind’s need to make the body work in a new way would seem impossible if the mind were limited to the purely biological realm.

Qualia. We each experience things individually. Through qualia we recognize the first person in relationship to the world we experience. The color red, for example, is experienced by people differently. Suppose the entire world were color blind except you. How would you describe “red?” Qualia presents a huge problem to materialism. Unique personal experience cannot be weighed. It doesn’t have length if you laid it on the ground. It doesn’t have a color or a specific density. Qualia are the immaterial experiences – the verbs – of our existence.

Consciousness. We experience and know things in the first person and we relate them to others in the third person. We observe and are observed. The sense of self makes no sense if we are purely biological cause and effect beings. Computers execute algoriths, but as conscious beings we not only undergo experiences, we create them.

Free Will. Materialism cannot abide free will. The concept of free will requires a unique mind that, by controlling brain function, makes conscious willful choices. If the brain is just a computer made of meat, it cannot have true free will or there must be a something in us that is not present in purely material machines like computers. To deny God ultimately requires the denial of free will.

Major Problems of Materialism:

1.      Current materialist hopes hinge on the aim to preserve materialism rather than account for the evidence. It has no workable science model and all the problems of qualia, consciousness and free will are strong evidence there is more to human existence than our biology.

2.      Materialism leads to disconnects in thinking. Simply stating mind and brain are the same does not prove anything. The hope in Darwinian principles is faith, not science. Darwin’s theory neither predicts nor describes consciousness.

3.      Materialism leads to hypotheses that cannot be tested. The human brain processes roughly 100 trillion bits of data per second. This equates to something like writing 100 million books containing 1 million symbol each, each second. Every human brain pattern is unique, even for the same experience, and it varies with age. Studying brain patterns can tell us if the subject is processing a visual or motor experience, but it cannot describe the image or event.

4.      Promissory materialism leads to the promotion of impractical projects in the indefinite future to avoid grappling with current issues. These issues are things like qualia, mentioned above.

5.      Taken seriously, materialism undermines our capacity to eventually uderstand the human mind and the human brain. Brains are designed for fitness, but the mind is designed for truth.

6.      Materialism is out of step with modern physics. This is perhaps the most fascinating problem from within the scientific community. Classic physics looks at the mechanics of the universe in terms of pure matter. This is the basis of materialism. Quantum physics realizes the universe is superposed states that do not exist apart from one another.

Chapter 6 “Toward a Nonmaterialist Science of Mind”

This chapter addresses various practical applications for the nonmaterial where the materialist approach fails.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). OCD is a neuropsychiatric disease marked by distressing, intrusive and unwanted thoughts (obsessions) that trigger an urge to perform ritual behaviors (compulsions). The sufferer knows the behavior is damaging, but cannot help themselves. Neurologists learned OCD triggers the part of the brain that reacts to danger, driving the urge to act. The materialist approach would be to medicate, but the nonmaterial approach realizes there’s power in the mind to control thoughts. Mental techniques, not pharmaceuticals, provide the most effective treatment. The human mind, it turns out, has the power to drive changes in brain chemistry and reorganize its neural pathways to correct “bad brain wiring.”

Depression. Clinical depression is generally treated with strong medications. The medications, however, have been show to only slightly outperform placeboes. Experiments have proven we have the power to control our emotional reactions to various stimuli. Clinical depression, however, goes far beyond a normal emotional response to an event. The brain pathways used by the emotional centers are changed in such a way that the instead of a neighborhood of emotions all being available, sadness takes over control of the neighborhood. As with OCD, clinical depression can be conquered using mental techniques where drugs fail.

Phobias. A phobia is an abnormal and disabling irrational fear. Experimental techniques performed on sufferers of arachnophobia (fear of spiders) were highly successful in reducing or eliminating their fear. Once again, treating the mind as a nonmaterial controller of the brain proved beneficial and successful in practical application. In short, changing the mind literally changes the brain.

Placebo Effect. Perhaps the most powerful and well document effect in medicine is the placebo effect. The effectiveness of placeboes depends on the affliction being treated, but on average placeboes help 35% to 45% of the people as well as real medicines on any given illness. Sham surgery has been show to be equally effective. Placebos don’t work on everything, such as cancer, or when a person suffers a cognitive disorder such as Alzheimer’s. The author explains how the placebo effect actually works, but the key is belief. When someone believes they will get well, the generally do. One of the most powerful placeboes is the know-it-all arrogant doctor who is so convinced of his power to heal that the patient takes it to heart.

Nocebo Effect. The opposite of a placebo, the nocebo effect is extremely negative. The nocebo effect occurs when faith in a medicine is undermined by bad media, poor bedside manner, or other negative input from caregivers. People may believe they have an illness because it runs in the family or they’ve been exposed to someone with a disease, causing them to become ill. Another strong nocebo effect is scaring someone so badly they suffer cardiac failure, or stalking or some other act that induces stresses to powerful they adversely affect health.

Mentalese & Neuronese. “If it is for the mind we are searching the brain, then we are supposing the brain to be much more than a telephone exchange. We are supposing it to be the telephone exchange along with the subscribers as well.” – Charles Sherrington, Neuroscientist. There is a language of the mind and a language of the brain. The brain communicates chemically. We do not have a material reference for the language of the mind, so we have no Rosetta stone to figure out how the mind really communicates with the brain.

Near Death Experience (NDE). One of the most powerful proofs the mind is unique from the brain is NDE. An NDE occurs when a person experiences clinical death where the heart is stopped and brain function ceases. Brain function ceases within 30 seconds of heart stoppage. Brain damage usually occurs within less than 10 minutes of clinical death. Several systematic studies of NDEs have been performed. Most NDEs can be divided into a few common types including out of body experiences, holographic life review, or encounters with deceased people. Many report being led back to their body either by a light, or by a relative or friend. Most people who have an NDE lose their fear of death and are fundamentally changed such that they become more altruistic. A small percentage of people reporting an NDE described it as negative. Materialists cannot account for NDEs. Interestingly, NDEs tend to present problems for some religions, too.

Psi Effect. Telepathy (ESP) and psychokinetic (telekinesis) phenomena are generally called psi effects. People who exhibit telepathic capabilities indicate the mind’s ability to communicate over some distance without any conventional form of contact. Telekinesis is another kind of psi effect where a mind is capable of affecting physical objects without conventional physical contact of any kind. Magicians are people who pretend to have special powers to attract an audience. Real psychics (people who exhibit psi effects which can be validated in a lab) generally want to avoid attention. Perhaps the most practical application for psychic use is in criminal investigations where a psychic can be used to help find a missing person or some important piece of evidence leading to an arrest.

Chapter 9 “Who Has Mystical Experiences and What Triggers Them?”

“Mysticism” is a misused term. It comes from the Greek muo which literally means “conceal.” Mist conceals because it limits vision. Serious mystics seek access to levels of consciousness that are concealed from everyday life. Much of this chapter deals with the history of nonmaterialist neuroresearchers William James, Evelyn Underhill, and Walter Stace.

Identifying Mystical Experiences. Mystical experiences can be described as ineffable (indescribable), noetic (includes a state of knowledge), transient (generally cannot be maintained for long periods), and passivity (mystic feels their own will becomes subject to a superior power). It is an active and practical experience. Its aims are transcendental and spiritual (not interested in affecting the visible universe). The higher power is an object of love, not an object of exploration. The unity with this higher power is a state of enhanced life. An extrovertive experience is triggered externally through art, nature, music, or some common object. An introvertive experience is found through internalized meditation.

Born Again Experience. The term “born again experience” refers to an intense conversion experience where a person’s mind is genuinely changed. Becoming born again is definitely a spiritual experience and is, at some level, a mystic experience where the new believer touches God, entering into a relationship. Note: the author neither affirms nor denies Christianity as authentic.

Mystical Misconceptions. Mystics seek spiritual union with God, not visions or voices. Manifestations tend to distract. Mystics are not usually impractical idealists. There is no inverse relationship between comtemplativeness and the ability to act effectively. Mystics commonly life ascetic lives to avoid distraction rather than to punish themselves. Science cannot explain away the mystical level of consciousness.

Data Collection. Not only do materialists not want to know about spiritual experiences, most religious institutions which have ample documentation of experiences are not interested in sharing with competing institutions.

Chapter 8 “Do Religious, Spiritual or Mystical Experiences Change Lives?”

The question sounds silly to me, but for the sake of proving his case, the author goes to great lengths to document the affirmative answer. Statistical data verifies spiritually is good for physical and mental health. Interestingly, medical doctors are considerably more likely to hold spiritual beliefs than research scientists. This chapter also shows support for personal prayer. The question of violence and religion is raised and the author explains very succinctly on page 252 that mystical experiences almost always make people less violent. Muslim terrorism, attributed to religion, results from purely external rituals of conformity in pursuit of power, not an internal awakening of the infinity of what is spiritual within.

Chapter 9 “The Carmelite Studies”

This chapter examines in detail the author’s own neuroscientific study involving fifteen Carmelite nuns. Highly advanced fMRI and QEEG technology was used to record brain patterns during neutral, emotionally charged, and mystical experiences. The result, in summary, is that brain patterns and brain wave output during a deeply spiritual experience is highly unique from other states of consciousness. Numerous parts of the brain are active including areas that react to visual, aural and motor activity even though the subjects were in a sterile environment approaching sensory deprivation. The tests shows conclusively there is no specific “God spot.” They also prove that the mystical state is something different from an emotional state. The author concludes this chapter with history of the Carmelite order and a few of their most influential mystics.

Chapter 10 “Did God Create the Brain or Does the Brain Create God?”

Albert Einstein said, “The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mystical. It is the power of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead.” The final chapter does not and cannot conclusively answer this question one way or the other. It does argue for a distinct spiritual nature. It indicates the brain mediates but does not produce mystical experiences. Finally, the author reveals a little about his personal belief. The specifics are not particularly important, though I would say he has only scratched the surface of Truth with his own mystical experiences.

Summary

As I indicated at the start, this book was very interesting, highly informative, and incredibly educational. It opened my eyes to aspects of spiritual reality to which I was previously unaware or would have perhaps denied. I cannot say if all his conclusions are correct, but his logic is excellent and very believable. Of course I am predisposed to accept the bulk of his suppositions without the detailed proofs, but the proofs are very well supported none the less. He states and explains the case of materialism on virtually every point with precision and without rancor. He appears to be highly objective and considerate of people I would find it much more difficult to be so kind about. It is a bit tedious, but even so I would highly recommend this book to anyone with any interest in the human mind.