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The Spiritual Brain: A Neuroscientist's Case for the Existence of the Soul – By Mario Beauregard and Denyse O'Leary
Author(s) -
Mario Beauregard,
Denyse O'Leary
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
reviews in religion and theology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1467-9418
pISSN - 1350-7303
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9418.2008.00401_4.x
Subject(s) - soul , neuroscientist , citation , psychology , philosophy , theology , computer science , neuroscience , library science , myelin , oligodendrocyte , central nervous system
Drawing on his own research along with others' work in neuroscience as well as some provocative new research in NDE (near-death experiences), Beauregard proves that genuine spiritual experiences can be documented and they generally have life-changing effects. "The Spiritual Brain" explains how such experiences work and the difference they make in the lives of the individual, powerfully arguing for what many in science are loathe to consider - that it is God that creates religious experiences, not the brain. Most neuroscientists are committed to the view that mystical experiences are simply the result of random neurons firing, or as one scientist puts it, they are merely 'delusions created by the brain.' But Beauregard uses the most sophisticated technology to peer inside the brains of Carmelite nuns as they recall their most profound spiritual experience which they call unio mystico, the experience of oneness with God.