The Tip of the Tongues

I read a most interesting article tonight called "Divinity of the Mind". It may bore some of you into a good nights sleep, but I found it quite fascinating. It was essentially an interview with a completely non-religious scientist that has been studying the activity of the human brain (via bran scan) in subjects during prayer and meditation.

Of course to keep things variable he studied three groups...... Franciscan nuns, Buddhists, and Pentecostal Christians. Wow, what a crew!

During the Franciscan nuns' prayers their frontal lobes were highly active which is the part of your brain that is used during intense focus. Makes sense. But the part of their brain that identifies the body with its surroundings became very inactive. Which the scientist said would make the person feel slightly transcendent or oceanic. Similar activity was present during the Buddhist meditation. The major difference was that the nuns had activity in the part of the brain that controls language (they were chanting prayers), while the Buddhists' visual sensors were active (Buddhists focus on an object in their hand).

Then along came the Pentecostal Christians. The scientist was shocked by what he found. They were moving around, dancing, and speaking in tongues. Their brains were very active, but not in the frontal lobes. They seemed to be completely unfocused on praying and singing. And yet consumed in it. And while they were speaking in tongues the language parts of their brains were totally inactive (obviously that should have been the area of the brain that was highly active). He seemed fascinated by the fact and said he guessed it made perfect sense if you were to believe that tongues were being spoken from an outside force.

He was intrigued by how active our mind is during spiritual experiences. I think he was surprised by his own findings. He knew he was definitely on to something.

Unfortunately, the scientist remained uncommitted to any final hypothesis. He is determined to continue to search for evidence of God in the human mind.


Hmmmmmm........very interesting.