Removing part of the brain can induce inner peace, according to researchers from Italy. Their study provides the strongest evidence to date that spiritual thinking arises in, or is limited by, specific brain areas.
To investigate the neural basis of spirituality, Cosimo Urgesi, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Udine, and his colleagues turned to people with brain tumours to assess the feeling before and after surgery. Three to seven days after the removal of tumours from the posterior part of the brain, in the parietal cortex, patients reported feeling a greater sense of self-transcendence. This was not the case for patients with tumours removed from the frontal regions of the brain.
“Self-transcendence used to be considered just by philosophers and crank new age people,” says co-author Salvatore Aglioti, a cognitive neuroscientist at the Sapienza University of Rome. “This is the first really close-up study on spirituality. We’re dealing with a complex phenomenon that’s close to the essence of being human.”
The authors pinpointed two parts of the brain that, when damaged, led to increases in spirituality: the left inferior parietal lobe and the right angular gyrus. These areas at the back of the brain are involved in how we perceive our bodies in spatial relation to the external world. The authors of the study in the journal Neuron1, say that their findings support the connection between mystic experiences and feeling detached from the body.
“The most surprising part was the rapidity of the change,” says Urgesi. “This discovery shows that some complex personality traits are more malleable than previously thought.”
How much has to be removed for someone to become pope?
- hahahaha – all of it – Phillis
Were just imagining this life, aren’t we? It’s all in our heads. We’re gonna wake up and find the hairy old truth one day.
it aint rocket science…
OMG! THERE’S AN AD ON THE BLOG!!
Ehehehe …
I don’t buy this type of research, sorry to say that. I myself think spirituality is in the mind, it’s at times about not wanting or being able to deal with the truth, and at times it’s only in the ears and eyes of the spectators. What is spirituality? How can one determine that we all sense it the same way, feel it the same way and would translate it into the same words? It’s impossible.
Lots become more spiritual already before surgery when having cancer or tumours or a serious life threatehing disease.
This studys hows huge flaws in reasoning and cocky psyche that puts something out there that has nothing to do with the results they got. Annoying.
It sounds more like guys’ type of spirituality, in the back of their brain. My type of spirituality comes more from the frontal area in the brain .. it’s the awareness that comes out of being bored with life stiff, to the max, and looking for more uplifting ways to deal with life. Maybe it’s that some are spiritual without being aware of its not so truthfull self.
Those people who had a tumour removed def. will not have been once in their normal self anymore. Fear will have been in them quite a lot, which will trigger another brain structure for some time, which can cause a slightly more spiritual way of looking upon stuff.
I’m so not delighted with this type of research, I hope they will focus more on the truth in there and try to help their patients in many ways. Removing tumours
Was sure I read about religious coincesness. Had heavy hulicinations mostly from Ancient Egyptian religious books I was reading at the time. Same as those in vunerable states seeing Mary etc. Glad I never picked up a Bible/other and I found out through science otherwise I would be a complete freak.