conjuror
2005-08-05, 01:18
Religion and trances are inextricably intertwined.
I was discussing my lack of belief in God with someone when they said, "I think you should try praying to God. What's the worst that could happen?"
I told them, "I prayed every night for years. It made me feel good."
"If prayer made you feel good don't you think that must mean there is a God?"
Well, I had to tell them no. "Nah, terrorists also pray to God and it makes them feel good, too. But I don't believe they are really getting in touch with God."
I guess it just has to do with good feelings that come from mentally distancing yourself from reality.
Jeffrey Kluger wrote in "Is God in Our Genes?", which ran in TIME said:
quote:...Neuroscientist Andrew Newberg of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine has used several types of imaging systems to watch the brains of subjects as they meditate or pray. By measuring blood flow, he determines which regions are responsible for the feelings the volunteers experience.
The deeper that people descend into meditation or prayer, Newberg found, the more active the frontal lobe and the limbic system become.
The frontal lobe is the seat of concentration and attention; the limbic system is where powerful feelings, including rapture, are processed. More revealing is the fact that at the same time these regions flash to life, another important region—the parietal lobe at the back of the brain—goes dim. It's this lobe that orients the individual in time and space. Take it off-line, and the boundaries of the self fall away, creating the feeling of being at one with the universe. Combine that with what's going on in the other two lobes, and you can put together a profound religious experience...
You can probably also get that from meditation, deep thought, relaxation, drugs and listening to music.
Lots of people find that listening to music is a spiritual experience because music probably stimulates similar chemical activity in the brain. And not just gospel church music.
Faithless, in God is a DJ, said:
quote:This is my church
This is where I heal my hurt
It's in the world I become
Content in the hum
Between voice and drum
It's in change
The poetic justice of cause and effect
Respect, love, compassion
This is my church
This is where I heal my hurt
For tonight
God is a DJ
It's a hypnotic trance song. If you just let your mind go while you listen to it I find it to be an almost-spiritual experience.
Don McLean, in American Pie, said:
quote:Now do you believe in rock 'n roll?
Can music save your mortal soul?
Don McLean suggests listening to rock&roll can be a religious experience.
Some scholars believe religions started after psychadelic experiences with drugs, or drug-induced trances: http://www.erowid.org/entheogens/journals/entheogens_journal2.shtml
When I go to church now as an observer I see the priest skillfully bring the people in and out of different levels of consciousness with words, tone, pacing and music. It's fascinating to watch. The people are essentially under a spell. Is it God's spell? Perhaps. But it's the same trance I see in the footage of people meditating and grooving to a techno beat and praying to Allah and holding a sceance.
That level of consciousness does make people feel good.
In that sense, churches provide an important public service by letting people enter a feel-good level of consciousness.
Maybe God is a DJ.
I was discussing my lack of belief in God with someone when they said, "I think you should try praying to God. What's the worst that could happen?"
I told them, "I prayed every night for years. It made me feel good."
"If prayer made you feel good don't you think that must mean there is a God?"
Well, I had to tell them no. "Nah, terrorists also pray to God and it makes them feel good, too. But I don't believe they are really getting in touch with God."
I guess it just has to do with good feelings that come from mentally distancing yourself from reality.
Jeffrey Kluger wrote in "Is God in Our Genes?", which ran in TIME said:
quote:...Neuroscientist Andrew Newberg of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine has used several types of imaging systems to watch the brains of subjects as they meditate or pray. By measuring blood flow, he determines which regions are responsible for the feelings the volunteers experience.
The deeper that people descend into meditation or prayer, Newberg found, the more active the frontal lobe and the limbic system become.
The frontal lobe is the seat of concentration and attention; the limbic system is where powerful feelings, including rapture, are processed. More revealing is the fact that at the same time these regions flash to life, another important region—the parietal lobe at the back of the brain—goes dim. It's this lobe that orients the individual in time and space. Take it off-line, and the boundaries of the self fall away, creating the feeling of being at one with the universe. Combine that with what's going on in the other two lobes, and you can put together a profound religious experience...
You can probably also get that from meditation, deep thought, relaxation, drugs and listening to music.
Lots of people find that listening to music is a spiritual experience because music probably stimulates similar chemical activity in the brain. And not just gospel church music.
Faithless, in God is a DJ, said:
quote:This is my church
This is where I heal my hurt
It's in the world I become
Content in the hum
Between voice and drum
It's in change
The poetic justice of cause and effect
Respect, love, compassion
This is my church
This is where I heal my hurt
For tonight
God is a DJ
It's a hypnotic trance song. If you just let your mind go while you listen to it I find it to be an almost-spiritual experience.
Don McLean, in American Pie, said:
quote:Now do you believe in rock 'n roll?
Can music save your mortal soul?
Don McLean suggests listening to rock&roll can be a religious experience.
Some scholars believe religions started after psychadelic experiences with drugs, or drug-induced trances: http://www.erowid.org/entheogens/journals/entheogens_journal2.shtml
When I go to church now as an observer I see the priest skillfully bring the people in and out of different levels of consciousness with words, tone, pacing and music. It's fascinating to watch. The people are essentially under a spell. Is it God's spell? Perhaps. But it's the same trance I see in the footage of people meditating and grooving to a techno beat and praying to Allah and holding a sceance.
That level of consciousness does make people feel good.
In that sense, churches provide an important public service by letting people enter a feel-good level of consciousness.
Maybe God is a DJ.