The Encyclopedia of World Religions

60 S brain, mind, and religion

the same time. These two systems are the system responsible for being aroused, as when running a tight race, and the system responsible for being calm, as in deep relaxation. A third researcher has examined Zen meditation in detail. He has tried to link the many different experiences people have during ZAZEN with a large number of events in the brain—too many to summarize here. Clearly, these ideas are complicated. Much more work needs to be done before neuropsychologists will be able to agree on which explanations work best. STUDIES OF THE MIND Cognitive scientists are not interested in “mysti cal” experiences. Most religious people, they say, do not have such experiences. What they want to explain are the ideas that religious people have. They especially want to explain why human beings, unlike other animals, believe in beings that cannot be perceived by the senses, beings like gods, spirits, and demons. They, too, have many different, complicated explanations. One researcher claims that the mind is programmed to see humanoid and animal-like beings even where no such beings exist. He points out that it is better for a person hiking in the woods to mistake a rock for a bear than a bear for a rock. A hiker who mis took a bear for a rock is in serious danger of being injured or killed. From such mistakes, he says, the belief in gods arose. Another thinker believes that religious ideas are precisely the kinds of ideas that the human mind most likes to think. They attract attention because they violate expectations. For example, spirits can move through solid objects, and human minds find that idea interesting. At the same time, religious ideas do not violate too many expectations. If they did, people would not be able to remember them. Some call these ideas “minimally counterintuitive.” IMPLICATIONS At the beginning of the 21st century both neuro psychologists and cognitive scientists are trying to refine their ideas and test them through experi ments. They, along with theologians, have also considered what their ideas mean for religious

Strict brahmins have traditionally observed a number of rules. These rules were designed to maintain the brahmins’ purity. For example, if brahmins came into physical contact with persons considered impure in ritual terms, especially Dalits (“untouchables”), they had to perform a series of rituals to wash away what they saw as defilement. During the 20th century, however, traditional con cerns with maintaining purity often gave way to the pressures of modern urban life. brain, mind, and religion From the 1980s on, scientists have been thinking seriously about what their studies of the brain and the mind might have to say about religion. We often think of the brain and the mind as identical, but they are not. The brain is a physical object inside the head. It con sists of cells and undergoes chemical reactions and electrical pulses. The mind is the collection of our thoughts and experiences. Many scientists think that these two are just one thing, a mind brain, seen from two different angles. Neverthe less, it is still impossible to connect most ideas people have with specific chemical and physical events in their brains. As a result, scientists usu ally focus on either the brain or the mind. Those who focus on the brain are called neuropsycholo gists. Those who focus on the mind are called cognitive scientists. THE BRAIN AND RELIGION Neuropsychologists who study religion often explore peculiar experiences that some religious people call “mystical.” Some are experiences that God is present. Others are experiences of being one with the universe. Neuropsychologists believe that these experiences result from events in the brain, but they do not agree on what those events are. One researcher might believe that people experi ence God as a result of electrical discharges in parts of the brain known as the temporal lobes. (These lobes are found near the temples on either side of the head.) Another might believe that a person will have an experience of “absolute unitary being” if two different systems in the brain are stimulated at