The Neural Buddhists, and the Meditation of the Month Club

May 13, 2008

"...First, the self is not a fixed entity but a dynamic process of relationships. Second, underneath the patina of different religions, people around the world have common moral intuitions. Third, people are equipped to experience the sacred, to have moments of elevated experience when they transcend boundaries and overflow with love. Fourth, God can best be conceived as the nature one experiences at those moments, the unknowable total of all there is..."

David Brooks of the New York Times writes an amazing article how scientific research is "proving god" in a way that transcends archaic religion. He alludes to University of Pennsylvania's Andrew Newberg, who just completed research with Dr. Dharma Khalsa on the effects of meditation on the brain. Dharma runs the Alzheimer's Research and Prevention Foundation, which is sponsoring the May 19 Yoga Week at the National Institutes of Health. (Everyone should join Dr. Dharma's "Meditation of the Month Club": http://www.drdharma.com/Public/Store/MeditationoftheMonthClub/index.cfm). Here's David's amazing article, "The Neural Buddhists":

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/13/opinion/13brooks.html?th & emc=th

"...To these self-confident researchers, the idea that the spirit might exist apart from the body is just ridiculous. Instead, everything arises from atoms. Genes shape temperament. Brain chemicals shape behavior. Assemblies of neurons create consciousness. Free will is an illusion. Human beings are “hard-wired” to do this or that. Religion is an accident. .."

"...The atheism debate is a textbook example of how a scientific revolution can change public culture. Just as “The Origin of Species” reshaped social thinking, just as Einstein’s theory of relativity affected art, so the revolution in neuroscience is having an effect on how people see the world.

"And yet my guess is that the atheism debate is going to be a sideshow. The cognitive revolution is not going to end up undermining faith in God, it’s going end up challenging faith in the Bible."

"...Scientists have more respect for elevated spiritual states. Andrew Newberg of the University of Pennsylvania has shown that transcendent experiences can actually be identified and measured in the brain (people experience a decrease in activity in the parietal lobe, which orients us in space). The mind seems to have the ability to transcend itself and merge with a larger presence that feels more real.

"This new wave of research will not seep into the public realm in the form of militant atheism. Instead it will lead to what you might call neural Buddhism."

Blessings,

Charles D. Frohman

202-536-4346 (office)/202-258-8027 (cell)

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