The neurobiology of religious experience

[Void Image]

http://www.ebonmusings.org/atheism/ghost.html#neurobio

I have had feelings like this when drifting off to sleep, though I wouldn't call it a religious experience. Thoughts? What about those that claim to have actually had a religious experience, what did it feel like?

[brainpan]

When I was half out of my head with fever, I had a religious experience. It felt good. I believed God was telling me to be more humble.

[mataj]

Bah. All of you guys are religious, and you don't even know it. In your private little shrines, you worship your TV sets for at least a couple of hours a day. That's religious experience.

In the olden day, where there was no mass media, and literacy was scarce, going to church was the only entertainment people had. Music, brightly coloured light from the stained glass windows, blah blah from the talking head- isn't that about the same thing as TV?

[Void Image]

Bah. All of you guys are religious, and you don't even know it. In your private little shrines, you worship your TV sets for at least a couple of hours a day. That's religious experience.

In the olden day, where there was no mass media, and literacy was scarce, going to church was the only entertainment people had. Music, brightly coloured light from the stained glass windows, blah blah from the talking head- isn't that about the same thing as TV?

I didn't live in those days, but I'm pretty sure they had forms of entertainment other than church. You're saying being entertained will lead to this religious feeling, this lack of boundaries, or your mind being entrained, in which I guess I could see that....it happens every day. However concentrating on one particular thing for too long doesn't always lead to such a feeling either. I'm more interested in hearing the opinions of those who do not consider the TV their god of choice. There's self-hypnotism, then there's this completely original experience that most find hard to explain. Enlighten me

[mataj]

I didn't live in those days, but I'm pretty sure they had forms of entertainment other than church. You're saying being entertained will lead to this religious feeling, this lack of boundaries, or your mind being entrained, in which I guess I could see that....it happens every day. However concentrating on one particular thing for too long doesn't always lead to such a feeling either. I'm more interested in hearing the opinions of those who do not consider the TV their god of choice. There's self-hypnotism, then there's this completely original experience that most find hard to explain. Enlighten meIt's everyday routine that matters, not an evetual one time experience. It's not easy to abandon everyday habit.

Nobody considers TV as his god of choice, but everbody worships it nonetheless. TV therefore is everybodys god, whether the like it or not, whether they admit it or not.

[julierep]

My religious experience was after many years of not understanding God, finally understanding and accepting Him. It was an experience one cannot describe, but the ones who share it know exactly that same feeling I am talking about. Ive heard the same exact feelings from individuals as what I felt and its kinda strange it was so close.

[brainpan]

We're all humans, physiologically identical for the most part. It should be expected that our experiences are similar.

[sub_zer0]

We're all humans, physiologically identical for the most part. It should be expected that our experiences are similar.

It depends if you expierence the same thing or not.

[Dangerrmouse]

It depends if you expierence the same thing or not.

Not necessarily. The interpretation placed on a similar experience may differ.