Holy visions elude scientists
By Raj Persuad (Filed: 20/03/2003)

Does the biological structure of our brains program us to believe in
God? Recent advances in "neurotheology" have even prompted some
scientists to propose they can induce the kind of holy visions of
prophets, even in those who have never experienced religious belief.

Dr Michael Persinger of Laurentian University, Canada, has devised a
special helmet that uses electromagnetic fields to induce electrical
changes in the brain's temporal lobes, which are linked with
religious belief.

Testing time for Dawkins

So confident is he that God is all in the mind, or the brain at
least, that Dr Persinger claims he can induce mystical feelings in a
majority of those willing to don his Transcranial Magnetic Stimulator.

So the BBC Science series Horizon took up the challenge by putting
his hat to the ultimate test: could he get arch-sceptic and militant
atheist Prof Richard Dawkins to start believing in God by
electrically massaging his temporal lobes?

Prof Dawkins, author of A Devil's Chaplain, was the ideal candidate
for the latest test of whether science can now explain away religion,
given his famously virulent views on religion, attacking it as
a "virus of the mind" and an "infantile regression".

The experiment is based on the recent finding that some sufferers
from temporal lobe epilepsy, a neurological disorder caused by
chaotic electrical discharges in the temporal lobes of the brain,
seem to experience devout hallucinations that bear a striking
resemblance to the mystical experiences of holy figures such as St
Paul and Moses.

This theory received a recent boost from Prof Gregory Holmes, a
paediatric neurologist at Dartmouth Medical School, who claims that
one of the principal founders of the Seventh Day Adventist Movement,
Ellen White, in fact suffered from temporal lobe epilepsy.

She was seen as divinely inspired as a result of her religious
visions. The new claim that her visions were, in fact, a result of a
brain disorder could undermine the basis of a religious movement
followed by more than 12 million people worldwide.

If strong religious feelings are no less a part of brain function
than those linked with hunger and sex, the ultimate test would be to
summon up mystical and religious beliefs experimentally. Indeed, it
would actually be in Prof Dawkins's interests to experience religion
for the first time under Dr Persinger's helmet.

After all, this would prove that mystical visions could at last be
controlled by science and were no longer just at the mercy of a
supernatural entity.

Unfortunately, during the experiment, while Prof Dawkins had some
strange experiences and tinglings, none of them prompted him to take
up any new faith. "It was a great disappointment," he said. "Though I
joked about the possibility, I of course never expected to end up
believing in anything supernatural. But I did hope to share some of
the feelings experienced by religious mystics when contemplating the
mysteries of life and the cosmos."

Dr Persinger has explained away the failure of this Transcranial
Magnetic Stimulator. Before donning the helmet, Prof Dawkins had
scored low on a psychological scale measuring proneness to temporal
lobe sensitivity.

Recent studies on identical and fraternal twin pairs raised apart
suggest that 50 per cent of our religious interests are influenced by
genes. It seems Prof Dawkins is genetically predisposed not to
believe.

Dr Raj Persaud is a consultant psychiatrist at the Maudsley Hospital,
London. His latest book, From the Edge of the Couch (Bantam Press),
is available for £11.99 plus £1.99 p&p. To order please call
Telegraph Books Direct on 0870 155 7222.

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