Projecting words (thoughts) from the Amidah onto the brain

submittted to Martin Heidelberger

I will be surprised if you print my post submission on your website. Nevertheless I thought I would give a try. The question I have for all of you is whether there is any room for spirituality in the basis of mind-brain functions. My precisely is their room for spirituality (religion based) explanations of mechanisms of mind functions.

I found myself suddenly confronted with a blaze of light exploding in front of my windshield as I was half way through the Holland Tunnel. The light disappeared and it was followed by a revelation.

I am an observant Jew and say the same prays each morning afternoon and evening beginning with a short prayer called the Amidah. The prayer has several components starting with belief in God and his directives to how we should live each day of our lives. We also pray that God “favor men with knowledge, and teach mortals understanding. O favor us with the knowledge, the understanding and the insight (judgment) that comes from you. Blessed are you, O Lord, the gracious giver of knowledge.”

Since I have been reading the material on your website Mindsinplay.com I appreciated that these three functions, knowledge, understanding, and judgment are hierarchical built on one another.  That is, knowledge is needed to understand and understanding without judgment would not be very useful. These three functions also map well on the neural circuitry of complex cognitive functions. That is the neural circuitry that is the basis of knowledge representation and retrieval of knowledge is perhaps less evolved than the more complex brain systems needed to appreciate and understand what we know while judgment requires the activation of the most recent brain development frontal and prefrontal lobe functions. Does this make any sense to the neuroscience thinkers that are part of your consortium?

By the way, I just read a story about how brain imaging research can be popularized and formulated to make for theatre of the absurd.  It seems that there is no shortage of speculations about the nature of brain activity associated with prayer or the spiritual experience of interacting with God. In a recent headline in the Huffington Post we read that “Brain’s God Spot (has been) Discovered by Scientists.” Wow. We are forever bombarded by articles indicating that all of the human mysteries seem to be solved with brain imagery. It is like a long standing joke that is forever fooling the naïve reader. Obviously if you are praying or thinking about God that experience has to be associated with brain activity. How could it be otherwise? If interested in m ore about this topic read Diane Beck’s critical article in Perspectives on Psychological Science or a summary and listing of similar research on the website http://ow.ly/3F6mt.

Respectfully

TG