/sci/ - Science & Math

Imagine a road paved through the woods. An atheist may view this road as a simple tool, made possible by the interaction between cement and water, paved by specialists to be the most sensible route in relation to the system of roads that's already been mapped for that particular area. A religious person doesn't have that much interest in minor details and sees the road only for the purpose it serves, as a path to guide you and a foundation to carry you through with ease. Both are merely the interpretations made by our differently developed brains of the same sensory information we perceived.
Differently developed brains do not mean one is more intelligent, either.

Take languages for example. If someone who was raised as an English speaker hears the word "ananas", they're brains quickly scan it for familiarity and eventually interpret it to be meaningless noise. To a person who was raised to speak Portuguese, however, hearing the word "ananas" immediately interprets the word to envision a spiny yellow fruit in their imagination and they may even imagine the taste of a pineapple. You say "pineapple" to them, and it's interpreted as meaningless noise.

The exact same neurological process takes place when each hears their native word for pineapple, the exact same areas of the brain are utilized and the same biochemical pathways are observed. But, when an English speaker sees someone salivating over the word ananas, he doesn't understand it at all, because his brain isn't wired to make the same interpretation to THAT specific word.

Our brains automatically take in what we perceive and make a decision on how to interpret it based on past experience, after which the information is labeled depending on the individual. To a child of overbearing cautious parents, the racing heart rate associated with the top of a roller coaster is interpreted as anxiety so they will label their emotional response as fear. To the child with easy-going accepting parents, however, the same exact physiological reaction is interpreted instead as anticipation, so they'll label their emotional response as excitement instead. One feels danger and the other feels fun, but their bodies physically DO the same thing.

>>4853202
>>4853200
You didn't even address the point

>>4853202
This isn't just one of my usual philosophical religious musings either. I've read up on and compared the neurological changes that take place in spiritual experience and a certain self-treatment method for OCD, and they're extremely similar. The OCD self-treatment technique involves 4 steps proven to physically rewire the person's underlying biochemical imbalance to resemble normal activity. I noticed the steps sound familiar to how some people suggest you use colloquial prayer and Jesus to help improve your life.

>>4853205
Not done yet.

>>4853207
1.) Relabel: Call unwanted thoughts and urges what they are, obsessive or compulsive; learning to clearly recognize the reality of the situation and not to be tricked by the medical condition.
-In prayer, it's relabeling an urge to cheat on your wife as a temptation by Satan. To remember it isn't right, and that you are a faithful man because that is what the true law of God says to be.
2.) Reattribute: Answering "Why?". Recognizing that the obsession or compulsion isn't your choice, it doesn't make who you are. It is merely a biochemical imbalance causing your basal ganglia to malfunction, resulting in your repetitive undesired thoughts or actions outside of your control. By explaining its mechanics in reduced terms, you can honestly feel it has no true significance, and you can beat it.
-In prayer, it's communicating with God and recognizing that your sexual desire isn't who you are, it's not what your heart wants but what the devil is planting in your imagination. Remembering the passage from I Chronicles 28:9 "the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee;". The personal connection you make in this conversation is crucial, you no longer feel like a doomed sinner, because it's not who you are. You recognize that Satan has no significance on you, and that God always triumphs him. The strength that results is the necessary first step to overcoming your undesirable thoughts with God's help.

3.) Refocus: Answering "How? What can I do?". Keeping in mind that your obsessions and compulsions are false messages, and you can ignore or walk around them by refocusing your attention to more constructive behaviors, doing something useful and positive. In time, this step is what has been shown by PET scans to change brain chemistry. When you change your behavior, you change your brain.
-In prayer and spirituality, by following the word of Jesus, you use your strength gained from your personal conversations with God to escape Satan's addictive temptations by participating in positive and uplifting behavior and church activities instead. Join the church and become woven into the community, the temptations lose all of their strength when you are truly able to devalue them for what they are, trickery.
4.) Revalue: Learning to devalue obsessive thoughts and compulsive urges as soon as they intrude, or even anticipate them and prevent them before they can try. This is possible through your newly rewired brain chemistry, that you were able to do yourself through dedicated refocusing. You have shown that you are not helpless, and you are in full control of your thoughts and emotions, and thus you can completely revalue your entire life.
-Through prayer and trust in God, you are free from life's temptations, you have been shown that you are not helpless to life's evils and the game of chance, and you can be in full control of a positive life when you have Jesus to guide you, with God anything is possible. Congratulations, you've been saved.

>>4853222
Brain pathway of the OCD problem:
>In basal ganglia, the dopaminergic system is malfunctioning.
>Function of the putamen (regulates movement, fucntions with the caudate nucleus as the "gear-shifters" of actions and thoughts) is impaired.
>Caudate nucleus can't shift without proper putamen function. Brain gets "stuck in gear", thus the same action may be repeated by the person over and over without good reason.
>Orbital prefrontal cortex (integrates current perceptions and ideas with memory via the hippocampus) shows increased energy metabolism as the person repeats, seems to overheat so to speak, showing that they're registering the action in memory as it's being repeated or thought about.
>But without the dopaminergic system to regulate glutamate (excitatory neurotransmitter that facilitates interactions between the frontal lobes and other structures), glutamate can't stimulate the hypothalamus to release the beta-endorphin necessary to increase activity in the rest of the prefrontal cortex (crucial to free will, enables us to act out decisions and control emotional responses.)
>Without the correct prefrontal activity, they're consciously experiencing their actions but the movements cannot be regulated and the person completely loses their sense of free will.

>>4853220
This is only how I noticed they SOUND similar. Going from books on OCD to books on Neurotheology to find out if they are, I learned they actually ARE the same process of change. Everyday processes in the brain are typically too minute and fleeting to measure, which is why most of what we know about the areas of the brain is derived from studies of brain damage. However, we can also learn the basic neurological process we normally use that are too minute to be differentiated from all the simultaneously occurring processes, by studying the extreme of the particular process. In this case, decision making, free will, and self control with OCD.
So instead of comparing it with the minute process of prayer (which results in the same areas being activated with the same feelings but just not as overwhelmingly) I'll use the deep mental process of meditative yoga as an example that we can notice more easily. (Everyday prayer can be compared in strength with trying to keep yourself from giving in to sugar cravings, while the mentally strong practice of Yoga Nidra meditation can be compared relative to the debilitating compulsions of serious OCD symptoms)

>>4853225
Brain pathway during Yoga Nidra meditation in which one aims to become consciously aware of the deep sleep state of their own body, demonstrating remarkable total control over their mind and thoughts:
>Begin meditation. Basal ganglia show an increase in levels of dopamine.
>Dopaminergic system regulates glutamate with abnormal efficiency, increasing glutamate levels a ton.
>Glutamate stimulates hypothalamus to release beta-endorphin. Which increases activity in the prefrontal cortex.
>With the prefrontal cortex buzzing with focused energy, the meditator is able to control the relaxation of his body and assume total control of his mind.

>>4853232
>One person uses an intricate and detailed scientific explanation of how they're brain works to gain confidence in their ability to control it through the comfort they get out of being able to understand precisely how it works.
>One person gives their faith and trust to a loving and all powerful creator, they derive their strength from Him and surrender their will to a savior that they devoutly believe will guide it better than anyone else can, and by following Him they can overcome all obstacles in life.
>Another person practices deep introspection, gives up all worldly desires not just to seek the truth but to patiently meditate with total peace until they realize Nirvana and the truth is revealed to them not by knowing it but by becoming one with it. With great focus and strong mind, they can control the flow of energy throughout their body. By becoming one with the universe and all things, obstacles of life become nonexistent.

>>4853226
After weeks of the aforementioned OCD behavioral therapy, patients were able to repair their malfunctioning pathways, their PET scans showing a drastic decrease in the energy metabolism of their left orbital cortex showing the physical progress they've made gaining better control over their thoughts and behavior, without pharmaceutical help.
In order to gain better control of their urges, thoughts, and behaviors, the brains of these different people all showed the same activation pathway and use of the same brain areas. And if you were to trace the processes with a pencil to show the basic progression and path, you would NOT be able to tell the difference!

>>4853238
But in the brain, each of those individuals similar feelings of comfort and confidence result from the same exact physiological combinations of biochemical processes. Like the kids on the roller coaster, they interpret this identical physiological process differently based on their experience and development, and through their interpretations they endow the same exact feeling with their own unique labels:
Reason, Faith, and Qi.
Logical observation and effect, trust and love from a higher power, and the flow of spiritual energy, the yin and yang.
The next time you ask yourself, "How can that person live rejecting God and believing in blind chance? How does that FEEL." or "How can that person put their complete trust in something with 0 evidence besides an old book? How could that possibly FEEL?"
The answer is: the same way you do. Literally.
You now understand the minds of other people a tiny fraction more.

>>4853243
I got my information from the following publications:

"The Mind & The Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force" by Jeffrey M. Schwartz.

"Why God Won't Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief" by Andrew Newberg.

"The 'God' Part of the Brain." by Matthew Alper.

And I primarily focused on the connection between these two works:

"Brain Lock" by Jeffrey M. Schwartz
"Principles of Neurotheology" by Andrew Newberg.

In case you wanted to know.