People who are religious or spiritual have 'thicker' brains

ketsuko
reply to post by parad0x122

 

Your point? You have to actively use it for it to matter and make a difference.

You can be an intelligent person and still not use it. It won't make any connections and thicken your brain.

One definition of intelligence: The faculty of thought and reason.


So, to be intelligent, you must reason. How then can you say that you can be intelligent, and not develop your cortex? You've just contradicted yourself.

Itisnowagain
Animals are not concerned what happened yesterday or how it will effect tomorrow
Animals are not concerned with how they appear.

As you are not able to communicate with animals you cannot be sure of that.

Stormdancer777

BlueMule
It could be because 'religious' people tend to engage in beneficial mystical techniques such as meditation on a regular basis.

The effect of meditation on brain structure: cortical thickness mapping and diffusion tensor imaging

The result of prayer and meditation on the brain, that's a possibility.

A possibility that gets stronger all the time!

Zen Meditation: Thicker Brains Fend Off Pain

Feb. 24, 2010 — People can reduce their sensitivity to pain by thickening their brain, according to a new study published in a special issue of the American Psychological Association journal, Emotion. Researchers from the Université de Montréal made their discovery by comparing the grey matter thickness of Zen meditators and non-meditators. They found evidence that practicing the centuries-old discipline of Zen can reinforce a central brain region (anterior cingulate) that regulates pain.

antonia

Itisnowagain
Animals are not concerned what happened yesterday or how it will effect tomorrow
Animals are not concerned with how they appear.

As you are not able to communicate with animals you cannot be sure of that.

I watch animals and see that they see and hear what there is to see and hear.
They are not lost in ideas of other or things in time.

reply to post by Itisnowagain


You can't prove that. Actually, studies are starting to show that certain species of animals may not only think, but think very similar to humans. Take dolphins for instance, they actually CHOOSE to augment their reality via taking in small doses of poisonous puffer fish chemicals. So if an animal chooses to do anything, let alone something as advanced a concept as choosing to be "high" to change up the pace of everyday life, how then can you claim that they do not think?

I read somewhere this "We are spiritual beings having human experience" and it resonate quite well how i feel to.
I been raised in Ev-Luth Christian family and i always have believed in The Creator, im not very loyal to a religion (becouse i feel like they demand all my spirituality for one religion) but i like to study them in generally since they have huge sources for wisdom and history etc and to me many religions feel very similiar to each other even they look totally different, their teaching may be in very different forms but still they can have the same point in center and i cant decide what is more real version to me, so i basicly take in what ever resonates with my being and trying to understant this way better who i am and what is mine (life) purpose and so on.

I also play with alot of different theories in my mind and i read from many ppl theirs mind and also fit their theories to mine, also i like to study science some what and try to understant their perspective also and i find dream world very interesting also, its great teacher and its highly intelligent part of us, sometimes my dreams feel more real than awake world. Just some toughts

To me spirituality it self is very important, it feels like its the purpose of my existance and more i understant it better i feel about everything and anything.

Itisnowagain
Animals are not concerned with how they appear.

Self-Awareness - Classic Mirror Test

Science thinks otherwise.

parad0x122
reply to post by Itisnowagain

 

You can't prove that. Actually, studies are starting to show that certain species of animals may not only think, but think very similar to humans. Take dolphins for instance, they actually CHOOSE to augment their reality via taking in small doses of poisonous puffer fish chemicals. So if an animal chooses to do anything, let alone something as advanced a concept as choosing to be "high" to change up the pace of everyday life, how then can you claim that they do not think?

Who say dolphins 'choose' to do that?

The knower of God knows it is all just happening and no one is doing anything.
Isn't it just amazing?

reply to post by BlueMule


Good one,

The red part indicates greater activity, and in this case, increased activity is observed in the frontal lobes and the language area of the brain. This is the part of the brain that activates during conversation, and Dr. Newberg believes that for the brain, praying to God in the Judeo-Christian tradition is similar to talking to people. "When we study Buddhist meditation where they are visualizing something, we might expect to see a change or increased activity in the visual part of the brain," Dr. Newberg said.

While observing atheists meditating or "contemplating God," Dr. Newberg did not observe any of the brain activity in the frontal lobe that he observed in religious people. The image below compares brain activity at rest and while the subject is in deep meditation.

this,
While observing atheists meditating or "contemplating God," Dr. Newberg did not observe any of the brain activity in the frontal lobe that he observed in religious people.

So what are the positive affects of activating the frontal lobe? What is negative?
onlinelibrary.wiley.com...
Are brains actually different, and can a person brain change with a personal spiritual experience?
While observing atheists meditating or "contemplating God," Dr. Newberg did not observe any of the brain activity in the frontal lobe that he observed in religious people.

Itisnowagain

The knower of God knows it is all just happening and no one is doing anything.
Isn't it just amazing?

Yeah, but its not paradoxical enough for my taste. Therefore everyone is doing everything too. :p

reply to post by parad0x122


Animals are not 'concerned' with their appearance.

BlueMule

Itisnowagain

The knower of God knows it is all just happening and no one is doing anything.
Isn't it just amazing?

Yeah, but its not paradoxical enough for my taste. Therefore everyone is doing everything too. :p

Yes - everything is doing everything - but what is everything - nothing in particular.

Itisnowagain

parad0x122
reply to post by Itisnowagain

 

The knower of God knows it is all just happening and no one is doing anything.
Isn't it just amazing?

And with that tidbit of religious babble, I bid you adieu. Next thread, I'm over this one.

parad0x122

Itisnowagain

parad0x122
reply to post by Itisnowagain

 

The knower of God knows it is all just happening and no one is doing anything.
Isn't it just amazing?

And with that tidbit of religious babble, I bid you adieu. Next thread, I'm over this one.

edit on 31-12-2013 by parad0x122 because: formatting

Babble? Hardly. Sounds like someone has a thin brain! teehee

High Self-Perception, Low Brain Activity
By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on January 7, 2010

High Self-Perception, Low Brain Activity Researchers have discovered the less you use your brain’s frontal lobes, the more you see yourself through rose-colored glasses.

“In healthy people, the more you activate a portion of your frontal lobes, the more accurate your view of yourself is,” says Jennifer Beer, a University of Texas assistant professor of psychology.

“And the more you view yourself as desirable or better than your peers, the less you use those lobes.”

Those findings are being published in the February edition of the journal NeuroImage.

The natural human tendency to see oneself in a positive light can be helpful and motivating in some situations but detrimental in others, Beer says.

psychcentral.com...

www.causeof.org...

The frontal lobes are involved in:

· motor function,

· problem solving,

· spontaneity,

· memory,

· language,

· initiation,

· judgment,

· impulse control…

· social and sexual behavior.

reply to post by Stormdancer777


What does that have to do with your OP? You are bringing up humanity's propensity for self-delusion. That is not related to solely non-religious people. It actually maybe protective. People who don't engage in that behavior are more likely to be depressed

en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by parad0x122


Why?

Why shut down?

Have you ever prayed or meditated?

If not would you even want to, if not why not?

reply to post by antonia


Looking for low activity vs high activity.

www.andrewnewberg.com...

Two sets of images were taken, showing slightly different parts of the brain. The first image shows that the front part of the brain, which is usually involved in focusing attention and concentration, is more active during meditation. This makes sense since meditation requires a high degree of concentration. The second image (above) shows that there is decreased activity in the parietal lobe. This area of the brain is responsible for giving us a sense of our orientation in space and time. We hypothesized that blocking all sensory and cognitive input into this area during meditation results in the sense of no space and no time which is so often described in meditation. A more complex version of the model from which the hypothesis is based can be found in the paper by Drs. d'Aquili and Newberg entitled, "Religious and Mystical States: A Neuropsychological Substrate" (Zygon 28: 177-200, 1993).

There is something I am noticing here that is very telling, and obvious and coincides with these findings.

But I am gonna keep my mouth shut.

reply to post by parad0x122


Basically, you can have the capacity for enormous intelligence and squander it. I taught at an inner city school and saw it every day. I saw kids who could have gone very far, had the capacity for enormous intelligence, but they chose to not use it. Instead, they lived in the world of the present steeped in their base instincts, desires and emotions, acting more like animals. I also saw kids who went the other way, but it was far more likely they wouldn't bother.

Stormdancer777
reply to post by antonia

 

Looking for low activity vs high activity.

The height of activity doesn't answer any questions pertaining to this. Low activity is not in and of itself bad. Certain areas of the brain normally run at a lower level than others. Religious people have been observed to have a smaller hippocampus

Several studies have revealed that people who practice meditation or have prayed for many years exhibit increased activity and have more brain tissue in their frontal lobes, regions associated with attention and reward, as compared with people who do not meditate or pray. A more recent study revealed that people who have had “born again” experiences have a smaller hippocampus, a part of the brain involved in emotions and memory, than atheists do. These findings, however, are difficult to interpret because they do not clarify whether having larger frontal lobes or a smaller hippocampus causes a person to become more religious or whether being pious triggers changes in these brain regions.

www.scientificamerican.com...

Agian, correlation does not equal causation.

And really, your link involves training one's focus, that is what meditation truly is. Naturally, if you train that you will get more results. It has nothing to do with mystical qualities of religion. There is non-religious meditation as well and it provides the same results.