This is a most interesting article, but like so many of its kind, it is all up to the journalist to get it right, and they don't always, or they do not think people are interested in the details.

It would be interesting to know if Cosimo Urgesi is religious himself, just wondering because lately I have seen a number of articles on research on various matters concerning religion or belief, among which one on belief and health, and they were all sponsored by a Christian organisation. But maybe it is a trend in research.
It also has a bearing on what questions he asked in the survey.

I wonder what was his reason for asking his informers about both religion and sprituality, seeng how the article shows that it is debated whether the two should be kept apart.

I miss a proper definition on religion, and much more one on spirituality! Also on 'self-transcendence,' and 'a transcendant human condition'.

It does say that the team surveyed 'the spirituality of a person by scoring their level of self-transcendence, which is an allegedly unvarying personality trait that abstractedly reflects a decreased ability to sense individual self and largely identify oneself as incorporated with the universe.'

So, by way of asking, he is trying to determine an alleged trait which abstractedly reflects a decreased awareness of self, and a larger identification of being one with the universe.

So, if he sees spirtuality as being sort of the opposite of an awareness of self, why does he not continue to use purely scientific methods to investigate that?

Right back in the 60's it was discovered that people who meditated had different brain waves from people who were sleeping, or awake.
There are lots of situations where people loose track of self: apart from meditating, being creative or seriously intent on something, listening to music, or being completely exhuasted, for instance. It would be easy enough to measure people's brain waves during such situations, wouldn't it? And much more reliable.

I can understand that spirituality is seen as having to do with a feeling being one with the universe - after all we are made of the same stuff, and it is not to be wondered if that can be felt. Indeed, it can.

But why does he see a sense of self as versus transcendence? As if you have more of one, you must have less of the other, and vice verca.
The way I see it, they are just two different mind sets.

I know this is not what is meant, but it seems to be that he is saying that religion comes from brain damage!


Quote Originally Posted by denuseri View Post
According to reaserchers in California:

"Is humankind hardwired to be spiritual? Recent research suggests that we just might be, as scientists from the University of Udine in Italy identify areas of the brain in which levels of activation regulate spirituality. This study, published in the February 11 issue of the journal Neuron, serves as a first step in pinpointing the biological root of spiritual and religious feelings. Looking for a direct link between neural activity and spiritualism, Dr. Cosimo Urgesi and his colleagues interviewed eighty-eight cancer patients with brain tumors of varying severities before and after their surgeries. They discovered that the people who had tumors removed in the left and right posterior parietal regions of the brain showed a considerable increase in self-transcendence. Though spirituality in many ways is seen as separate from religion, both incorporate a complex of attitudes and behaviors relating to a transcendent human condition. Religious beliefs and practices have been a source of succor and conflict for nearly all of recorded human history, making this study significant in that it paves the path for future investigation that can advance our understanding of the neurobiological reasoning behind disparate outlooks on spirituality. While some experts discourage comparing the neural mechanisms involved in spirituality with those of religious practices, the causative link between brain functioning level and state of transcendence should be further pursued as it may lead to answers of why humans are religious, and potentially reveal our genetic predisposition for belief."

"Previous reports confirm the relationship between spirituality and frontal, parietal, and temporal cortexes. In particular, the brain's right parietal lobe defines the aspect of "me." According to Brick Johnstone, a neuropsychologist at University of Missouri, this region assesses the body's position and location in space. Any modifications to the area would disrupt this awareness and feelings of individuality would fade. In essence, the sensation of transcendence would be heightened. By comparing imaging of damaged brains and the subjects self-described spirituality, one study, published in the journal Zygon in 2008, provides evidence that people with less active parietal lobes (i.e., "Me-Definers") are more likely to be spiritual. However, the research conducted by Dr. Urgesi is the first to suggest a causative link. His team surveyed the spirituality of a person by scoring their level of self-transcendence, which is an allegedly unvarying personality trait that abstractedly reflects a decreased ability to sense individual self and largely identify oneself as incorporated with the universe. In order to gauge self-transcendence (or ST), patients underwent formal interviews focusing on their level of religiosity, report of personal mystical experiences or extrasensorial consciousness (including the presence of God), and acceptance of their illness. "Damage to posterior parietal areas induced unusually fast changes of a stable personality dimension related to transcendental self-referential awareness," Dr. Urgesi concluded. Because a specific area of the brain closely controls this trait, spirituality and religious behaviors may be a direct result of diminished activity in the parietal area."

In other words...since people are spiritual and religious and any number of other things, and since in science we have found that structure equals function in all things from basic atomic principles to higher brain function...then there must be a physical area of the brain that governs said spiritualism and religion and any other number of human enmotive responses to stimuli.

Ergo we are to a certian degree "hardwired" to be what we are.
All people are not religious, and many would not say that they are spiritual either.
I do think that there is no basis for any theory of 'hard-wireing' of us. It sis an expression that has been so abused lately.

My own personal conviction is that we are all spiritual, in the sense that we are made of the same stuff as our surroundings, and that I think that if you want, you can feel it.