Is There a God? Go Ask Alice

David Koepsell wrote the following article in The Free Inquiry magazine:











Anonymous said...

The basis is actually a criteria.

Valerie said...


What's interesting about this comment is that this may be exactly what all religious experiences do. The magazine "Science and Spirit" had an article a while back discussing traditional religious architecture including the fact that very high ceilings create a sense of spacial disorientation (managed by the cerebellum?) that is associated with feelings of wonder. It can be replicated in non-religious settings of similar proportions.

Similarly, we have lots of information about the way that religious services have evolved to take advantage of hypnotic techniques including chant, incense, rhythm, and repetition. We know how they take advantage of group process. We know how they take advantage of popular culture. (Like hypnosis, an optimal level of familiarity reduces critical thinking and increases comfort.) We know how they leverage the part of the human psyche that projects other human minds into the world (see Religion Explained by Pascal Boyer.)

The fact that psilocybens produce these experiences chemically rather than mechanically has little bearing on their ultimate significance. When feelings of transcendence are produced by mechanical means (cathedrals, recitation, repetition, glossolalia, hypnotic induction) these stimuli are then producing mediating chemical changes in the brain. At the level of brain chemistry we're all on drugs all the time.

Benny said...

Thanks, Lee, for a fascinating read :) Though I do wish the article linked to the original study. Here's a bit more info on the methodology employed in the study:

Benny said...

Sorry John, I meant to thank you, not Lee (haven't had my morning coffee yet).

maybeitsnonsense said...

i have had chemically induced mystical experiences- some good and some terrible- I have also had mystical experience that were not 'chemically induced' The funny thing is that once I became a 'christian' I discredited the 'chemically induced' experiences- this is because drugs are 'bad' and cause you to think and see unreal things- hmmm- interesting. I would like to have more information on studies that valerie is talking about---

Anonymous said...
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maybeitsnonsense said...

it can be said - athiesm is not based on a 'experience'- therefore in comparison to a mystical experience it would not be chemically induced- this blog is talking about "the experience" and provides another explanation to those that claim to have a "genuine encounter" with a living god-

but then again-all thoughts are chemical- so it can be said in this way -athiesm and all beliefs are chemically induced.

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Lekatt said...

Mainly interested in your take on near death experiences. I have been studying NDEs for over 20 years and can say no drug ever produced a real full-blown near death experience. The research now being done on NDEs by qualified scientific institutions show evidence that consciousness and brain are separate, and consciousness lives on after the death of the brain.

Here is a link to one of my articles:

JC said...
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Anonymous said...

Down the old memory hole!

Hey, remember the book "1984" where Winston's friend the poet got put in a "re-education" camp because he left the word "God" at the end of a rhyme?

Thats where you'd take us if you could.