Our Neuro-Theological Beliefs And Myths
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
11 October
2022
Muhammad And The Apostle Paul Used To Have Such
Epileptic Seizures And Both Laboured Under The Delusion That God And Angels
Were Conversing With Them
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Nowadays,
I'm reading Norman Geschwind's desultory
notes on Neuropsychology and Neuroimaging.
He worked
extensively on a number of religio-theological phenomena and explained them
neurologically. He studied phenomena like seeing fairies, angels, jinn,
stigmata (blood oozing from the pics and statues of revered figures, esp,
revered characters in Christianity), The Day of Judgement (Roz-e-Hashra
or Roz-e-Qayamat ) and reverberations of 'divine' words in the brain
which is actually an abnormality associated with temporal lobe epilepsy.
Muhammad
and the apostle Paul (actually Saul in Hebrew; Paul's Jewish name was Saul; the
Latin name was Paul) used to have such epileptic seizures and both laboured
under the delusion that god and angels were conversing with them. Though
believers, who outnumber non-believers by a humongous margin, will not accept
this, the fact is: Our deep-rooted neurological impressions and imprints
determine our religious beliefs.
Waseem
Rizvi, an apostate and an ex Shia Muslim, who turned his back on Islam
recently, said the same thing though he was unable to explain it from
neurological perspective. Now when he has opted for Hinduism (why on earth did
he opt for an equally useless faith is beyond my ken), he may be using Hindu
religious symbols and icons but according to a Calcutta-based neurologist, his
ingrained Muslim belief system, despite rejecting Islam, shall continue to
colour and cloud his neo-Hindu religious perceptions and will continue to clash
with the new faith and its religious implications. This needs some elaboration
with instances.
Neurologists
have found in NDEs ( Near Death Experiences) that a person who underwent an
NDE, his or her experiences had the imprints of the respective religious
upbringing. For example, a devout Hindu NDE survivor would invariably see
Yamraj ( the god of death riding a buffalo), a follower of ISKCON would listen
to the cadences of Krishna's 'mellifluous' flute and see his lotus feet, a
Christian would see Christ coming and consoling him, a Sikh may see one of the
10 Gurus or all in that state of deep(est) slumber. And this actually happened
when one Harkeerat Singh Jatta at Montreal Medical College, Canada, returned
from his NDE. He described that the experience was very calming and all Gurus
talked to him! He further added that Gurus advised him to go back to earth and
wipe out Muslims as two Sikh Gurus, Guru Arjan Dev and Tegh Bahadur were
executed by Mughals!
Now that
was the manifestation and neural concretization of his own beliefs as he simply
abhorred Muslims, who executed his Gurus and massacred his parents during
Partition.
One
Pakistani Muslim Hamid Cheema from Faisalabad erstwhile Layalpur, went to SA to
meet his sister and there he met with a horrible accident. Somehow, he survived
and after regaining consciousness, he told the medicos at a Cape Town Hospital
that he saw himself standing among the ocean of Muslims at Maidan-e-Hashra
waiting anxiously to know their future after Allah's verdict. This incident
happened in 1994 and The Lancet carried it in one of its editorials in 1995.
The point is, all believers reacted according to their religious beliefs
drilled into their psyche by their parents, society, clergy, scriptures, Mullas,
Maulvis, priests etc. over the years and generations.
"
Religion, in a neuro-theological sense and context, is more than a spiritual or
pious experience. It's the sum total of our constantly adding esoteric beliefs
stored in our neurons, " opined Dr Wayle Christoph, former Head of the
Department of Neurosciences at Queen's Medical College, UK.
So, when
people talk about the prehistoric religious beliefs like Chitragupta writing
Hindus' deeds and misdeeds for the allotment of a place or pad in heaven and
hell just like a government official allots a piece of land to you when you're
in this world, Christians belief that Jesus will intervene on their behalf on
the Last Day of Judgment and Muslims believe that there'll be a mad scramble on
that specific day when their Allah will be the ultimate arbiter, Daavar-e-Hashra,
dispatching Muslims either to heaven or hell as per their Aamaal. All
our worldly desires, wishes and dreams manifest themselves through our wishful
neuro-theological concretizations.
Humans are
bundles of neurons. We carry our religiosity in our DNA and keep thinking
foolishly as to what shall happen when we cease to exist. The reason being our
terribly devolved state of existence. Since, the show, nay this charade, must
go on, we've amassed an endless 'treasure' of religious myths to believe in our
own lies. Eventually, humans are hoist with their own petards. " Such
crawling creeps, I refuse to be one of them " ( a character in a novel written
by Marcel Proust). I'm in full agreement with the legendary novelist.
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A regular columnist for New Age Islam,
Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to
Islam. He has contributed articles to world's premier publications in several
languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/neuro-theological-beliefs-myths/d/128150
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