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#Post#: 9107--------------------------------------------------
The Incredible Shrinking Brain
By: Kerry Date: September 20, 2014, 3:05 pm
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Did you know your religion may be shrinking your brain?
There's a scientific study that says it can.
From plosone.org
HTML http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0017006:
Despite a growing interest in the ways spiritual beliefs and
practices are reflected in brain activity, there have been
relatively few studies using neuroimaging data to assess
potential relationships between religious factors and structural
neuroanatomy. This study examined prospective relationships
between religious factors and hippocampal volume change using
high-resolution MRI data of a sample of 268 older adults.
Religious factors assessed included life-changing religious
experiences, spiritual practices, and religious group
membership. Hippocampal volumes were analyzed using the GRID
program, which is based on a manual point-counting method and
allows for semi-automated determination of region of interest
volumes. Significantly greater hippocampal atrophy was observed
for participants reporting a life-changing religious experience.
Significantly greater hippocampal atrophy was also observed from
baseline to final assessment among born-again Protestants,
Catholics, and those with no religious affiliation, compared
with Protestants not identifying as born-again. These
associations were not explained by psychosocial or demographic
factors, or baseline cerebral volume. Hippocampal volume has
been linked to clinical outcomes, such as depression, dementia,
and Alzheimer's Disease. The findings of this study indicate
that hippocampal atrophy in late life may be uniquely influenced
by certain types of religious factors.
I think some religion could affect the brain. I've met people
with "born again" claims who sometimes held beliefs that
contradicted things in the Bible. No matter what you said to
them, they wouldn't or couldn't doubt that they were right about
everything they believed. They would say they believed all the
Bible but then felt free to hold views that contradicted it.
I think it would drive me a little crazy if I were like that.
I met a man online who once said Adam and Eve were deceived.
When someone tried to tell him he was wrong and the Bible said
Adam was not deceived, this man would not admit being wrong. He
couldn't, I guess. He seemed to think his salvation depended on
his belief that every thought he had came from the Holy Spirit.
If he doubted that, he might be damned; so he preferred to
contradict the Bible. You could see him going crazy about it.
Then there were the condemning judgmental types. Wouldn't it
drive you crazy trying to prove how superior you were all the
time when inside you knew you weren't any better than anyone
else? I think it might shrink my brain.
#Post#: 9112--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Incredible Shrinking Brain
By: Runner Date: September 20, 2014, 7:33 pm
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Interesting read. Maybe with the real spiritual people..like
prayer intercessors who spend hours on their knees...their
spirit and soul gets bigger and their brain gets smaller.
Maybe that is the increasing and decreasing that John the
Baptist spoke of :P :D
( not that in all seriousness I would want a smaller brain, mine
is small enough already!! :'( )
#Post#: 9119--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Incredible Shrinking Brain
By: Kerry Date: September 20, 2014, 8:38 pm
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It's probably not a good thing since that kind of brain is
connected with depression, dementia, and Alzheimer's Disease.
I'd like to do a study on the hellfire and brimstone type.
Some of them strike me as depressed. Sometimes I wonder if
they're there -- it's like hearing a phonograph recording that
repeats things over and again.
#Post#: 9124--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Incredible Shrinking Brain
By: coldwar Date: September 21, 2014, 6:35 am
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This is of serious interest to me, having had a brain surgery.
As I've mentioned here before, my brain now has two multi-point
wires pushed down through it into the Basal Ganglia, which is
located deep in the mid-brain. The wires are connected to a
Neuro Stimulator which regulates excessive signalling that
causes abnormal movements = Dystonia. If you need to know more,
Google Dystonia and DBS.
Up until around early 2010, all was fine. After that, in order
to keep my abnormal head / neck twisting under control, I had to
have my Stimulator turned up to a point where my arms and left
hand were beginning to have painful spasms - it was as if the
Stimulator was now spreading the abnormality around a bit,
instead of firing it in the one spot that counts. After many
unsuccessful mis-adjustments of pulse width and amplitude, I
finally asked the surgeon if my brain could be shrinking, and
thus changing the position of these important Core Neurons with
relation to the tips of the implanted wires. He said "impossible
- think of the wires as two long needles implanted inside a
cauliflower - it doesn't change". Thinking about this, I thought
how a cauliflower must shrink as it ages, losing it's moisture
after it is harvested - I said this to him, but he still
wouldn't budge.
What I had wanted the surgeon to do was to switch the
stimulation over to another one of the four wires on each side -
this can be done via their computer, which couples magnetically
to the Stimulator which is installed in my chest, just under the
skin.. He refused, insisting that because he'd gotten the "sweet
spot" correct in the beginning, everything is now locked down
solid and that kind of change isn't required. Besides, he also
said that I cannot ever again have an MRI and therefore he
couldn't know which of the other wires to switch to, and the MRI
would damage the wires, causing them to bend. I think what I
might be really up against here is Canada's universal health
care - as good as it is, the public funding required for it is
what's doing all the shrinking, and in order to perform what I'm
requesting would require a couple of days and nights in the
hospital, so they can know if they got it right. I suppose this
system is trying to avoid as many hospitalizations as possible.
Just as an aside, when my stimulator (the part locate in my
chest) was replaced for the first time, due to dying batteries,
the hospital beds filled up so fast with "emergencies", they
couldn't provide me a bed for an overnight stay, until the
sedation wore off. I wonder what these "emergencies" really
were, which are being paid for completely with Canadian
Government funding? Anyway, I insisted that they replace the
unit, with me un-sedated. They warned me it would hurt like hell
during the procedure, but I was not going to go home with dying
batteries, so they did the replacement with me receiving
Acupuncture, instead of sedation. I think I've told of this
event here before.
The problem seemed to worsen for awhile, but then stopped
getting worse in around late 2012. I can live with it, but I
wake up with extremely painful arms and hands, which goes away
to some degree as the day progresses. I do need to take
pain-killers also.
I can't correlate these changes to changes in my spiritual
beliefs, which are constantly growing, I think. It was after the
initial surgery in 2008 when I began believing in UR instead of
hell-fire. At this time, I also became non-religious and stopped
going to church, switching my ways so as to get out of the
self-aggrandizing religious environment, and into a place of
spiritual service toward men in Prison. My motivation to make
this change came out of a wonderful thankfulness, and a growing
love for humanity, as "God so loves the world".
Maybe my brain is getting bigger, and not smaller? I suppose it
would have the same effect, changing the position of the wires
in relation to the "sweet spot" neurons. It is unfortunate that
I cannot have an MRI so it can be seen what's happening either
way.
#Post#: 9125--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Incredible Shrinking Brain
By: coldwar Date: September 21, 2014, 8:22 am
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Observations - so it would seem from this study that
"Non-Born_Again Protestant" is the thing to be, eh?
This translates loosely into Episcopal / C of E / Anglican,
depending where you live; United Methodist / United Church, and
some Presbyterian. I noticed this:
"Limitations include the geographically and religiously
constrained nature of the sample (largely Southeastern
Protestant Christians), as well as the small sample size of
participants reporting a life-changing religious experience."
The limitations would seemingly cancel each other out, if I'm
reading that correctly.
I wonder if perceptions of "born again" and "life changing
religious experience" manifest differently, or similarly? For a
very long time in my life, I counted myself as "born-again", but
now tend to play that down - now I'm unsure of what that means -
Kerry, I see where you're coming from concerning this term, but
haven't really made up my mind about it, because, whether "born
again" or not, my religious experience was without a doubt, a
life-changing conversion with a definite date, time and place
for me. I freely and gladly say I was "converted"... even after
changing from hell-fire to UR, I still don't hesitate to use the
word "converted" regarding my initial experience.
Perhaps what this study is really seeing is the stubborn refusal
of "born agains" to change their minds about certain things -
they're stuck on a 6000 year old earth, they're stuck on
right-wing politics, they're stuck on anti-abortion, they're
stuck on specific modes of worship, depending totally on the
church they were born-again into - things like that. Many
born-agains (with many exceptions of course) suddenly see
everything as finalized, set in stone and unchangeable from the
moment of their conversion experience onward, as if they
suddenly have come to know everything there is to know - this is
seen by them as having found rest - a positive thing. I know,
because I was like that for years.
But the mind that cannot change cannot grow, right? If the
growth of mind is stopped, then perhaps this can actually be
measured by the physical size of certain brain regions.
#Post#: 9129--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Incredible Shrinking Brain
By: Kerry Date: September 21, 2014, 11:56 pm
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[quote author=coldwar link=topic=867.msg9125#msg9125
date=1411305772]
Observations - so it would seem from this study that
"Non-Born_Again Protestant" is the thing to be, eh?
This translates loosely into Episcopal / C of E / Anglican,
depending where you live; United Methodist / United Church, and
some Presbyterian. I noticed this:
"Limitations include the geographically and religiously
constrained nature of the sample (largely Southeastern
Protestant Christians), as well as the small sample size of
participants reporting a life-changing religious experience."
The limitations would seemingly cancel each other out, if I'm
reading that correctly.[/quote]I think they would mostly cancel
each other out.
[quote]I wonder if perceptions of "born again" and "life
changing religious experience" manifest differently, or
similarly?[/quote]Hard to say, really. They would probably be
different for different people even inside one particular
church; but it still poses interesting questions. What about
this belief creates this danger?
[quote]For a very long time in my life, I counted myself as
"born-again", but now tend to play that down - now I'm unsure of
what that means - Kerry, I see where you're coming from
concerning this term, but haven't really made up my mind about
it, because, whether "born again" or not, my religious
experience was without a doubt, a life-changing conversion with
a definite date, time and place for me. I freely and gladly say
I was "converted"... even after changing from hell-fire to UR, I
still don't hesitate to use the word "converted" regarding my
initial experience.[/quote]Their use of the word is not really
all that Biblical. It is based on the conversation with
Nicodemus; and the people who take their belief from that
passage cannot explain the rest of the passage. Nor can they
explain John's comment about the person who is born of the
Spirit not sinning.
[quote]Perhaps what this study is really seeing is the stubborn
refusal of "born agains" to change their minds about certain
things - they're stuck on a 6000 year old earth, they're stuck
on right-wing politics, they're stuck on anti-abortion, they're
stuck on specific modes of worship, depending totally on the
church they were born-again into - things like that. Many
born-agains (with many exceptions of course) suddenly see
everything as finalized, set in stone and unchangeable from the
moment of their conversion experience onward, as if they
suddenly have come to know everything there is to know - this is
seen by them as having found rest - a positive thing. I know,
because I was like that for years. [/quote]It's a type of
thinking that in my views seeks solid answers that are based
more on wishful thinking than real evidence. Their "self-worth"
and "future salvation" seems to be tied into those ideas so they
aren't apt to give them up easily.
Consider how they used the word "saved" for example. They speak
of themselves as being saved already when the Bible (for the
most part) refers to salvation in the future after finishing the
race. Nothing seems able to alter their minds.
[quote]But the mind that cannot change cannot grow, right? If
the growth of mind is stopped, then perhaps this can actually be
measured by the physical size of certain brain regions.[/quote]
I think maybe the conflict of ideas is what is short-circuiting
parts of the brain. "I don't want to think about that" or "I
can't believe that" seems to be in play. Their minds seem to
fear damnation if they doubt some of their closely held beliefs.
To me, it looks like idolatry of ideas. I'm not sure they
even know the real God. They seem to have ideas about God that
are substitutes. They also tend to make an idol of the Bible,
making various claims -- but then do not really take what it
says that seriously if it clashes with their ideas that promise
them they are "saved" and "born again."
The essential problem seems to be trying to hold to opposing
ideas at the same time -- what James calls being double minded.
I sometimes call this dualism. The idea of being "saved"
tells them on one hand that they're okay with God; but on the
other hand, some of them feel terribly unworthy. Some run
themselves down as well as everyone else as worthless sinners.
Their idea seems to be that God is willing to save worthless
creatures who shouldn't be saved because they're are vile
beings. It's a strange idea to me to think that God is going to
save the wicked if they only say something like "I accept Jesus
as my savior."
It may be a "self-esteem" issue at work where people vacillate
between feeling inferior and superior?
#Post#: 9352--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Incredible Shrinking Brain
By: twinc Date: October 19, 2014, 5:41 pm
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It is quite simple really - it is adult humans who complicate it
all - it is as per Jn.20:31 but this is seemingly very difficult
if not impossible for adults as "the sons of reason who take as
bride knowledge and reject the dream that is denied" oh wisdom
of the mind of man o'learned talk o ceaseless brain when will we
learn the hidden plan when will we learn to love again"[Derek
Neville] - twinc
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