From: "Santosh Helekar" <chimbel...@yahoo.com>
--- On Tue, 3/3/09, Fr. Ivo C da Souza <icso...@bsnl.in> wrote:
I corrected Dr.Santosh Helekar, who quoted Dr.Mario, saying: "the mystical
experiences are mediated by several brain regions and
systems", and misinterpreted the word "mediated" as a denial of God's
>reality.
The above assertion is bogus. I did not provide any such interpretation or
misinterpretation of the word "mediated". Fr. Ivo is clearly fantasizing
that he corrected me. He is giving you false information regarding me and
recent my post on this topic on Goanet. Here is the link to that post of
mine:
http://www.mail-archive.com/goanet@lists.goanet.org/msg41867.html
Mario Beauregard has published only two short papers on mystical
experiences in professional scientific literature. In those papers, he has
invoked neither God nor soul in his interpretations. Science has nothing
to do with these supernatural concepts. What Fr. Ivo says on the subject
of Neuroscience is pure nonsense.
***This is bogus "scientific" statement. It is logically wrong. Dr.Mario has
published a book on The Spiritual Mind. He describes there his experiments
and his scientific conclusions.
Dr.Mario gave the abstract of his study published in Neuroscience Letters
(2006), which was quoted by Dr.Santosh. The conclusion is as follows: "These
results suggest that mystical experiences are mediated by several brain
regions and systems". Dr Santosh interprets it as "Science has nothing to do
with these supernatural concepts"... But he forgets that "mediated" does not
mean "created" by the brain, as Dr.Mario has clearly discussed in his book,
which was written in the light of brain-imaging studies of his doctoral
students. Dr.Santosh has interpreted his findings wrongly. The mystical
experience is not an "illusion".
Read his book: "The study of consciousness in the twenty-first century
promises to be an exciting endeavor. But it will be stymied if the only
purpose is to reduce consciousness to something it is not or to demonstrate
that it is an illusion" (p.277).
"As we have seen, people who have RSMEs, far from being out of touch, are
typically mentally and physically healthy. RSMEs are normal experiences that
are positively associated with physical and mental health, because they
express a natural spiritual function of the human being. Although one can
never prove it from one side only, the data are consistent with an
experience in which the experiencers contact a spiritual reality outside
their own minds" (p.278).
"With regard to researchign the many issues this book presents, a key
question is, what do we mean by the term 'scientific'? If, by 'scientific',
we mean 'only those findings that uphold a materialist worldview", our
understanding of the human brain will be forever truncated. However, if by
'scientific', we mean 'using the methods and standards of science', then the
studies of the neural correlates of meditative and contemplative states are
scientific. Specifically, neuroscience can contribute useful information to
a discussion of these states. And to the extent that RSMEs are normally
associated with better physical and mental health, there is a public benefit
in sponsoring neuroscientific research that sheds more light on them. Is the
real purpose of science to help us understand the world we live in or to
provide support for a specific, narrow view of that world? The choice is
ours" (p.278).
***Dr.Santosh seems to have, fortunately or unfortunately, a very truncated
worldview and a very narrow scientific view. Anyway, he is doing wonderful
work in the realm of neurobiology of brain of songbird, zebra finches, human
speech disorders, like stuttering and verbal dyspraxia, at the Methodist
Neurological Institute, Houston, Texas... We should thank him for such a
wonderful contribution!
Regards.
Fr.Ivo