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E-book
Author Heilman, Kenneth M., 1938-

Title The believer's brain : home of the religious and spiritual mind / Kenneth M. Heilman and Russel S. Donda
Published New York, New York ; Abingdon, Oxon : Routledge, 2014

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Description 1 online resource : illustrations
Contents Cover; Title; Copyright; Contents; List of Figures; Preface; 1 Introduction: A World of Believers; Everywhere, Naturally?; The God Spot: Searching for the Seat of the Soul; A New Lens on the God Spot: Functional Imaging; 2 Beliefs: How Our Brains Get Molded and Beliefs Become Ingrained; The Impressionable, Youthful Brain; Making Memories; Making a Memorable Perception; 3 More than Me: How We Sense and Feel Beyond Ourselves; Understanding the Intentions of Others; Mirror, Mirror; Who Did It?; What's Up and What's Down? What's In Here or Out There?; Spatial Metaphor; What's Up and What's Down?
What's Out There and Right Here?Any Conclusions?; Heaven's Place?; 4 Left Brain, Right Brain: Religious, Spiritual ... and More; Seeking the Cause; Left-Brain Logic; Right Brain, Global Attention, and the Theory of Mind (ToM); Prayers, Music, and the Things We Know by Heart; Got to Have it; 5 Suspending Disbelief: The Ability to Believe; Going to the Movies; Let's Pick and Choose Our Beliefs; A Reward after All?; 6 The Brain Does Some Peculiar Things: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Religiosity; OCD: Obsessive and Compulsive Disorders; In the Family?
Influenced from Within or Without: The Phenomenal Frontal LobesA Horrific Accident; Are We Stuck or Free?; Adherence and Anxiety; Getting Hooked; 7 Circle the Wagons: Depression, Fear, and Aggression; Quality of Life; Psychoanalytic Theory; Neurotransmitter Theory; The Reward System: The Ventral Striatum; Lesion Studies; Depression, Religion, and Health; The Wolves Are Outside: Fear and Aggression; 8 The Genius Beyond Religious Fundamentalism; Questioning, Wondering, Doubting; Resolving Issues: Two Very Different Approaches; An Example From Medicine; It's the Frontal Lobes!
The Unconditional Adherence to Religious FundamentalismCreative Genius and Religious Fundamentalism; 9 Our Spirituality: Beyond You; The Experience Beyond Things; The Frontal Lobes Again: Seeing What's Not There; Not Seeing Can Lead to Believing; Approach or Avoidance-Focus or Dissolution; Doing Nothing: The Default Network; Seizures and Spirituality: Religious Experiences; 10 The Greatest Fear; References; Index
Summary About 90% of people have faith in a supreme being, but our yearning for the divine, and whatever it promises, involves a large divergence in mental states and behaviors. Some adhere to doctrine, supplication, and fastidious religious practices; others have a strong sense they are part of something greater and more universal. However, all religious and spiritual paths are mediated by complex brain networks. When different areas of the brain are stimulated, a person can have a variety of experiences, but there is no specific 'God spot' where stimulation enhances religiosity or spiritua
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Religious life -- Psychological aspects
Spirituality -- Psychological aspects
RELIGION -- Comparative Religion.
Spirituality -- Psychological aspects
Form Electronic book
Author Donda, Russell S., author.
ISBN 9781317812890
1317812891
9781315817194
1315817195