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Cognitive Science and the New Spirituality 
  autopoetic
 
11:25pm 26/05/2009
  http://themarknews.com/articles/103-cognitive-science-and-the-new-spirituality

This short article may be of interest to this community. It was written by a cognitive science professor and practicing buddhist, who believes that a new scientifically oriented form of spirituality is emerging. A kind of 'secular spirituality', if that phrase can exist without tearing itself apart.

I particularly appreciate the emphasis he places on the real functions that religion has played, and continues to play in our lives. Those who aspire to eliminate it seldom recognize the complex and multi-faced role it has played throughout human history. Further, they haven't even begun to think about the enormity of the task of coming up with something better!
 
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Neurological disorder and mystical experience 
  shinywen
 
02:49pm 03/05/2009
  I couldn't find a way to embed this, you'll just have to follow this link.


As part of my research into neurotheology, I was pointed towards this video of a neurologist discussing her first-hand experience of having a stroke. It's riveting, it really is. She's even funny about it. Just above the progress bar on the video you will see faint markers indicating where certain points of the video start. The story of her stroke begins at 6:30. It's helpful to watch the whole thing though, she gives some background information on the hemispheres of the brain which make it easier to follow along in the progress of the stroke as she describes it.
 
     7 Hallucinations - Zap Us
 
Reminder: Sundays of Solidarity 
  boy_pastiche
 
08:04am 14/04/2009
 
Between May 17 and June 28, 2009,  groups of LGBT and allied people around the country will attend worship services at the church of their choice wearing a lapel button that reads “gay? fine by me.”  For less formal churches we also have a t-shirt with this message.  The lapel button (or t-shirt) serves as a conversation starter – opening dialogue with people in the church about faith, sexual orientation, and gender identity.  When that visible act of courage is paired with adequate training, then transforming hearts and minds becomes a bona fide possibility.  That’s why we’ve designed this web page, as well as a three-part teleconference course that covers the essentials of Nonviolent communication, Media talking points, and What both the Bible and science really say about homosexuality.  Those training teleconferences will be held on April 19, April 26, and May 3 at 4pm CST and are open to all our volunteers for this project. We hope you will consider organizing a Sundays of Solidarity project in your area.  It simply involves choosing  a church in your area that could benefit from an SOS visit, using your contact list to recruit others to join you, attending the teleconference training sessions, and then organizing your group to take action on a date, time, and church location of your choosing.

The training starts in a few days, don't miss it! If you haven't signed up yet, visit http://www.soulforce.org to sign up.

xposted to[info]boy_pastiche ,[info]dailyspiritwork ,[info]leftofwa ,[info]neurotheology ,[info]olympiawa ,[info]olywa 
 
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Insight and a question 
  illustrator222
 
06:22pm 31/03/2009
  It's been an awful long time since I’ve been here. Not because I've forgotten you. My life has just been a little "ca-ca" these last several months.

Anyway I have a thought and related question.

Many artists are well known for our different views on theological related issues. But it's only when a large group of us get together that we realize how alike we are and how different we are from the rest of the world. The reason being is that the way we perceive just about everything is completely different. Get a bunch of us together and it's like we took a group tour through the looking glass. So it's no wonder we have different theological viewpoints than the rest of the mundane world.

So I've been looking for bunch of reasons... is it genetic or caused?

Thought: I've noticed a lot of us have hearing loss in one ear usually our right. The loss is neurological damage that causes a loss of the higher frequency sounds in that ear. (For me it was caused by the measles when I was 6 years old. I have found out that a lot of people my age who had severe cases of the measles (high fever, convulsions) also have the same syndrome.) I know that vision is controlled by opposite sides of the brain (Left eye, right brain; Right eye Left brain). I was under the assumption that hearing was the same. As I know that the whole brain works together, not just in pieces, it is more so for the creative. One stimulus pings off of many centers of the brain instantaneously rather than the direct route that a non-creative's takes

so it would seem to me that the development of brain function would be altered from its usual path of development in order to compensate for the loss of incoming data from the right ear. If hearing is like vision, then the right side of the brain would be most directly affected.

Question - Is there any data that would substantiate the idea that early loss of hearing (or vision) on one side at an early age may play a role in the development of perceptions and therefore the religious and /or theological beliefs, attitudes and behaviors?

I’ve really been thinking about this lately and I wonder if there is already stuff out there
 
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Spam Posters 
  luckavery
 
03:05pm 25/03/2009
  I am sure everyone has noticed that for whatever reason this LJ community has become the target of spam-bot profiles. This isn't the only. For whatever reason they have also picked my nanoljers community. I am wondering if maybe we should modify the account so that posting has to be approved and we can all just leave a post saying that we are real people.  
     6 Hallucinations - Zap Us
 
Spring Cleaning 
  dv8ionofmachine
 
01:36pm 24/03/2009
  I've deleted the recent spam and culprits and changed a few settings to make it a bit more difficult for spammers.

Please allow comments on all entries posted in this community. Entries that disallow comments thwart communication and seem like spam. Such entries are likely to be deleted in the future.

Thank you all for keeping this community active and thank you for your patience regarding the spam.
 
     1 Hallucination - Zap Us
 
Best Bets on Meditation Research: Any Suggestions? 
  fringekitty
 
11:28am 24/01/2009
  I'm looking for suggestions on current research (within the past 5 years or so) examining the effects of meditation on the body and brain. In particular, a good scientific literature review which is still readable by someone without a Ph.D. would be appreciated. Also, I'd like to examine research discussing the possible side-effects of meditation for individuals with a trauma history and the work-arounds which have hopefully been developed to deal with those side-effects.  
     9 Hallucinations - Zap Us
 
Paging mods 
  shinywen
 
01:57pm 06/01/2009
  Why were comments disabled in the last post? That's just poor form. Or a mixup of some sorts.  
     2 Hallucinations - Zap Us
 
Six Lectures in Neurotheology 
  brainsci
 
11:26am 06/01/2009
 
mood: contemplative


Here is a link to six lectures in Neurotheology.

http://www.shaktitechnology.com/Video_lectures.htm

These talks cover a wide range of subjects, including Persinger's "God Helmet" (actually the Koren Helmet), and the 8 Coil Shakti, the brain stimulation device pictured on this page.

 

 
     
 
New semiotics community 
  essius
 
07:36pm 01/01/2009
  Hello, neurotheologians.

I have recently created [info]sign_studies to promote semiotic study, the study of signs and semiosis (sign-action, sign-processes). Semiotics offers an inherently interdisciplinary field of inquiry, as well as a perspective that should appeal to anyone interested in psychology, philosophy, theology, cognition, communication, meaning, language, etc., so I hope to attract a diverse group of intelligent and reflective thinkers.

I imagine members of this community might be able to contribute to semiotic inquiry at the intersection of neurosemiotics and what I have recently christened "theosemiotics."

Please peruse the community profile for more info and feel free to inquire.

–Stephen

(Mods, feel free to delete this post if community promotion is not allowed.)
 
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Evolution of the Mind: 4 Fallacies of Psychology 
  ugly_boy
 
02:09pm 22/12/2008
  Scientific American has an interesting article up, Evolution of the Mind: 4 Fallacies [Evolutionary] of Psychology by David Buller. He discusses what he sees as some of the basic problems with the trendy field. The four fallacies, briefly, are:

  1. Analysis of Pleistocene Adaptive Problems Yields Clues to the Mind’s Design
  2. We Know, or Can Discover, Why Distinctively Human Traits Evolved
  3. “Our Modern Skulls House a Stone Age Mind”
  4. The Psychological Data Provide Clear Evidence for Pop EP


The article is somewhat lengthy, but worth reading. Buller's central thesis is:

“Although some work in evolutionary psychology backs modest claims with careful empirical research, a dominant strain, pop evolutionary psychology, or Pop EP, offers grand and encompassing claims about human nature for popular consumption.… The ideas suffer not so much from one fundamental flaw as from many small mistakes.”


Some people may also be interested in the discussion of this article on the atheism community.

Thoughts? Comments? Critiques?
 
     4 Hallucinations - Zap Us
 
Neuroscience Bootcamp 
  shinywen
 
10:21pm 20/12/2008
  Thought this might be of interest to some of you! I wish I could go...



Neuroscience is increasingly relevant to a number of professions and academic disciplines beyond its traditional medical applications. Lawyers, educators, economists and businesspeople, as well as scholars of sociology, philosophy, applied ethics and policy, are incorporating the concepts and methods of neuroscience into their work. Indeed, for any field in which it is important to understand, predict or influence human behavior, neuroscience will play an increasing role. The Penn Neuroscience Boot Camp is designed to give participants a basic foundation in cognitive and affective neuroscience and to equip them to be informed consumers of neuroscience research. For more on the curriculum and goals, click here.

http://neuroethics.upenn.edu/boot_camp.html
 
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Flesh Made Soul 
  peacedance
 
11:44am 13/12/2008
  http://www.science-spirit.org/newdirections.php?article_id=740

Flesh Made Soul

Can a new theory in neuroscience explain spiritual experience to a non-believer?

By Sandra Blakeslee


Haven't posted in a while but my surgery came out fine and I'm feeling much better!  I ran across this surfing the web and thought it would be interesting to some.

 
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