Transcript spiritual neuroscience

Introduction to NeuroTheology
授課老師：龔俊嘉
101.11.13
Outline
• NeuroTheology
– 歷史
– 主要課題
• Monk
• Meditation
– 未來展望
NeuroTheology
• Neurotheology, also known as spiritual
neuroscience, attempts to explain religious
experience and behaviour in neuroscientific terms.
• Dr. Andrew Newberg’s research has included brain
scans of people in prayer, meditation, rituals, and
various trance states.
• He studied the brain activities of experienced
Tibetan monks before and during meditation.
Andrew Newberg’s research
• They had improvements of about 10 or 15 percent.
• The brain scans showed increased activities in the
meditators’ frontal lobe, which is responsible for
focusing and concentration.
Meditation
for eight
weeks at 12
minutes a day
Monk is the world's happiest man
• Richard J. Davidson’s team confirmed that Tibetan
meditation can compassion and kindness and
trained so even brain waves are influenced.
Laden with electrodes, the monk Matthieu
Preparing Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard for a
Ricard sits in meditation. His brain waves
functional MRI test.
exhibit "positive habits of mind," Davidson says.
Altering brain through meditation
• It also showed excessive activity in his brain's left
prefrontal cortex compared to its right counterpart,
giving him an abnormally large capacity for happiness
and a reduced propensity towards negativity.
• They have been looking for 12 years at the effect of
short and long-term mind-training through meditation
on attention, on compassion, on emotional balance and
found remarkable results.
Future prospect
• Focusing on how the contemplative practice alters
and sharpens the brain’s attention systems.
• Mental training can bring the brain to a greater level
of consciousness.
• That opens up the possibility that the brain, like the
rest of the body, can be altered intentionally.