The God Spot

[juliainkc]

Hello Everyone ~

Saw this interesting article today and thought it would be nice to share it here with all of us.

InJoy ~


Spirituality Spot Found in Brain

Robin Nixon
Special to LiveScience
LiveScience.com robin Nixon
special To Livescience
livescience.com – 2 hrs 1 min ago


What makes us feel spiritual? It could be the quieting of a small area in our brains, a new study suggests.

The area in question - the right parietal lobe - is responsible for defining "Me," said researcher Brick Johnstone of Missouri University. It generates self-criticism, he said, and guides us through physical and social terrains by constantly updating our self-knowledge: my hand, my cocktail, my witty conversation skills, my new love interest ...

People with less active Me-Definers are more likely to lead spiritual lives, reports the study in the current issue of the journal Zygon.

Most previous research on neuro-spirituality has been based on brain scans of actively practicing adherents (i.e. meditating monks, praying nuns) and has resulted in broad and inconclusive findings. (Is the brain area lighting up in response to verse or spiritual experience?)

So Johnstone and colleague Bret Glass turned to the tried-and-true techniques of neuroscience's early days - studying brain-injured patients. The researchers tested brain regions implicated in the previous imaging studies with exams tailored to each area's expertise - similar to studying the prowess of an ear with a hearing test. They then looked for correlations between brain region performance and the subjects' self-reported spirituality.

Among the more spiritual of the 26 subjects, the researchers pinpointed a less functional right parietal lobe, a physical state which may translate psychologically as decreased self-awareness and self-focus.

The finding suggests that one core tenant of spiritual experience is selflessness, said Johnstone, adding that he hopes the study "will help people think about spirituality in more specific ways."

Spiritual outlooks have long been associated with better mental and physical health. These benefits, Johnstone speculated, may stem from being focused less on one's self and more on others - a natural consequence of turning down the volume on the Me-Definer.

In addition to religious practices, other behaviors and experiences are known to hush the Definer of Me. Appreciation of art or nature can quiet it, Johnstone said, pointing out that people talk of "losing themselves" in a particularly beautiful song. Love, and even charity work, can also soften the boundaries of "Me," he said.

The greatest silencing of the Me-Definer likely happens in the deepest states of meditation or prayer, said Johnstone, when practitioners describe feeling seamless with the entire universe.
That is, the highest point of spiritual experience occurs when "Me" completely loses its definition.

"If you look in the Torah, the Old Testament, the New Testament, in the Koran, a lot of Sufi writings, Buddhist writings, and Hindu writings, they all talk about selflessness," said Johnstone.

We may be finding the neurological underpinnings of these writings, he said.


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Original Story: Spirituality Spot Found in Brain
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[Talker]

Hello Julia and All,
Must be my slow day. Had to reread this due to a 'feeling tone' that crept in on the first read. Quite down this area "the right parietal lobe - is responsible for defining "Me" to better reach a spiritual state! This appears to be a home for the EGO, and as I've mentioned in another post in the forum, 'lets consider training the ego, as opposed to destroying it'. If this is the ego area, and one willingly and consciously chooses the path of Unconditional Love is powerful action. Just picture it, a pointer to increased spirituality if one exerts conscious control at this point. Some what like a cover (ego) on a kettle (doorway to the inner residence of Source). What was / is your first impression after reading this article readers!
Be Well

[zensunni7]

Hello

I re-read this myself a few times.
I agree in sentiment with Talkers view of Ego. Much of the dialogue regarding Ego is based in a sense and e-motion of destruction, preceded by severe judgment of its existence. If it is capable of creating the negative input into our minds and lives as it is credited with, we are not dealing with an unintelligent aspect of our selves. Its perception would be one of survival and in consistent war with Self. Instinct vs Intuition, in a very broad sense.
The ideas presented in the writing indicated a broader view of its core ideal, in that Ego is contained in one side sphere, and intuition the other, with frontal lobe offering the new territory of harmony, where both have room to ' spread out ' as it were, while being gently guided into merging into a new vastness of exploration and experience. Instinct guards the Garden of biology, protecting the codes and equations growing them infinitely to carry its ' Ark ' into unknowable futures. Self trains the Ego to know its power, it Self Empowers it through Spiritual disciplines - the motion is parent and child in the same opening awareness of that which it already possesses. It is an embrace and sharing. 1+1=1.
Or something like that.

Love
Darrell

[Mina-Laura]

:)Thank you Julia

Darrell and Talker - read the comments of the article - very interesting.

http://www.livescience.com/health/081224-brain-spirit.html

love - Laura

[zensunni7]

Howdy Laura

I read the comments initially - I think we tend to want fixed answers regarding these matters, and there is no standard assignment of fact to an evolving organism, be it Human or not. Speaking from self experiences. Spirituality produces Self focus, in turn seemingly creating a more ' service ' oriented life, so there appears to be an equality in sight inward and outward simultaneously.
Ego conforms to our definition of it while trying to maintain its function from conception, never coming to terms with the idea of being the enemy of Self, or the Satan in our life.
Ego states I will live - you will die in the natural order while Spirit says I will die so that you may live in another order of thought believed to be another natural order. One seemingly opposite of the other - but this is a standard designed by beliefs, not nature. Harmony of elements creates new frontiers of life and evolution of Self, leaving sterile beliefs behind.
I am not a believer in absolute truths even in physiology as we have proven in this time that the mind has been highly underestimated in its ability to evolve and expand by will alone.

Love
Darrell

[juliainkc]

Good Morning Talker, Darrell, Laura and All,


I appreciate reading all of your comments. It is an interesting article.

Laura, thank you so much for posting the link to the article, I love how you do these things so well. The comments were very interesting.

The only absolute truth I continue to move into is Oneness. All the rest is the 'stuff' life is made of. Life is so very interesting. Like this forum is so interesting with all the different variables at play.

Mmm... delightful!!

Love to you all, and thank you again for sharing, anyone else?

Have a wonderful day, Be Blessed, Be Well,

Love,

Julia

[melody]

Yes, there does seem to be a "God Spot" in the brain. I descussed in another thread the reasearch done in this are of spiritual experience when deeply mediattinf or praying.

http://www.ourultimatereality.com/forums/-t719.0.html

[juliainkc]

Thank you Melody,

This just adds to what you have already posted. I missed that one so thanks for the link.

Love to you in Divine Spirit,

Julia

[soulconsole]

Wow! That is very  useful information!! THank You~ and I fully agree with you Talker on
not destroying the ego but training it to do good and make good decisions. 

[Kadensnga]

Good day you all, and great love,

What a fascinating subject,; the "g" spot!

I agree with Talker that the idea is to train this spot, now that we know of it's existence.

Also, I must say that "Darrel" the way you express your thoughts on this is amazing! I agree with you that our physiology is not absolute, and that we are constantly reforming ourselves, in order to adapt.

That being the case if we (our God self) insist upon becoming more aware of how we process our "me" thoughts, then maybe we can lovingly teach this spot to adapt to the idea of being Universal instead of individual, on an intentional level, and even change it's very physical form, and purpose.

Maybe we can train the ego spot to literally be the "God" spot and convince it that "me" is God.

Is that a form of meglomania? I am not sure... I wonder what the G spot has to do with conditions like that after reading this.

ANYWAY,

Maybe I am just stating the obvious, being redundant, or maybe need to re-read several more times.

The thought that occurs though,  that this spot is not the spot from where ego related thoughts "originate", but rather the spot that "processes" them, interprets them, and files them away into various segments of our awareness. So why kill the messenger? It is not originating the egotistical thoughts, only processing them.

That being the case, while the article suggests "quieting it", I am suggesting as Talker 'training it" to interpret messages in a more desireable manner instead, then allowing it to be  LOUD!!!!! LOOOUD!!! LOOUD!!!

In any event it's good to have a visual. I will now be aware and "talk to my G spot spot" (lol), and at very least, may be able to reason with it more, now knowing of it's existence.

Thank you Julia for Sharing this. I have noticed by your language that you indulge your (the) G spot very little ego gratification, you allow it very little "individuality" , as you often refer to "US" or "OUR" as opposed to "me" or "my". Good training there. I suppose you do it intuitively having just recently learned of this article.

Once again, Great Love to all

Kadensnga

[juliainkc]

A Beautiful Morning Greeting to you Kadensnga and All,

I've been taken to the side alot in my life experiences, sometimes by the collar!   I am speaking of the Inside of course.    And been given opportunity after opportunity to practice, so yes, perhaps alot of training to trust my Intuition. By 'learning' to listen to IT.

Ah, language. Yes, kill the ego!! Again, definitions in dictionaries unique to each one. In the state of believing that the illusion is real and permanent, we can see where death is a very real experience. In the removal of seeing through the temporary material world we see that death is impossible.

Another way of saying this which relates to the article I shared with you in the Christians Pressing post, is about subordinating the ego (one's unregenerated state or Prodigal) to allow one to experience Real Life in the material world from the Christ Consciousness.

Does it end? How could IT. We are always evolving as Source whom we come from and is Eternal as we are.

Thank you for bringing this one back up Kadensnga.

InJoy this day,

Love in Divine Spirit,

Julia