Our Neuro-Theological Beliefs And Myths

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 11 October 2022 Muhammad And The Apostle Paul Used To Have Such Epileptic Seizures And Both Laboured Under The Delusion That God And Angels Were Conversing With Them ------ Nowadays, I'm reading Norman Geschwind's desultory notes on Neuropsychology and Neuroimaging. He worked extensively on a number of religio-theological phenomena and explained them neurologically. He studied phenomena like seeing fairies, angels, jinn, stigmata (blood oozing from the pics and statues of revered figures, esp, revered characters in Christianity), The Day of Judgement (Roz-e-Hashra or Roz-e-Qayamat ) and reverberations of 'divine' words in the brain which is actually an abnormality associated with temporal lobe epilepsy. Muhammad and the apostle Paul (actually Saul in Hebrew; Paul's Jewish name was Saul; the Latin name was Paul) used to have such epileptic seizures and both laboured under the delusion that god and angels were conversing with them. Though believers, who outnumber non-believers by a humongous margin, will not accept this, the fact is: Our deep-rooted neurological impressions and imprints determine our religious beliefs. Waseem Rizvi, an apostate and an ex Shia Muslim, who turned his back on Islam recently, said the same thing though he was unable to explain it from neurological perspective. Now when he has opted for Hinduism (why on earth did he opt for an equally useless faith is beyond my ken), he may be using Hindu religious symbols and icons but according to a Calcutta-based neurologist, his ingrained Muslim belief system, despite rejecting Islam, shall continue to colour and cloud his neo-Hindu religious perceptions and will continue to clash with the new faith and its religious implications. This needs some elaboration with instances. Neurologists have found in NDEs ( Near Death Experiences) that a person who underwent an NDE, his or her experiences had the imprints of the respective religious upbringing. For example, a devout Hindu NDE survivor would invariably see Yamraj ( the god of death riding a buffalo), a follower of ISKCON would listen to the cadences of Krishna's 'mellifluous' flute and see his lotus feet, a Christian would see Christ coming and consoling him, a Sikh may see one of the 10 Gurus or all in that state of deep(est) slumber. And this actually happened when one Harkeerat Singh Jatta at Montreal Medical College, Canada, returned from his NDE. He described that the experience was very calming and all Gurus talked to him! He further added that Gurus advised him to go back to earth and wipe out Muslims as two Sikh Gurus, Guru Arjan Dev and Tegh Bahadur were executed by Mughals! Now that was the manifestation and neural concretization of his own beliefs as he simply abhorred Muslims, who executed his Gurus and massacred his parents during Partition. One Pakistani Muslim Hamid Cheema from Faisalabad erstwhile Layalpur, went to SA to meet his sister and there he met with a horrible accident. Somehow, he survived and after regaining consciousness, he told the medicos at a Cape Town Hospital that he saw himself standing among the ocean of Muslims at Maidan-e-Hashra waiting anxiously to know their future after Allah's verdict. This incident happened in 1994 and The Lancet carried it in one of its editorials in 1995. The point is, all believers reacted according to their religious beliefs drilled into their psyche by their parents, society, clergy, scriptures, Mullas, Maulvis, priests etc. over the years and generations. " Religion, in a neuro-theological sense and context, is more than a spiritual or pious experience. It's the sum total of our constantly adding esoteric beliefs stored in our neurons, " opined Dr Wayle Christoph, former Head of the Department of Neurosciences at Queen's Medical College, UK. So, when people talk about the prehistoric religious beliefs like Chitragupta writing Hindus' deeds and misdeeds for the allotment of a place or pad in heaven and hell just like a government official allots a piece of land to you when you're in this world, Christians belief that Jesus will intervene on their behalf on the Last Day of Judgment and Muslims believe that there'll be a mad scramble on that specific day when their Allah will be the ultimate arbiter, Daavar-e-Hashra, dispatching Muslims either to heaven or hell as per their Aamaal. All our worldly desires, wishes and dreams manifest themselves through our wishful neuro-theological concretizations. Humans are bundles of neurons. We carry our religiosity in our DNA and keep thinking foolishly as to what shall happen when we cease to exist. The reason being our terribly devolved state of existence. Since, the show, nay this charade, must go on, we've amassed an endless 'treasure' of religious myths to believe in our own lies. Eventually, humans are hoist with their own petards. " Such crawling creeps, I refuse to be one of them " ( a character in a novel written by Marcel Proust). I'm in full agreement with the legendary novelist. ----- A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/neuro-theological-beliefs-myths/d/128150 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism