Ritual & Symbolic Function
October 2, 2009
Ritual and the Symbolic Function:
A Summary of Biogenetic Structural Theory
by
Charles D. Laughlin
Department of Sociology-Anthropology
Carleton University
I like to think of ritual essentially as performance,
enactment, not primarily as rules or rubrics. The
rules "frame" the ritual process, but the ritual
process transcends its frame. A river needs banks or
it will be a dangerous flood, but banks without a river
epitomize aridity.
Victor Turner, From Ritual to Theatre
INTRODUCTION
Over the years a group of us has developed a body of theory
we call biogenetic structuralism. This body of theory is quite
complex in that it forms a synthesis of neurobiological,
anthropological and phenomenological material in such a way as to
integrate what are otherwise apparently disparate approaches to
human nature. And, as this perspective has resulted in a useful
explanation of human ritual and symbolic behavior, areas of study
attracting a great deal of current interest (Grimes 1985, Turner
1982, Fernandez 1986, Noll 1985), we would like to summarize its
highlights so that those readers wishing to apply the theory to
these studies may have access to it in summary...
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ritual
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Neurology, Ritual Religion
October 2, 2009
http://www.geocities.com/iona_m/Neurotheology/Neuroritual.html
Neurology, Ritual, and Religion: An Initial Exploration Or: "Were you there when they stimulated our amygdalas?
Sometimes it causes me to tremble."
Cliff Guthrie, Copyright 2000
Gray Matters
The relationship between brain physiology and human behavior is notoriously difficult to understand and easy to misapply. For example, popular psychology has reduced Roger Sperry’s 1981 Nobel Prize-winning split-brain research to something of an axiom: the left cerebral hemisphere is the center of language and conceptual thought while the right is the locus of visual, spatial, or holistic thinking. Everyday conversation now paints people (and entire cultures) in black/white language as left or right brain "types." One successful series of books and tapes teaches us how to draw on the right side of the brain, while some theologians couch their appeal for more creative theologizing as an effort to engage the entire brain. But in the rush to unleash the powers of the "repressed" thinking of the right side, some important shades of gray can get lost. Neuroscientist William H. Calvin, reminds us that some people (7 percent) actually have right brains that are language-dominant, while others have "mixed dominance." Some language and conceptual functions are found in the right...
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neurology
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Frying in Microwaves
July 18, 2009
Would you stick your head in a microwave oven? Well would you? Of course not. Technology has transformed this planet into an open microwave system with its satellite transmissions. This book examines what the health consequences are. This book simply points out that the gradual rise in illness across broad geographic areas are an early indicator of microwave illness, independently of what the experts lead you to believe. The handwriting is already on the wall and most of know that something is wrong. This book discusses in simple terms the effects of microwave radiation on the human body. I utilize dosimetry studies done by the US Air Force, which outline in clear terms what organs of the body are most vulnerable to cumulative microwave exposure. I outline the mechanisms by which slow exposure is masquerading as various illnesses across this country.
We are on the verge of a health care crisis which threatens to bankrupt our society and health care system. Whether we like to consider it or not the planet that we are living on has been transformed into an open microwave system.
In this book I examine the common link between microwave radiation and seemingly unrelated illnesses. The...
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emf pollution
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Brain changes in hypnosis
July 1, 2009
Researchers Observe Changes in Brain Activity During Hypnosis
By Bill Hendrick
WebMD Health News
Reviewed By Louise Chang, MD
June 26, 2009 -- University of Geneva researchers say they found in a series of experiments using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that brain activity is different under hypnosis.
Their study is published in journal Neuron.
The study concludes that hypnosis induces a disconnection of motor commands from normal voluntary processes under the influence of brain circuits involved in executive control and self-imagery, Yann Cojan, PhD, of the Neuroscience Center and Medical School at the University of Geneva, tells WebMD in an email.
The researchers used fMRI to scan brains of 12 people who were tested on hand movement before and after hypnosis for left hand paralysis.
Despite the paralysis, neurons in the motor cortex region were still firing away in preparation for the task, Cojan tells WebMD.
He says his team confirmed "subjective reports of hypnotic phenomenon" and also that "functional connectivity is a very important process in the brain" that hypnosis is capable of modifying.
What was surprising was that the cortex appeared to be ignoring parts of the brain with which it normally communicates in controlling movement, the...
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hypnosis
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Chris King synopsis on Neurotheoloy
January 14, 2009
Chris King on Neurotheology
http://the-messiahs-blog.blogspot.com/
In 1997 Vilayanur Ramachandran of UC San Diego (1) astounded the media world by suggesting that the brain had a 'God spot" or "God module", which united feelings of religious fervour with supreme significance.
The physiological basis for this is the fact that the emotional limbic system, and particularly the amygdala, which is responsible for integrating intense emotional feelings of paranoia and ecstasy associated with survival and threats to survival, is situated alongside the limits of the temporal lobe, which processes semantic meaning and its significance. Thus excitations linking the two could result in a simultaneous experience of extreme fulfillment and intense significance - equating to a profound religious, or mystical experience.
Ramachandran had been studying cases of temporal lobe epilepsy in which the patients experienced deep religious feelings during their seizures which they revered and found to be of great significance to their personal lives. His team went on to do a study involving comparing epileptic patients with normal people and a group who said they were intensely religious. Electrical monitors on their skin a standard test for activity in the brain's temporal lobes showed that the epileptics and the deeply religious displayed a...
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amygdala, god module, neurotheology, parietal
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neurotheology sites links
April 24, 2008
A Mystical Union - Economist article giving overview of recent research in neurotheology. This Is Your Brain on God - Wired Magazine interview of Michael Persinger, leading figure in the reductionist school of neurotheology.
Neurotheology on Wikipedia - A brief but balanced overview of the field. Tracing the Synapses of Our Spirituality - Washington Post article by Shankar Vedantam on researchers examining the relationship between brain and religion.
Neurology of Spiritual Experiences - Articles on spiritual experience and magnetic signal brain stimulation by one of Michael Persinger's students. Wired for the Ultimate Reality:
The Neuropsychology of Religious Experience - Article by Drs. Andrew Newberg and Eugene D'Aquili on the biological mechanisms underlying religious and spiritual experience, from the PBS "The Question of God" series.
The "God" Part Of The Brain - Website for Matthew Alper's book which suggests that "humans are innately hard-wired to perceive a spiritual reality".
Linking Out-of-Body Experience and Self Processing to Mental Own-Body Imagery at the Temporoparietal Junction - Paper by Olaf Blanke and team on the neurocognitive bases of out-of-body (OBE) experiences, from Journal of Neuroscience.
Zen and the Brain - Summary of "Zen and the Brain", James H. Austin's definitive work tracing the neuroscientific...
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links, research
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