Overview
Rudi Affolter and Gwen Tighe have both experienced strong religious visions. He is an atheist; she a Christian. He thought he had died; she thought she had given birth to Jesus. Both have temporal lobe epilepsy. Like other forms of epilepsy, the condition causes fitting but it is also associated with religious hallucinations. Research into why people like Rudi and Gwen saw what they did has opened up a whole field of brain science: neurotheology. The connection between the temporal lobes of the brain and religious feeling has led one Canadian scientist to try stimulating them. (They are near your ears.) 80% of Dr Michael Persinger's experimental subjects report that an artificial magnetic field focused on those brain areas gives them a feeling of 'not being alone'. Some of them describe it as a religious sensation. His work raises the prospect that we are programmed to believe in god, that faith is a mental ability humans have developed or been given. And temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) could help unlock the mystery.
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40 - 1The Mystery Of Easter Island January 09, 2003 -
40 - 2Living Nightmare January 16, 2003
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40 - 3Averting Armageddon January 23, 2003
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40 - 4Dirty Bomb January 30, 2003
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40 - 5Sexual Chemistry (Update) February 13, 2003
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40 - 6The Day We Learned To Think February 20, 2003
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40 - 7Trial and Error February 27, 2003
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40 - 8Earthquake Storms March 06, 2003
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40 - 9Life On Mars (Update) March 27, 2003
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40 - 10The Secret Life Of Caves April 03, 2003
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40 - 11God On The Brain April 17, 2003
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40 - 12Flight 587 May 08, 2003
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40 - 13SARS: The True Story May 29, 2003
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40 - 14The Big Chill November 13, 2003
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40 - 15The Bible Code November 20, 2003
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40 - 16Last Flight of the Columbia November 27, 2003
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40 - 17The Hunt for an AIDS Vaccine December 04, 2003
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40 - 18Percy Pilcher's Flying Machine December 11, 2003
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40 - 19Time Trip December 18, 2003