Christian Belief Through the Lens of Cognitive Science: Part 4 of 6
IV. The Born Again Experience.
I prayed harder and just then I felt like everything I was saying was being sucked into a vacuum. When I stood up, I felt like thin air; I had to brace myself. I felt this energy, it was a kind of an ecstasy." -- Cathy.
"Something began to flow in me -- a kind of energy . . . Then came the strange sensation that water was not only running down my cheeks, but surging through my body as well, cleansing and cooling as it went." -- Colson.
"It was a beautiful feeling of well-being, warmth and loving . . . I went home and all night long these warm feelings kept coming up in my body." -- Jean.
"I felt something real warm overwhelming me. It was in just a moment, yet it was like an eternity. . . a joy, such a joy hit me with such a tremendous force that I jumped . . . and ran." -- Helen. (From Conway & Siegelman, Snapping, pp 24, 32, 12, 31)
For many Christians, being born again is unlike anything they have ever known. A sense of personal conviction, yielding or release followed by indescribable peace and joy -- this is the stuff of spiritual transformation. Once experienced it is unforgettable, and many people can recall small details years later. In the aftermath of such a moment, an alcoholic may stop drinking or a criminal fugitive may hand himself in to the authorities. A housewife may sail through her tasks for weeks, flooded by a sense of God's love flowing through her to her children. A normally introverted programmer may begin inviting his co-workers to church.
This experience, more than any other, creates a sense of certainty about Christian belief and so makes belief impervious to rational argumentation. A believer knows what he or she has experienced and seen. Even converts who don't feel radically transformed after praying "the sinner's prayer" may feel overwhelmed by God's presence during subsequent prayer or worship. Evangelical and Pentecostal forms of Christianity that are gaining ground around the world particularly emphasize emotional peaks such as faith healing or speaking in tongues. Worshipers may get caught up in exuberant singing, shouting, dancing and tears of joy.
What most Christians don't know is that these experiences are not unique to Christianity. In fact, the quotations that you just read come from two born again Christians, a Moonie, and an encounter group participant. Their words are similar, because the born again experience doesn't require a specific set of beliefs. It requires a specific social/emotional process, and the dogmas or explanations are secondary.
Flo Conway and Jim Siegelman have written an excellent book on what they call sudden personality change, or "snapping." The first edition of their book, Snapping focused on small counter-cultural cults and self-help groups that sprang up in the 1960's and 1970's such as Hare Krishna, Transcendental Meditation, EST, Mind Dynamics, Unification Church, Scientology, and others.
When asked about whether Evangelical Christianity might fit the pattern, Conway and Siegelman were reluctant to say yes. Today they admit, "In America today, increasingly, that line [between a cult and a legitimate religion] cannot be categorically drawn. . . Our research raised serious questions concerning the techniques used to bring about conversion in many evangelical groups."(p. 37).
Conversion is a process that begins with social influence. As sociologists like to say, our sense of reality is socially constructed. We will come back to this later. Suffice for now to say that missionary work typically begins with simple offers of friendship or conversations about shared interests. As a prospective converts are drawn in, a group may envelope them in warmth, good will, thoughtful conversations and playful activities, always with gentle pressure toward the group reality.
In revival meetings or retreats, semi-hypnotic processes draw a potential convert closer to the toggle point. These include including repetition of words, repetition of rhythms, evocative music, and Barnum statements (messages that seem personal but apply to almost everyone -- like horoscopes). Because of the positive energy created by the group, potential converts become unwitting participants in the influence process, actively seeking to make the group's ideas fit with their own life history and knowledge. Factors that can strengthen the effect include sleep deprivation or isolation from a person's normal social environment. An example would be a late night campfire gathering with an inspirational story-teller and altar call at Child Evangelism's "Camp Good News."
These powerful social experiences culminate in conversion, a peak experience in which the new converts experience a flood of relief. Until that moment they have been consciously or unconsciously at odds with the group center of gravity. Now, they may feel that their darkest secrets are known and forgiven. They may experience the kind of joy or transcendence normally reserved for mystics. And they are likely to be bathed in love and approval from the surrounding group, which mirrors their experience of God.
The otherworldly mental state that I refer to as the domain of mystics is known in clinical settings as a "transcendence hallucination," but this term fails to reflect how normal and profound the experience can be as a part of human spirituality. The transcendence hallucination is an acute sense of connection with a reality that lies beyond and behind this natural plane. It typically lasts for just a few seconds or minutes but may leave profound impression that lasts a lifetime. For a Christian it may be interpreted as an encounter with a supernatural person -- Jesus, or an angel. A fan of the paranormal might be convinced of an encounter with space aliens or ghosts. More often, the person has a disembodied sense of connection accompanied by intense feelings of joy, wonder, peacefulness or alternately terror, depending on the context.
A transcendence hallucination can be triggered by neurological events like a seizure, stroke, or migraine aura; or by a drug such as psilocybin, but it also can be triggered by over or under-stimulation of the brain. Some mystics from the past have described or even drawn these events with such impressive detail that a diagnostic hypothesis is possible. Hildegard of Bingen, a medieval mystic created scores of drawings that show the visual field distorted in keeping with a migraine aura.
In modern times, author Karen Armstrong describes the seizures that she first thought to be triggered spiritually. In discussing an altered state known as Kundalini awakening, one migraine sufferer commented, "I usually don't follow any of the mystic/esoteric stuff, but I must say it is kind of strange to see all my symptoms lined up like that outside of a western/medical context." I should emphasize, though, that these altered states don't depend on some kind of neurological damage or pathology. They can be unforgettable, peak experiences for normal people, long sought by those who care about the spiritual dimension of life. Sensory deprivation, fasting, meditation, rhythmic drumming, or crowd dynamics have all been used systematically to elicit altered states in normal people.
Since we humans are meaning-makers to the core, such a powerful experience demands an explanation. But for most of human history, naturalistic explanations simply were unavailable. "Lacking understanding and with no reliable method for investigating the phenomenon, people through the ages have grappled imaginatively with their experiences, looking to some higher order and ascribing these abrupt changes in awareness to a source outside the body. They have been explained as messages from beyond or gifts of revelation and enlightenment, personal communications that could only be delivered by a universal being of infinite dimensions, a cosmic force that comprehends all space, time and earthly matter."(30) Whether in fact, the experience of transcendence offers a glimpse of something beyond the natural sphere is argued hotly even by scholars in the field of neurotheology. Needless to say, some supernatural hypotheses are more compatible with what we know about ourselves and the world around us than others.
In an evangelical conversion context like a revival meeting or missionary work, religious interpretations of the snapping experience are provided both before and after it occurs. These explanations become the foundation stones on which whole castles of beliefs later will be constructed. The authorities who triggered the otherworldly experience are trusted implicitly, which gives them the power to now transform the convert's world view in accordance with their own theology. Conversion activities can be harmful because all too often authorities use this power to promote a kind of tribalism that is built around exclusive truth claims and Iron Age moral priorities. The unforgettable born again experience gets used to justify beliefs that may be factually or morally bankrupt.
The conversion process as I have described it sounds sinister, as if manipulative groups and hypnotic leaders deliberately ply their trade to suck in the unsuspecting and take over their minds. I don't believe this is usually the case. Rather, natural selection is at play. Over millennia of human history, religious leaders have hit on social/emotional techniques that work to win converts, just as individual believers have hit on spiritual practices they find satisfying and belief systems that fit how we process information. Techniques that don't trigger powerful spiritual experiences simply die out. Those that do get used, refined, and handed down.
With few exceptions the evangelists, from mega-church ministers to "friendship missionaries," are unaware of the powerful psychological tools they wield. They are persuasive in part because they genuinely believe they are doing good. After all, they have their own born again experiences to convince them that they are promoting the Real Thing. Consider, for example, the Apostle Paul, whose Damascus Road event (possibly a temporal lobe seizure) transformed his moral priorities and sustained a lifetime of missionary devotion. What decent person wouldn't want to share the secret to healing and happiness? The challenge is trying to figure out exactly what that secret is. As I say to my daughters, it is not enough to be well intentioned--even joyfully, generously so. We also have to be right.
Essentials:
Flo Conway & Jim Siegelman, Snapping: America's Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change.
Sharon Begley. "Your Brain on Religion," Newsweek May 7, 2001.
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Christian Belief through the Lens of Cognitive Science, Part 5 of 6 - Valerie Tarico
How viral ideas hook us.
http://awaypoint.spaces.live.com/
Dear Muse, Enjoy.... Agape.dap
Love Is:
They say it's a river, circles the earth
A beam of light shining to the edge of the universe
It conquers all
It changes everything
They say it's a blessing
They say it's a gift
They say it's a miracle and I believe that it is...
It conquers all
but it's a mystery.
http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/beverlyhills90210/loveis.htm
Love is by Vanessa Williams & Brian McKnight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBJ_smJDBCo
Two by two and side by side
Love's gonna find you
Yes, it is
You just can't hide
You'll hear it call
Your heart will fall
Then love will fly
It's gone
That's all
I don't care what any Casanova thinks
All I can say is
Love stinks
I've been through diamonds
I've been through minks
I've been through it all
Love stinks
-Peter Wolf
I have a question. What about love? That is, what about the feeling of love, or of being in love? Is that any different from the feeling of conviction of faith? Or even these born again experiences? Is it also a transcendence hallucination?
What do you think... I mean after all you have learned, what is the answer?
Do you mean what I have learned from the faith side or what I have learned from the love side?
Dear Valerie,
Just thought I'd let ya know your article is in the "REASON PROJECT", the best in the field of cognitive science have taken notice, I'm so happy and excited for you.
Agape, dap
htitp:c//www.reasonproject.org/
WHOOPS
http://www.reasonproject.org/
Sory, what was I typing?
David Horton said this on his latest blog posting: Hi there Dap, hope you will drop by soon.
The uses and effects of alcohol in relation to hallucination, including of the transcendent, are multifold in the context of religious experience. William James' book 'The variety of religious experience' has a chapter on that already.
But I am a bit surprised about the way you state this relation in comparison to the born again experience. According to my knowledge, alcoholic abstince leads itself to the overwhelming spiritual experiences, not vice versa. There are many reports on this.
What I find particularly interesting is the double use of the serenity prayer in wisdom teaching and in alcoholics anonymous.
Anyway, there is considerable evidence that the causal relationship is the reverse of what you suggest: first the abstinence, then the transcendent hallucination as a result.
Certainly W is not a counterexample to this course that nature sometimes takes... :-)
Whole books were written about this. I tend to believe it. In particular in face of all those ancient greek myths. It makes a lot of sense, I think.
I think I might be asking something really stupid, but what is W?
Dubya Bush.
sorry, I should have used the unequivocal term 'dubya' :-)
Thank you for this beautiful series.
Speaking to "Snapping" (the book) Check this out.
Lawsuit Claims Dahn Yoga Is A Cult And A Con
http://cbs2chicago.com/investigations/dahn.yoga.cult.2.1049155.html
Sheesh... a cult and a financial scam..... like Scientology, eh?
Another great post Valerie. Thanks again for the homework. Snapping looks interesting; I just put in on my (growing) list.
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my real business here is book sales. ;)
Book sales eh? ... In that case I would like to make you aware of a study I just came across : Psychologist's who send there adoring fans autographed photos of themselves in a bikini had their book sales go up 38%. Your adoring fan, dap >:-)
I don't know about your time schedule, but you certainly ought to. It's your duty to write that book :-)
"The conversion process as I have described it sounds sinister, as if manipulative groups and hypnotic leaders deliberately ply their trade to suck in the unsuspecting and take over their minds. I don't believe this is usually the case."
Valerie, I agree with you. I don't believe that is usually the case, either. Usually the case is that they take control of the unsuspecting and suck their brains out.
Dear Valerie,
Outstanding post, transcendence hallucination, even the great Carl Jung had trouble understanding this phenomenon of our brain.
You are doing well tackling the subject matter in this series, making it both exciting and enjoyable.
Agape,dap
Agaper, Dapper!
Indeed... Ol'buddy, sure is an excellent series eh, an anthology (treasure) without question.
"With few exceptions the evangelists, from mega-church ministers to "friendship missionaries," are unaware of the powerful psychological tools they wield."
I would disagree for the most part. They may not understand HOW these psychological techniques work, but they know that they do work, at least for certain people (and certain situations).
And then of course, you have the frauds like L. Ron Hubbard who studied these techniques and specifically used them to brainwash people for his cult.
Yeah, seems Hubbard know how to push the right buttons, eh? I still see that as more of a cult than a religion... but then to paraphrase someone I can't remember, a religion is a cult with an army and a navy...
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Marjoe Gortner was a knowing fraud -- and did a movie after explaining how he raked in dough as a child evangelist. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bnyNwRKDrY&feature=PlayList&p=7C2803A22539099C&index=1
I knew Gortner as an actor, but I had no idea he was a phony kiddie preacher! Strange world...
As a student of petroglyphs, I have always been intrigued by their meaning. I finally figured out that they depict various stages of the trance flight episode of the shaman. I then looked at the Christ crucifixion/resurrection story and found point by point congruence with the shamanic experience--some 20 points in all. This led me to the idea that the shamanic episodes are archetypal and part of transformative personal experience in religion. Jesus was certainly in the shamanic tradition. It turns out that the archetypal content from shamanism shows up in modern art and children's art as well including Klee, Miro, Chagall, Giocometti to name a few. The born again experiences I had when I was younger were derivatives of the shamanic episodes in my understanding. This is all very powerful stuff and it is one of the things that makes religion so dangerous--like a loaded gun without a trigger lock.
I think it's like an assault weapon.
Religion doesn't kill people. People with religion kill people.
))))))))))) BAM (((((((((((
Either that, or they get religion afterward so they can live with themselves.
I agree that it is what makes religion dangerous. And I would even agree with good old cardinal Bellarmine in the Galileo trial that it is part of the task of elites to balance out the explosive and threatening revelations of science and of religion.
A beautiful modern reappropriation of this dilemma is in Kubrick's 2001, when Dr. Heywood Floyd gives his talk at the briefing on 'clavius' concerning the monolith. Priceless.
Someone close to me...biz associate...is a pentecostal. He won't admit it, but I always thought he went along with for his wife. Anyway they go to the things where she collapses on the floor and speaks in tongues.. he was skeptical until he saw that.. he just can't find any other explanation for that but true revelation etc, possession by the holy spirit or whatever ...
He's a very-sharp mathematician and engineer, but I can't talk to him sensibly about this stuff, he just looks at me like I'm in denial, possessed by evil spirits or something.. As far as I know he isn't speaking Klingon yet, but I think he's waiting and hoping to be chosen..... Oh, he assures me they don't handle snakes, lol..
Yikes! That's scary. Some serious denial. Skeptical *until* he saw that?
Thanks Valerie, another thought provoker!
Holy cow, you described my *second* born again experience so well. The first was around 6 or 7, because my parents encouraged it. Then, as a teenager after a long week at a Xian camp, on the last nights revival-type service I "snapped", decided that my first dose of salvation hadn't taken, because I didn't *feel* like I thought a good Xian should *feel*. I had also gone through a week of trying to get to sleep every night with a horrible fear of a hell. Fear of hell can be a terrifying thing for a young believer, and a huge motivator to run down that isle.
Well, I finally got that *feeling* I was looking for, but it didn't last long, and of course I blamed myself when it wore off. I stuck with those beliefs for years though.
After finally leaving Xianity behind, then all other religions, it was almost like coming off of a drug addiction.
I often wonder, if I had read, and heard the books and ideas that I devour now, would I have come to my senses earlier, or do you have to detox first, for critical thinking (about matters of belief) to be unimpaired?
Wow, I didn't know you know you were once one of the pod-people!... Sorry, I try to keep up with all the comments, but I guessed I missed your whole story.
Yeah, I think if we had easy access to info back then, many people would have done things differently. There's a reason some religious communities try to keep themselves isolated.
I wonder which is hardest to break away from, fundamentalism, catholicism, or more liberal forms of protestantism?
You were raised catholic, right?
god makes me feel like snapping sometimes.
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Hi John. Wow, the comments are feast or famine in this place. You've got the stage alone this time! :)
Yeah...and they already trashed one! lol
You've got competition from PBS thread this evening. They have decided to ban religious programming.
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