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Spiritual neurology

Spooky Nonsense: Ghosts & Hauntings

In the first of what he hopes will be a series of experiments, Dr Beauregard and his doctoral student Vincent Paquette are recording electrical activity in the brains of seven Carmelite nuns through electrodes attached to their scalps. Their aim is to identify the brain processes underlying the Unio Mystica—the Christian notion of mystical union with God. ...

Dr Beauregard does not, in fact, believe there is a neurological “God centre”. Rather, his preliminary data implicate a network of brain regions in the Unio Mystica, including those associated with emotion processing and the spatial representation of self. ...

A mystical union