The Physiology of Faith by N. Fakhr - HTML preview

Dreams

Today, unlike in the not-so-distant past, people are less likely to regard dreams as evidence that the spirit leaves the body and travels through other realms. For some people, however, what they experience in dreams still indicates that their spirit, soul, or consciousness has left the body, or that the spirits or souls of the dead have entered their minds to speak with them. After certain dreams, some people become so convinced of the truth of what they have seen and heard that they make subsequent decisions on the basis of the events and messages contained in those dreams. In other words, they acquire a sense of knowing because they regard those dreams as a source of knowledge.

In the late 1980s, neuropsychologist Mark Solms asked 434 patients with brain damage a series of questions about the quality, quantity, and characteristics of their dreams, and considered the responses of 361 of them suitable for evaluation. Each of these individuals had suffered damage to a particular region of the brain. Naturally, patients whose dreams showed no change in either quality or quantity after their brain injury provided evidence that the damaged regions were not essential to dreaming.

Two hundred of these patients experienced no change in their dreams. This suggested that the brain regions involved in dreaming are relatively limited and are not distributed throughout the entire brain.

Patients who had suffered damage to the tertiary visual cortex reported that they no longer “saw” their dreams but instead “heard” them. In other words, their dreams contained no visual imagery.

Damage to the junction of the temporal, parietal, and occipital cortices, as well as damage involving regions of the frontal lobes and the frontal areas of the brain, had caused some individuals to stop dreaming altogether.

Damage to the medial prefrontal cortex caused some individuals to experience dreams even while awake, including brief dreamlike states and the sudden appearance of vivid images before their eyes.

Damage to the temporal region of the brain was associated with an increase in nightmares.

Contemporaneous studies using brain-imaging techniques to examine brain activity during sleep also supported these findings.

During dreaming, brain regions such as the insula, anterior cingulate cortex, and amygdala are active. These regions are associated with our emotional experiences, which helps explain why emotions such as happiness, sadness, embarrassment, and fear can be experienced so vividly in dreams.

During dreaming, regions such as the parietal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex are not active in the same way. This may help explain why, unlike when we are awake and can redirect our thoughts and imagination from one subject to another, we have little control over the content of the dreams that arise. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is highly involved in mathematical and logical reasoning, which may also help explain why we can engage in absurd reasoning while dreaming without noticing how absurd it is. [1] [2] [3] [4]

During dreaming, motor activity is also suppressed, preventing most movements performed in dreams from being translated into actual movements of our limbs. Normally, this inability to move disappears before we awaken. Sometimes, however, the sequence is reversed: the person becomes conscious while the inability to move persists, producing sleep paralysis. In the past, such experiences were attributed to supernatural or mythical beings; in Persian culture, for example, people would say that the Bakhtak had fallen upon them.

Perhaps it can be said that, in earlier times, both the phenomenon of dreaming itself and the contents of dreams were among the most important sources of evidence for belief in mind–body dualism and in life after death⁷.

Miracles

An extraordinary phenomenon can be explained by different theories. A display of a miracle may be attributed to an actual miracle—that is, to God intervening in the laws of nature—or it may be regarded as a trick or sleight of hand. We may believe the story of a miracle, or we may regard it as something created by the mind of the person telling it.

When miracles are involved, our scientific knowledge often has less influence on how we interpret the extraordinary phenomenon we see or hear about than our psychological attitude toward the person performing the supposed miracle, or toward the person telling or writing the story. A Muslim believer, regardless of how scientifically educated he may be, is unlikely to be impressed by miraculous displays performed by Hindus. Likewise, the many stories of miracles performed by Hindu gods, found in their sacred texts or recounted by their religious leaders and believers, are unlikely to impress a Christian, who may dismiss all of them as false.

Among the miracles that a believer may regard as direct, firsthand evidence for the truth of his faith, the healing of his own illness—or that of someone very close to him—can have an especially powerful cognitive impact. Patients may visit miracle workers, practitioners of prayer-based healing, or people claiming supernatural healing powers. They may consume food or drink left behind by holy figures, or visit sacred tombs and shrines in the hope of being healed. In some cases, they really do recover or experience a partial improvement. This can produce in them a powerful sense of knowledge and certainty that a supernatural or sacred power has genuinely intervened.

They cannot deny the feeling of improvement, because they genuinely experience it within themselves—or correctly recognize it in the face and words of a family member who has recovered.

The problem is that supernatural or sacred intervention is still not the only possible explanation for this perceived improvement. Here, scientific knowledge and access to relevant information can affect the conclusion we reach—particularly whether we are aware of a phenomenon known as the placebo effect.