VIVO-FORTO (LIFE-FORCE)
A NON-PROFT ORGANIZATION
GOD IN THE BRAIN
The first primitive concepts of God emerged from the brain of the fully human ancestors when they were typically hunter-gatherer. This concept was thought of, as anthropologists feel, to lessen their anxiety about the future. Theybegan to believe that the rocks, mountains, rivers, sun, moon, trees, land, animals, birds etc all contained vital powers, each animated by a spirit. These spirits could either be benevolent or demonic, in either case they were assumed to be personal and to be in charge of a particular area of life, to be capable of responding to human need and to be in possession of supernatural power. The Animists’, the first believers in God, believed that their God did not create humans. Rather, humans created the concept of spirits, including perhaps a great spirit God. It all happened due to the following development that took place in the human species:
1) to attain a fully developed self-consciousness.
2) to develop a moral sense.
3) to develop a spirit of community that was much more advanced than any other species.
4) to develop methods of precise communication -- again much more highly developed than other species had attained.
5) to become aware of the finite nature of their life span, and of their own impending death. Developed an enlarged brain with a very different internal structure. This facilitated abstract thinking. Unfortunately, the size of the brain made childbirth much more difficult and hazardous for both woman and fetus.
According to most paleontologists and anthropologists, fully developed humans with these abilities and knowledge emerged, perhaps fifty thousand to one hundred thousand years ago. As human beings started organizing themselves into communities for better living conditions, communications, relationship, they got separated from other species and found a distinctive identify of their own.
This distinctive identity got further impetus by the emergence of organized religions. It helped the believers to come together and build a community with a separate identity at the same time it created division between believers and non-believers. The believers were welcome and the non-believers were looked down upon. It went to the extent that the non-believers deserved death penalty. The missionary zeal of the religious zealots worked under the illusion that unless the non-believers were converted to their faith they would be condemned to eternal hell. Thus to save the non-believers these believers’ duty was to convert them either by pursuance or by force. They expected this way they would convert the whole world. Thus continues the religious up man ship of one over others. As per one estimate we spend trillions of Dollars to keep ourselves safe from our own human race because some race is superior and some are inferior, or my religion is superior to yours. This is the problem. We believe this conflict will continue till we find one ultimate reality to be the sanity of humanity.
Now let us look at our human brain, our most important part of the body. It is the seat of intelligence, mind (thinking, planning, creating ideas, imagination etc.) and controlling authority. Three things that keep the brain running: 1) & 2) Oxygen and blood supplied by heart and 3) certain chemicals. The first two are common knowledge. But what is not commonly known are the chemicals. These are Serotonin, acetylcholine, dopamine, phenylethylamine, oxytocin, Norepinephrine etc.
It has been observed that people who practice prayer and meditation do not take medication. It is coincidental that two words, meditation and medication look similar. The difference is in ‘t’ and ‘c’, t stands for transcendental and c stands for chemicals. We need either transcendental inducement or chemically induced state of mind. The best way to keep the brain chemicals at a healthy level is to follow the process like meditation, prayer, exercise, right diet, right thinking irrespective of our religious beliefs. We find the Jews who comprise only 14 million of world population are in the forefront of the whole world through this practice of meditation and prayer. The health benefits of meditation are - lowering blood pressure, improving immune function, decreasing stress-are well recognized. Growing evidence from neuroscience suggests that it can, providing increasing support for the idea that meditation alters both the function and structure of the brain.
Long term meditation practice leads to higher level of specific brain waves, called "gamma-band rhythms," that are associated with higher mental activities such as attention, learning and conscious perception. Emerging evidence suggesting that meditation increases attention skills and the capacity to control and stabilize mental processes.
Dalai Lama last year (2008) while speaking before a gathering of 14,000 neuroscientists said, "Religion must change to accommodate new scientific findings that might prove a particular belief wrong." "Science is imminently more important because it reaches everyone, whereas religion reaches only believers."
Biologically we are one, coming from the same great great grand parents of Africa. Scientifically as it is found today - our birth as microscopic cells with DNA blueprints in every cell mirrors the origin of the cosmos. The whole universe is present in its smallest breakdown form. This shows that every human being is a product of that One Reality, One Truth, One God. (DNA means Deoxyribonucleic Acid: the material inside the nucleus of cells that carries genetic information.) It is through the study of brain science that the phenomena called God could be understood, it’s experiences of Truth or conversely illusion, hallucination and delusion.
When we look at the world population we see how we are divided by different religions. There are 2.1 billion Christians, 1.3 billion Muslims, 1.1 billions non-believers, 1.15 billion Hindus (includes Muslims staying in India, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs), 350 million Buddhists, Jews 14 million and others etc. In fact we believe people who live around the river Sindhu are called Hindus. Things become difficult when each one thinks his/her religion to be the best in the world. If anyone has to reach heaven he must travel through some belief system like Christianity, Islam or Hinduism etc. etc. as if God is the monopoly of a particular religion. Of course, religion brings people together professing the same belief. But the problem arises when a person belonging to another religion comes there. The unity is not there. The beliefs in the son of God, messenger of God, or God incarnation are causing irreparable damage to the society. We must move towards universalism, one ultimate reality. Every temple, church, mosque or synagogue should be converted into the place of universal prayer and meditation. This prayer should be direct without any intermediary. We find Jesus, Mohammad, Krishna all prayed directly. So why not, we pray to the One Ultimate Reality directly? Once these intermediaries are gone, the conflict in the society in the name of different faith will automatically be eliminated.
In a lighter vain God means ‘good old days’ and the other one is ‘guaranteed overnight delivery.’
If we look at our ancestry we will find that we come from the same great grand ancestor. Our life is not our own life. This life was given by our parents. Our parents life was also not their own they got it from their parents. Our work is to nurse this body and keep it healthy so that we can pass on the life force to the next generation. We have been told by the Biologists that we all share 99.9% of common DNA and with great probability we all share approximately 10,000th great great grand parents which means all of us are, apart from the individual families, children, parents, first cousins and we are no further than 10,000th cousins all around the world.
Dr. Andrew Newberg, a Radiologist, with the help of SPECT, a machine used for brain scanning, scanned a monk’s brain while the monk was in meditation. The meditator felt oneness with the universe and the identity of the self merged with the universal. Neurologists found a connection between temporal lobe epilepsy and a sudden interest in religion. As Dr. V S Ramachandran of the University of California, San Diego, told a meeting, these patients, during seizures, “say they see God” or feel “a sudden sense of enlightenment.” They have found that spiritual experiences are the inevitable outcome of brain wiring: “The human brain has been genetically wired to encourage religious beliefs.” We find many of the so-called messenger of God or son of God and incarnation of God suffered from this hallucination of the brain. Two specific instances that come to my mind one is of Abraham, the grand father of the Arabs and the Jews who heard the voice of God asking him to sacrifice his son and very recently of Mrs. Yeats who drowned her children with a belief that God would take care of them. These two were clear cases of people suffering from schizophrenia, a state of mind when it suffers from illusions, delusions and hallucinations.
We believe that no religion is higher than Truth. Our search should be for this One Truth that is not subject to illusion, delusion and hallucination. Once these religious intermediaries are gone, conflict in the society in the name of different faith will be automatically eliminated.
When we hear a discourse about God our mind is in a deep state of relaxation or a hypnotic state and any instructions given in such state of mind we are bound to follow the instruction even at times a disastrous one. Thus it is necessary that we get rid of an intermediary and directly pray or meditate to God. We find George Fox, the founder of Society of Friends, who prayed directly and he called it 'The Light of God'.
From the history we know that a handful of Muslims, Huns, Mongolians and others invaded our country and continued their atrocities for hundreds of years in the name of religious supremacy. Were they more powerful than us? We ascribe their power to have derived from the practice of prayers, abstaining from alcohol drinking and a fanatical belief in their respective religion. Those who pray together stay together. It was only Guru Teg Bahadur along with three companions Bhai Sati Das, Bhai Mati Das and Bhai Dayal Das challenged the Emperor Aurungzeb to convert them into Islam. If emperor succeeded in doing so then the Sikh community along with Hindus of Kashmir would embrace Islam. In pursuit of their zealous conversion spree Bhai Mati Das was cut in twain with saw, Bhai Dayal Das was boiled to death in a cauldron of boiling water and Bhai Sati Das was mercilessly cut to pieces. Guru Teg Bahadur was executed publicly on 11th November, 1675. Guru Govind Singh who fought against those invaders that we could remain as Hindus. Today you know, there are about 400 million converted Muslims live in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. These conversions took place mostly by force. Who were our own have become our enemies. It is a historical fact the 60 to 70 million Hindus have been slaughtered by these barbaric Muslims in the name of Islam. How could that religion be a religion of peace? That is why I find religions are dividing us.
So our suggestion is that anything that divides us, anything that makes us weak as a human race have to be shunned as poison. We must go towards universal understanding of God and the Brain. As you know our human brain is the epicenter of all our ideas, thinking and philosophy. Our so called religions were formulated to bring about a social order among fellow human beings based on morality. It is the human understanding of morality. You will see the son of God, Messenger, incarnation of God all were human beings whom we adore as Gods. The power lies in the human brain. The flowering of it will depend on how we handle this power.
Thank you.
Understanding The Brain Frequency
The normal human brain can vibrate at four different frequencies: Beta, Alpha, Theta, and Delta.
Beta state of Mind
It is the normal conscious state of mind when we are awake. This is the state where people conduct more than 90 percent of their daily activities.
When a person becomes stressed, fearful, angry, nervous, or feels any stirring emotion, the brain’s vibration frequency increases. The more stressed we become, the more rapidly our brain waves vibrate. All negative thoughts, as well as anger, fear, and compulsive cravings, tend to be fast. On the other hand, slower brain waves are associated with people who are calm, confident, and at ease. Positive thoughts like love, patience, and understanding, are slow.
Scientists have gathered conclusive results from Brain research to show that most people do their thinking at Beta level while only a minority of the population are natural Alpha thinkers. Unfortunately, this common experience of the Beta level of mind is not the ideal state of mind for learning and working. When we think and work at Beta state, we are prone to errors and mis-judgments.
So, why are people not thinking at Alpha level?
With some brain exercises and the right environment, it is not difficult to consciously slow down our mind to enter into Alpha state of mind. However, there is a problem that most people encounter in accessing the Alpha state - there is a tendency to fall asleep when their brain frequency slows down to Alpha. For most people who are not trained, it is difficult to stay awake during Alpha state.
Alpha state of mind
The Alpha is the state at which we can connect to our subconscious mind and unleash the maximum potential of our mind. However, if you are unable to remain awake at Alpha state, there is no way to conduct any activities to utilize this high productive state of mind. The high achievers are the minority group of people who are able to stay awake at the Alpha level and perform their thinking at this deeper level of mind. Alpha state is a frequency lower than Beta, where a person is somewhere between being awake and asleep
Theta State:
Deeply Relaxed, Dreaming
Generally associated with right-brain thinking activity - deeper subconscious to superconscious access to insights, bursts of creative ideas - a key state for "reality creation" through vivid imagery. At Theta, the speed of the brain's vibration is even lower than Alpha, when the mind is associated with deep, comfortable sleep.
Delta State:
Dreamless. Generally associated with no thinking
-unconscious/superconscious Access to non-physical states of existence - a key state for healing, "regeneration" and "rejuvenation" a person is at a deep sleep or completely unconscious.
Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe?
Stephen Hawking