A group of scientists from Oxford conducted an experiment using a magnetic resonance scanner and an image of the Virgin Mary
A group of scientists from Oxford University set up an experiment designed to establish a connection between a person's religious feelings and his perception of pain. The experiment showed that faith can really relieve pain.
This confirms the theory that Christian martyrs could alleviate suffering from torture or slow death, the magazine Vokrug Sveta writes.
During the experiment, scientists placed 12 Catholics and 12 atheists in a magnetic resonance scanner and, while they viewed the painting of Sassoferrato depicting the Virgin Mary and Leonardo da Vinci's painting "Lady with an Ermine", they treated the subjects with electric shock. The researchers hoped that contemplating the face of the Virgin Mary would stimulate religious feelings in believers. Da Vinci's painting was chosen because it is similar to the work of Sassoferrato and, as it were, calms the viewer.
Within half an hour, each of the Catholics and atheists, being in a scanning chamber using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and contemplating this or that art canvas, received a total of 20 electrical discharges in four sessions.
Catholics who turned to the image of the Blessed Virgin announced to the experimenters that they felt "safe", that they were "cared for," "not worried and felt peaceful." In addition, after viewing a religious picture, believers felt 12% less pain than after contemplating "Ladies with an Ermine." And a scan of the anterior right region of their brain showed that the believers had active neural mechanisms for modulating pain. Atheists did not have such brain activity, their pain sensations were the same after viewing each of the pictures.
As the experimenters concluded, believers can activate the pain-related part of the brain by thinking about pain in a positive way. And one of the members of the team of scientists, psychologist Miguel Farias, is confident that a similar effect of pain reduction can be achieved in atheists if you give them the opportunity to look at the image of a person for whom they have positive feelings.
Meanwhile, the head of the Missionary Department of the Yaroslavl diocese, the first vice-rector of the Yaroslavl Theological Seminary, Ph. D. Hieromonk Serapion (Mitko), commenting on the findings of the study of British scientists, questioned the scientific nature of the experiment. “The experience of pain is unique in each individual case. We cannot feel the pain of another person, so we cannot claim that we experience the pain of another person the same way he does. Therefore, experiments of this kind are not of a scientific nature; they are carried out rather to popularize certain scientific groups or institutes in order to attract the attention of the press, which naturally raises their investment rating and allows them to receive more and more research grants. The crisis of such a marketing strategy forces such groups of experimental researchers to turn to more and more new informational topics. And one of these reasons is the study of the connection between religiosity and the structure of the nervous system. The experiment of electric shock testing against the background of contemplation of works of world art of religious or secular content is inherently completely unscientific, he said in an interview with Russkaya Liniya.
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By the way, last year, scientists from the University of Zurich found out that pain is caused not only by physiological, but also largely psychological factors. According to experts, courage helps a person feel less pain. A person who feels like a hero suffers less pain than someone who feels like a coward. Realizing that this suffering is necessary and meaningful also reduces pain.