Of all the interconnected neurological and social factors that were used to create what is now called religion, one was the most important. It is the ability to see hallucinations. Voices, visions and memories of events that never happened (or predicting events that never happen) are all features of our neurochemical device called the brain.
Hallucinations and their origins
As the late world-renowned neurologist Oliver Sachs wrote, "Every person who performs a visually monotonous task is prone to hallucinations (in the same way, tasks with aural monotony lead to the appearance of sound hallucinations)." Sachs cites pilots and truckers as two prime examples of people who spend long hours gazing at monotonous landscapes. It's not hard to imagine how desert dwellers can experience the same sensations. Music producers are a great example of people prone to auditory hallucinations. You can also recall the psychedelic seizures of the indigenous people of Africa within the trance tradition of monotonous drumming. The visions of some people impress everyone else.
Epilepsy is closest to religion
Among the many cognitive aberrations that Sachs cites in his book, epilepsy is one of the most talked about in religious thought. Even Hippocrates once called it "a sacred disease." For centuries, sudden seizures have been considered proof that a person is possessed by a higher power that wants her voice to be heard.
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Message transmission
However, as with psychedelics, another theme Sachs describes in his book, the "message" that is conveyed during a seizure is not coherent. Many hallucinations, whether deliberately or accidentally, show confusing and questionable points that are then contextualized. The human brain hates unfinished narratives. And if the metaphysical essence helps to close all the gaps, then the brain will only be happy.
A wandering mind - what is it?
To somehow make sense of this unusual sensation, people rely on their memories. They stop at a context that is at least familiar to them. An interesting fact is that the areas of the brain that work with memories are also activated when a person ponders the future. According to psychologist Michael Corballis, in the sixteenth century the word "hallucination" meant "a wandering mind." When the human mind wanders, it only happens in two directions: forward or backward. Both states are completely abstracted from reality.
Sachs and psychedelic drugs
Sachs' use of psychedelics is well documented. His menu included cannabis, mescaline and LSD, but it was trihexyphenidyl, a synthetic drug used by patients with Parkinson's disease (similar in effect to belladonna), that allowed the brain to wander into new dimensions. His friend offered him an impressive dose of twenty pills, and Sachs agreed.
Trihexyphenidil effect
On the Sunday morning after his adventures, he was upset to find only a dry throat and an inability to read. Entering the kitchen, he put the kettle on the stove. Two friends came to him for breakfast as part of an old tradition. Sachs asked how to cook them eggs, got an answer, and took out three plates. When breakfast was ready, Sachs entered the living room and found that there was no one there. The morning got even weirder when a helicopter that brought his parents landed landed in his backyard. By that time, he had already finished all three servings of eggs. Sachs was excited about the upcoming meeting with his parents, so he quickly went to the shower and got dressed, but when he came out, he found that the meeting would not take place, since there was no one in the backyard.
Interpreting the vision
At that time, Sachs worked for a long time in the Department of Neurology at the University of California, he knew enough about a wide variety of neurological abnormalities. He knew all the chemical reactions that take place in his brain, but even with that in mind, he was still surprised by the effect it produced. His memories (in this case, various case studies and hours of work with patients) convinced him that visions, voices and sounds are just a unique product of neurochemistry, and not a window to the other world. However, not every person is able to understand this. And if you don't have the same extensive training, then a helicopter descending from heaven may very well be the chariot of the gods.
Dualism and the wandering mind
Corballis notes that dualism, that is, the idea that an ethereal spirit lives inside the body, is born precisely because of the wanderings of the human mind. People are predisposed to believe that their mind is separate from the physiological and neurological processes in the body. Research by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt also supports this theory.
Religion as the simplest solution
A wandering mind is a completely normal state of the human brain. To switch to active mode, to fully concentrate on a task, the brain requires much more energy than a relaxed drift. Making the transition between these two states in an age of high-tech distraction is a nearly impossible task. Therefore, if a person is taken by surprise, metaphysics becomes the simplest solution.
Marina Ilyushenko