Contact:
Julian Mattocks
Phone: +43-1-81140-308
E-Mail: mattocks@pressetext.com
| Pressbox | 
|
Uppsala (pte041/09.12.2004/16:00) - Doubts have been cast on the theory that magnetic fields spark religious or spiritual feelings after researchers have been unable to reproduce key results. As Nature http://www.nature.com reports, scientists have always claimed in the past that such feelings result from excessive bursts of electrical activity in the brain. However, the repetition of a study by a group of Swedish researchers originally carried out 20 years ago has failed to give an ultimate answer. If the traditional theory is wrong, it could leave scientists baffled as to why such thoughts and sensations are generated.
In the 1980s, Michael Persinger, a neuroscientist at the Laurentian University in Ontario, Canada first began to explore the idea through a series of experiments. Participants in the experiments wore helmets that targeted their temporal lobes with weak magnetic fields, which were at roughly the same strength as those generated by a computer monitor. 80 per cent of the people tested claimed to have felt an unexplained presence in the room. According to Persinger, magnetism caused bursts of electrical activity in the temporal lobes in the brain, which linked to the spiritual experiences.
The team from Uppsala University http://www.uu.se claim their tests have involved a crucial difference. They ensured that neither the participants nor the experimenters had any idea who was being exposed to the magnetic field - a "double-blind" protocol. "Without such a safeguard, people in the experimental group who are highly suggestible would pick up on cues from the experimenter and they would be more likely to have these types of experiences," said Pehr Granqvist, who led the research team. According to Granqvist, everything else was identical to Persinger's study. He and his team tested 43 undergraduate students by exposing them to magnetic fields that ranged from three to seven microtesia. They were aimed just above and in front of the ears, to target the temporal lobes. The team also tested a control group of 46 volunteers who wore the helmet but were not exposed to the magnetic field.
The research team found that the magnetism had no clear effects. Two out of the three participants that reported strong spiritual experiences during the study belonged to the control group. This was also the case with 11 out of the 22 who reported subtle experiences. According to Granqvist, although it seems to be quite a high level of spiritual experiences overall, it matches the level that Persinger saw in his control groups. Using personality tests, the researchers claim that people with an orientation towards unorthodox spirituality were more likely to feel a supernatural presence.
However, Persinger argues that the Swedish group did not expose the subjects to magnetic fields for long enough to produce an effect. He has also stressed that he double-blinded some of his subjects as well. According to Susan Blackmore, a psychologist in Bristol, people shouldn't give up on the theory yet. "When I went to Persinger's lab and underwent his procedures I had the most extraordinary experiences I've ever had," she said. "The Swedish researchers may have used magnetic fields that varied subtly from those of Persinger. But double-blind experiments will ultimately give us the final answer," she added.
(end)
|
|
