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this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2025
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Mycology
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Neuroscientists developed a trans cranial magnetic helmet that when focused on the right part of the brain, induces religious visions typical of those described by Catholic saints. Suggests that some religious visionaries may have had brain damage or a brain parasite.
I think more likely that they had techniques and a way of life that caused this part of the brain to fire. Typically, visionary saints lived lives of extreme deprivation and constant meditative states, which probably led to a very specific kind of brain chemistry.
Indeed, many religions specifically induce these effects. For example, Dark retreat.
Whoa, I'd really like to try that.
Did you read that?
*Susan Blackmore, a psychologist based in Bristol, UK, is also reluctant to give up on the theory just yet. She has firsthand experience of Persinger's methods. "When I went to Persinger's lab and underwent his procedures I had the most extraordinary experiences I've ever had," she says. "I'll be surprised if it turns out to be a placebo effect."
She too thinks that 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 says.*
Persinger's work was reproduced in 2014.
Tinoca, Carlos A; Ortiz, João PL (2014). "Magnetic stimulation of the temporal cortex: a partial "God helmet" replication study". Journal of Consciousness Exploration & Research. 5 (3): 234–257.
The only "controversy" was a single Swedish group who did not follow the same protocol (why?) then claimed it was not reproducible. Persinger's work triggered a lot of religious people. He died in 2018. His central theory is that humans evolved a part of brain to deal with their own mortality when they evolved a certain level of intelligence.