Tuesday, December 7, 2010

The God Helmet


Neuroscientist Michael Persinger uses helmet with solenoids to stimulate the brain with magnetic fields inducing a sense of presence of beings such as angels, demons, ghosts, and aliens. From episode one, "Is There a Creator?", of the Science Channel series "Through the Wormhole".

8 comments:

  1. Another strong pointer to the natural origins of religion.

    This whole segment is quiet old though, just on a new channel. Has he stopped his research? Or did interest in the god helmet dissapate because it too clearly shows the materialistic origins of emotions and emotional experiences?

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  2. These results wre never successfully repeated - proper double blind protocol. Although I think there is still controversy about whether the experiements were repeated correctly (length of time that magnetic effect is applied?)

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  3. I like that "god" is the narrator. ;D

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  4. "no more powerful than a hairdryer"??!?! My hairdryer uses like 2 kilowatts of power!! There's no way he's using power levels that high. If he were, blinding of the experiment would be impossible due to the subject being able to hear the magnetostrictive effect in the metal of the solenoids. Tellingly, no one has replicated Persinger's results and he may not have bothered to blind the setup at all.

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  5. <span>"no more powerful than a hairdryer"??!?! My hairdryer uses like 2 kilowatts of power!! There's no way he's using power levels that high. If he were, blinding of the experiment would be impossible due to the subject being able to hear the magnetostrictive effect in the metal of the solenoids. Tellingly, no one has replicated Persinger's results and he may not have bothered to blind the setup at all. The Science Channel has made a remarkably swift descent from "Cosmos" and geology documentaries with Ian Stewart, to the MTV Cribs level intellectual stimulation exemplified by "Punkin' Chunkin" in record time. I believe it may be a new record!
    </span>

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  6. Have you seen this yet?  I would have offered the link through Atheist Media but that part of the site is under construction (or evolving?)

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJYLT9TbRew&feature=player_embedded

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  7. @forumlogic: That is a funny video, often feel like being that frank. 

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  8. I tried on this helmet. I saw Derren Brown as Jesus - he kissed me and said "Come lie on my cloud". Then I notice my pants were all wet.

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