| Sumario: | The article examines research into the connection between religious experience and neurological function. People with temporal-lobe epilepsy are prone to religious hallucinations.Two decades ago, this finding led Michael Persinger, a neuropsychologist at Laurentian University in Canada, to try stimulating people's temporal lobes artificially, to see if he could induce a religious state in them. He found that he could. The precise interpretation of Dr Persinger's results has, of course, been controversial. At least, not until now. But no one has questioned the results themselves. At least, not until now. But Pehr Granqvist, a psychologist at Uppsala University in Sweden, does now question them. The flaw Dr Granqvist claims that Dr Persinger's original work suffered from was that it was not properly "double-blinded". All this suggests that a third party should conduct yet another series of experiments. The origins of religious experience are one of the most mysterious phenomena in brain science. It would be nice to get a straight answer.
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