Discovery News: Animals Said to Have Spiritual Experiences

[Kylyssa]

Aren't "spiritual experiences" just intense emotions?  So why are we so surprised that some other animals also have intense emotions?  Our emotions had to have evolved from somewhere.

[PoopShoot]

Aren't "spiritual experiences" just intense emotions?  

Yes and no.  They are based on the same chemicals interacting in certain areas of the brain and they are an overdose of "happy chemicals", but the experience itself is more than merely an intense emotion, it is a hallucination.

So why are we so surprised that some other animals also have intense emotions?  Our emotions had to have evolved from somewhere.

I'm not, but I do think it's interesting.  Knowing our "lessers" helps us to understand ourselves.

[elliebean]

So when are they going to study whether or not humans really have spiritual experiences?

[PoopShoot]

So when are they going to study whether or not humans really have spiritual experiences?

http://www.amazon.com/God-Gene-Faith-Ha ... 236&sr=1-1

[The Magic Pudding]

So when are they going to study whether or not humans really have spiritual experiences?

I found this interesting when I heard it -
http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/ ... 100529.mp3

Is neuroscience the new philosophy? Danish science writer and neurobiologist Lone Frank thinks the radical self-knowledge it offers us will help us transcend human nature. From the stage of the Sydney Writers' Festival, she dons The God Helmet, encounters her chemical self, and hesitates before having a brain scan.

But it has it's critics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_helmet