True Ancestor

Neural Buddhists and the Rest of Us

In the space of a couple of weeks, the New York Times ran at least three articles about how therapy, neurology and the search for spiritual fulfillment are converging. On May 13, the Times published a much-discussed column by David Brooks that ran under the headline "The Neural Buddhists." In it, Brooks noted that "scientists have more respect for elevated spiritual states." The moral: "The real challenge is going to come from people who feel the existence of the sacred, but who think that particular religions are just cultural artifacts built on top of universal human traits . . . Orthodox believers are going to have to defend particular doctrines and particular biblical teachings. They're going to have to defend the idea of a personal God, and explain why specific theologies are true guides for behavior day to day."

Twelve days later, under the headline "A Superhighway to Bliss," Times Reporter Leslie Kaufman wrote an article about Jill Bolte Taylor, a Harvard neuroscientist who experienced nirvana when she had stroke that temporarily silenced the left lobe of her brain.  Dr. Taylor was able to "see that the atoms and molecules making up her body blended with the space around her; the whole world and the creatures in it were all part of the same magnificent field of shimmering energy." The article goes on to describe her electrifying speech at the Technology, Entertainment, Design conference and a subsequent appearance on Oprah. (I've embedded a link to the talk, below, but it doesn't seem to be working. Use the link above as an alternative.)

The moral: "I believe that the more time we spend choosing to run the deep inner peace circuitry of our right hemispheres, the more peace we will project into the world, and the more peaceful our planet will be."

And two days after that, Benedict Carey wrote the lead piece in the May 27th Science Times section. It described how mindfulness meditation is rapidly gaining credence with therapists across a variety of disciplines. Although research doesn't seem to indicate that meditation is universally helpful, the "Buddha-like effort to move beyond language to change fundamental psychological processes" is changing the focus of many therapists from merely reframing thoughts to changing one's relationship to the content of one's thoughts.

It seems that the underlying premise of these articles is that science will help discern the real essence of what religionists have been misunderstanding and exploiting all these millennia -- that by understanding the processes at work within distinct and diverse regions of the brain, we'll be able to put the poetic nonsense aside and get at Oneness the way we might get at a flu vaccine or an endoscopy.

It's an intriguing thought, but in the end, I don't think it'll work out that way. There is a mystery that neither religion nor science can own. Religion at its best celebrates, at its worst exploits this mystery. Science at its best exploits that mystery, and at its worst turns it to deadly effect.

In my mind, neither will ever corner the market on Truth.

I'm writing this in the few moments before the beginning of Shavuot, the Jewish holiday celebrating the giving of the Torah to Moses at Mt. Sinai. We will never know what truly happened to a band of Jews on the run in the wilderness. But if all that happened was that Moses had a stroke, or ate some 'shrooms, and the event had been handed down to us with that narrative, we'd have a religion where we went about inducing strokes and hallucinations in ourselves (some would say this is, in fact, the case).

Thankfully, this isn't what happened. We received the narrative of that event and its aftermath in the form of a system of laws that, according to an intriguing paper by a Maryland undergraduate named Eitan Freedenberg,  "start at a single point and expand into a vast array of wavelengths." That point is Mt. Sinai -- wherever it is -- and those wavelengths are the spokes of law and custom, narrative and ritual that are the bedrock of at least three major religions and much of the moral and ethical framework of modern life.

But sometimes I wonder: if Moses had been Jill Bolte Taylor and taken a detached view of his revelatory experience, would we really be that different? After all, Moses said the word of God is "in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it" (Deut. 30:14). Professor Taylor says that anyone can choose to live a more peaceful, spiritual life (by sidestepping their left brain).

As the sun sets and Shavuot dawns, I find myself hoping -- praying, really -- that we take advantage of the confluence of these mighty rivers of thought, and ride them to a new sea of wisdom, still riding our rudimentary rafts of choice.

--T.A.

Incremental Apocalypse

Middle Daughter arrived home on Sunday, after her five-month volunteering jaunt through India and Africa. A few weeks ago she was diagnosed with malaria. She immediately upped her anti-malarial medication, and yesterday, a battery of tests showed no sign of the disease. Either she eradicated the malaria with the increased dosage of medicine, or she never had the disease at all. We'll never know.

As I write this, she's under the knife in the chair of an oral surgeon, getting skin scraped from the roof of her mouth and grafted onto a small portion of her lower jaw where, for some reason, she's suffered an almost total loss of gum tissue. She'll be in a lot of pain and a drug-induced swoon for a couple of days; then, we hope, she'll begin to heal in earnest.

From the minute we picked her up at the airport, stories have been tumbling out of her: the fall she took into a ditch in Tanzania, leaving, on the back of her left thigh, the largest bruise I have ever seen; the terror of crossing a street in Delhi, and learning the trick of crossing next to a cow, whose sacred status means it musn't be harmed (and whose size almost guarantees that it won't); the site of a black rhino at the Ngorongo Crater (hey: there's one now!); learning to sleep on trains clutching all your belongings; the deep bonds formed with the kids in the schools in Delhi and in Moshi, Tanzania, where she worked (that's Moshi in the other photo).

And coming home, she was at first delighted, then somewhat stunned at the ho-hum opulence of American life. A bathroom -- all to herself?! A toilet that wasn't a hole you had to squat over?! Heat, and lights, and big, comfortable cars, and television? And sushi?!!

The other night, before Middle Daughter got home, the One True Wife and I went out to dinner with friends who have the largest and most opulent house of any family I know. The friends built this house about five years ago. They told me that their kids now run through the house turning off lights in empty rooms, and scolding their parents for their excesses. It's more than just the cheerily correct PR of the classroom. Kids intuitively understand what their parents cannot or will not grasp: we're on the point of no return. The next little burst of energy into your flat-screen TV, or the switch that illuminates that room full of recessed lights, might be the end of the beginning of the end.

The latest science is clearly suggesting -- and in unusually frank terminology -- that the tipping point in global warming is happening right now.

The will to survive exerts itself spectacularly against spectacular threats -- but when the threat is creeping and gradual, the will may arrive too late.

Our kids know this in their bones. Middle Daughter fears that India will become one giant traffic jam when the bargain basement Renault/Nissan/Bajaj joint venture car begins to pour onto the market at the rate of 400,000 per year. She thinks even cows will become roadkill. And then there's the huge increase in demand for oil that the new cars will instigate.

Gabe is appalled that my Honda Accord Hybrid only averages about 25 miles per gallon. You call this a hybrid? And when are they going to hurry up and produce the Chevy Volt?

Oldest Daughter, she of the Washington, DC, internships and political perspective, thinks the Prius will look like a dinosaur within 18 months, and we should all hold out for better, more environmentally responsible technology.

Two nights ago, at Middle Daughter's craving's behest, we bought sushi from Whole Foods and sat around our ancient analog TV set, watching awful television and enjoying being together again. I thought about where the fish had come from, and the Burmese who could really have used that rice, and the electric meter spinning like a top; I loved having my whole family together again, and stopped, for a moment, wondering when the other shoe would drop.

--T.A.

Methuselah Lives, or: a Date with Destiny

This not a new story, but it is a news story. Apparently, it's true, and its possibilities and its symbolism are stunning.

Rabbi Zvi Miller, who used the term "a Date with Destiny" as the headline of his daily e-mail on Mussar, explained it this way:

Amongst the ruins atop Masada, a mountain fortress overlooking the Dead Sea, archeologists have unearthed a two-thousand year old date pit.  The pit was found in an ancient jar during excavations in the 1970's. A few years ago, it was given over  to the expert care of Dr. Elaine Soloway, a specialist in the area of ancient plants, to see if it would germinate. She was highly skeptical that any life was left in the parched, marble- white seed.

In spite of her doubt, in 2005 she made an attempt at revival by soaking the date stone in a bath of warm water and fertilizers. She then planted it on Tu'B'Shavat, the new year for trees. "After six weeks the bed cracked and then two weeks later the first leaves sprouted. "It was like a miracle!" said Dr. Soloway. 

The tree is growing today at the Arava Institute, where Dr. Soloway vigilantly watches over her charge, which she has named "Methuselah." Now that the seedling has grown into a sapling with extraordinary long palm tree leaves, Dr. Soloway professes that "I think it has a future."

Methuselah underwent chronological testing, using the radioactive isotope Carbon-14, which confirmed that the tree grew from a seed that lived when Judea was a flourishing Jewish community, some 2000 years ago. That species of dates, which was known to be uniquely succulent and sweet, is extinct. However, hopefully in a few years, as Methuselah continues to grow, the Judean date will reemerge like a phoenix from the ashes.

The story's symbolism is obvious -- especially at this time of year, the Jewish soul's ancient essence germinating anew, promising a sweetness untasted for two thousand years, is wonderful to contemplate.

Especially if you like dates. With destiny.

Have a good week.

--T.A.

God or No God, It's All Good

Does God exist or not?

Does God care or not?

A lot gets said on the topic, but little gets said as clearly, as concisely or as sensibly as this (h/t: RLC).

Shabbat Shalom--

--T.A.

We're all electrons

When Rabbi David Nelson talked about Judaism and Quantum Theory, and about Emergent Theory and Downward Causation, he got me thinking, which I admit is when I'm most dangerous.

Rabbi Nelson said we can predict with astonishing accuracy the movement of large bodies, but not the movement of tiny ones. We can only assign probability to where an electron would be at any given moment, but we know exactly where Earth will be in its orbit on, say June 27, 2049, at noon GMT.

So I got to thinking about how we are to God as electrons are to us. If we really have free will, our actions occur within a range of probability. And yet the larger bodies -- the mass of humankind -- sometimes seems as predictable as a school of fish.

If you've ever been onstage, or just spoken in front of a group of people, you're aware that, unless there's a heckler (a stray electron destabilizing the whole molecule), an audience is one giant organism -- The Beast with A Thousand Eyes, we used to call it. It thinks, moves and is moved as one.

That's because the more people you add to a group, the more they become one large and more predictable body. In a similar way, we're all free agents, and yet we're bound to our various molecules by forces beyond our control and even our understanding. And, it would appear, beyond even God's control and understanding.

And when you think about Emergent Theory and Downward Causation, you can see the scientific take on Messianism: we help give rise to a Higher Being, which then sends its evolved energies into our midst to add increasing complexity to the organism that is Us.

This may be why Messianic ideas are hard-wired into so many faiths and cultures: it's our brains giving a spiritual spin to the Downward Causation issuing from the Emergence of our Higher Selves!

The architecture of Nature (and thereby the Universe) is remarkably consistent: systems with remarkable similarity exist in their proportion from the largest to the smallest systems. So we're electrons in God's lab, zipping this way and that, colliding, recombining, and avoiding predictability.

One more thing: Rabbi Nelson said there are more connections between the neurons of our brains than there are particles in the Universe.

No wonder my brain hurts.

--T.A.

Does watching other people exercise count?

I knew my sedentary job was dulling my senses.

Turns out exercise makes you smarter. Charles Hillman, a kinesiologist at the University of Illinois and a part-time jock, realized that his exercise helped him stay sharp. And he saw that women from the cross-country team almost always set the curve on his exams.

So he decided to see if he could quantify the effects of exercise on mental acuity. He measured the Body-Mass Index of 259 third- to fifth-graders, put them through some basic exercise routines and then checked their physical abilities against their scores on statewide math and reading tests. He discovered a strong correlation between the fittest bodies and the sharpest minds.

Hillman's study comes on the heels of others that show, among other things, that human brains can be coaxed to grow new nerve cells (previously thought impossible) with the help of aerobic exercise regimens; and that older nerve cells can be encouraged, through vigorous exercise, to network up in ways that make the brain run more efficiently.

Where does the brain create those new nerve cells that result from increased exercise? In a region of the brain called the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus (sounds like a gum disease). That's the part of the brain that controls learning and memory.

I've always felt as if meditation opened new connections in my brain. But I was sitting absolutely still.

Does prayer do something similar?

If you sit studying all day, are you getting stupider as fast as you're getting smarter?

And if exercise makes you smarter, how do you explain Terrell Owens?

Too many mysteries for a Monday...

--T.A.

Jews Are From Mars

Well... it could be.

Especially now that they've found pure water ice up there, there's no telling who all came from or passed through the Red Planet on their way here.

When you review the literature, you see that a lot of the founders of world religions were ... well, in a word, nuts. They had visions, they glowed, they made their followers wander around in the desert and fight wars and build weird stuff; they communed with clouds and columns of smoke; they fasted for 40 days at a time.

You'd be nuts, too.

The weird thing about the story of the Jews is that the entire people followed this one guy (if contentiously) on a 40-year sojourn through a harsh, arid desert, where water was mysteriously conjured from the ground and food fell from the sky. All this after an encounter with a smoking, thundering mountain.

So -- just thinking out loud here -- what if the entire Jewish people's encounter with God consisted of actually lifting off and being transported to Mars?

Stay with me, now.

See, if there's water on Mars, there's oxygen (or if not, God could whip some up pretty quick); if there were no food, God would just drop some from the heavens. Presto: manna. The Jews panic and build the Golden Calf because we're scared to be removed from our home planet. Then we're sentenced to 40 years of wandering. On Mars.

Far-fetched you say? Say I: more far-fetched than the literal story? Oh, really? By how much? Omnipotent God, right? Made everything? Can do anything, blink of a cosmic eye?

I say those Mars rovers should be looking under their wheels. Maybe it's not that there aren't any archaeological artifacts of our sojourn in the wilderness.

Maybe it's that we've been looking on the wrong planet.

(Or maybe I've had a few too many...)

--T.A.

I'm glad the IAEA spent time on this, because I wasn't entirely clear on the concept.

Ah, this new radiation symbol makes it so much clearer: RADIATION = BAD. The old symbol was, you know, kind of dreamy. Aesthetically pleasing. Swoopy. Futuristic. Oddly comforting.

Now, with the skull and the running guy, it's a little less subtle. You can imagine the conversation that must have occured.

"Well, we've found all the WMD out there; solved all the lurking nuclear issues; what do we do now?"

"Hey, I know: let's redesign the radiation symbol!"

"Could we have some sizzling flesh as part of the symbol?"

"I don't know . . . people might flock to a nulear waste site, looking for barbecue. Thousands could perish."

"How about a mushroom cloud?"

"Hmmm . . . no, people might mistake it for a mushroom."

"OK, how about a cow?"

"A dead cow!"

"Yeah! A dead cow, on fire!"

"Don't you people think about anything but food?!"

I wonder how many focus groups it took for the IAEA to get it juuuust right . . .

--T.A.

"Can a student produce intellectually honest work that contradicts deeply held beliefs?" [UPDATED]

That's the question asked in this NY Times article (now in subscription jail) about Marcus Ross, a "young earth creationist"  -- oh, and a paleontologist who wrote a dissertation for his doctoral degree in geosciences at the University of Rhode Island; a dissertation that toed the line of current scientific thinking about the age of the Earth, the process of evolution, and other ideas and concepts widely held within the scientific community.

Everyone's in a tizzy because this guy's methodology is impeccable, and his dissertation well researched and reasoned -- but he doesn't believe in the conclusions of his own work.

He may be deluding himself, but so far he's not forcing his delusions on the rest of us. Instead, he's adopting a scientific perspective in producing a scientific treatise on marine reptiles that lived (according to the most current scientific evidence) more than 65 million years ago.

It may be more intellectually honest to post your "I don't believe in God" video on YouTube, but showing that you can fully understand (if not endorse) reasoning and perspective that's diametrically opposed to your own -- that's progress. We seem to be proving that more knowledge of science doesn't necessarily make you more scientific, or less prone to believe what can't be known.

According to the Times article, Ross said "the methodologies and theories of paleontology are one 'paradigm' for studying the past, and Scripture is another." He says all he's doing is "separating the different paradigms."

Perhaps the Internet has increased our propensity for valuing our own ever-shifting opinions over the accumulated work of actual disciplines. I think what this guy is doing is more humble, more careful and more objective than that. It may also be more insidious, but we won't know for awhile.

It's fine if you do or don't believe in God, really. But how much do you actually know about the different paradigms? Most of what I've seen and read (by or endorsed by Dawkins or Harris) seems angrily preoccupied with fundamentalist Christian paradigms of a just God, meddling in the workings of our daily lives, meting out reward to the just and punishment to the wicked. These authors don't seem as concerned about, say, Hinduism, or Tibetan Buddhism, or Animist traditions that feature entire pantheons of small-g gods who may be as dependent upon us, in their way, as we upon them.

Ross has mastered both a major scientific perspective and a major religious perspective. Maybe he has an ulterior motive, I don't know; maybe he'll use his knowledge to try to jam the foot of archaeology into the glass slipper of creationism, or maybe he just wants a tenured position within driving distance of a Baptist church.

But I admire the fact that he's taken the time to fully understand both paradigms. Not so most of these yahoos.

When a scientist, or a religionist, can walk freely back and forth through the adjoining suites of the two disciplines, we all get a little smarter. Doesn't matter which room they're staying in.

But then, that's just my opinion...

UPDATE: Here's a very thoughtful and detailed opposing view.

--T.A.

Falling Off the Rainbow

Amba's posts about the rainbow of different disciplines within evolutionary theory have me reflecting on the rainbow of human endeavor, of religious observance or lack thereof, and of culture, language: identity.

Our diversity is designed into us, it would appear. Or, if not designed, then we simply develop and evolve that way. Our ability to cordon ourselves off into clubs, political parties and communities of people too similar to us may be deadly.

Richard Ford says as much in his recent book, The Lay of the Land: "In-depth communication with smaller and smaller like-minded groups is the disease of the suburbs." Amen.

I receive essays on the weekly Torah portion from the Academy of Jewish Religion in New York. This week's author, Irwin Huberman, notes that diversity of opinion and practice has always been an essential part, and strength, of Judaism:

"Jewish law can be condensed into three general principles:

1. Performing justice,
2. Performing kind acts for others,
3. Serving God modestly.

In essence, by condensing all mitzvot into three general principles, our tradition reinforces that the Torah’s attention to detail is a means towards an end."

The categories are broad, because they have to be. Serving God comes third: it's contained within the others, perhaps.

The Tower of Babel is a corollary to, and the natural extension of, the exile from Eden: our desire to know separates us from what is best in us, but then we evolve by having to work at regaining and retaining that closeness. When less is given, more is earned.

*

I reflect on that last point, especially, in light of another sad event involving Middle Daughter: partly caused but also largely solved by her: a gathering of her friends at our house (last night, and me on a working vacation in Florida) revealed one of her friends had snuck in a bottle of alcohol; before anyone really paid attention, he'd downed a bunch of it and gotten very drunk. Middle Daughter and another friend tried to take the drunk friend home: he refused to give his address. They dropped him at a friend's house.

The One True Wife called the father, who was extremely grateful at how the event was handled, and very shaken by the prospect of having a kid with a big problem. He's got difficult choices to make, and so do we: can a kid who hasn't attained the age of majority ever have a bunch of friends over? Do we have to do regular search and seizure in any gathering? Because if even one kid has one drink and something bad happens, lives can get ruined.

What does evolution and religion have to do with teen drinking? I don't know. Maybe just that we're all made up of rainbows, and exist along the arcs of choice and intelligence and blessing and sheer dumb luck.

We're all part of the Big Arc. And it's amazing how hard we have to work to just not fall off.

--T.A.