Mind: Damaged Brains Escape the Material World

Increased feelings of transcendence can follow brain damage, a study of people with brain cancer suggests.

As feelings of transcending the physical world can be part of some religious experiences and other forms of spirituality, the finding may help explain why some people seem more prone to such experiences than others.

In particular, the researchers were interested in a personality trait known as self-transcendence.

People score highly for this trait if they answer "yes" to questions such as: "I often feel so connected to the people around me that I feel like there is no separation"; "I feel so connected to nature that everything feels like one single organism"; and "I got lost in the moment and detached from time". The same people also tend to believe in miracles, extrasensory perception and other non-material phenomena.

See Damaged brains escape the material world by Ewen Callaway, February 11, 2010.