Your God Spot: How the Brain Makes and the Mind Shapes All Forms of Faith

By GERALD SCHMELING PH.D

"Your God Spot" is based on scientific findings about God, spirit, and religion. Spiritual hardwiring in the brain is the source of all deity and belief, from whichthe mind projects all forms of faith everywhere.

This new view sheds light on the most basic and perplexing questions about belief. Subtitled "How the Brain Makes and the Mind Shapes All Forms of Faith," this book consists of three tight fitting parts. Part I, "In the Mirror of Spirit" directs your attention to the God Spot within. Part I, "Through a Prism of Religion,"describes the forms of faith projected by the mind, including their pros and cons. And Part III, "Out the Window of Belief," focuses on some faiths that measures up, and how you can fulfill your spirituality, no matter your state of belief.

Seven chaptersbrimwith reader-friendly information and application. There are opening questions and closingstatements.emphasized text, table highlights, quotes from experts, and a "Mirror into Me" vignette from theauthor's clinical experience.

"Your God Spot" addsa new choice--free-ist--to the old categories of atheist, atheist, and agnostic. This means that we are now free to tailor make our own belief, and to alter it to fit as wegrow.

An extensive bibliography anchorsthis new view, and guides the reader who wants to dive deeper yet.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: May 22, 2009
• ISBN: 9781467052689

GERALD SCHMELING PH.D

Dr. Gerald Schmeling is a retired clinical psychologist who has helped patients fulfill spiritual potential, in and outof organized belief. But always in the context of sound mentalhealth and relating. Dr. Schmeling's history and quest has been quite a trip: North African and Near Eastern roots in Islam and Judaism. Baptism as a Roman Catholic. Shinto and Buddhist playmates in Hawaii. Protestant chapels on military bases. Agnosticism in college. Lutheran Church member with family. Unitarian-Universalismin retirement. The discovery of God Spot hardwiring is thefinal pageof Dr. Schmeling's spiritual history, the destination of his lifelong quest.

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© 2009 Gerald Schmeling, Ph.D. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 5/15/2009

ISBN: 978-1-4389-3115-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4670-5268-9(ebk)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2009902889

Printed in the United States of America

Bloomington, Indiana

Contents

INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

GOD SPOT HIGHLIGHTS

SELECTED REFERENCES

DEDICATION

To J.B. Phillips and Richard Dawkins

In giving rise to man, the evolutionary process has, apparently, for the first and only time in the history of the Cosmos, become conscious of itself.

--Theodosius Dobzhansky

INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW 

This book doesn’t just turn a new leaf on belief, but plants a new tree in reason, deep and evergreen. You will see that faith is a rainbow, not just some black-and-white bit like, God said it, I believe it, that’s it. You will learn why the Christian dictum that man was created in the image of God is more soundly stated the other way, that God is the product of man.

For the first time anywhere, based on scientific findings, you will find answers to such timeless questions like this about God, spirit, and religion:

• What is God, and why does He seem to be everywhere?

• What is the real source of all forms of faith?

• What is good and bad about religion, and how does yours rate?

• How can nonbelievers be more godly than the faithful?

• How do you fulfill spiritual potential, no matter your state of belief?

Norman Vincent Peale published his breakthrough book in this field fifty years ago. The Power of Positive Thinking found the essence of Christianity to be in positive thinking and humane relating--the glass half full and the Golden Rule.

Your God Spot goes deeper, pinpointing the hardwiring in the brain that is the source of his essence and more. Yet I share Dr. Peale’s goal, which is to write a practical, direct-action, personal improvement manual written with the sole objective of helping the reader achieve a happy, satisfying, and worthwhile life.

My effort rests on three foundations: Professional and personal experience. Evidence from evolutionary psychology. And findings in the new field of neurotheology. All obey the Law of Parsimony, which states that the best explanation is the simplest, one that adds nothing not needed, especially no dogmatic tales wagging preconceived belief.

Your God Spot serves up a meal too rich for any pre-packaged faith. So, let me answer three questions that set the table for this dish: Who am I to say? What is my point of view? What’s in this for you?

WHO AM I TO SAY?

My professional experience is that of a clinical psychologist. This includes a Doctor’s Degree, State licensure, and decades of experience helping clients solve problems in mental health and relating. This often involved reconciling conflict between thinking and feeling in matters of belief.

I have seen how religion can help or hurt, and have been gratified when some sacred text inspires a client to be kind and caring. But have been appalled when another, citing scripture, too, can relate with such hate and disdain, yet feel fully justified by faith. The root of this difference? Is that religion helps those who hold a more liberal view, while it hurts those who are more fundamental. Religious liberals are in better mental health, and relate better than fundamentalists do. This basic difference has been largely overlooked in discussions of religion, but brought to light by psychology.

With few references that directly apply, I’ve collected bits from here and there to make a mosaic. Having been a clinician rather than a researcher, I look forward to having this picture put to the test by qualified peers. And since I am no theologian pushing a belief, there is no sects appeal here, nothing either old school or New Age.

You will find here no religious dribble or psycho babble to insult your common sense or IQ.

Reason cannot swallow any pre-packaged faith whole.

My personal experience with religion began when I was baptized a Catholic, though my parents didn’t practice. My dad was a non-believer, a Lutheran by default of Germanic background. My mother emanated a wide-spectrum belief. In a drawer of her foot-pedal Singer she kept a rosary, a Buddha and an Eastern Star ring. Her eyes glistened when Frankie Laine sang I Believe on the radio.

I attended church and Sunday school in protestant chapels on military bases. During my college daze, I razed my spirits by drinking and drugging, by living life to the foolest. And yet, even then, I felt the pull of something spiritual that at last I understand.

My wife and I joined a mainstream protestant church as a compromise between her strict religious upbringing and my more generic belief. We attended church faithfully, though I never could swallow such basic chunks of faith as a triune God, the virgin birth, the second coming, and an afterlife.

As a child my belief was stoked by a miraculous answer to prayer. This happened on the way to the Saturday matinee with just enough money for my ticket, but with my sweet tooth screaming: Feed me! I wanted some candy so badly that I promised God that I would believe in Him if He would give me a dime to buy a box of Good ‘N Plenty.

And I found one in my path as I cut across the grass, glistening in the morning dew. And I’ve kept that pledge since, though my understanding of God has flip-flopped, landing me upright on thinking feet. I now realize that this miracle resulted from edgy perception that my will to believe etched in my mind as an answer to prayer.

In recent years, several lines of evidence have converged on the conclusion that religiousness is associated with a specific and consistent set of biological processes. Religion appears to be a cultural universal.

--Patrick McNamara

The third foundation of Your God Spot is neurotheology. This new field of study focuses on the relationship between brain function and spiritual experience. Certain brain centers and tracts have been shown to be the home of spirit. The source of everything spiritual is not out there somewhere, but embedded in neural hardwiring inside. This natural fact has helped the fittest of our kind survive, thrive, and drive ahead relentlessly.

I have found that the most fulfilling spiritual recipe is based not on religion but on reason, not on dogma but on data, and not on feeling but on fact. The result is a spiritual treat that I call Free-ism. This new slice of the ism pie adds a fresh choice to the stale old flavors that we were forced to choose from before: Deism, Agnosticism, or Atheism.

WHAT IS MY POINT OF VIEW?

My point of view is that of a mental health professional intent on helping you fulfill your potential, no matter your state of belief. I refer more to the Judeo-Christian tradition simply because that’s the one I’m most familiar with. Your God Spot could have been written by someone born and raised in any other faith anywhere.

Let me define some terms I will use, starting with The Force and Grow Power.

The Force is all the cosmic facts and actions that have interacted over time to make things what they were, what they are, and what they will be. Grow Power is the The Force at work in you; it is passed on biologically through genes, and psychosocially through memes, bits of everyday life that we learn.

Your brain is the organic matter that gives rise to mental state. The difference between brain and mind might be likened to the difference in a painting between the dabs on the pallet and the finished picture. The brain contains what might be, while the mind defines what is real.

Spirit, or spirituality, is the belief-containing part of the mind. God and deity are used interchangeably; they refer to some superhuman entity felt by believers to exist independently. Faith, belief and religion are forms of worship usually based on scripture and ritual that stipulates accepted and rejected acts of believers. These terms are used interchangeably, as they seem better suited to the sound and flow of the wording.

Soul is not used, since the term is not needed. This in spite of the fact that spirit and soul are considered the same in some faiths, as the nonphysical aspect of man that lives on after death. No, soul is lopped off by the Law of Parsimony, without cutting into the meat here.

Here is how these terms, and more you will meet, bask in the glow of God Spot:

Peak Experience

Meaning and Majesty            Self Assurance and Esteem

                       Belief

           Faith                        Religion

Social Belonging      YOUR GOD SPOT       Positive Thinking

           Monotheism                  Pantheism

                       Deity

The Will to Believe                  The Glass Half Full

                  The Golden Rule

Specific forms of faith, as you see, surround your God Spot. These, in turn, are orbited by more generic terms that reflect spirituality in its wider, deeper sense.

WHAT’S IN THIS FOR YOU?

Your God Spot is no way the last word on faith, but it is the first to lay out the path to your spiritual peak, no matter where you now stand on the matter.

Here are details of what makes up and breaks down this book.

An Introductory Quiz consists of seven true-false questions keyed to the chapters. This will show how closely your spiritual views conform to those of traditional Judeo-Christianity, as well as give you a glance ahead at the book.

Part I, In the Mirror of Spirit, explains how The Force and Grow Power work in the cosmos and us, and pinpoints the God Spot. Part II, Through a Prism of Religion, presents the many forms of faith that the mind shapes, the pros and cons of religious belief, and the shameful state of U.S. faith today. Part III, Out the Window of Belief, identifies the Golden Rule as the best measure