If Beauty Is in the Eye of the Beholder, Is Faith in the Brain Chemistry of the Believer? #christiansanddepression

Some years ago, I came across the story of Dr. Michael Persinger (Professor of Neuroscience at the Department of Psychology of Laurentian University, Ontario, Canada) and his amazing “god helmet.”

Dr. Persinger invented a contraption that directs magnetic impulses to specific parts of the brain.  The doctor discovered that by targeting low-level impulses at the temporal lobe, he could induce mystical god-experiences (among other mental states) in his patients.  I recall an account (which I cannot find now) where a professed atheist, of all people, suddenly “experienced god” under the influence of Dr. Persinger’s magnetic helmet.

I was not the least bit surprised by Dr. Persinger’s experiments because I

read about them years after my own life-changing experiences with antidepressant medicine.  Antidepressants probably helped to save my life.

Accepting my need for such medication (taken in combination with counseling/talk-therapy) has been, as far as I can tell, the single most beneficial step that I have taken in securing a healthy, stable state of mind and a positive outlook on life; it has certainly made an extraordinary difference in my relationship with God.  (I am careful to say “I have taken” because I believe that the Holy Spirit was/is active in the entire process.  We can never isolate the physical from the spiritual. My Savior always gets the glory, even for the effects of antidepressant medicine).

Yet, I know how strange, even offensive, my claims may sound to many Christian people.  But it seems to me that this is one of the unavoidable complexities we are stuck with as material creatures created for spiritual relationship.

For whatever reason, our Creator decided to make human materiality and human spirituality inseparable.  If we want to blame someone for that messy, uncomfortable connection, then we must blame God for giving us bodies in the first place – bodies that would be mangled in the Fall by sin.

Please, do not blame the people whose flawed brain chemistry cripples their genuine desires to know and to love Jesus.

Because the LORD decided to make us embodied, physical creatures, our weak, sickly, degenerating bodies are an essential part of God’s equation for knowing Him, experiencing His presence, responding to the Holy Spirit and grasping the things He wants to say to us through Scripture.  So, brothers and sisters, I am open to whatever help medical science can offer me in keeping my body running the way it is supposed to in order that I may serve my Lord for as long as I can, just as I am supposed to.

I realize that skeptics offer a different explanation for this connection between magnetic waves, neurochemicals and spiritual experience.  Many have suggested that brain chemicals don’t just facilitate our experience of God.  They actually create the God-experience within our minds.  In other words, “God” or what-have-you is literally a figment of our neurochemically inspired imaginations.

Religious skeptics point to humanity’s long history with naturally occurring hallucinogenic drugs. Many ancient people turned to ritually induced hallucinogenic experiences that they believed bridged the gulf between this world and the next.  Amazonian Indians use a concoction called ayahuasca.  Some Native Americans use peyote in their quest for the spirit world.

What makes my experience with antidepressants any different?

Perhaps what I call an “improved relationship with Christ” is simply a chemically induced spiritual euphoria that I happen to label with Christian terms.  What about that possibility?

Here’s what I think:

First, as with all things religious, I openly confess that my preferred answers are intertwined with my Christian faith, just as the atheist’s preferred answers are a result of his/her faith in disbelief.

That I am experiencing the real God who actually exists independently of myself can neither be proven nor disproven by empirical evidence or logical argument alone. I choose to believe in God for a host of different reasons (both objective and subjective) that lie well beyond what we can address here in this discussion. (Maybe I will take up those matters in the future. Obviously, the issues of faith and unbelief long antedate the study of neurochemicals and brain chemistry).

Second, I came across a useful analogy offered by a neurobiologist some years ago.  He compared brain chemistry to the way cells work in the human eye. Our retinas are lined with two different types of cells: rods and cones.  Rods allow us to see black and white.  Cones perceive color.  Or do they?

Maybe cone cells only create the illusion of a brightly colored world splashed with red, blue, green, scarlet, aqua marine and the many additional hues we all know and love.

Do the cone cells create an illusion of color or do they facilitate the perception of colors that are really out there?

Answering that question does not require faith.  Just ask the person suffering from color-blindness because their retinas lack healthy cone cells.

So, I wonder, why can’t neurochemicals work for our brains in a way that is analogous to the way cone cells function in our eyes?  They help (or, perhaps, hinder) us in perceiving the presence of a God who is really there.

Obviously, much more could be said about these things.  Perhaps I will have more to say about my thoughts on and experiences with depression, medication and connection with God in the future.  But, for the moment, I think this is maybe enough.

I hope that my periodic discussions of depression I have provided some small measure of help and encouragement for those who needed it.