Wired For God?: The Biology of Spiritual Experience
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Review
'I have enjoyed an extended argument with this book. Foster's passion and clarity help focus on the key issues concerning the nature of religious feeling in human life, demanding a quality of response from the reader that matches his own high standard of thought and exposition.' (Professor Chris Gosden, School of Archaeology, University of Oxford )
'A look at the ultimately important questions of life that is itself wonderfully alive: you may not agree, but you will never be bored.' (Iain McGilchrist )
'In this tour of the weird and wacky in religion and spirituality, Charles Foster displays his gift for making science accessible and philosophy entertaining. He will amuse and irritate religious believers and non-believers in turn but won't let either group stray too far from the evidence. You may not agree with all of Foster's answers, but he is certainly asking good questions.' (Justin Barrett, The University of Oxford )
'Both serious and entertaining.' (Professor Susan Blackmore, author of Consciousness: An introduction )
'A look at the ultimately important questions of life that is itself wonderfully alive: you may not agree, but you will never be bored.' (Iain McGilchrist )
'In this tour of the weird and wacky in religion and spirituality, Charles Foster displays his gift for making science accessible and philosophy entertaining. He will amuse and irritate religious believers and non-believers in turn but won't let either group stray too far from the evidence. You may not agree with all of Foster's answers, but he is certainly asking good questions.' (Justin Barrett, The University of Oxford )
'Both serious and entertaining.' (Professor Susan Blackmore, author of Consciousness: An introduction )
Review
'I have enjoyed an extended argument with this book. Foster's passion and clarity help focus on the key issues concerning the nature of religious feeling in human life, demanding a quality of response from the reader that matches his own high standard of thought and exposition.' -- Professor Chris Gosden, School of Archaeology, University of Oxford 'A look at the ultimately important questions of life that is itself wonderfully alive: you may not agree, but you will never be bored.' -- Iain McGilchrist 20091030 'In this tour of the weird and wacky in religion and spirituality, Charles Foster displays his gift for making science accessible and philosophy entertaining. He will amuse and irritate religious believers and non-believers in turn but won't let either group stray too far from the evidence. You may not agree with all of Foster's answers, but he is certainly asking good questions.' -- Justin Barrett, The University of Oxford 20091030 'Both serious and entertaining.' -- Professor Susan Blackmore, author of Consciousness: An introduction 20091030
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Foster expertly collates a number of concrete spiritual experiences that are found to occur in all religions and in non-religious activity such as meditation and drug-induced spirituality. These experiences have real and demonstrable biological affects in our neurology and our bio-chemistry.
Foster's worldview is that of a theist (one who readily concedes that supernatural things occur) but he realises this and fairly gives the views of his naturalistic counterpart in these areas: Susan Blackmore. Blackmore is quoted at length from her findings and they do make intriguing reading; so much so that I want to read something by her in this area. For me, a naturalistic explanation trounces the supernatural one every time. The way that he phrases his conclusions and gives the naturalistic explanations from his counterparts is excellent.
The concluding paragraphs to the chapters follow Foster's normal writing style, that is: the reader is brought into his day at the time of writing and from here the reader is led out of the reverie to his conclusion. But, in this work, the conclusion is often left open ended - asking you to make up your own mind. What supernatural explanations there are, are given tentatively.
I can't help but wonder how the plurality of spiritual experience affects Foster's Christianity. Certainly, if I were still a Christian, and I would have read this book then I would have realised that my spirituality was not unique to my religion and this would have caused some doubts.
Foster's worldview is that of a theist (one who readily concedes that supernatural things occur) but he realises this and fairly gives the views of his naturalistic counterpart in these areas: Susan Blackmore. Blackmore is quoted at length from her findings and they do make intriguing reading; so much so that I want to read something by her in this area. For me, a naturalistic explanation trounces the supernatural one every time. The way that he phrases his conclusions and gives the naturalistic explanations from his counterparts is excellent.
The concluding paragraphs to the chapters follow Foster's normal writing style, that is: the reader is brought into his day at the time of writing and from here the reader is led out of the reverie to his conclusion. But, in this work, the conclusion is often left open ended - asking you to make up your own mind. What supernatural explanations there are, are given tentatively.
I can't help but wonder how the plurality of spiritual experience affects Foster's Christianity. Certainly, if I were still a Christian, and I would have read this book then I would have realised that my spirituality was not unique to my religion and this would have caused some doubts.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is an interesting counterbalance to many popular science reads which affirm atheistic interpretations of neurological, biological and data from various psychological and research studies.
The narrative will please readers possessing spiritual belief, as it counters those of popular non-believers such as Dawkins, but in tone I found it to be more skeptical and agnostic about the conclusive findings of research such as the God gene or neurological scans of the brain activity of believers. It is much less the case that the author is affirmatively theist or spiritualist than they suspend judgement and present the evidence.
The book ranges across a number of topics, including neurology and biology (particularly with reference to stigmata as an exception to the rule that spiritual experiences are in the mind), drugs and neurotoxins in relationship to spiritual experience, sex and spirituality (which was disappointingly short and focued upon tantric sex and celibacy pretty much to the exclusion of anything else) and finally some good chapters on consciousness which dealt with Cartesian philosophical ideas.
Style and pace within the book are good, the narrative is interesting but now and again Foster lapses into a sort of pop journalistic sound bite exercise which I found a little distracting. So while reading and throughly enjoying insights on topics such as memetics (which Foster suggests can explain dissemination of ideas at best but not origins) I felt that Foster could spoil it by insisting on choosing to try to make a joke at just the wrong moment.
A good spiritual and pop science fusion read for those who read either genre or both, although not entirely original for anyone who has read about theories such as Julian Jaynes Bicameral Mind, neurological findings leading to the invention of a "God helmet", the God gene, the spiritual centres of the brain and similar topics. It is a good synopsis though.
The narrative will please readers possessing spiritual belief, as it counters those of popular non-believers such as Dawkins, but in tone I found it to be more skeptical and agnostic about the conclusive findings of research such as the God gene or neurological scans of the brain activity of believers. It is much less the case that the author is affirmatively theist or spiritualist than they suspend judgement and present the evidence.
The book ranges across a number of topics, including neurology and biology (particularly with reference to stigmata as an exception to the rule that spiritual experiences are in the mind), drugs and neurotoxins in relationship to spiritual experience, sex and spirituality (which was disappointingly short and focued upon tantric sex and celibacy pretty much to the exclusion of anything else) and finally some good chapters on consciousness which dealt with Cartesian philosophical ideas.
Style and pace within the book are good, the narrative is interesting but now and again Foster lapses into a sort of pop journalistic sound bite exercise which I found a little distracting. So while reading and throughly enjoying insights on topics such as memetics (which Foster suggests can explain dissemination of ideas at best but not origins) I felt that Foster could spoil it by insisting on choosing to try to make a joke at just the wrong moment.
A good spiritual and pop science fusion read for those who read either genre or both, although not entirely original for anyone who has read about theories such as Julian Jaynes Bicameral Mind, neurological findings leading to the invention of a "God helmet", the God gene, the spiritual centres of the brain and similar topics. It is a good synopsis though.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
origins of human spirtuality and experience from wearing a god helmet to second hand shamanism tantric sex , magic mushrooms NDE and OBEs
accurate and without bias
accurate and without bias
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A trip through the psyche
The book was not quite what I expected. What I thought we were going to get was mostly neurological with some talk about how "religious" experiences affect the brain, along with... Read more
Published 9 months ago by S. Meadows
Thought provoking and inspired
Charles Foster has once again forced us to think long and hard about some crucial issues in life. His approach to this emotive subject is sensitive,entertaining and controversial,... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Mick the Knife
Offensive to anyone with a brain - that isn't on drugs
It deeply offends me that this book is labelled as "popular science". It is nothing of the sort. Foster cites frauds and charlatans like Graham Hancock (pseudo-archaeologist... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Famousdog
Beware this book unless your faith is Rock solid.
This book is very confusing for anyone whose Christian faith may be just kindling or perhaps uncertain in any way. Read more
Published 13 months ago by J. Griffiths
More Foster genius
I was blown away by this latest outpouring from the pen of the polymathic Foster. How he manages to combine scholarship and readability is beyond me, but he succeeds marvellously... Read more
Published 17 months ago by pip
Broad and readable but not deep
The strength of this book is that it covers a tremendous breadth of subject matter, ranging from brain imaging to near-death experiences and from mysticism to magic mushrooms, and... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Peter Clarke
Brilliant exploration of mystical experience and its neurological...
This masterly work serves as an exciting sequel to The Selfless Gene: Living with God and Darwin. This time the veterinary barrister and archaeologist Charles Foster tackles the... Read more
Published 23 months ago by Samston
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