The title of this journal is accrete. It explains what the study was for – to see what parts of the brain were activated when a mystical experience occurs.
The explanations of the findings of the study were justified. It claimed to find that several brain regions were and systems mediate mystical experience which it did to a certain extent. It did not find that only one specific part of the brain was responsible which other studies in the past have suggested. However, the mystical experience reference bothers me. The participants were asked to relive a mystical experience rather than to achieve it. Therefore the mystical experience it self could still be experienced in a specific part of the brain, but accesses the other parts of the brain when it is relived by the individual. Although this is unlikely as reliving an experience can be very close to being there again, it is still a possibility and a flaw within this study.
This was not the experiments only flaw. It’s participants, although having a good age range, were all Carmelite nuns and therefore if would be very hard to generalise the findings to the wider population. There were only 15 of them that took part as well, not making it a very large study. This means it is very likely that extraneous variables may have been at work and mutated the results undetected.
The design of the study also creates problems with validity. The 3 conditions, resting controlled and mystical were all performed by the same participants which eliminates individual differences but they were not all the same length as an attempt to reduce fatigue in participants. Although this is understandable it could be that the brain needs the same amount of time in, say, the relaxed condition to achieve the same activity that is achieved in the mystical condition.
When it comes to the news report, the message the headline portrays is very different to the content of the article which is actually pretty accrete. The headline ‘Nuns prove God is not figment of the mind’ is so incorrect. It not only suggests that the study has found mystical experiences are not experienced in the brain when the opposite is true, but it also claims to have proved this fact. Whether or not God exists, mystical experiences either cause or are caused by brain processes.
the study itself, although a few flaws in the design, did have significant findings. The news report was accrete at points, but would have given of the wrong impression completely based on the headline. This is dangerous, as many people skip through articles only focusing on the headline before turning the page. It is of the most importance that the title of an article accurately reflects the content which the above article definitely fails to do.
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