Month: November 2013

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New Book Sacred Pathways: The Brain’s Role In Religious and Mystic Experiences. Foreword by the Dalai Lama.

My book has been released.  Sacred Pathways: The Brain’s Role In Religious and Mystic Experiences.  It has a foreword by the 14th Dalai Lama, and one by Dr. M.A. Persinger, and a third by an Orthodox Bishop.

“ … interested readers will no doubt find (this) illuminating.” – From the foreword by His Holiness, the Dalai Lama.

This work in neurotheology integrates science and spirituality, starting with evolution. It offers new ways of thinking about reincarnation, God, enlightenment, psychic skills, and the human brain. It’s written from an atheist perspective, but it openly encourages prayer, meditation and spiritual living. It tells us that the pathways in the brain that function at death are also the basis of mystic experiences while we’re still alive. “ … this book, … balances … subjective experience with the general principles of neuroscience. … Sacred Pathways is the Principia (‘book of basic principles’ or ‘first work’) of the scientific investigation of spiritual experiences.”  – Dr. M.A. Persinger.

Todd Murphy is a member of a university neurosciences group, and has published in several scientific journals. His 9-hour lecture series can be seen on YouTube.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

  • Forward by His Holiness, the Dalai Lama of Tibet
  • Forward By Dr M.A. Persinger
  • Forward by His Grace, Bishop +Nazarin
  • 1 Introduction
  • 2 Reincarnation in Human Evolution
  • 3 Some Brain Parts
  • 4 Some Principles from Neuroscience
  • 5 The God Helmet
  • 6 The Stages in Near-Death Experiences
  • 7 Neural Bases for Phases of NDEs
  • 8 Sensed Presence & Visitor Experiences
  • 9 Out Of Body Experiences
  • 10 God and the Brain
  • 11 Romantic Love
  • 12 Enlightenment And the Self
  • 13 Neural Avalanches (Interhemispheric Intrusions) (case histories of mystic experiences)
  • 14 Psychic Skills
  • 15 Prayer
  • 16 The Earth beneath Our Feet (Geomagnetic Influences)

There is a 506-page paperback edition, and a kindle e-book.

The price is below the Publisher’s suggested retail price for a “book of this length and genre”  You can see it online here: (Kindle and Paperback).

Articles on the same subject (sometimes called neurotheology).