The NY Times has had some interesting articles this past week.  Some of you will probably be interested in two links I’m posting.  I think at the Times the links are good for seven days, so I’m putting the date of the article with the link – they won’t be good for long.

First:  Ghosts in the Machine – 12-30-06.  Our brains are powered by electricity.  Scientists have triggered phantom effects - the sensation of being haunted by a shadowy figure – by stimulating the brain.  You can argue this two ways.  First, these sensations are delusions resulting from electrical misfirings in the brain.  Or second, the paranormal or psychic phenomena operate in the manner of radio waves and electrical impulses and those impulses or waves picked up in MRIs of brain functioning are the physical effect of a psychic activity.  Interesting stuff to think about.  Here’s the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/30/opinion/30blum.html

Second: Free Will – Now You Have It, Now You Don’t – 1-2-07.  Is free will an illusion? Or, a perception? Or, something else?  In one study, the action of moving a finger occurs before we are conscious of it – in other words the conscious brain is catching up with some unconscious activity that occurs prior to the physical action.  First there is the unconscious, then the action, then the conscious awareness of it.  Reminds me of Bruce’s silly little finger exercise but it seems to me that in that exercise we are essentially expanding our awareness to the “unconscious” impulse that triggers the expression of our intent.  Here’s the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/02/science/02free.html?pagewanted=3

The difficulty is that scientists are trying to come up with a materialist explanation of non-material phenomena. Interesting stuff to think about, nonetheless. 

Heirloom - Neurotheology?  Now that's an interesting topic.  But I'm not sure where the links are that you refer to.