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	Why We Believe What We Believe: Uncovering Our Biological Need for Meaning, Spirituality, and Truth by Andrew Newberg, Mark Robert Waldman
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Product Details Binding Hardcover Dewey Decimal Number 153.4 EAN 9780743274975 ISBN 0743274970 Manufacturer Free Press Number Of Items 1 Number Of Pages 336 Publication Date September 12, 2006 Publisher Free Press Availability Usually ships in 24 hours Product Description WHY DO YOU BELIEVE THE THINGS YOU BELIEVE? Do you remember events differently from how they really happened? Where do your superstitions come from? How do morals evolve? Why are some people religious and others nonreligious? Everyone has thoughts and questions like these, and now Andrew Newberg and Mark Waldman expose, for the first time, how our complex views emerge from the neural activities of the brain. Bridging science, psychology, and religion, they demonstrate, in simple terminology, how the brain perceives reality and transforms it into an extraordinary range of personal, ethical, and creative premises that we use to build meaning, value, spirituality, and truth into our lives. When you come to understand this remarkable process, it will change forever the way you look at the world and yourself. Supported by groundbreaking research, including brain scans of people as they pray, meditate, and even speak in tongues, Newberg and Waldman propose a new model for how deep convictions emerge and influence our lives. You will even glimpse how the mind of an atheist works when contemplating God. Using personal stories, moral paradoxes, and optical illusions, the authors demonstrate how our brains construct our fondest assumptions about reality, offering recommendations for exercising your most important 'muscle' in order to develop a more life-affirming, flexible range of attitudes. You'll discover how to: Recognize when your beliefs are altered by others Guard against mental traps and prejudicial thinking Distinguish between destructive and constructive beliefs Cultivate spiritual and ethical ideals Ultimately, we must always return to our beliefs. From the ordinary to the extraordinary, they give meaning to the mysteries of life, providing us with our individual uniqueness and the ability to fill our lives with joy. Most important, though, they give us inspiration and hope, beacons to guide us through the light and dark corners of the soul. When Newberg, a professor of radiology, psychiatry, and religious studies, ponders the nature of reality, it makes fascinating, mind-bending reading. What is reality, he asks, but a combination of the subjective vividness of an experience (strengthened by the continuity and duration of that experience) and the consensus of others that it is so? Expanding on a thread picked up before in Why God Won't Go Away (2001), he and Waldman examine the Liar's Paradox, assert the likes of 'Truth cannot be entirely known, for no matter how much evidence you collect, your knowledge will always be incomplete,' and maintain that individual reality is exclusively guided by a combination of sensory perceptions (which are prey to any number of distorting influences) and beliefs. Heady stuff, but with extensive research and credible scientific resources to support it, enough to make a person rethink concepts of truth, reality, and belief. So rich a book that it begs to be read in small bites over a long time. Donna Chavez Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved 'Our beliefs are the most precious things we possess. But how do we get them? Newberg and Waldman propose a thoughtful, well-documented, biological hypothesis on how our brains process sensory information into our own unique visions of reality. Fascinating for believers and nonbelievers alike.'-- Dean Hamer, PhD, geneticist and author of Living with Our Genes and The God Gene 'I love this book. As cultures collide in our newly connected global existence, I can think of nothing more important than helping people understand the origin, nature, and sheer danger of their beliefs. Why We Believe What We Believe should be required reading for every person, young and old, who has the courage to open his or her mind and explore the biological basis of belief.'-- Sandra Blakeslee, award-winning science writer and co-author of On Intelligence and Phantoms in the Brain 'Here is a book that seeks not to dismiss or ignore our will to believe, but instead explores why believing -- even secular beliefs -- is such a necessary and 'hardwired' aspect of being human. Newberg and Waldman bring an immense scientific learning to this compelling work of immense clarity. Why We Believe What We Believe is certainly the best scientific statement yet on the will to believe.'-- Stephen G. Post, PhD, professor of Bioethics, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, author of Unlimited Love and president, Institute for Research on Unlimited Love 'Why believe what you read -- or hear, or think? This intriguing book offers insights into how we can constructively question our beliefs in a way that expands our minds with deeper insights into others, and ourselves. Offering a wide-ranging discussion of beliefs -- from the insights gleaned from brain studies of transcendent experiences to explorations of perceptual distortions -- the authors walk us through an adventure in thinking that is sure to raise as many questions as it answers in its illuminating discussions.'-- Daniel J. Siegel, MD, author of Mindsight, Our Seventh Sense and The Developing Mind, and faculty, The Center for Culture, Brain, and Development, UCLA 'You cannot escape the power and influence of your beliefs. Pay attention to them, because they can make the difference between life and death, health and illness. Why We Believe What We Believe brings great clarity to the emerging science of consciousness and explains how these findings about the brain mesh with certain spiritual traditions. Every thoughtful person will want to be aware of the crucial ideas discussed in this book.'-- Larry Dossey, MD, author of The Extraordinary Healing Power of Ordinary Things WHY DO YOU BELIEVE THE THINGS YOU BELIEVE? Do you remember events differently from how they really happened? Where do your superstitions come from? How do morals evolve? Why are some people religious and others nonreligious? Everyone has thoughts and questions like these, and now Andrew Newberg and Mark Waldman expose, for the first time, how our complex views emerge from the neural activities of the brain. Bridging science, psychology, and religion, they demonstrate, in simple terminology, how the brain perceives reality and transforms it into an extraordinary range of personal, ethical, and creative premises that we use to build meaning, value, spirituality, and truth into our lives. When you come to understand this remarkable process, it will change forever the way you look at the world and yourself. Supported by groundbreaking research, including brain scans of people as they pray, meditate, and even speak in tongues, Newberg and Waldman propose a new model for how deep convictions emerge and influence our lives. You will even glimpse how the mind of an atheist works when contemplating God. Using personal stories, moral paradoxes, and optical illusions, the authors demonstrate how our brains construct our fondest assumptions about reality, offering recommendations for exercising your most important 'muscle' in order to develop a more life-affirming, flexible range of attitudes. You'll discover how to: Recognize when your beliefs are altered by others Guard against mental traps and prejudicial thinking Distinguish between destructive and constructive beliefs Cultivate spiritual and ethical ideals Ultimately, we must always return to our beliefs. From the ordinary to the extraordinary, they give meaning to the mysteries of life, providing us with our individual uniqueness and the ability to fill our lives with joy. Most important, though, they give us inspiration and hope, beacons to guide us through the light and dark corners of the soul. Andrew Newberg, MD, is an associate professor of Radiology and Psychiatry and an adjunct assistant professor of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, and also director of the Center for Spirituality and the Mind. He is co-author of Why God Won't Go Away and The Mystical Mind. He lives in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Mark Robert Waldmanis an associate fellow at the Center for Spirituality and the Mind at the University of Pennsylvania. A therapist and the author of nine books, he founded the academic journal Transpersonal Review. He lives in Agoura, California. From Chapter 1 The Power of Belief Mr. Wright wasn't expected to live through the night. His body was riddled with tumors, his liver and spleen were enlarged, his lungs were filled with fluid, and he needed an oxygen mask to breathe. But when Mr. Wright heard that his doctor was conducting cancer research with a new drug called Krebiozen, which the media were touting as a potential miracle cure, he pleaded to be given treatments. Although it was against protocol, Dr. Klopfer honored Mr. Wright's request by giving him an injection of the drug, then left the hospital for the weekend, never expecting to see his patient again. But when he returned on Monday morning, he discovered that Mr. Wright's tumors had shrunk to half their original size, something that even radiation treatments could not have accomplished. 'Good God!' thought Dr. Klopfer. 'Have we finally found the silver bullet -- a cure for cancer?' Unfortunately, an examination of the other test patients showed no changes at all. Only Mr. Wright had improved. Was this a rare case of spontaneous remission, or was some other unidentified mechanism at work? The doctor continued to give injections to his recovering patient, and after ten days practically all signs of the disease had disappeared. Wright returned home, in perfect health. Two months later, the Food and Drug Administration reported that the experiments with Krebiozen were proving ineffective. Mr. Wright heard about the reports and immediately became ill. His tumors returned, and he was readmitted to the hospital. Now, Dr. Klopfer was convinced that the patient's belief in the drug's effectiveness had originally healed him. To test his theory, he decided to lie, telling Mr. Wright about a 'new, super-refined, double-strength product' that was guaranteed to produce better results. Mr. Wright agreed to try this 'new' version of what he believed had healed his tumors before, but in reality, Dr. Klopfer gave him injections of sterile water. Once again, Mr. Wright's recovery was dramatic. His tumors disappeared, and he resumed his normal life -- until the newspapers published an announcement by the American Medical Association under the headline 'Nationwide Tests Show Krebiozen to Be a Worthless Drug in Treatment of Cancer.' After reading this, Mr. Wright fell ill again, returned to the hospital, and died two days later. In a report published in the Journal of Projective Techniques, Dr. Klopfer concluded that when the power of Wright's optimistic beliefs expired, his resistance to the disease expired as well. Each year, thousands of cases of remarkable recoveries are described, and although such 'miracles' are often attributed to the power of faith and belief, the majority of scientists are skeptical of such claims. In the medical literature, spontaneous remissions -- at least when cancer is involved -- are extremely rare. Estimates range from one case in 60,000 to one in 100,000, although a definitive overview of the topic argues that perhaps one patient in 3,000 experiences a spontaneous remission. Moreover, the majority of oncologists believe that an unidentified biological mechanism is at work rather than a true miracle; and current hypotheses favor alterations in the body's cellular, immunological, hormonal, and genetic functioning over psychological mechanisms. But Mr. Wright's case is unique -- and one of the few to be documented during a university research project. The remissions of his cancer have been attributed to the effects of his mind on the biological functioning of his body -- in other words, on the biology of belief. Hundreds of mind-body experiments have been conducted -- including placebo studies and research on the power of meditation and prayer -- but few scientists have attempted to explain the underlying biology of belief. We have volumes of comprehensive statistics about the kinds of beliefs we hold, but our understanding of how and why belief 'works' is still in its infancy, and most conclusions are still controversial. Fortunately, recent discoveries about the ways the brain creates memories, thoughts, behaviors, and emotions can provide a new template with which to examine the how and why of belief. What I will propose in this book is a practical model of how the brain works that will help you understand your own beliefs and the nature of reality. It will also help you see how all beliefs emerge from the perceptual processes of the brain, and how they are shaped by personal relationships, societal influences, and educational and spiritual pursuits. This understanding can then help us to discern the difference between destructive and constructive beliefs, skills that are essential if we are to adequately address important individual, interpersonal, and global problems. Copyright © 2006 by Andrew Newberg, MD, and Mark Robert Waldman Customers who bought this item also bought Why God Won't Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief Human: The Science Behind What Makes Us Unique Born to Believe: God, Science, and the Origin of Ordinary and Extraordinary Beliefs The Mindful Brain: Reflection and Attunement in the Cultivation of Well-Being The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom Customer Reviews for: Why We Believe What We Believe: Uncovering Our Biological Need for Meaning, Spirituality, and Truth Rating - Disappointing The author, Mr. Newberg, seems to jump back and forth at times, as if unclear what the final point is he is hoping to make. His book seems at times a new age spiritual reflection yet ends up a soft science. This disappointing read is a re-hash of other prominent and earlier books in the field. The author seems to have jumped on the band wagon of "cognition," yet adds nothing new to the study. The style of writing is chopping, and unfortunately, makes ... Read More Rating - Free Yourself From Your Belief in Beliefs. In his latest book, author Andrew Newberg, MD (Why God Won't Go Away) explores the biological basis for belief and the nature of reality and truth. The book explores the powers of placebo, false memories, immorality in "moral" people, group think, speaking in tongues and 27 forms of biases. Rating - Very interesting and helpful Was struggling with faith. This book helped me sort things out. Very, very helpful. Rating - Why We Believe What We Believe I'm just about done reading this book and have enjoyed it very much. The author doesn't go on any tangents, go off the subject or include any difficult theories to weed through. The author does mentioned several scientific experiments but they are necessary to back up his findings. He doesn't bash people who believe in spiritual things but he doesn't sway that way himself he just looks at what he discovered with a scientific eye. I prefer books that ... Read More see more reviews See all books by author Andrew Newberg, Mark Robert Waldman

Books : Why We Believe What We Believe: Uncovering Our Biological Need for Meaning, Spirituality, and Truth