The God helmet is an experimental apparatus originally called the Koren helmet after its inventor Stanley Koren. It was developed by Koren and neuroscientist
Michael Persinger
Michael A. Persinger (June 26, 1945 – August 14, 2018) was an American-Canadian professor of psychology at Laurentian University, a position he had held from 1971 until his death in 2018. His most well-known hypotheses include the temporal lob ...
to study creativity, religious experience and the effects of subtle stimulation of the
temporal lobes
The temporal lobe is one of the four major lobes of the cerebral cortex in the brain of mammals. The temporal lobe is located beneath the lateral fissure on both cerebral hemispheres of the mammalian brain.
The temporal lobe is involved in pro ...
.
Reports by participants of a "sensed presence" while wearing the God helmet brought public attention and resulted in several TV documentaries.
The device has been used in Persinger's research in the field of
neurotheology
The neuroscience of religion, also known as neurotheology and as spiritual neuroscience, attempts to explain religious experience and behaviour in neuroscientific terms. It is the study of correlations of neural phenomena with subjective experien ...
, the study of the purported neural correlations of religion and spirituality. The apparatus, placed on the head of an experimental subject, generates very
weak magnetic fields, that Persinger refers to as "
complex
Complex commonly refers to:
* Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe
** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...
". Like other
neural stimulation with low-intensity magnetic fields, these fields are approximately as strong as those generated by a land line telephone handset or an ordinary hair dryer, but far weaker than that of an ordinary
refrigerator magnet
A refrigerator magnet or fridge magnet is a small magnet, often attached to an artistic or whimsical ornament, which may be used to post items such as shopping lists, Christmas cards, child art or reminders on a refrigerator door, or which sim ...
and approximately a million times weaker than
transcranial magnetic stimulation
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a noninvasive form of brain stimulation in which a changing magnetic field is used to induce an electric current at a specific area of the brain through electromagnetic induction. An electric pulse gener ...
.
Persinger reports that many subjects have reported "mystical experiences and altered states"
while wearing the God Helmet. The foundations of his theory have been criticized in the scientific press.
Anecdotal reports by journalists,
[Wired magazine article](_blank)
/ref> academics
/ref> and documentarists[Incomplete filmography for Dr. M.A. Persinger](_blank)
/ref> have been mixed and several effects reported by Persinger have not yet been independently replicated. One attempt at replication published in the scientific literature reported a failure to reproduce Persinger's effects and the authors proposed that the suggestibility
Suggestibility is the quality of being inclined to accept and act on the suggestions of others. One may fill in gaps in certain memories with false information given by another when recalling a scenario or moment. Suggestibility uses cues to dist ...
of participants, improper blinding of participants or idiosyncratic methodology could explain Persinger's results.[
*] Persinger argues that the replication was technically flawed, but the researchers have stood by their replication. Only one group[
*] has published a direct replication of one God Helmet experiment. Other groups have reported no effects at all[ or have generated similar experiences by using sham helmets,][ or helmets that are not turned on,][ and have concluded that personality differences in the participants explain these unusual experiences.
]
Development
The God Helmet was not specifically designed to elicit visions of God, but to test several of Persinger's hypotheses about brain function. The first of these is the Vectorial Hemisphericity Hypothesis, which proposes that the human sense of self has two components, one on each side of the brain, that ordinarily work together but in which the left hemisphere is usually dominant.[ Persinger argues that the two hemispheres make different contributions to a single sense of self, but under certain conditions can appear as two separate 'selves'. Persinger and Koren designed the God Helmet in an attempt to create conditions in which contributions to the sense of self from both cerebral hemispheres is disrupted.
The second experimental hypothesis was that when communication between the left and right senses of self is disturbed, as they report it is while wearing the God Helmet, the usually-subordinate 'self' in the right hemisphere intrudes into the awareness of the left-hemispheric dominant self,][
*] causing what Persinger refers to as "interhemispheric intrusions".[
The third hypothesis was that "visitor experiences" could be explained by such "interhemispheric intrusions" caused by a disruption in "vectorial hemisphericity".] Persinger theorises that many paranormal experiences, feelings of having lived past lives, felt presences of non-physical beings, ghosts, muses, and other "spiritual beings", are examples of interhemispheric intrusions (an idea originally proposed in 1976 in Julian Jaynes' bicameral mentality
Bicameral mentality is a hypothesis in psychology and neuroscience which argues that the human mind once operated in a state in which cognitive functions were divided between one part of the brain which appears to be "speaking", and a second part ...
hypothesis).
The God Helmet experiments were also intended, though not specifically designed (see above), to validate the idea that religious and mystic experiences are artifacts of temporal lobe function.
The device
Persinger uses a modified snowmobile helmet that incorporates solenoids
upright=1.20, An illustration of a solenoid
upright=1.20, Magnetic field created by a seven-loop solenoid (cross-sectional view) described using field lines
A solenoid () is a type of electromagnet formed by a helix, helical coil of wire whose ...
placed over the temporal lobes. This device produces magnetic fields that Persinger describes as "weak but complex" (1 microTesla). The pattern of fluctuation in these magnetic fields is derived from physiological sources, for example patterns that appear in EEG traces taken from limbic structures. The purpose of exposing magnetic fields patterned after neurophysiological sources, such as the burst-firing profile of the amygdala, is to enhance the probability of activating the structure from which the signal was derived.
The sessions are conducted with the subject seated in an acoustic chamber. The acoustic chamber is also a Faraday cage,[ shielding out all EMF emissions and radiation except the Earth's magnetic field. Persinger reports that this shielding allows him to use the apparatus to investigate the effects of geomagnetism on the human brain.]
Comparison with TMS
Neither the God Helmet, nor technologies derived from it, are examples of transcranial magnetic stimulation
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a noninvasive form of brain stimulation in which a changing magnetic field is used to induce an electric current at a specific area of the brain through electromagnetic induction. An electric pulse gener ...
(TMS), which uses magnetic fields on the order of one million times stronger than those used in Persinger's lab.[ Despite this, Persinger reports similar effect sizes with his apparatus.][ The magnetic fields employed in TMS and in Persinger's experiments are also very different. TMS uses single, paired, and repetitive pulses of high intensity to penetrate the cranium.] In contrast, Persinger's apparatus uses weak complex magnetic signals patterned after physiological processes, such as one derived from limbic burst firing.
Experiences
Most reports from Persinger's lab consist of people sensing "presences"; people often interpreted these to be that of angels, a deceased being known to the subject, or a group of beings of some kind. There have also been reports in which the participant has experienced what they perceive as God. Persinger reports that "at least" 80 percent of his participants experience a presence beside them in the room, and others report less evocative experiences of "another consciousness or sentient being".
Anecdotal reports
The scientist and science writer Richard Dawkins, appearing in the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
science documentary series ''Horizon'', did not have a 'sensed presence' experience, but instead felt at times 'slightly dizzy', 'quite strange' and had sensations in his limbs and changes in his breathing. He summarised his experience as follows: "It pretty much felt as though I was in total darkness, with a helmet on my head and pleasantly relaxed".