Religion and the Reptilian Brain

December 8, 2009 By Fr. Dwight Longenecker

My friend Richard was telling me last evening about the reptilian brain. I never heard of such a thing and imagined that it might have to do with the conspiracy theories of David Icke, who believes that the world’s ruling families are actually alien shapeshifters who practice black magic and turn into lizards.

Unfortunately it is more mundane, but still very interesting. It seems that the most primitive part of our brain–the brain stem and cerebellum are called ‘the reptilian brain’, and this is the first part of the brain to develop, and it controls the involuntary body systems as well as the instinctive reactions. When you flinch or duck as a baseball is coming at your head at 100 mph that’s your reptilian brain. The reptilian brain controls the fight or flight response and other sub verbal instinctual responses. This is helpful and good because we need these instinctive response to survive, but the reptilian brain also seems to be the location for other primitive survival urges–urges that can have a dark side: primitive beastly violence, irrational rage and lust.

What interests me is that this level of the brain is also the part which seems to be form habits. It likes ritual. It likes repetition. It likes simple repeated instinctive actions. Is this the part of the brain which is being affected therefore when we participate in ceremonial, ritual worship? Does repeated, ritualistic worship penetrate to the deepest and darkest corners of our soul? Even more interesting, is this the part of the brain which is affected through repetitious prayers and meditation that takes one beyond language and into the sub verbal parts of the soul?

If so, then we have an interesting rationale for liturgical, ritualistic worship and for praying the rosary. The ritual and the repetitious prayers and meditation take us beyond the rational faculties of the mind and go deeper to a more primitive level of our existence. The rosary reaches the parts of the soul the other prayers can’t reach. Mary brings light to the dark places–through the rosary her Son’s graces are taken ‘where the wild things are.’

I can’t resist, therefore, on this Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception but meditate on the symbolic and religious significance of the reptile and the woman. It is the Second Eve–the Blessed Virgin Mary who is seen trampling down the serpent. In calling this primitive beastly part of our brain the ‘reptilian brain’ how sweet it is to think that it is therefore the Rosary which penetrates that darkness and brings healing and light, and vanquishes the dragon.

The saints all hold up their rosaries and proclaim that the Blessed Mother is powerful against the serpent. Through the rosary the ‘serpent within’ the dark forces that are active in the reptilian brain can be trampled on controlled and redeemed.

An Open Ended Universe

December 7, 2009 By Fr. Dwight Longenecker

From time to time I’ll post some of my old articles here. If it’s a re-run for you forgive me. Remember you can also read my archived articles on my website. Here’s one I wrote some years ago for the UK’s The Universe.

Fortean Times is an irreverent, weird and wonderful magazine that reports strange happenings all over the world. In Fortean Times you can read about the abominable snowman and conspiracy theories, weeping Madonnas, stigmatics, ghosts and goblins. You can read about angels and aliens, UFO’s and crop circles as well as stories of miracles and monsters, myths and magic. The great thing about this magazine is that it reports all these strange happenings with the right mixture of humour, belief and doubt.

The editors understand that there are lots of gullible people out there. They realise there are hoaxers, charlatans, frauds and people who are willing to cash in on the superstitious crowds. In addition, there are some people who are sincerely fooled and others who are simply crazy. Despite all this, the editors also understand that strange things really do happen. There may be hoaxers and tricksters, but they are only believable because there are other genuine events in the world that defy explanation according to the usual natural laws of science.

The Catholic Church’s position on the supernatural is actually very close to the editors of the

Fortean Times. When faced with supposed supernatural activity the Church does not deny or affirm. She does not say all weeping Madonnas are a trick, nor does she say they are an authentic miracle. She withholds judgement. When someone claims to see the face of Mother Teresa in a bagel or the image of the Virgin Mary in the glass of a tower block the church authorities usually do not comment. Faced with stigmatists, miracle workers, incorrupt bodies and heavenly apparitions the Church doesn’t deny or affirm. When a supposedly supernatural occurrence is so prominent that the church is forced to comment she always advises caution. We are told to look for all the natural explanations first. So when Pope John XXIII’s body was exhumed and found to be incorrupt the Vatican officials quite wisely said it was ‘remarkably well preserved’, and didn’t suggest that there was necessarily anything miraculous about it.

The church takes the safe middle ground. In contrast to this balanced view there are two extreme positions taken in our society. The skeptical person says, ‘Miracles cannot happen because there is no such thing as miracles.’ On the other hand, the gullible person believes every ‘miracle’ that comes along and is amazed by every strange event without question. Our society is awash with these two extreme views, and we desperately need the sound and sensible middle way.

Those who take a materialistic view deny the supernatural altogether. Some scientists believe the fixed laws of science can explain everything, and that miracles are therefore impossible. Some psychologists suppose that supernatural incidents are all in the mind—ignoring the fact that some supernatural events are witnessed by thousands. More open-mided theorists admit that strange things happen, but insist that these are simply natural events for which we do not yet have an explanation. This is a better answer, but it also doesn’t account for all the facts. Some supernatural events are simply strange, one-off miracles, and there is no other explanation.

The skeptics have their position strengthened by the huge numbers of people who are willing to believe in any ‘supernatural’ event. Fortune tellers, astrologers and ‘urban shamans’ are making loads of money with their so called supernatural gifts. Alternative therapists, spiritualists and angel-counselors are drawing more and more people into various forms of occult worship and superstition. The shelves in bookstores are loaded with books on witchcraft, casting spells and black magic. The supernatural is big business, and two old sayings are true: ‘There’s a sucker born every minute’ and ‘Once people stop believing in Christianity they don’t believe in nothing they believe in anything.’

In the face of facts, the Catholic view is the most sensible. Like Fortean Times, Catholics believe that ‘there is more in heaven and earth…than the philosophers have dreamt of.’ There is a real supernatural realm. However, we try not to be gullible. We believe in miracles, but we don’t go chasing after them. We are dubious when faced with reports of supernatural events. We admit that there is much within the natural world that we don’t fully understand. We acknowledge that the human mind is complex and mysterious, and that much that passes for ‘supernatural’ may have more to do with the workings of the human mind than the workings of God. At the same time we do not deny the possibility of miracles. Indeed, we embrace the greatest miracles that the world has ever seen: the incarnation of God as a human being and his resurrection from the dead.

To deny miracles and to be gullible are both wrong. Instead we should live happily with the possibility of miracles. If we believe in a God who made the world, then it is no problem to believe that he might sometimes interfere with the world he has made. Miracles are not a contradiction of nature. They are the confirmation that there is someone bigger than nature. A miracle reminds us that creation is alive and open-ended. Anything can happen. With God nothing is impossible. The universe is therefore much more like a party than a stage play.

Catholics are people who live quite easily with the possibility of miracles, while not being that impressed by them. The attitude of St Thomas Aquinas illustrates the best Catholic attitude to supernatural events. During his lifetime a nun became famous for her ability to levitate. Thousands flocked to the monastery to see the nun floating up by the ceiling. Thomas Aquinas was taken to see the amazing sight, and after witnessing it he simply shrugged his shoulders and said, ‘I didn’t know nuns wore such big boots.’

This simple and humorous approach is the best way to deal with reports of the supernatural. Yes, we believe strange things happen. There are many things we can’t explain. Some of them may actually be acts of God in our lives. But after all is said and done we turn to the miracles we know he has done and is doing in our lives every day: the miracle of his birth among us, and his continued miraculous presence in our lives through the Mass.

The Vicar on Personal Ordinariates

October 21, 2009 By Fr. Dwight Longenecker

Guest blogger, The Rev’d Humphrey Blytherington is Vicar of St Hilda’s, Little Snoring with All Saints, Great Snoring. He is a graduate of Plymouth University. He completed his studies for the ministry at Latimer Hall, Durham. He is married to Daphne and enjoys home brewing, model railroading and is an avid member of the Great Snoring Morris Dancers.

I’m not really sure what you chaps are talking about, in fact, you seem to know a good bit more about all this than I do. It’s only just come up you know and no one told me about it and I didn’t know anything before Daphne shouted ‘Praise Be’ from the other side of the Daily Telegraph at breakfast on Tuesday.

I do know that Giles over at St Barnabas seems rather excited. He’s always been rather Catholic in his tastes and he’s been talking of nothing else all week. He seems to think that before too long he and his people will be able to transfer over to the Pope in Rome and that they will have their own bishop called an ordinariness or some such. I personally don’t know what all the hoo-ha is about. Giles and his people have had their own ‘flying bishop’ for years now. Why, the Bishop of Jeeves and Wooster hasn’t set foot in St Barnabas ever since he started ordaining the ladies.

From what I can make out the Pope in Rome has launched an attack on the Church of England, saying that all the fellows like Giles can become Catholics if they want. They can be ordained as papists even if they have wives and kiddies, and they can bring all their folks along with them. I can tell you, that if this is true, I, for one am not especially pleased. I mean really, what cheek! It’s all well and good to let the Roman Catholics have their own churches, I mean someone has to minister to the Irish navies and Italian waiters, and now the Polish plumbers and Phillippino nurses, but to think that good solid English people like Giles and the folks over at St Barnabas should want to ‘Pope’! It’s a scandal. That’s what it is!

I’m not surprised it’s come to this. It’s been building up for weeks now. First the Roman Catholics announce that they’re brining the Pope to Britain, then the Duke of Edinburgh goes to a Mary-worshipping Roman shrine, then they cart the bones of that poor French gal across the country and we have to watch fat Italian ladies kissing the bones and so forth, now the Pope in Rome makes a claim on our churches, our clergy and our good English people. I’m not one for so called conspiracy theories, but I’m beginning to think all the old stories of the Pope’s wanting to control the world are about right!

Listen lads, there’s no reason for it either! All of us know that the Church of England is Catholic already. We’re Catholic but reformed. King Henry VIII and his friend Cromwell saw that the monasteries were corrupt and the fat old monks needed to get their act together so they cleaned things up a bit, that’s all, why I’m just as much a Catholic priest as Fr. Corrigan down at Sacred Heart. Why should he think that he’s better than me? That’s a fair question isn’t it?

No, Nigel I will not answer that question. I’m feeling rather het up tonight as you can see, and I don’t really want to discuss matters further, and I am certainly not going to take the bait with your questions about Mrs Vicar. Daphne has her own choices to make and I will not interfere, but I will say that it is none of your business, and if you don’t mind I’d like to change the subject.

I’ll just finish my half pint of lager shandy now and be heading home. I’m not in the mood to be teased, and it is not true that Daphne has changed her name to ‘Therese.’

Insanity and Prayer

July 28, 2009 By Fr. Dwight Longenecker

Mark Shea’s blog is a constant source of fun and common sense and quirkiness and smart comments and holy rage.

As a layman he can say things and use language and take extreme views that I (as a holy priest) either don’t write at all on my blog or write and then delete.

Although in saying this, Mrs. Longenecker reminds me of the time I was (ahem) shall we say, somewhat short with a telemarketer on the telephone and when I hung up I said “I wish I’d been rude.”

“Funny how wishes come true.” was her droll remark.

Anyhow, here’s Mark on conspiracy theories. I agree with him totally. G.K.Chesterton said somewhere that one of the most refreshing things about the Catholic faith is that it teaches us that usually things really are the way they appear. There are usually no obscure theories, vast conspiracies or secret plans.

The Catholic Church is just as it appears, for better or for worse. We have sinners and saints. Some of the sinners try to cover up their crimes. They usually fail. We have ‘secret archives’ but if they were really secret why would we call them ‘secret archives’?

Kate Shandie’s comment that Mark begins with is ‘conspiracies are history for stupid people.’ I think that’s actually too generous. I think conspiracies are history for crazy people. What we forget is that people are not gathered into two groups of ‘crazy’ and ‘sane.’ Instead most people are on a continuum from the totally sane, well adjusted, compassionate, sensible and honest people (like me and my friends) to those who are genuinely bonkers.

This continuum is represented by a bell curve. If sane was on the left and insane on the right, and sane is one and insane ten, then the bell curve peaks somewhere around 3 or 4. In other words, most people are a little bit off their rocker. In some way or another they’ve got an imbalance, a kink, a distortion in their perception of reality, an emotional or spiritual or mental disorder of some kind. Conspiracy theorists are all along the continuum depending on their obsession.

Anyhow, I’m not throwing stones (and the comment about me and my friends was tongue in cheek to reveal my own lunacy) I’m simply standing things on their head (which is the point of this blog) asking readers to put up their hand and say, “Yep, father, you got me pegged! I’m one of the crazies too!”

Then let’s all of us fall on our knees in hilarious and humble prayer and seek healing and light and a few jokes at ourselves and realize that the only human activity which really brings light and sanity and healing and peace is true contemplative prayer, and let us long to do that more.

Then let us act on that longing.

Todd on Sanford

June 25, 2009 By Fr. Dwight Longenecker

Well, it’s red faces all across the Palmetto State this week, and not because of sunburn! It seems their conservative, Christian, family man Governor, Mark Sandford, has gone on a fling to Argentina. Saucy emails to his senorita have been published and the hypocrite has joined a long line of politicans, pastors and priests who have been caught with their pants down.

I am not myself a religious man, but I have great respect for those who do profess a religious belief. One of the reasons I am not religious is because of the hypocrisy of those who say one thing and hypocritically do something else. This is just sheer hypocrisy. It is important to have values and ideals, but it is one thing to talk the talk and another thing to walk the walk. Governor Sanford should take some lessons from the democratic Presidents. They don’t pretend to have ‘family values’ in the first place. They are much more honest and are not hypocrites.

Governor Sandford, on the other hand, says one thing and does another. This is the problem with the ‘right wing’ whether it is political or religious. They are always being self righteously better than other people. Take, for example, the Pope in Rome. During World War II the pope at the time was called Pope Pius XI. He pretended to be neutral, but everyone knows he was friends with Mussolini and he was even called ‘Hitler’s Pope.’ The Pope in Rome says he is not interested in political power, yet he is always working behind the scenes to dominate the world’s systems. The fact that we now have a Pope who was himself a Nazi shows that these events behind the scenes are being controlled by a shadowy group of people behind the scenes. And remember, the pope before this one was from a notoriously communist country. The fact that the Pope in Rome seems ‘innocent’ only goes to show how devious he really is.

I do not myself go in for conspiracy theories, but the downfall of Governor Sandford suggests that something else was going on. There were too many secrets. There are too many questions left unanswered. We have a right to know, and the American system should get to the bottom of this murky business with a full congressional inquiry performed by Congress.

I believe we need the kind of transparency, open government and moral example that was exhibited by President and Mrs Clinton. They faced a similar scandal and came through it with their honesty and integrity intact because they admitted their difficulties and chose to get help. At that time I remember the moving and inspiring photographs of President Clinton on the steps of his local church every Sunday with a big Bible under his arm. Now there was a ‘Christian’ politician if ever there was one!

William Jefferson Clinton learned from his problems, got himself up, dusted himself off and didn’t let a few problems in his personal life stop him.

Governor Sandford should have the dignity and self respect for himself to resign from office.

Todd Unctuous is forty two. To learn more about Todd Unctuous follow this link.

Counter Knowledge

February 19, 2008 By Fr. Dwight Longenecker

Damian Thompson comments on the conspiracy theories surrounding the death of Diana Princess of Wales, the conspiracy that the US government planned the 9/11 attacks and a new theory that Facebook is a front by CIA to spy on people.

Damian’s new book is about what he calls ‘counterknowledge’. It is a study of conspiracy theories, wacko science, weird theories, urban legends and crackpot ideas.

Why is everyone so surprised that people will believe anything made up by anybody nowadays? The underlying problem is theological. As G.K.Chesterton said, “Every argument is a theological argument.” When everyone believes that truth is relative and there is no such thing as revelation and no such thing as religious authority, then everyone can believe what they like. How can people be expected to follow truth if their whole educational and societal framework teaches them that there is no such thing as truth?

Why are we surprised when people believe patent nonsense just because it is passionately held? When there is no revelation but personal opinion, no authority but individual sentimentality, and no fact except what people want to believe, no wonder people swallow anything and everything. Who was it who said at it was easier to tell a big lie than a little lie? Hitler I think.

Underneath it all, why this passion for conspiracy theories? Because deep down people cannot live in a world that is random. People cannot live in a universe with no meaning, with no plot line and with no greater pattern to their existence. We need the big theory. We need to believe that someone or some group out there are ordering this chaotic world. There is a deep instinct within each of us to believe that there is some great plan, and if some great plan, then some great planner.

In short, we cannot live without Divine Providence, and conspiracy theories are just the mad ravings of lost souls in a secular, humanistic, atheistic society who are desperate to find a pattern a reason and a mind behind their empty lives.