Quotes by Neuroscientists - Page 8

It doesn’t matter whether you face the wall, the sky or the ground. It doesn’t matter what is your body posture while you are praying to God. It doesn’t matter whether you sit in a lotus position, or a bogus position, neither does it bother God whether your palms are joined together, or your arms wide open. God would still answer your prayers, not because he/she loves you all as his/her children, rather because you believe that God does.
Abhijit Naskar
Every brain on your planet generates its own beliefs. Just imagine, around seven billion human brains are generating seven billion unique beliefs at this very moment. Now imagine, what would happen, if all those seven billion humans start imposing their own beliefs on each other. The only thing that is going to come out of such inhuman attempt is chaos and eventually mass extinction. So, the only way to avoid such a catastrophic consequence is to be more compassionate about people’s beliefs.
Abhijit Naskar
Belief is not a luxury, it is a biological necessity of the mind.
Abhijit Naskar
Beliefs are a quintessential part of the human psyche, but they can be both healthy and harmful. And the beliefs of the fundamentalist Australopithecines are particularly harmful. These beliefs are what we call "delusions". Except unlike in a neuropsychological ailment, the delusion of the fundamentalists is not just harmful for the individuals suffering from it, but more importantly it is the greatest threat to peace, progress and wellbeing of the entire human species.
Abhijit Naskar
To point out nonepistemic motives in another’s view of the world, therefore, is always a criticism, as it serves to cast doubt upon a person’s connection to the world as it is.
Sam Harris
It is merely an accident of history that it is considered normal in our society to believe that the Creator of the universe can hear your thoughts while it is demonstrative of mental illness to believe that he is communicating with you by having the rain tap in Morse code on your bedroom window.
Sam Harris
I tell young people: Do not think of yourself, think of others. Think of the future that awaits you, think about what you can do and do not fear anything.
Rita Levi-Montalcini
If you could have sufficient insight into all the inner and outer parts of your mental life, along with remembrance and intelligence enough to consider all the circumstances and take them into account, you would be a true prophet and visualize the future in the present as in a mirror.
Abhijit Naskar
What we are at this very moment is determined by the sum total of all our experiences till this moment. And the step that you take at this moment, will determine your future. Past and future both require a functional mind to exist. Only the present prevails independent of mind – independent of life.
Abhijit Naskar
Time is basically an illusion created by the mind to aid in our sense of temporal presence in the vast ocean of space. Without the neurons to create a virtual perception of the past and the future based on all our experiences, there is no actual existence of the past and the future. All that there is, is the present.
Abhijit Naskar
If you can imagine it, you can achieve it.
Abhijit Naskar
If you knew all about it, it wouldn't be the leading edge.
Karl H. Pribram
Biological instincts are the key to understanding how every single human being is wired. The marvelous interplay of various brain circuits creates our instinctual reality of the daily life. If you’re conscious about the fact that there lies a complex yet vividly beautiful brain circuit mechanism behind every single impulse of your daily emotions, then you can choose how to react upon each of those impulses. You can thus program your behavioral response in a certain situation.
Abhijit Naskar
The book from which to learn religion, is your own mind.
Abhijit Naskar
The purpose of my work is not to educate people, rather it is to enrich human life with self-awareness.
Abhijit Naskar
Each day I wake up with a naive perspective of life and universe, and walk towards understanding a little more about the true nature of human perception with all its vivacious nuances and behavioral expressions.
Abhijit Naskar
Your religion is whatever makes you a better human being.
Abhijit Naskar
Each person you meet influences your mental universe in a way that has the potential to make a substantial impact upon the causality of the intellectual development of an entire species.
Abhijit Naskar
Nourish your reasoning skills my friend, they are the most effective tool you can ever have in the path of progress.
Abhijit Naskar
...empathy is the driving force behind the experience of emotions in narratives (Keen, 2006; Mar et al., 2006; Oatley, 2011).
Mikkel Wallentin
Narratives are universally used for mediating emotional experiences. The purpose of aesthetic objects has been defined, in part, as 'the awakening, intensifying, or maintaining of definite emotional states' (Lee, 1913: 99–100). When we read or hear stories, we put aside our own goals and plans, and we temporarily replace our own goals and plans with those of the story characters.
Mikkel Wallentin
The placebo effect has an evil twin known as the nocebo effect. This is when the expectation of harm or pain becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy, even in the absence of any known physical effect. One candidate for the nocebo effect is the discomfort some people report experiencing after using mobile phones. Scientists have failed to identify a physical cause, so it's possible the adverse effects are caused by negative beliefs about the technology.
Christian Jarrett
It is difficult to overstate the importance of understanding mirror neurons and their function. They may well be central to social learning, imitation, and the cultural transmission of skills and attitudes—perhaps even of the pressed-together sound clusters we call words. By hyperdeveloping the mirror-neuron system, evolution in effect turned culture into the new genome. Armed with culture, humans could adapt to hostile new environments and figure out how to exploit formerly inaccessible or poisonous food sources in just one or two generations—instead of the hundreds or thousands of generations such adaptations would have taken to accomplish through genetic evolution.Thus culture became a significant new source of evolutionary pressure, which helped select brains that had even better mirror-neuron systems and the imitative learning associated with them. The result was one of the many self-amplifying snowball effects that culminated in Homo sapiens, the ape that looked into its own mind and saw the whole cosmos reflected inside.
V.S. Ramachandran
Ambiguity begets participation.
Daniel J. Levitin
It’s better not to hold your feelings inside too much and express them to a dear one freely, than to pay thousands of dollars to a psychiatrist for the same outburst of emotions later. Emotions are a bonding mechanism for humans. So, use ‘em, abuse ‘em and utilize ‘em.
Abhijit Naskar
When emotions are expressed...all systems are united and made whole. When emotions are repressed, denied, not allowed to be whatever they may be, our network pathways get blocked, stopping the flow of the vital feel-good, unifying chemicals that run both our biology and our behavior.
Candace B. Pert
For a man, the optimal evolutionary strategy is to disseminate his genes as widely as possible, given his few minutes (or, alas, seconds) of investment in each encounter. It all makes simple evolutionary sense, since a woman invests a good deal of time and effort -a nine month long, risky, strenuous pregnancy, in each offspring. Naturally she has to be very discerning in her choice of sexual partners.
Abhijit Naskar
The so-called mystical characters of India, whom you call in many ways, such as “swami”, “baba” and “guru” are nothing but an informal, cheap and primitive substitute for modern psychotherapists or counsellors.
Abhijit Naskar
People with OCD including myself, realize that their seemingly uncontrollable behavior is irrational, but they feel unable to stop it.
Abhijit Naskar
Often during writing, I am compelled by OCD to delete and rewrite a word or sentence over and over again.
Abhijit Naskar
Humanism is not a single character. It is a magnificent blend of various emotional and behavioral traits that are unique to the human mind.
Abhijit Naskar
When it is time for religion to vanish from the face of earth upon having finished its service of psychological reinforcement to humanity, Mother Nature will make that happen one way or another.
Abhijit Naskar
A cricketer who hits a century in one match may score zero in the next, if he does not have the same outfit, shoes and bat that he used in the first match. In fact, many sportsmen keep some kind of talisman in their pocket that acts as a lucky charm for their game. Here the talisman or the outfit doesn’t possess any magical power that helps the player to perform better. But it is their own subconscious reliance on the charm, that makes them give their best.
Abhijit Naskar
It is generally argued that our experience of free will presents a compelling mystery: On the one hand, we can't make sense of it in scientific terms; on the other, we feel that we are the authors of our own thoughts and actions.
Sam Harris
Healthy brains create a healthy society.
Abhijit Naskar
But work used to be the lot of every man, and now it is rapidly becoming an aristocratic privilege. Men nowadays are more often paid not to work.
Colleen McCullough
The society terms the varied paths of achieving the divine bliss as religion.
Abhijit Naskar
Truth doesn't pay homage to creeds. Creeds must adjust themselves to be compatible with the truth.
Abhijit Naskar
scientifically speaking - you cannot. Accept it. You simply cannot make any nation completely corruption-free. It is only an absurd fairytale. It feels good to talk about it, but it cannot be made a reality.
Abhijit Naskar
Harmony is not a luxury, it is an existential necessity of the species. And to achieve it, if a hundred Bibles have to be sacrificed, then be it. But for no Bible, Quran or Gita, can harmony be compromised.
Abhijit Naskar
Do not let the evil become our masters, but make the good reign upon the world.
Abhijit Naskar
It is "humanism" that should run in the veins of the thinking humanity, not a certain gender-oriented "ism". This entire book is a treatise on gender equality, and as such, it may be hailed as a work of feminism, but it is not - it is a work of humanism.
Abhijit Naskar
Fairytales are healthy for the children. As they grow up, the magical thinking wears off, but the fairytale-induced creative brain circuits stay forever.
Abhijit Naskar
Teach the children compassion and empathy, for all creatures are born selfish.
Abhijit Naskar
Modern humans are taught from the childhood that they are weak and sinners. Teach them that they are embodiment of glory and children of immortal strength. Eventually a society full of bravehearts will rise.
Abhijit Naskar
Never put a single thought of weakness in the flourishing minds of the children. Fill them up with vigour and compassion, for their character will define the future of the entire human species.
Abhijit Naskar
More than Captain America your kids need Amelia Earhart – more than Ant Man, they need Abraham Lincoln - more than Green Arrow they need Gandhi – more than Iron Man they need Isaac Newton.
Abhijit Naskar
Force your kids to pursue success and they shall be drowned into the abyss of characterlessness, but let them pursue excellence and they shall rise as glorious Gods.
Abhijit Naskar
Human making is our mission, but if you break the very soul of the would-be humans, then there will be no human to raise.
Abhijit Naskar
Let your children nourish their knack, for that knack shall one day provide them with the way to live with dignity and contentment.
Abhijit Naskar
Let your child be the torch of truth and they shall shine over the entirety of the human society brightening even the darkest corners.
Abhijit Naskar
There is nothing glorious about creating life out of passionate penetration. Even the animals can do that. The real glory comes when the life you create becomes the help in the lives of countless other humans.
Abhijit Naskar
Do not raise creepy crawlers my dear braveheart parents. Raise mighty humans with Himalayan strength in their veins. Give them the voice that has gone extinct in today’s society. And if there is only one thing you could give to your children, then give them courage – courage to pursue their passion – courage to trample every obstacle in their path – courage to keep walking even when their heart bleeds in agony.
Abhijit Naskar
within the core of each of us is the child we once were. This child constitutes the foundation of what we have become, who we are, and what we will be.
Rhawn Joseph
Discover the God in Life itself. And one who does, becomes a better version of himself or herself. If the entrepreneur thinks that he or she is the God, he or she will be a better entrepreneur. If the student thinks he or she is the God, he or she will be a better student. If the Scientist thinks that he or she is the God, he or she will be a better Scientist, and so on.
Abhijit Naskar
Males of all species are made for wooing females, and females typically choose among their suitors.
Abhijit Naskar
I dream of a planet where the science of the mind, brings the Bible, the Vedas, the Quran, and all other scriptures together and binds them with the golden twine of harmony.
Abhijit Naskar
No book on this planet can give you the description of terms like religion, spirituality, divinity unless you discover it within the realm of your own mind.
Abhijit Naskar
Religious unity does not come so easily. It is not a piece of pie, which you can buy in the shop. It takes sincere efforts from every single human being on this planet.
Abhijit Naskar
Our entire neurobiology acts as a giant input-output system, that receives information from the outside world, processes that information and makes a person react accordingly.
Abhijit Naskar