Neuroscience Quotes

We Neuroscientists have come a long way in proving that God is neither a Delusion nor an Almighty Being watching over life on Earth. God is the Event Horizon of Human Consciousness. I termed this state of attaining God, as 'Absolute Unity Qualia'.

~ Abhijit Naskar

How can a three-pound mass of jelly that you can hold in your palm imagine angels, contemplate the meaning of infinity, and even question its own place in the cosmos? Especially awe inspiring is the fact that any single brain, including yours, is made up of atoms that were forged in the hearts of countless, far-flung stars billions of years ago. These particles drifted for eons and light-years until gravity and change brought them together here, now. These atoms now form a conglomerate- your brain- that can not only ponder the very stars that gave it birth but can also think about its own ability to think and wonder about its own ability to wonder. With the arrival of humans, it has been said, the universe has suddenly become conscious of itself. This, truly, it the greatest mystery of all.

~ V.s. Ramachandran

Any man could, if he were so inclined, be the sculptor of his own brain.

~ Santiago Ramón Y Cajal

The neural processes underlying that which we call creativity have nothing to do with rationality. That is to say, if we look at how the brain generates creativity, we will see that it is not a rational process at all; creativity is not born out of reasoning.

~ Rodolfo R. Llinás

There are, of course, inherent tendencies to repetition in music itself. Our poetry, our ballads, our songs are full of repetition; nursery rhymes and the little chants and songs we use to teach young children have choruses and refrains. We are attracted to repetition, even as adults; we want the stimulus and the reward again and again, and in music we get it. Perhaps, therefore, we should not be surprised, should not complain if the balance sometimes shifts too far and our musical sensitivity becomes a vulnerability.

~ Oliver Sacks

Consciousness reigns but doesn't govern.

~ Paul Valéry

If you believe you can change—if you make it a habit—the change becomes real. This is the real power of habit: the insight that your habits are what you choose them to be. Once that choice occurs—and becomes automatic—it’s not only real, it starts to seem inevitable.

~ Charles Duhigg

Neuroscientists rarely have to grapple with the issue of presentism versus existentialism. But in practice, neuroscientists are implicitly presentists. They view the past, present, and future as fundamentally distinct, as the brain makes decisions in the present, based on the memories of the past, to enhance our well being in the future. But despite its intuitive appeal, presentism is the underdog theory in physics and philosophy.

~ Dean Buonomano

The human has not one but two births – first, when a person is born from the mother’s womb, and second, when that person rises from the socio-culturally imposed cocoon of prejudices and ignorance.

~ Abhijit Naskar

In the society of thinking humanity, the natural law of trust should be - In I, I trust.

~ Abhijit Naskar

Truth, independent of the Self, is irrelevant to the biological existence of human life.

~ Abhijit Naskar

The human mind has a primordial affinity towards ideas of miracles and mysticism, especially, in times of weakness.

~ Abhijit Naskar

By nature, that mind is easily fooled by supernatural mysticism. It is extremely gullible. And no matter how much we the civilized human beings advance in the fields of modern sciences, there is always a part of us, that tries to allure us with magical nonsense, because that nonsense has been with us since the birth of humanity.

~ Abhijit Naskar

Now you know that the fascinating phenomenon of love has nothing to do with the supernatural entity known as Cupid, but everything to do with neurochemistry. Likewise, divinity is a cerebral creation, not a supernatural one. And it has been long since thinking humanity has learnt that love is a majestic creation of the brain, yet that knowledge hasn’t made love be deemed any less glorious. Then why should it threaten the religious believer to learn that divinity as well is a natural creation of the brain!

~ Abhijit Naskar

It has been long since thinking humanity has learnt that love is a majestic creation of the brain, yet that knowledge hasn’t made love be deemed any less glorious. Then why should it threaten the religious believer to learn that divinity as well is a natural creation of the brain!

~ Abhijit Naskar

The perception of reality is something that is constructed by the human mind based on its own needs and knacks.

~ Abhijit Naskar

Human nature is a combination of modern conscience and ancient primitiveness. As the creation of the human mind in a state of transcendence, all scriptures are also a fusion of human conscience and gruesome primitiveness.

~ Abhijit Naskar

Abhijit Naskar is a self-trained scientist and thinker who discovers the paradigm shifting phenomena of the human mind.

~ Michael A. Persinger

There is no such thing as reincarnation, but only similar incarnation.

~ Abhijit Naskar

Neuroscience is fast developing the technical and conceptual wherewithal to reveal in fine, bare detail the neurobiological substrates of the mind. Perhaps it will despoil a sacred myth - the myth of selfhood and souls. And, if so, we may be wandering innocently into the opening phase of a dangerous game. Our ethics and systems of justice, our entire moral order, are founded on the notion of society as a collective of individual selves - autonomous, introspective, accountable agents. If this self-reflective, moral agent is revealed to be illusory, then what?

~ Paul Broks

Current research in any field of Science has not yet reached the point where we could start exploring the existential question regarding God as a Supreme Entity driving causality in the universe. However, as modern Neuroscience progresses further and gets more advanced, we shall get to dive deeper into the physiological processes underneath the Qualia of God in human mind.

~ Abhijit Naskar

When circumstances pour the minds of some young helpless individuals with hatred and rage towards the society, and when that pain, hatred, and rage become unbearable, they turn to the scriptures as the final resort, in a pursuit to find absolution, guided by the psychopathic, misogynistic, genocidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent, fundamentalist preachers.

~ Abhijit Naskar

The purpose of Neurotheology shall be to ease human sufferings with a deeper understanding of the neurobiological substrates of spirituality and divinity.

~ Abhijit Naskar

Through the newly emerged field of Neurotheology, Scientists such as Andrew Newberg, Michael Persinger, myself and a few others have already taken the first step from the side of Science, to diminish the gap between Science and Religion. Now it is time for Religion to do the same. And the moment any religion does that, the eternal battle between Science and Religion would slowly start to disperse.

~ Abhijit Naskar

Religious faith as a whole induces various health benefits in the general population through complex biological processes.

~ Abhijit Naskar

In this universe, all we perceive is a virtual reality created by the neurons.

~ Abhijit Naskar

Physiology and Psychology are not at all separate from each other. Rather they are deeply intertwined.

~ Abhijit Naskar

[One way] researchers sometimes evaluate people's judgments is to compare those judgments with those of more mature or experienced individuals. This method has its limitations too, because mature or experienced individuals are sometimes so set in their ways that they can't properly evaluate new or unique conditions or adopt new approaches to solving problems.

~ Robert Epstein

Spirituality, sexuality and curiosity are the three pillars of Modern Human Consciousness.

~ Abhijit Naskar

A person’s affinity towards his or her own religious beliefs, has the same neurological qualities as of his or her emotional affinity towards the romantic partner. In fact the symptoms that follow the early euphoric phase of romantic love are often seen in religious people when their beloved religious faith is challenged.

~ Abhijit Naskar

Spirituality is to Religion, what Love is to Marriage. Spirituality is an emotional state of the mind, just like Love, while Religion on the other hand, is a social construct, quite like Marriage.

~ Abhijit Naskar

Divinity is born from neural processes, not some Supreme Entity.

~ Abhijit Naskar

A true religious person should not think that “my religion alone is the right path and other religions are false.” Other religions are also so many paths leading to the same domain of transcendental bliss. Likewise, no person should think “my perception of the reality is the only absolute reality, and all others’ are false”, because each human brain has its own unique way of perceiving the reality.

~ Abhijit Naskar

I (God) am only a part of your own human consciousness, but a really bizarre part.

~ Abhijit Naskar

Fear and Love are the two emotional pillars of survival.

~ Abhijit Naskar

Individuals who rate high on the so-called Anxiety Sensitivity Index, or ASI, have a high degree of what's known as interoceptive awareness, meaning they are highly attuned to the inner workings on their bodies, to the beepings and bleatings, the blips and burps, of their physiologies; they are more conscious of their heart rate, blood pressure, digestive burblings, and so forth than other people are.

~ Scott Stossel

The lessons of relationship that our primordial ancestors learned are deeply encoded in the genetics of our neurobiological circuits of love. They are present from the moment we are born and activated at puberty by the cocktail of neurochemicals. It’s an elegant synchronized system. At first our brain weighs a potential partner, and if the person fits our ancestral wish list, we get a spike in the release of sex chemicals that makes us dizzy with a rush of unavoidable infatuation. It’s the first step down the primeval path of pair-bonding.

~ Abhijit Naskar

A life without having loved someone is a life never lived.

~ Abhijit Naskar

The very first few days when you actually start having symptoms of falling for someone special, are the days of heavenly bliss and unreasonable madness. This specific “madness” is one of the most rudimentary elements of the foundation of love. Along comes “Euphoria”. It feels like you have grown wings and you can fly around without a single care in the world. Everything starts to seem beautiful and better. The sun shines a bit brighter and the birds twitter a little louder and sweeter. As if you are stuck in an enchanting dream. You get butterflies in your stomach whenever the special person casts a blazing gaze upon you. And off course you all know about the thumping of heart and dilation of pupils.

~ Abhijit Naskar

Genes come together to construct a magnificent life-form, while neurons come together to form our Illusion of Consciousness.

~ Abhijit Naskar