The God Helmet
New technology that allows us to see, be Godlike.
The God Helmet- Isn't this what we've been waiting for?
Don't worry, I'm not going to get religious on you, primarily because I am not a religious person. Like many people, I am an unaffiliated, non-denominational, theistic, situationally spiritual kind of person who prefers theological questions to answers. I identify most readily with being a "detechtive," an anthropologist of humans and their inventions. And something like a "God Helmet" can't help but get my attention.
Many want to know, rather than believe. They want to see God, or least sense him, or, depending on your perspective, Him, It, Her, Herm, or Them or … (…intentionally left blank because by definition the ineffable remains indescribable…as theologian Carl Rahner said, God isn’t a being, but is being itself.) But let’s skip all the theory for a moment. Let’s talk hardware. Specifically, headware.
To help us in our journey, apparently we can use a God Helmet:
“The God Helmet is a popular name given to a laboratory apparatus originally called the “Koren Helmet“, after Stanley Koren of Laurentian University’s Neuroscience Department, who built it according to specifications provided by Dr. M.A. Persinger, it’s director.” (reference)
Some of the 80% who have used it say it gives them that out-of-body, split self experience, in which they see themselves from a ‘god’s eye view.’ Others feel a presence that is distinctly spiritual, as though floating in a cloud of clear, celebratory consciousness. This happens because the helmet stimulates your right temporal lobe, apparently the God spot in the brain. Says Kotler of Big Think:
“Eighty million Americans right now call themselves spiritual but not religious which means they’re searching for a direct experience of the numinous, right. They want some kind of mystical experience in their own lives. They want to see it for themselves. They think there’s something out there. They’re searching. …Well pretty soon that experience is going to be available by a video game.” (reference)
We can’t help blending technologies. Doing so is where most inventions come from. The car blended a perfume atomizer (carburetor), a piston-based steam engine, wheels from a horse and buggy- you get the idea.
So, imagine blending the God Helmet with Muse, another helmet of sorts which enables basic telekinesis. Add to this something like a Kinect system, which allows us to control the machines in our lives with voice and body gestures. Now connect a number of people via the web who are using the TeleDeity Kinectus Helmet (my blend of all three) into a MSG (Massive Spirtualized Game), and you have people playing a game in which they use spiritual enlightenment to move others half way across the globe at will, and infuse them with their god-like presence, largely by dancing. I suppose the goal is to reach Nirvana, avoid Purgatory, find yourself, and start your own religion. Whoever has the most followers, wins. A step up from Grand Theft Auto, I suppose.
How will we handle this power?
I think it was Capt. Kirk, and perhaps many others, who said something like, “We may have the power of the gods, but not their wisdom.” With the God Helmet, we’re about to test that. And to be clear, we’re not only testing just our wisdom, but also theirs, or, Theirs, if you prefer. After all, the gods don't have the greatest track record.
More at Steve Kotler’s Big Think: The “God Helmet” Can Give You Near-Death and Out-of- Body Experiences, and many other places on the Web.
Photo: by FEELguide • June 14, 2015 • Philosophy, Science, Spirituality, The Human Brain
Thumbnail: From clipart.com through a paid subscription.
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