The researchers will simulate burns using a gel containing chili powder that will be applied to the subjects' palms, or using heating pads at a temperature of 60 degrees Celsius. The volunteers will include religious and secular people. Some of them will be shown during the experiments religious symbols such as Jesus crucified or the Virgin Mary
Hundreds of people, who will serve as test subjects, will be "tortured" in laboratory conditions at the University of Oxford, as part of a US-funded study aimed at determining how the brain works in different states of consciousness and whether belief in God can help relieve pain, the BBC reported.
The researchers will simulate burns using a gel containing chili powder that will be applied to the subjects' palms, or using heating pads at a temperature of 60 degrees Celsius. The volunteers will include religious and secular people. Some of them will be shown during the experiments religious symbols such as Jesus crucified or the Virgin Mary.
Another part of the research deals with tests under anesthesia, to examine the effect on the brain of anesthetics and why some people need a higher dose of them. Baroness Greenfield, director of the new research institute recently established in Oxford - the Center for Brain Science - said that 20 years ago scientists were afraid of researching the brain using these methods, adding that the approach today is different.
Dr. Alison Gray, spokeswoman for the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said that "the experience of pain depends on biological factors, such as the extent of tissue damage and the release of the natural pain relievers, endorphins, in the brain." According to her, people of religious faith can bear more pain if it is pain for a specific purpose. "In my opinion, this may be the result of endorphin secretion in the brain. Prayers and meditation lead to the release of endorphins, and these, in theory, raise the pain threshold," said Gray.
In the two-year study, whose budget of 2 million dollars was transferred from the John Templeton Foundation in the USA, dozens of people will take part and undergo painful experiments in laboratory conditions. Neurologist John Stein, from the Faculty of Physiology in Oxford, said that "pain was at the center of the problems that thinkers and religious people gave thought to." According to him, there are significant differences in people's pain threshold. "We want to determine the connection between the pain and their beliefs."
