Is faith a cognitive function like memory or motivation or mood – can it be altered by neurochemical processes?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Can it be altered by neurochemical processes? It depends on what we mean by the word faith. If we understand that our existence is three-level body, mind and soul, then you could say that faith has certain expressions at the bodily level.
Say for example, somebody goes to a temple or a church or a mosque and they offer their respects to God by folding hands, by bowing down, by raising their hands in supplication. Now if they get paralysis, that physical expression will not come out. Now the brain is the tool through which consciousness comes to the physical level and if that tool gets damaged, then it may well be that the person’s capacity to act in particular ways, in particular situations, which is what we call as expression of faith, that may not, that may be impeded.
So even say a devotee, a person who is devoted to God might also get a disease, a brain degenerative disease like say Alzheimer’s and they might, they might forget certain things because of that. Now when they forget those things, is it that they’ve lost their faith? It may be that of course there are some documented exceptions of how even those with Alzheimer’s have responded positively to the holy names of God. But other things they may forget.
So the expression of faith in particular ways, whether it is in terms of say being physically reverential in the presence of a manifestation of the divine or even remembering details about the past times of the Lord or verses or whatever, these may be lost. Now if we understand that faith is also something which is a characteristic of the mind and ultimately it’s of the soul, the soul’s consciousness streamed through the mind, then the person will have a particular kind of faith, even if that person doesn’t have any direct, doesn’t have a brain to express it. Just like from the spiritual perspective, unconsciousness is also a state of consciousness.
It is not the absence of consciousness. The state of consciousness like Samadhi or Sushupti wherein consciousness is not expressed at the physical level. Consciousness is expressed only at the spiritual level or at the subtle level.
So we could say that, how do we know about this? Yes, if we start with the paradigm that the brain is the producer of consciousness, then the whole human experience will be reduced to brain phenomena only. But that paradigm itself, that is itself questionable. So now with respect to other things like say motivation or mood, now these things are very much affected by neurochemicals, by the chemicals.
That’s why you can have drugs, even alcohol. Many things can change people’s moods. So people even may take coffee.
They feel sleepy and they take coffee and they no longer feel sleepy after that. And that’s how they learn to move forward. That certain things are changeable.
That is well known. Chemicals will affect. Now sometimes if we say a person who is theistic, a person who is having faith in God, that person drinks a lot of alcohol.
Now after that they may be acting very materialistic, hedonistic, atheistic, even morally reprehensible ways. But after the effect of the alcohol goes off, then again, oh, based on their faith, which is like their innate compass, they will realize how I acted horrendously at that time. And they will repent and possibly reform.
But if the same person keeps drinking alcohol repeatedly again and again and again and again, then their conscience can get numbed and numbed. And then they may not be able to perceive anything, not feel anything, not feel wrong, that what they’re doing is wrong. And the reason for that would be again, that they in particular have acted in a particular way repeatedly.
And that has formed a particular, that repeated action has formed impressions. So we could say that the neural circuitry has got rewired. But again, that is not the only thing that is happening.
So, it is not just by the ingestion of alcohol that the brain gets, that the person’s faith gets eroded. It is rather by the repeated habit of doing something which is contrary to the principles of devotion, that the principles of faithful living, that the person is suffering like that. The person is having that consequence.
So moods, of course, mood motivation, these are changeable. The memory is a little more subtle. Memory can certainly be changed by neurochemical processes, that we may remember something in the past when say our brain is stimulated in a particular way, whether it is through chemicals or through, it is through electrical probes or whatever.
We may remember certain things, but memory is also something which is stored beyond. There are different levels of memories. And so faith affects memory, faith affects motivation, faith affects mood.
But faith is something more fundamental. The 17th chapter of Krishna says that we are made that according to our existence our faith is shaped. And in a sense we are our faith.
That actually, that the essence of who we are is the faith that we have. And that means that just as our faith changes, the way we function will also change. Our very existence will change.
If our faith changes and conversely if our existence changes, our faith will change. So faith shapes our entire being and faith stems from the core of our being, that is from the soul. So it is the soul which is the source of consciousness.
And faith broadly refers to the basic conception of where our consciousness is to be invested. And it is not a specific conception. Like I may think that one person may think to say this food is enjoyable, another person may think that food is enjoyable.
That is also a conception. But this is much, much more fundamental level of conception. So both people may differ about which food is enjoyable.
But both people agree that food is essential. So underlying our varying conceptions, underlying our varying conceptions about the enjoyability of particular food is the universal conception of the necessity of food itself. So just as we can have various levels of conceptions.
So like that, and some may be more foundational than others. So faith is that way a foundational conception, which directs the investment of our consciousness. And the soul is always pure.
Consciousness comes from the soul, but it is streamed through the mind to the body. And it is the mind that is ultimately the reservoir, the impressions that shape our faith. Krishna talks about faith in three modes.
The three modes primarily affect the mind. They do not affect the body so much. Of course, they are expressed at the bodily level.
But the mode is subtle, and they primarily affect us by affecting the mind. And what can we do about this? That when we practice bhakti, when we try to practice yoga, at that time we are trying to change the impressions in the mind. So it’s not that there are such conceptions, but some conceptions we are trying to change consciously.
Like there could be a conscious analysis by a person, by which a person who in the past thought that existence of that, that the idea of a God existing is unreasonable. And later the person will think, yeah, the idea of a God is reasonable. So that is you could say a cognitive function.
But below that is an experiential conviction, wherein the person gets some higher experience and experience of some higher reality, experience of some sublime peace, sublime calm. And at that time, as it is said that, we don’t need a light to see God because God becomes a light by which we see everything. So that is the meaning of a foundational experience.
Presently we need the light of reason to perceive the existence of God. But when we are purified, when we are realized, now God becomes the light by which we see everything, including the light of reason. It’s like we may use a flashlight to see something, but, and the sunlight is there, and the flashlight is also usable, the flashlight also becomes visible through the sunlight.
So, initially faith might be a reasoned inference, a reasoned decision, but purification transforms faith into an experienced conviction. So, the physical expressions of faith may be changed by neurochemical processes, physical means you could say neural expressions also, but at a psychological level, at a spiritual level, faith remains a deeper phenomena. And that’s why certain children, if you understand that they are transmigrated, their souls will come from a previous body to this body, their brain was completely destroyed.
But certain children may be innately theistic, innately devotional. Certain children may not be. So now, even among two twins who have similar upbringings, one might be much more devotional than the other.
And that’s where we need to be cautious about how we function, that we cannot just reduce consciousness down to the physical experience. Both of them have similar upbringings, but one of them may be much more devotional. And that’s coming from the impressions of some kind of spirituality that one has practiced in a previous life.
Thank you.