Using a sophisticated brain scanner, they found that as the volunteers watched the financial transaction on a computer screen, deep-seated parts of the brain began to be stimulated. Areas that normally react when someone eats a favorite food such as chocolate. They became exited when the money went to a food charity but less exited when it went to the tax office.
"The surprising element was that in a situation which your money is simply given to others - where you do not have a free chice - you still get reward-center activity. It reinforces the idea that there is true altruism, where it;s all about how well the common good is doing." In the experiment, the subjects were also anonymous ... or incognito as the BKs would put it.
Now, this raises some interesting questions;
- is this evidence of "instant karma" ... evidence that "good" actions somehow instantly transmit themselves back through some unknown medium to the soul in the brain of the body that performed them?
Or is there no such thing as karma and "karma" is merely a theory used to exploit a similar sociological phenomenon which were are biological programmed for by religions that have created structures that benefit from it?
Is the reward or "benefit" we feel from giving away money merely chemical, and this is being exploited ... or is it both neural/chemical and spiritual?
Karma is not a universally accepted theory. I, personally, do not know of any scientific model that explains or supports it. At best our theory of it seems rooted in classic Newtonian mechanical laws applied to puttative non-mechanical realms such as soul, spirit or even the ether.Science Journal wrote:Neural Responses to Taxation and Voluntary Giving Reveal Motives for Charitable Donations
William T. Harbaugh, Ulrich Mayr, Daniel R. Burghart
Civil societies function because people pay taxes and make charitable contributions to provide public goods. One possible motive for charitable contributions, called "pure altruism", is satisfied by increases in the public good no matter the source or intent. Another possible motive, "warm glow", is only fulfilled by an individual's own voluntary donations. Consistent with pure altruism, we find that even mandatory, tax-like transfers to a charity elicit neural activity in areas linked to reward processing. Moreover, neural responses to the charity's financial gains predict voluntary giving. However, consistent with warm glow, neural activity further increases when people make transfers voluntarily. Both pure altruism and warm-glow motives appear to determine the hedonic consequences of financial transfers to the public good.
- 1 Department of Economics, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403–1285, USA.
2 National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), Cambridge, MA 02138–5398, USA.
3 Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403–1227, USA.
I do not believe in simplistic "karma" as we are taught it. I can see how it is a good mechanism for social control and clearly based on mental conditioning and reward systems which are often very subjective. As a concept it is maleable and manipulated.
I am not saying it is wrong or dismissing it but I am still looking for an explanation of how and where it works. Any ideas?
The BKWSU seem stuck in the "it just works ... do not think too much" mode ... whilst reinforcing their position as the sole or primary beneficiary of it in BK's lives. It is just another drug-like hook that is being exploited?