More Bizarre Psychological Testing so the Globalists Can Figure Out 
How to Break the Human Spirit 

Torture' to uncover brain secret 

BBC News | January 10, 2005

Torture is being used to help scientists understand how the brain 
works 
Volunteers are to undergo torture to see if faith eases pain. 

Oxford University scientists will carry out experiments on hundreds 
of people in a bid to understand how the brain works during states 
of consciousness. 

One aspect of the two-year study will involve followers of both 
religious and secular beliefs being burnt to see if they can handle 
more pain than others. 

Some volunteers will be shown religious symbols such as crucifixes 
and images of the Virgin Mary during the torture. 

Researchers believe the study may improve understanding of faith, 
how robust it is and how easily it can be dislodged. 

The team from the newly-formed Centre for Science of the Mind also 
want to include people with survival techniques in the torture 
experiments, which may help the special forces easily identify 
people with high pain thresholds. 
 How scientists plan to torture volunteers 
Gel - A gel containing chilli can be applied to the back of the hand 
to simulate a burning sensation 
Heat-pad - A pad which can reach up to 60C will be put against the 
skin  

Volunteers will have a gel containing chilli powder or heat-pad 
applied to the back of their hand to simulate pain. 

Scans 

A team of neurologists, pharmacologists and anatomists will then 
analyse how people react by using brain scans. 

Another part of the research involves tests using anaesthetic, to 
see what effect it has on the brain and why some people need higher 
doses to make them unconscious. 

Baroness Greenfield, director of the centre, said 20 years ago 
scientists had shied away from studying the brain in such away but 
that was now changing. 

"We want to find out what the brain is doing, how it is working when 
we are having feelings and most importantly of all when we are 
conscious. 

Christians feel pain just like everyone else, but many would say 
that their belief in a God who cares and the promises of the Bible 
are a huge comfort in difficult times 
Church of England spokesman 

"I am not promising we are going to solve the problem, I don't think 
we are. 

"But I think we are going to get more of an insight." 

Centre deputy director Toby Collins added: "The reason we are using 
pain is that it is easily standardised but varies greatly between 
individuals. 

"The pain matrix is not fully understood yet." 

Dr Alison Gray, a spokeswoman for the Royal College of 
Psychiatrists, said: "The experience of pain depends on biological 
factors such as the amount of tissue damage and release of natural 
pain killers - endorphins - in the brain. 

"We know anecdotally that religious believers can tolerate great 
pain when there is a specific purpose, and I would speculate that 
this would operate via endorphin release. 

"Religious practices such as prayer and meditation release 
endorphins and would in theory increase the pain threshold. 

"It will be interesting to see what these trials show, it may be 
that the specific purpose of bearing the pain is missing, if so I 
would expect the tests would be inconclusive." 

But the Church of England said it was possible religion could be of 
help. 

A spokesman said: "Pain is a fact of life, whatever your beliefs. 
Christians feel pain just like everyone else, but many would say 
that their belief in a God who cares and the promises of the Bible 
are a huge comfort in difficult times." 

  

Torture Experiment: Believers go on rack to prove God relieves pain 

Times Online | January 12, 2005 
By Ruth Gledhill

PEOPLE are to be tortured in laboratories at Oxford University in a 
United States-funded experiment to determine whether belief in God 
is effective in relieving pain. 

Top neurologists, pharmacologists, anatomists, ethicists and 
theologians are to examine the scientific basis of religious belief 
and whether it is anything more than a placebo. 

Headed by Baroness Greenfield, the leading neurologist, the new 
Centre for the Science of the Mind is to use imaging systems to find 
out how religious, spiritual and other belief systems, such as an 
illogical belief in the innate superiority of men, influence 
consciousness. 

A central aspect of the two-year study, which has $2 million (£1.06 
million) funding from the John Templeton Foundation, the US 
philanthropic body, will involve dozens of people being subjected to 
painful experiments in laboratory conditions. 

While enduring the agony, they will be exposed to religious symbols 
such as images of the Virgin Mary or a crucifix. Their neurological 
responses will be measured to determine the efficacy of their faith 
in helping them to cope. 

The aim is to develop new and practical approaches "for promoting 
wellbeing and ultimately maximising individual human potential". 

The pain experiments will be conducted under the direction of Toby 
Collins, who has a background in marine biology and the nerve 
systems of invertebrates. He said that many people in pain turned to 
faith for relief. Some looked to religious or secular healing 
systems. 

He said that the experiments would involve non-invasive simulation 
of burns and will be conducted according to strict ethical rules. As 
they suffer, the human guinea pigs will be asked to access a belief 
system, whether religious or otherwise. 

Dr Collins said: "We will simulate a burn sensation to see how 
people, through distraction or by accessing different strategies, 
can modulate and reduce the levels of pain." 

John Stein, a neuroscientist from Oxford's physiology department, 
said: "Pain has been central to a lot of problems that religious and 
other thinkers have concentrated on." 

Professor Stein said that people differed widely in the extent to 
which they felt pain. "What we want to do is correlate that with 
their underlying beliefs." 

The study is considered of vital importance in the present world 
climate, given the role of religious fundamentalism in international 
terrorism. A better understanding of the physiology of belief, the 
conditions that entrench it in the mind and its usefulness in 
mitigating pain could be crucial to developing counter-terrorist 
strategies for the future. 

Scientists have long been baffled at the persistence of these 
beliefs in the face of seemingly irrefutable logic. Professor Lewis 
Wolpert, the biologist, has speculated in the past that a belief in 
how the world was created and what happens after death may have 
conferred an evolutionary advantage. 

The new centre will investigate how people form belief and how the 
mind works in relations to belief. Scientists will examine what 
causes people to change their beliefs, and how this affects the 
mind. Lady Greenfield, Professor of Synaptic Pharmacology at Oxford 
and director of the Royal Institution of Great Britain in Mayfair, 
Central London, said: "To the best of my knowledge, this centre will 
be the first of its kind in the UK, if not in Europe. It brings 
together equal numbers of academics from the humanities and the 
sciences, approaching the same problem." 

PAST TORTURE 

Two thousand years ago, crucifixion was a favoured form of torture 
and execution. Christians were also sewn up in the skins of wild 
beasts and dogs let loose on them 

The rack was used by the Inquisition which began in 1232 when 
Emperor Frederick II issued an edict against heretics 

The Spanish Inquisition of the 15th century was aimed originally at 
Marranos, baptised Jews suspected of having returned to their old 
faith.