Manufactured Presence: What Electromagnetic Brain Stimulation Cannot Produce

Beginning in the 1980s, neuroscientist Michael Persinger developed a research program using weak magnetic fields to stimulate the temporal lobes — work that eventually produced a modified helmet device generating felt experiences of divine presence in laboratory subjects. The device raises a precise question: if a machine can produce the phenomenology of mystical encounter, what exactly is being produced? Catholic anthropology offers a more rigorous answer than neuroscience alone can supply.