Abstract: The aim of this chapter is to provide a perspective on the current state of research that assesses spiritual experiences and their neurobiological correlates specifically focusing on the methodological challenges of this field of research. Current research studies have utilized both first-person and third-person approaches towards understanding spiritual experiences. In addition,...
An expanding body of advanced functional neuroimaging research, particularly using fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET, has sought to characterize the neurologic foundations of consciousness. Investigations have examined a broad spectrum of conscious states, as well as experimental methods for inducing alterations in conscious experience. These states range from typical waking awareness to various...
The self is central to spirituality because the self is necessary for consciousness, and spiritual relations are fundamentally about the self. Diverse research illustrates the role of the downregulation of the right parietal lobe (rPL) in the spontaneous manifestation of spiritual experiences and during meditative practices. The functions of the rPL are central to the self, especially the...
A growing number of advanced neuroimaging studies have been used to evaluate the nature of consciousness. Such studies have focused on various states of consciousness as well as ways of inducing altered states of consciousness. Various states of consciousness include the normal waking state, sleep states, the brain under anesthesia, and the impact of disorders such as seizures or schizophrenia....
This article presents a taxonomy of altered states of consciousness, primarily based on their central phenomenological features. Following taxonomic principles and a modified Delphi methodology, a multidisciplinary, international group identified eight distinct phenomenological/behavioral states (some with subcategories): proto and transitional, delirium, minimal to no awareness, experiential...
Neurotheology is a nascent field of research and scholarship that seeks to understand the relationship between the brain and religious and spiritual phenomena. In the context of integrative psychiatry, neurotheology offers an intriguing intermediary between understanding how spirituality and religion affect brain function, and how this might be related to changes in mental health. A number of...
Background: A growing number of advanced neuroimaging studies have compared brain structure and function in long term meditators to non-meditators. The goal is to determine if there may be long term effects on the brain from practicing meditation. In this paper, we present new data on the long term effects of a novel meditation practice in which the focus is on clitoral stimulation. The...
Objective: The purpose of this study was to develop and validate the Transcendent Beliefs Scale (TBS). We defined transcendent experiences as an experience of unity with others and the whole of existence, which is associated with behavioral, cognitive, emotional, and transcendental factors. Our aim was to develop a very brief instrument that accurately reflected the phenomenology of...
This article reviews the neuroscientific understanding of the self and personal identity, focusing on various elements of inclusivity and exclusivity as well as engaging religious and spiritual perspectives. We will also consider how the identity is comprised of biological, social, and ideological or spiritual aspects, and how they are interconnected. We will consider how the brain helps us to...
This paper revisits the proposal for the classification of meditation methods which we introduced in our initial 2013 publication, "Toward a Universal Taxonomy and Definition of Meditation". At that time, we advanced the thesis that meditation methods could be effectively segregated into three orthogonal categories by integrating the taxonomic principle of functional essentialism and the...
Introduction: We have recently recorded, processed, and published preliminary research (Part I) on brain activity by quantitative electroencephalography (EEG) tomography (QEEGt), comparing separate subjects remembering their near-death experiences (NDEs) and mystical experiences (SCE). Several reports have affirmed that NDE and SCE are related to important functional changes in the autonomic...
This study compares the critical neural correlates of two altered states of consciousness: near-death experience (NDE) and spiritual contemplative experience (SCE), a.k.a. mystical experience. For Centuries NDE and SCE have been reported by all faiths, including Abrahamic religious contemplatives: Christian mystics, Muslim Sufis, and Jewish Kabbalists. Their anecdotal reports show that both NDE...
We recently recorded, processed, and published brain activity by quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG) and quantitative electroencephalography (QEEGt), comparing separate subjects remembering their near-death experience (NDE) and mystical experience. Our studies refer to a mystical experience as a spiritual contemplative experience (SCE). We found neural and Greyson Scale (GS) correlations...
Abstract: According to William James, to understand a person’s beliefs, then seek to learn more about that person’s temperament and life circumstances. Thus, this chapter focuses on the story of William James’s life and his influences to understand how he developed the worldview that he brought to The Varieties of Religious Experience. James’s life was in many ways a study in contrasts. He...
Abstract Among life’s biggest questions—up there with the origins of the universe—is: Why and how are people aware at all? The sense of awareness, or what is commonly called “phenomenal consciousness,” or just consciousness, is not currently understood by scientists. Scientists do, of course, understand many of the contents of consciousness, such as mental processes like perceptions, thoughts,...
Abstract Mystical experiences are among the most well-studied spiritual experience. This chapter defines mystical experience as inner experiences involving an intensely felt fading of the sense of self and/or feelings of increased connectedness, up to and including the sense of complete unity. These kinds of feelings go well beyond our normal day to day sense of self-awareness. In ordinary...
Abstract Where do spiritual experiences come from? There is, of course, a theological/philosophical level as well as a more practical level to this question. But as shown time and again in the preceding chapters of this book, the Jamesian approach of setting aside theological questions can be taken so as to instead focus on scientifically tractable subjects, such as the conditions that seem to...
Abstract: Spiritual experiences could be beneficial in the context of clinical interventions and may become an important avenue for helping people who suffer from mental illness. Mindfulness and other meditation practices, which can sometimes give rise to spiritual experiences, have become a standard practice in healthcare. More recently, psychedelic compounds are poised to make a breakthrough...
ABSTRACT Objectives: While there are researches on the neural processes of some religious/spiritual practices like mindfulness meditation, no fMRI research on brain functions of mindfulness in Islam is available. Methods: In this study, by using a 3T MRI machine and recruiting 31 (16F) mentally and physically healthy and highly religious individuals, we performed four different tasks during the...
Background: The relationship between sexuality, or the libido, and spirituality or religion has long been debated in psychiatry. Recent studies have explored the neurophysiology of both sexual experiences and spiritual practices such as meditation or prayer. In the present study, we report changes in cerebral glucose metabolism in a unique meditation practice augmented by clitoral stimulation...
Abstract Each chapter of Part II considers one or more of the kinds of spiritual experience described in the typology introduced in the previous chapter. The first chapter of Part II focuses on numinous experience, the feeling of being in touch with divinity or God. This kind of spiritual experience may constitute the prototypical religious or spiritual experience. Our own research data show...
Abstract Spiritual experiences have occurred in people around the world and throughout history, up to and including the present day. The founders of every major religion described them, philosophers since the ancient Greeks have pondered them, and according to recent Gallup polls, about 30% of people in the United States and the United Kingdom still report them. A century ago, in The Varieties...
There is a growing interest in the potential beneficial effects of mindfulness meditation training in protecting against age-related physical, emotional, and cognitive decline. The current prospective, single-center, single-arm study investigated if functional magnetic resonance imaging-based changes in cerebral blood flow and brain functional connectivity could be observed in 11 elderly adults...
Background: We measured changes in resting brain functional connectivity, with blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), associated with a creative meditation practice that is augmented by clitoral stimulation and is designed to not only achieve a spiritual experience but to help individuals manage their most intimate personal relationships. Briefly, the...
BACKGROUND: Religious and spiritual interventions may have an effect on Alzheimer's disease prevention. Kirtan Kriya meditation has been shown to mitigate the deleterious effects of chronic stress on cognition, reverse memory loss, and create psychological and spiritual wellbeing, which may reduce multiple drivers of Alzheimer's disease risk. OBJECTIVE: To detail a new concept in medicine...