BMC Neuroscience
November 13, 2023
Oscar Perez-Diaz, Alfonso Barrós‐loscertales, Uffe Schjoedt et al.
Sahaja Yoga Meditation draws on many religious traditions and uses a variety of techniques including Christian prayer to reach a state known as thoughtless awareness, or mental silence. While there are many studies on the neural correlates of meditation, few studies have focused on the neural correlates of praying. Thus, the aim of our research was to study the neural activity associated with...
Religion, Brain & Behavior
December 22, 2017
David L. R. Maij, Michiel van Elk, Uffe Schjoedt
32 citations
We explored the effects of alcohol on expectancy-driven mystical and quasi-mystical experiences by manipulating participants’ expectations. By using the so-called God Helmet suggestion, participants were led to believe that a placebo brain stimulation could elicit mystical experiences. In this pre-registered field study, we set out to test whether alcohol could increase participants’...
Method & Theory in the Study of Religion
September 4, 2014
Marc Malmdorf Andersen, Uffe Schjoedt, Kristoffer Laigaard Nielbo et al.
73 citations
We review previous attempts to study mystical experience and point to problems inherent to certain methodologies. Focusing on studies that use controlled environments we advocate taking an experimental approach to mysticism. To demonstrate the viability of this approach, we report findings from a new study that probes the potential for eliciting mystical experiences in the laboratory. We find...
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
February 25, 2009
Uffe Schjoedt, Hans Stødkilde-Jørgensen, Armin W. Geertz et al.
We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate how performing formalized and improvised forms of praying changed the evoked BOLD response in a group of Danish Christians. Distinct from formalized praying and secular controls, improvised praying activated a strong response in the temporopolar region, the medial prefrontal cortex, the temporo-parietal junction and precuneus....