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,...
Abstract This chapter argues that the epistemically transformative nature of the psychedelic experience itself (i.e., gaining fundamental knowledge through experiential novelty regarding states of consciousness), rather than its specific subjective effects, may be the primary driver of its personal and therapeutic effects. Drawing on historical and cross-cultural examples of psychedelic use in...
Abstract In this chapter, the authors synthesize the relational developmental perspective of attachment theory with a neuroscientific model: the RElaxed Beliefs Under pSychedelics (REBUS). This synthesis, the authors argue, can serve as an organizing framework for psychedelic science. Attachment theory posits that people develop internal working models (IWMs) of relational experiences with...
Abstract The concept of “efficacy” is dually grounded in theory and in individual experience. On the one hand, it is a key issue in many religious practices, from intercessory prayer to healing rituals. On the other hand, the concept concerns causality, belief, and intentionality and is here localized within recent discussions of predictive mind and embodied cognition and related to the...
Abstract Progress in the scientific study of altered states of consciousness (ASCs) has been hindered by methodological and conceptual problems. At a methodological level there is a lack of agreement on the scales and instruments used to measure and categorize ASCs. At a conceptual level, existing typologies (such as trigger-based, phenomenology-based, attribution-based, neurobiological, and...
Abstract This chapter aims to show that working back and forth between neuroscientific methods and ethnographic phenomenology can inspire us to think differently. We discuss a neurophenomenological project to improve our understanding of the evangelical Christian practice of speaking in tongues. After several years of ethnographic participant observation in tongues-speaking churches, we...
Abstract This chapter examines the role of emotions in religious experience. Scientific studies of emotion provide significant insight into how different emotions (e.g., fear, guilt, awe, wonder) causally influence human thought and feeling. There really is no such thing as an emotion-free experience. It is instead a matter of which specific emotion is present and how strongly it was evoked....
Abstract Near-death experiences have gained wide attention, forging an indelible image of spiritual experience in many people today. This chapter examines the neuroscience underpinnings of near-death, including principles that have often been neglected or distorted, often skewing the common impression of near-death. During near-death from fainting or cardiac arrest, the boundary between...
Abstract This chapter considers a cross-historical selection of cases from the ritual magical traditions and discusses explanations of how such practices may produce subjectively convincing experiences of otherworldly beings on the one hand, and methodological questions of how we might best study them on the other. The chapter argues that our best model is found in the framework of predictive...
Abstract Two views on psychedelic experiences include realism and idealism. While a realist view suggests that psychedelic experiences reveal a pre-given world to us, an idealist view suggests they are mere projections of a pre-given mind. This chapter highlights and contrasts their common tendency towards grasping and representations. It presents a promising alternative that aims at going...
Abstract Shamanism is a transcultural concept for understanding roles of ritual and psychedelics in the prehistoric origins of religiosity. The origins of religiosity are revealed by parallels of shamanic and chimpanzee collective ritualizations involving group chorusing and drumming with dramatic bipedal displays. This hominid baseline was expanded with mimetic evolution of song, dance and...
Abstract Inquirers about God often ask whether any religious experience is actually an experience of God. A related issue is whether scientific testing could bear on that question. This chapter explores that issue, attending to the testable indicators in experience of any genuine, factual experience of God for humans. The sciences rely on testable indicators in experience for many hypotheses...
Abstract Transcendent/mystical experiences have been reported within the hypnotic context from its inception as “animal magnetism/mesmerism. Research on spontaneous experiences during hypnosis and minimal suggestion/neutral hypnosis evidence that such experiences are not an artifact of implicit or explicit hypnotic suggestions but may occur spontaneously when some individuals focus on their...