Religious Experience from a Neuro-Psychological View
Kanz Philosophia: A Journal for Islamic Philosophy and Mysticism May 7, 2016 DOI: 10.20871/kpjipm.v1i1.6 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Mysticism |
| Keywords | Religious experience Religious erlebnis Religious erfahrung Religious ideology Neuropsychology Pain PET Partial reductionism Transcendental meditation Epilepsy Schizophrenia |
| Key points | Proposes that mystical experience has its seat in the right hemisphere and religious ideology in the left hemisphere, and that understanding these processes might allow clinical application for treating depression. |
Abstract
The search for the basis of religious experience among neurological processes in the brain has resulted in a widespread debate within, as well as outside the academic world. The aim of this paper is to analyze to what extent a neuro-psychological theory could explain the phenomenon of religious experience. To clarify what the neuro-psychological studies of the present paper mean by the concept of religious experience, the concept has been divided into three different types: The Erlebnis or RErl type, the Erfahrung or RErf type and the ideological type of religious experience or RIT type. Furthermore, the present paper is focused on the work of neuro-psychologist M. A. Persinger [1997, 1993, 1992, 1991, 1987, 1985, and 1984]. In his studies, Persinger indicates that mystical experience (RErl) has its seat in the right hemisphere of the human brain, whereas (religious) ideology (RIT) is related to the left hemisphere. Consequently, the hemisphere in which the (religious) experience is taking place seems to label the type of experience. Persinger, interested in the powerful effects of religious experience (of the RErf type) on human beings, asserts that if we could understand the neuro-cognitive processes involved in experiencing religiously, such processes might be copied for clinical use in order to improve psychiatric therapy for curing depression. Thus, Persinger studied and compared people practicing religious meditation with people who did not, and also studied the results of PET scanning on the experiences of schizophrenic and epileptic patients. PET scanning measures the metabolic activity in the hemispheres, ranging it on a scale from under normal to over normal activity. This paper will account for the relevance of comparing these two apparently different studies and for the problem arising the experience of pain because, neurologically, pain, like religious experience,is said to be caused by processes in the human brain.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on mysticism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The mystical mind: probing the biology of religious experience | 2000 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Religious and Mystical Experiences as Artifacts of Temporal Lobe Function: A General Hypothesis | 1983 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The Problem of Pure Consciousness: Mysticism and Philosophy | 1993 | Edited collection of essays | |
| Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century | 2020 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mysticism and schizophrenia: A phenomenological exploration of the structure of consciousness in the schizophrenia spectrum disorders. | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |