Origins

Spiritual experiences can be triggered by a variety of scientifically identified factors, including specific circumstances, personal dispositions, mindsets, rituals, practices, and psychoactive substances like psychedelics. Future neurotechnologies may also play a role. This chapter, drawing on the Jamesian approach of setting aside theological questions, summarizes research on the conditions that make such experiences more likely to occur.

Study at a glance

Abstract

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 make these experiences occur. This chapter describes how scientific research has established a number of circumstances, dispositions, mindsets, rituals, practices, psychoactive substances (such as psychedelics), and, perhaps in the near future, other neurotechnologies that make spiritual experiences more likely to occur.