Two Canadian scientists have used fMRI to examine the brains of nuns who were recalling mystical experiences. Prior research seemed to indicate that maybe the temporal lobe is the only region involved in this type of religious experience, but these brain scans revealed that a network of brain regions were active, including the caudate nucleus, the temporal cortex, and areas that are believed to integrate physical input from different parts of the body. Here’s an article from news@nature.com.
I’m all in favor of finding out what’s going on in the brain during mystical experiences. I’m very curious about this, partly because I’ve had what could probably best be described as mystical experiences and I don’t think of them as having anything to do with a deity (in which I don’t believe). I’m curious about what’s going on and I wonder why the human brain has this capacity. I think of my own experiences as being times when I step out of the narrow horizons of daily experience and realize that I’m connected to something much larger, namely, the web of life on this planet, or the rest of the universe and the natural processes that gave rise to it. Religious people identify their experiences as communion with god, but I’d love to see someone examine atheists like me who happen to have mystical experiences, to see if it’s the same parts of the brain that are active. I’d bet they are, and it’s just the way we interpret the experience that differs.
I was not sure what to make of a suggestion one of the researchers made (mentioned toward the end of the Nature story) about possibly making a machine that could put the brain into the same state the nuns were in when remembering their mystical experiences. The nuns were observed while they were remembering a mystical state rather than when they were in one because it’s hard to call up such a state at will, and I know it’s not like you can flip a switch and turn it on. But on the other hand, for centuries religious traditions have been working on ways to cultivate the conditions necessary for such a state, so it’s not like we don’t have any idea how to get there. I can see why the suggestion of mechanically producing a mystical experience would unsettle a believer, but when you think about it, what’s the difference between that and meditating or praying or using entheogens (psychoactive substances that produce religious experiences)?
A few years ago there was speculation that one could find a “buy button” in the brain. It looks like this research shows that finding a “God button” is unlikely. The complexity of the brain activity related to the spiritual state suggests that artificially inducing such a state will be quite difficult.
interesting indeed!
thanks for this!