neurotheology
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Sex, Drugs & Education: The Spiritual Perspective | Psychology Today
The ‘Festival of Education' took place again at one of England's premier schools, Wellington College in Berkshire, on 25th & 26th June this year. I was invited to join a panel discussion on ‘Sex, Drugs & Education'. What follows is based on my brief opening address.
Neurotheology: This Is Your Brain On Religion : NPR
"Neurotheology" is a unique field of scholarship and investigation that seeks to understand the relationship specifically between the brain and theology, and more broadly between the mind and religion.
Out of Body Experience
Neuroscience
Addressing the general meeting for the “Society of Neuroscience” in 1997, Dr. Ramachandran made comment that “there is a neural basis for religious experience.” Ramachandran’s radical statement catapulted neurotheology well into the public eye.
Neurotheology With God In Mind - Neurotheology Article - Clinically Psyched Neurotheology - Hyper-religiosity | Clinically Psyched
On the Neuropsychology of Religious Experiences
William James in The Varieties of Religious Experience ,(1902) claims that there are an indefinite number of inherent impulses that are apparently common to all human beings. These impulses are divided into two types, those that deal with low level instincts and desires and those that concern higher, more profound urges such as the tendency to subject oneself to strenuous challenge and sacrifice.
First for some figures. Last year, an ICM poll found 85% of Americans believe that God created the universe.
Tests of faith | Science | The Guardian
In Philadelphia, a researcher discovers areas of the brain that are activated during meditation. At two other universities in San Diego and North Carolina, doctors study how epilepsy and certain hallucinogenic drugs can produce religious epiphanies. And in Canada, a neuroscientist fits people with magnetized helmets that produce "spiritual" experiences for the secular.
in the Media: "Tracing the Synapses of Our Spirituality" - Researchers Examine Relationship Between Brain and Religion - By Shankar Vedantam, Washington Post - Sunday, June 17, 2001
From a neurological perspective, spiritual sensations like out-of-body experiences are fairly easy to understand. They're the result of changes in the brain's arousal system. But animals have the same system as humans...meaning animals could have a spirituality all their own. This new theory is put forward by University of Kentucky neuroscientist Kevin Nelson. He freely admits there's no obvious way to actually prove animals perceive out-of-body experiences and other mental sensations commonly associated with spiritual phenomena, but they possess all the same structures do in order to experience them Nelson explains the basics of his theory:
Animals can have spiritual experiences just like humans
