Neurotheology

Neurotheology is the scientific study of religious or spiritual experiences and feelings. By using psychology and neuroscience, scientists explore the biological basis of religious experiences and are beginning to uncover the capabilities of the human mind. Neurologists have found evidence in the mechanics of the human brain that facilitates the capacity for spiritual, religious, or mystical experience and leads to an intermingling of science and religion. Neurotheology claims that the hardwiring of the human brain not only makes religion possible, but also makes it capable of being passed on through the genes as a physically distinct mechanism of cultural transmission, allowing religion to be selected as an adaptive behavior.

Religion has contributed to human evolution and continues to be a universal behavior even in apparently scientific times. In fact, statistics show that 70% of the world's population affiliate themselves with some religious or spiritual practice, whether they engage regularly or not.

It is important to understand what is meant by religious, mystical, or spiritual experience. It is the universal, transcendental state described by many as a feeling of being at one with the world, their God, everyone, or themselves, depending on the vocabulary of the religion with which they are affiliated. It often involves a period of deep concentration that is termed meditation or prayer by some religions, but also has been known to happen spontaneously to those without conventional religious belief. This would lead one to believe that it is in the potential of all human brains to have a mystical experience, not just those using religious vocabulary to describe it. Studies show that the potential of each person lies in his or her willingness to let the experience happen.

To understand how the human brain could possibly be wired for the internal mystical experiences of religion, we must first understand how our brain works to interpret our surrounding environment. The brain has several association areas in the cerebral cortex that are designed to put together all of the perceptions our other sensory organs experience. The ultimate goal of these areas is to help us understand the world around us and decide on specific responses.

Andrew Newberg and Eugene D'Aquili believe that four association areas play an important part in producing the potential for religious perception. The visual association area aids in our ability to visually recognize people, places, and things, allowing our memories to hold a visual composition of events or perceived events. The verbal conceptual association area allows us to generate abstract concepts and describe them with words; it is located in the temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes of the brain.

The orientation association area (OAA) and the attention association area (AAA) are the most important to religious experience. The OAA is in the posterior section of the parietal lobe and receives sensory input that creates the three-dimensional sense of body and orients the body in its surrounding space. There are two OAAs in each hemisphere of the brain that function in related but distinct fashions. The left OAA creates the sensation of a limited, physically defined body. The right OAA generates spatial coordinates that provide the body with the limits of its surroundings. The two OAAs intermingle information to create a defined body that has a definite space around it in which it can move. Because spiritual experiences involve an altered sense of the time and space in which the body or the “self” exists, the OAAs are important to the reality of the experience.

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