Neural Underpinnings of Mystical Experience

Bro. Joby Mathew CST

A Neuro-Scientific Understanding of the Mystical Awareness

1. Gives a Brief account on Mystical Experience in General

2. Neuroscientific account on Mystical Experience (What does happen in our brains during meditations?)

3. A Philosophical & Critical Appraisal 4. Concluding Remarks

Outline

Mystical Experiences in General

Mystical experience is part of man’s spiritual journey which has happened in all cultures and in all ages.

Today it has been called by many different names Religious/Spiritual/Mystical experience (RSMe), Unitary State, Unitive Experience, Cosmic Consciousness etc..

Mystical experiences, under their various names, have several distinctive characteristics: Transcendence of the self , a sense of union, a sense of the ineffability, feelings of positive affect, etc.

MARIO BEAUREGARD AND VINCENT PAQUETTE EXPLAIN

MYSTICAL EXPERIENCES

“The sense of having touched the ultimate ground of reality, the experience of timelessness

and spacelessness, the sense of union with humankind and the universe, as well as

feelings of positive affect, peace, joy and unconditional love”

What does this mystical experience mean? Is it a trick of the brain’s structure, or a

manifestation of the presence of an ultimate being? Do mystical experiences constitute

occasions of insight into the fundamental nature of reality, or do they amount to nothing more than illusions or mistaken perceptions such as

hallucinations, optical illusions, or errors of memory?

The turn of the new millennium has seen the emergence of “Spiritual neuroscience or Neurotheology” at the crossroads of psychology, religion, spirituality, and neuroscience to explore the neural underpinnings of mystical and religious experiences

The recent rapid expansion of the application of Neuro-Imaging techniques, fMRI, EEG, CAT, PET, SPECT tests contributed a great deal to identify the neural correlations of the brain during the state of mediations.

Andrew Newberg

Michael Persinger Matthew Alper

V.S Ramachandran

NEURO SCIENTISTS OF THE

DAY

WHAT MIGHT BE GOING ON IN THE BRAIN DURING

MYSTICAL EXPERIENCES?

WHAT MIGHT BE

GOING ON IN THE BRAIN DURING

MYSTICAL EXPERIENCES?

Hallucinogenic Drugs and the Mystical Experience

Through the ingestion of certain psychoactive drugs, such as LSD, MDMA, and psilocybin the serotonin receptors in the brain are activated.

There is debate as to whether such drug induced states are the same as the spontaneous mystical experience.

Temporal Lobe Epilepsy

Scientists previously believed that the temporal lobe was the only part of the brain involved in religious feelings. Damage to the temporal lobe leads to hyper-religiosity and mystical experience. Ellen White suffered brain injury at nine years and began to have religious visions. She may have suffered from temporal lobe epilepsy.

Temporal Lobe Epilepsy Conversion of St. Paul is the impact of temporal lobe epilepsy Ramachandran argued, some twenty-five percent his research- subjects reported a spiritual experience associated with the onset of an epileptic seizure. It is a reductionist view that mystical experiences are pathological or otherwise undesirable. Persinger regards mystical experiences as either symptoms of a pathology, a medically diagnosable condition, such as TLE

THE GOD HELMET

Michael Persinger It creates a magnetic field, which stimulates minor epileptiform seizures in the temporal lobe. He claims that claims he can create a religious experience for anyone by disrupting the brain with regular electric pulses.

There is a commercial version of the God helmet, marketed to assist people in their spiritual quest. Could we flip a switch and see the face of God? No more meditation, prayer or fasting?

THE GOD HELMET

SPECT(Single photon emission computed tomography)

STUDIES ON TIBETAN BUDDHIST MONKS & FRANCISCAN NUNS

At the forefront of these imaging studies is Andrew Newberg, a doctor at the University of Pennsylvania.

He initially researched the mystical experiences of eight Tibetan Buddhist and three Franciscan nuns.

SPECT imaging helped to measure blood flow in various parts of the brain during religious activity. Found an increased activity in the frontal lobe and immense decrease of activity in the parietal lobe.

SPECT(Single photon emission computed tomography)

STUDIES ON TIBETAN BUDDHIST MONKS & FRANCISCAN NUNS

The frontal lobe tends to be activated whenever we focus our mind on something. immense decrease of activity in the parietal lobe, leads to a dissolution of the sense of self, space and time, and finally a feeling of absolute unitary being begin. He proved, besides temporal lobe many parts of brain are activated during Mystical experience.

SPECT(Single photon emission computed tomography)

STUDIES ON A TIBETAN BUDDHIST MONK

Beauregard & Paquette (2006): Used fMRI to study Carmelite nuns in a state of union with God.The nuns reflected on the most mystical experience they had ever had for five minutes while being scanned.

An fMRI Study of 15 Carmelite Nuns Reflecting on their Mystical Experiences

Activation in the frontal cortex, right temporal cortex, right parietal lobules, right caudate, left insula, left caudate, and brainstem. Practice of meditation or prayer is a dynamic process, Throughout the practice, you also progressively experience different things, such as deepening loss of self and increasing bliss

An MRI Study of 15 Carmelite Nuns Reflecting on their Mystical Experiences

Tibetan Buddhist Monks into a CAR-SIZED Brain Scanner

Zoran Josipovic, a research scientist at New York University says, “When one relaxes into a state of oneness, the

neural networks in experienced practitioners change as they lower the psychological wall between themselves and their environments and fall into a

deep harmony between themselves and their surroundings.”

The crux of controversy Materialist ontologist underestimated mystical experiences as simply the neural functioning of energies and matter.

“You, your joys and your sorrows, your memories, your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and the free will are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules. You are nothing but a pack of neurons.”- Francis Crick

While the reductionist tried to decrease richness of mystical experience to temporal lobe epilepsy because they thought that mystical experiences are pathological or undesirable.

“Mystical experiences as either symptoms of pathology or causes of brain malfunctioning”- Persinger

The problem of reductionism is more serious when it is reduced to a ‘God spot’

The crux of controversy

commercialization of mystical experiences in the latest form of God helmet and Psychedelic Drugs. undue media sensation – V S Ramachandran surprises that it was hardly considered news anymore when scientist locate specific brain region for cognition or vision, finding a religion region or god spot however caught media’s attention.

Results & Remarks

The human brain does not contain a single "God spot”

responsible for mystical and religious experiences. Instead, the sense of union with God or something greater than the self often described by those who have

undergone such experiences involves the activation of a variety brain regions

normally implicated in different functions such as self-consciousness, emotion and body representation. Reductionist claims

are challenged.

Results & Remarks

The experiments neither prove that god exists nor god does not exist. The

scientists themselves cautioned against any such sweeping conclusions. Logically the existence of a soul or spirit cannot be either supported or falsified by science. "I'm really not trying to use science to prove

that God exists or disprove God exists,“- Andrew Newberg

Results & Remarks

Imaging studies does not devalue ‘God consciousness’ for they believed that

tracing the physical and neural substrates to appreciate the spiritual does not

impose limit on the spiritual.

Results & Remarks

Besides the research of neural correlates in mystical experiences, the Neuroscientist have also given some evidence for how body, mind, spirit and brain are connected and intertwined. By proposing that human religious experience is embodied or the activity of the body is necessary, the traditional problem of body soul dualism is partially put aside.

Results & Remarks

Imaging studies only give correlates; these are not causative but simply vary in parallel with the subjective experiences

being studied. "The main goal of the study was to identify the neural

correlates of a mystical experience, this does not diminish the meaning and value of such an experience, and neither does it confirm or disconfirm the existence

of God.“ - Mario Beauregard

Results & Remarks

Scientists are now turning towards mysticism: many of the western neuroscientists who are inspired to study the mystical experiences are themselves practicing Buddhists. James Austin, the author of Zen and Brain began practicing Zen meditation during a visit to Japan. In his words, “I realize that nothing in my training or experience had prepared me to help me understand what was going on in my brain. It was a wakeup call for neurologist.”

CONCLUSION

The spiritual quest of human being for meaning, inner peace, hope, and comfort are further enhanced or appreciated for a meaningful coexistence in the world as the new mysteries of brain would revealed through neuroscientific researches. This may indicate that our brain will always seek out some sort of

transcendental hope or otherworldly protection, even if it's not called God. Therefore, I am happy to believe together with

Andrew Newberg, i.e., “God won’t go away.”

THANKS