APRIL 25, 2005

SCIENCE
Religion and the brain: Can science explain experience?

Scientists are studying the brains of nuns, monks and lesser spiritual beings to find out what happens during intense religious experiences. Some theologians and religion scholars say scientists are simply recording emotions without shedding light on the spiritual realm. But others think the researchers are raising profound questions about the nature of God and the human soul and bridging the gap between science and religion.

Critics of such research and its conclusions believe that some neuroscientists lack a sophisticated understanding of religion and mistake their cataloging of emotion with spirituality. Proponents say such scientists bring an appreciation of religion to the scientific endeavor.

In the future, new scientific studies in genetics and new imaging techniques, enabling more precise measurement necessary for studying religious phenomena, will allow even more sophisticated scientific endeavors. Theologians and religious scholars will continue to ask whether such research destroys the notion of a soul and debate whether there is one core of religious experience or many different ways of being religious.

Why it Matters
Increasingly sophisticated information about brain activity during religious experience leads to debate about the nature - and existence - of God and how God acts in the world and communicates with human beings. The very notion of the soul is called into question. Research on religion and the brain, then, raises some of the most fundamental theological questions of our time.

Questions for reporters
• What are the most important new developments in the field of neuroscience and religion?
• What are the key areas of disagreement between scientists and theologians?
• Is there a biological basis for human perception of the spiritual realm?
• Can a biological basis for the experience of God be equated with God?
• Does brain research destroy the notion of a soul?
• Do many scientists in brain research have a naïve view of religion?
• Who is combining rigorous scientific study with a sophisticated analysis of religion?
• What do theologians think of specific research projects, such as ones that seek to stimulate a "God experience"?
• What's in store for the future of such research?
• What are the theological questions that need to be addressed in this area?

Skip to background

Click the map for interview sources in your state and region

National sources

• Andrew Newberg, a professor in the department of radiology and psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania Health System, is a co-author of Why God Won't Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief (Random House, 2002). Newberg and his colleagues used high-tech imaging techniques to examine the brains of meditating Buddhists and Franciscan nuns at prayer. The scientists concluded that intense spiritual contemplation triggers an alteration in brain activity. Newberg says that neuroscience can elucidate the nature of mystical experiences and why the need for a concept of God is important to the survival of the species. Contact 215-662-3092, newberg@uphs.upenn.edu.
• Vilayanur S. Ramachandran, director of the Center for Brain and Cognition at the University of California, San Diego, is a pioneer in experimental neurology who found that patients who suffer seizures from temporal lobe epilepsy display an unusual obsession with religious matters. Contact 858-534-6240, vramacha@ucds.edu.
• Sister Ilia Delio, a neuropharmacologist and associate professor of spirituality and ecclesiastical history at Washington Theological Union, believes that because human beings are created by God, they have the means, including the "hard-wiring" of the brain, to know God. But she is adamant that a biological basis for the experience of God cannot be equated with God. God, she believes, is the ground of all that exists and cannot in any way be equated with material reality, including the brain. Contact 202-541-5242, delio@wtu.edu.
• Michael Persinger, biology professor at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, has conducted experiments with a helmet that pulses bursts of electrical activity to the brain, stimulating what he calls a "God experience." The experience of God, he says, is definitely produced in the brain. Contact 705-675-1151, mpersinger@laurentian.ca.
• Mario Beauregard, University of Montreal neuroscientist, is studying when religious feelings are experienced by using sophisticated brain scans to see inside the brains of Carmelite nuns as they recall a spiritual experience. He will have results in May 2005, when he will be willing to talk to reporters. Contact Mario.beauregard@umontreal.ca. (He prefers email.)
• Jerry Larsen, senior minister at Los Altos United Methodist Church in Long Beach, Calif., is the author of Religious Education and the Brain: A Practical Resource for Understanding How We Learn About God (Paulist Press, 2000). He is director of the Center for the Study of Religion and the Brain, dedicated to exploring the relationship between faith and cognition. Contact 562-598-2451, jllarsen@ix.netcom.com.
• Robert John Russell, director of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences and professor of theology and science at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Calif., is an ordained minister and leading researcher committed to a positive interaction between the fields of theology and science. He is co-editor of Quantum Mechanics: Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action (CTNS and Vatican Observatory/University of Notre Dame Press, 2001). Contact 510-848-8152, rrussell@ctns.org.
• Nancey Murphy, professor of Christian philosophy at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., is the author of Theology in the Age of Scientific Reasoning (Cornell University Press, 1990). She thinks that how God acts in the natural world is one of the most pressing theological questions. And she believes that God's action in human life must be via interaction with the human brain. Contact 626-584-5253, numurphy@fuller.edu.

Background

Some of the most comprehensive and thoughtful stories on religion and the brain were published in 2001, when leading scientists were in the early stages of their experimentation, and provide excellent background for reporters new to the field. It's time for a new generation of stories reflecting advances in science and theological thinking.
• For an overview of the subject, read a May 7, 2001, Newsweek story, "Religion and the Brain" by Sharon Begley, posted on the American-Buddha.com web site.
• For an interview with leading researchers, read a Nov. 9, 2001, Religion & Ethics Newsweekly story, "Religion and the Brain."
• For more personal reflection on brain research and religion, read a Sept. 17, 2001, New Yorker story, "God and the Brain," by Jerome Groopman.
• Read "The Decade of the Brain," an article by Philip J. Boyle that appeared in the September 2001 issue of Bulletin, a publication of the Park Ridge Center for Health, Faith and Ethics.