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Mystical Experiences
Suzanne Moseley
Jacqueline Overton
Natan Mallinger
Mystical and Spiritual Experiences:
• Introduction/ Food for thought (Jackie)
• What are they? (Natan)
• Entheogens (Natan)
• Neuropsychology (Jackie)
• Neurotheology (Suzanne)
• Temporal Lobe Epilepsy (Suzanne)
• Concluding Remarks…
Evolution of the Mind and
Spirituality?
“The most beautiful and most profound
religious emotion that we can experience
is the sensation of the mystical. And this
mysticality is the power of all true science.
If there is any such concept as a God, it is
a subtle spirit, not an image of a man that
so many have fixed in their minds.”
- Albert Einstein
What is a Mystical Experience?
• A feeling of becoming one with “GOD”,
rather than being separate from it.
• Involves loss of ego or personal identity.
• Can be achieved via many different types
of rituals or practices.
• Achieving conscious awareness or true
perception of the hidden state of reality.
What is GOD?
•
Religious perspective
–
–
•
GOD is a separate entity who created the universe
Religious experience - a connection between GOD
and the self
Mystical perspective
–
–
GOD is, in a sense, the universe
Mystical Experience -involves the self connecting
with the entire universe as a single entity
Achieving the Mystical
James Austin’s book, Zen and the Brain describe the four
levels of reaching a mystical state of consciousness
1. Enhanced awareness and visual imagery
2. Varying Degrees of unitary experience
3. Group setting- external experience (music, chanting,
4.
dance)
Transpersonal or religious experience. Achieving a
consciousness of the universal mind
Religious Rituals
Different categories of ritual
• Group setting – external experience (music,
•
chanting, dance, whirling dervishes)
Individual setting – internal experience
(meditation, contemplation)
Similarities across rituals
• emotion discharge (awe, peace, tranquility,
•
ecstasy )
varying degrees (continuum) of unitary
experience
Entheogens
• Entheogens are psychoactive substances
• Traditionally used in religious or
•
shamanistic contexts
Scientific research for is more reliably
reproducible than rituals
MAIN QUESTIONS
•
•
•
What are the physiological correlates of
the mystical experience?
Do entheogens and religious rituals,
share certain chemical mechanisms?
Is the mystical experience just another
altered state or is it the ultimate goal of
being?
Cultures and their Entheogens
–
–
–
–
Iboga and the Bitwi Cult in Congo, Africa
Mescaline and the Native Americans
Psilocybin and the Aztecs
LSD and the Hippies!
LSD
– Discovered by Albert Hoffman in 19
– A tryptamine which acts as a serotonin
antagonist, activating the same receptors
but reacting differently to synaptic
transmissions by transferring the electrical
impulses down atypical pathways.
Physiological Correlates
• 5-HT inhibits lateral geniculate nucleus
•
•
•
•
which greatly reduces processing of visual
information.
5-HT increases temporal visual associations in
absence of sensory input
Internally generated imagery results in
hallucinogenic experience.
5-HT and glutamate stimulate the nucleus
basalis releasing acetylcholine (ACh)
ACh in frontal lobes augments attentional
system
Psychological Correlates
• Visual and aural hallucinations
• Changes in proprioception
• Breakdown of the distinction of the self
and others
Drugs and Religion
• In 1962, psychiatrists Walter Pahnke
wanted to test the ability of psilocybin to
enhance the religious aspects of the
mystical state of consciousness…
• Transcendence of space and time
• Increased sense of overall unity
• Long Term effects on well being
Remember…
• If you’ll recall
from one of our
readings about
meditation, the
networks
involved in
these states are
very complex!
Overview of Neuropsychology of
Spiritual Experiences
• Cognitive operators
• Role of the Autonomic Nervous System
• Cortical Association Areas
Important Cognitive Operators
• Causal operator is the brain’s ability to
perform causal ordering of events based
on sensory perception
(reductionist/analytical)
– Left inferior parietal lobule (LIPL)  left
anterior convexity of the frontal lobes
Important Cognitive Operators
• Holistic operator is
the brain’s ability to
view reality as a
whole (holistic
approach)
– Non-dominant
hemisphere,
particularly the
posterior superior
parietal lobule
(PSPL)
Autonomic Nervous System
o The ANS is responsible for maintaining
baseline body functions, plays an
important role in overall activity of the
brain, as well as generation of
fundamental emotions, such as fear (wow!
That’s a lot responsibility!)
Divisions of the ANS: Two
complementary systems
• Sympathetic Nervous System:
– “Ergotropic System” = Sympathetic +
Associated Brain Areas
• Parasympathetic Nervous System (Peace
and energy conservation)
– “Trophotropic System” = Parasympathetic +
Associated Brain Areas
Role of ANS in Spiritual Experience
• “Spillover” or “breakthrough” experience
happens when:
– Continued stimulation of one system produces
activation in the other system
– Simultaneous stimulation of both systems
• Both have been demonstrated in different
meditative practices
Relevant Cortical Association Areas
• Areas that integrate neuronal activity from
various other areas in the brain
• Four that are important for M.E.s
– PSPL: posterior superior parietal lobe
– ITL: inferior temporal lobe
– IPL: inferior parietal lobe
– PFC: prefrontal cortex
PSPL
• Involved in the integration and analysis of
higher order sensory information to create
a 3-D image of the body in space
• Likely is involved in perception of the
self/other dichotomy
ITL
• Scans entire visual field for objects of
interest (through interconnections with
limbic nuclei)
• Together with PSPL is involved in
perception and learning of complex
geometric shapes
IPL
• Associates the association areas!
• Rich interconnections with the visual,
auditory, and somatosensory association
area
• Responsible for the generation of abstract
concepts and relating them to words
PFC
• Receives afferent fibers from al sensory
modalities & association areas
• Planning, attention, concentration
• Control of emotion
• Will or intention
Neurotheology
• The study of the neurobiology of religion
and spirituality
• Primarily studied through brain imaging
• Religious rituals have the power to move
even nonbelievers!
Some Physiological Correlates
• Certain circuits must be interrupted
• Amygdala
• Parietal Lobe Circuits
• Frontal and Temporal Lobe Circuits
SPECT studies
• Radioactive tracers injected into the
bloodstream at the height of spiritual
intensity
• Effects most evident in
– Prefrontal Cortex
– Superior Parietal Lobe
Bottom Line:
Spiritual contemplation has real
physiological correlates, causing changes
in brain activity in many different regions
Temporal Lobe Epilectics:
What’s going on inside their brains?
• Temporal lobe is responsible for language,
conceptual thinking, and associations
• Abnormal firing called “temporal lobe
transients”
• Longer term effects
– More opioid receptors!
– Decreased metabolic activity
Effects on the Body and Cognition
• This is NOT like a grand mal seizure
• Dreamlike hallucinations
• Cease of motion
• Visual alterations
• Auditory illusions
• Emotional alterations
The God Helmet
• Simulated epilectic episodes through
electromagnets on a helmet
• Disrupts communication between the 2
hemispheres
• Result: feeling of another self or
“presence”
The God Spot
• “there is a neural basis for religious
experience”
• Skin responses of epilectic individual and
normal individuals
– Conclusion: epilepsy causes permanent
changes in temporal lobe circuitry
• something about the way that God made them feel
that changed their brain
Inner Speech Vs. External Sounds
• Confusion between the external and
internal
• Right Anterior Cingulate- activated when
sound is from external environment
• Stress and Emotional arousal “confuse the
brain”
Concluding Remarks
• Regardless of how one achieves a mystical
experience, the cognitive effects are
ultimately uniform.
• The mystical experience is an alternate
state of consciousness that has been
around since the dawn of early man and is
constant across cultures.
Works Cited
Begley, Sharon. Your Brain on Religion: Mystic Visions or brain circuits at
work?Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics. 7 May 2001.
Boyer, Pascal. Religious thought and behaviour as by-products of brain
function. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7(3), March 2003.
Lewis-Williams, D. The Mind in the Cave. London: Thames Hudson. 2002.
Evans Schultes, R., Hofmann, A. and Ratsch, C. Plants of the Gods: Their
sacred, healing, and hallucinogenic powers. Rochester, VT: Healing Arts
Press. 1992.
Newberg, A.B. and Iversen, J. The neural basis of the complex mental task of
meditation, neurotransmitter and neurochemical considerations. Medical
Hypotheses 61(2). 282-291, 2003.
Newberg, A.B. and d’Aquili, E.G. The neuropsychology of religious and spiritual
experiences. Journal of Consciousness Studies 7(11). 251-266, 2000.
Regush, Nicholas. Brain Storms and Angels. Equinox. August 1995.