Spiritual practices, or awakenings, have an impact on brain, mind and personality. These changes are being scientifically predicted and proven. For example, studies show Buddhist priests and Franciscan nuns at the peak of religious feelings show a functional change in the lobes of their brain. Similar processes have been found in people with epilepsy, which Hippocrates called the sacred disease. New research is showing that not only does a person's brain activity change in particular areas while that person is experiencing religious epiphany, but such events can be created for some people, even self-professed atheists, by stimulating various parts of the brain. In this far-reaching and novel set, experts from across the nation and around the world present evolutionary, neuroscientific, and psychological approaches to explaining and exploring religion, including the newest findings and evidence that have spurred the fledgling field of neurotheology.It is not the goal of neurotheology to prove or disprove the existence of God, but to understand the biology of spiritual experiences. Such experiences seem to exist outside time and space - caused by the brain for some reason losing its perception of a boundary between physical body and outside world - and could help explain other intangible events, such as altered states of consciousness, possessions, alien visitations, near-death experiences and out-of-body events. Understanding them - as well as how and why these abilities evolved in the brain - could also help us understand how religion contributes to survival of the human race. Eminent contributors to this set help us answer questions including: How does religion better our brain function? What is the difference between a religious person and a terrorist who kills in the name of religion? Is there one site or function in the brain necessary for religious experience?
Author(s): Patrick McNamara
Edition: 1
Publisher: Praeger
Year: 2006
Language: English
Pages: 928
Cover Page......Page 1
How to go to your page......Page 2
ISBN 0275987884......Page 6
Series Foreword by J. Harold Ellens......Page 9
Acknowledgments......Page 13
Preface by Patrick McNamara......Page 15
Volume 1 - Evolution, Genes, and the Religious Brain ......Page 5
Contents: Volume 1 (with page links)......Page 7
CHAPTER 1 The Evolutionary Psychology of Religion......Page 21
CHAPTER 2 Sacred Emotions and Affective Neuroscience: Gratitude, Costly Signaling, and the Brain......Page 31
CHAPTER 3 Genetic and Environmental Influences on the Traditional Moral Values Triad-Authoritarianism, Conservatism, and Religiousness-as Assessed by Quantitative Behavior Genetic Methods ......Page 51
CHAPTER 4 Religious Behaviors, Badges, and Bans: Signaling Theory and the Evolution of Religion......Page 81
CHAPTER 5 Nature’s Medicine: Religiosity as an Adaptation for Health and Cooperation......Page 107
CHAPTER 6 The Cognitive Psychology of Belief in the Supernatural......Page 143
CHAPTER 7 The Ritual Healing Theory: Therapeutic Suggestion and the Origin of Religion......Page 155
CHAPTER 8 Religion Is Not an Adaptation......Page 179
CHAPTER 9 The Cognitive and Evolutionary Roots of Religion......Page 201
CHAPTER 10 Amazing Grace: Religion and the Evolution of the Human Mind......Page 229
CHAPTER 11 The Significance of the Evolution of Religious Belief and Behavior for Religious Studies and Theology......Page 247
Index: Volume 1 (with page links)......Page 293
About the Editor and Contributors......Page 305
Volume 2 - The Neurology of Religious Experience ......Page 317
Contents: Volume 2 (with page links)......Page 319
CHAPTER 1 The Chemistry of Religiosity: Evidence from Patients with Parkinson’s Disease......Page 333
CHAPTER 2 Religious and Spiritual Practices: A Neurochemical Perspective......Page 347
CHAPTER 3 Neuroimaging Studies of Religious Experience: A Critical Review......Page 365
CHAPTER 4 Religion and the Life Course: Is Adolescence an “Experience Expectant” Period for Religious Transmission?......Page 387
CHAPTER 5 Neurotheology: A Science of What?......Page 413
CHAPTER 6 Religion as a By-Product of Evolved Psychology: The Case of Attachment and Implications for Brain and Religion Research......Page 437
CHAPTER 7 Religious Conversion, Spiritual Transformation, and the Neurocognition of Meaning Making......Page 483
CHAPTER 8 Religion and the Brain: Evidence from Temporal Lobe Epilepsy......Page 503
CHAPTER 9 The Frontal Lobes and the Evolution of Cooperation and Religion......Page 521
CHAPTER 10 Mind Design and the Capacity for Ritual Performance......Page 537
CHAPTER 11 The Brain, Religion, and Baseball: Comments on the Potential for a Neurology of Religion and Religious Experience......Page 561
Index: Volume 2 (with page links)......Page 577
About the Editor and Contributors......Page 587
Volume 3 - The Psychology of Religious Experience ......Page 599
Contents: Volume 3 (with page links)......Page 601
CHAPTER 1 The Neuropharmacology of Religious Experience: Hallucinogens and the Experience of the Divine......Page 615
CHAPTER 2 The Relationship between Religion and Health......Page 649
CHAPTER 3 Religion, Meaning, and the Brain......Page 681
CHAPTER 4 The Darker Side of Religion: Risk Factors for Poorer Health and Well-Being......Page 705
CHAPTER 5 The Common Core Thesis in the Study of Mysticism......Page 733
CHAPTER 6 Cross-Cultural Assessments of Shamanism as a Biogenetic Foundation for Religion......Page 753
CHAPTER 7 Schizophrenia, Neurology, and Religion: What Can Psychosis Teach Us about the Evolutionary Role of Religion?......Page 775
CHAPTER 8 Between Yang and Yin and Heaven and Hell: Untangling the Complex Relationship between Religion and Intolerance......Page 801
CHAPTER 9 The Origins of Dreaming......Page 827
CHAPTER 10 Chemical Input, Religious Output-Entheogens: A Pharmatheology Sampler ......Page 849
CHAPTER 11 An Illusion of the Future: Temptations and Possibilities......Page 883
Index: Volume 3 (with page links)......Page 897
About the Editor and Contributors......Page 909
About the Advisory Board......Page 915
