It’s not uncommon for you to meet someone who has had a near death experience or encountered something of the supernatural sort. Many people talk about seeing “the white light at the end of tunnel,” claim to have met their guardian angels or credit their spiritual meditation for their union with life or a higher power. With the exception of the creation story, science has really steered clear from dissecting the mind of a spiritual until now that is. NPR did a feature on the recent scientific findings done on the brain's response to spirituality (click here for the full NPR interactive story). "Is this your brain on God?" The collaboration (Maria Godoy, Brian Cordyack, Erin Killian and Barbara Bradley Hagerty of NPR) produced on May 22, 2010 explores the way the brains of those who claim spirituality (rather through meditation prayer or a supernatural encounter) respond when they feel closest to God.
The first section of the five part series titled "The God Chemical" explores the connection between substance and spirituality. A topic that has been on the minds of scientists since the 60's when acid trips and mushroom highs and a whole lot of exploring was done amongst the nation's people (think the hippie days). In 1962 Marsh Chapel, a professor at Boston University, did an experiment on 10 divinity students by administering LSD and observing its affects: he wanted to see if the drug would trigger any scared experience. The use of Psychedelic drugs as means to study the connection between substance and the divine was common in scientific research up until the 70's. As the article points out, the use of substance to connect with the scared is not new; the Navajos used Peyote to transcend into a scared state where they could do healings, the Egyptians and the Mayans had Water Lilies to aid in their rituals (click here for more on about the Water Lilies) and our modern day society has done its fair share of experimenting. In 1803 morphine was created. Nicknamed “God’s own medicine” by physicians because of its ability to ease and treat pain the drug’s overuse resulted in prescribed heroin as means to treat addiction amongst patients (click here for A Social History of America’s Most Popular Drugs).
Neuroscientist Solomon Snyder said in an interview with Barbra Bradley Hagerty for the NPR story "If we assume that the psychedelic, drug-induced state is very much like the mystical state, then if we find out the molecular mechanism of the action of the drug, then you could say that we have some insight into what's going on in the brains of mystics."
Snyder is cochairman at the Neuroscience Department at John Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore. He has observed the research of neuroscientist Roland Griffiths (also at John Hopkins Medical Center) and along with other scientists believes that the major brain chemical that comes into play when an individual is experiencing a mystical experience is serotonin. Serotonin is the chemical messenger in the brain responsible for the regulation of moods and sleep.
Neuroscientist Solomon Snyder explains that drugs like Peyote, LSD and most psychedelics look a lot like serotonin in the brain and activate the same receptor. NPR correspondent and author of the book Fingerprints of God: The Search for the Science of Spirituality, Barbara Bradley Hagerty breaks the process down a bit.
“Think of that serotonin receptor as a bouncer at a nightclub. The party's a bit tame, and when the bouncer spots the fun chemical — the active ingredient in psilocybin — he lets Mr. Fun into the club. Suddenly, the party picks up and the brain chemicals are burning up the floor. Let the spiritual experience begin,” Hagerty explains.
Research done by neuroscientists such as Roland Griffiths and Solomon Snyder are helping fellow scientists explore how spirituality affects the brain. Many like Griffiths wonder if the brain is inherently set up for spirituality. “Why has the human organism been engineered, if you will, for this experience?" Griffiths asks his essential question and the question science is just beginning to consider.
Very interesting subject. I like your first link to the npr interactive piece, but after that they felt a bit dry. I would have liked links to some other research on the subject besides just the npr series. Also, i know it's a hard thing to write about, but it wasn't crystal clear to me what they were looking at in people's brains. The writing could have been sharper. Your blogging is really good, just keep pushing yourself to find the best ways to take advantage of the mediums? maybe there were videos of some of the experiments? Etc. Good job!
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