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Exploring the Nexus of Culture, Mind, and Religion

IN FOCUS

 The Biology of Religious Experiences

 

Dalai Lama introduced to fMRI imaging equipment at Richard Davidson’s Brain & Emotions Research Laboratory, University of Wisonsin-Madison, May 2001

One of the Institute's research concentrations is on the biology of religious and spiritual experiences. This topic was neglected until a couple of decades ago and is still relatively under-examined compared to other aspects of human biology and brain function. Yet it holds such fascination for people that almost every new study is widely publicized and greeted with enthusiasm or dismay or a strange combination of the two.

 

One of the reasons that neurological studies of religious and spiritual experiences are still relatively rare is that such studies are unusually complicated, with many variables for which it is difficult to control. Progress is always slower under such circumstances. Another reason such studies are rare is a social one: scientific reputation needs to be built carefully and there is enough suspicion around topics such as religion that young scientists hesitate to get involved for fear that they will not be taken seriously by their colleagues.

 

The Institute for the Biocultural Study of Religion exists in part to conduct and coordinate rigorous research in this area, and in other aspects of the biological and cultural functions of religious behaviors, beliefs, and experiences. The Activities page will introduce you to some aspects of our work. The News & Events page will alert you to new information about grant opportunities, forthcoming lectures, or new publications. The Related Links page will direct you to sites containing valuable information connected to the Institute's research programs.

 

To view Dr. Wildman's recent public lectures on the scientific methods and practical and intellectual purposes of the study of religious and spiritual experiences, visit BUniverse.

 

 

Something to ponder...
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Have you seen...

 

William James wrote, “The overcoming of the barriers between the individual and the Absolute is the great mystical achievement."

 

Richard Dawkins said, "If you’ve had [a religious] experience, you may well find yourself believing firmly that it was real. But don’t expect the rest of us to take your word for it, especially if we have the slightest familiarity with the brain and its powerful workings.”

 

How can conflict between affirmative and skeptical interpretations of religious experience be adjudicated?

 

Papers from the 2007 "International Conference on the Evolution of Religion" are soon to be published. Titled The Evolution of Religion: Studies, Theories, and Critiques, the volume is edited by Joseph Bulbulia, Richard Sosis, Erica Harris (an Institute Fellow), Russell Genet, Cheryl Gennet, and Karen Wyman. The book is scheduled to be published by the Collins Foundation Press early in 2008.

 

For more information about the book and its contents, visit the conference site.

 

Neuroscientist Mario Beauregard's new book is titled The Spiritual Brain.

 

 

He advances a case for the existence of the soul. Is it possible to agree with his argument against a flatly materialistic view of human beings, but remain unconvinced about his argument for a non-physical soul? In other words, are his two options the only ones?

  

All information on this site is copyright ©2007-8 by the Institute for the Biocultural Study of Religion.