Spirituality, it seems, never went through the enlightenment of the 18th century. Its understanding hasn’t been updated for modern times. Everything else in society was questioned using reasoning and logic, yet spirituality was left to the traditional institutions of religion. For millennia spirituality has been an integral part of human beings' relationship with life. Many modern thinkers dismiss spirituality as a superstitious way of understanding the world, but I believe that to be a very arrogant position that ignores the value of spirituality which modern philosophy, neuroscience, and psychology are increasingly supporting. Spirituality speaks to the set of experiences that affirm the value and meaning of life itself.
First we should look at defining what spirituality is in philosophical and subjective terms before analyzing its scientific basis. According to an article published by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, “Spirituality involves the recognition of a feeling or sense or belief that there is something greater than myself, something more to being human than sensory experience, and that the greater whole of which we are part is cosmic or divine in nature”(1). Spirituality describes the ineffable quality of life, a quality that breathes life into existence, which can inhabit both living creatures and inanimate objects. Spiritual experience goes beyond our small sense of self, which is usually concerned with immediate issues, and shifts that relationship with life towards a more alive, open, and interconnected experience of existence.
Subjectively, spiritual experience is felt to be a transcendent or mystical feeling of encountering the truth of life. It includes emotional universal virtues such as love, compassion, and altruism. Feelings of wellbeing, peace, and connection are also typically experienced. Subjectively, spirituality is an experiential shift in perspective from being consumed with your reality, to being in an open, connected, and loving relationship with existence. Not a focused and passionate love, but instead a generous and open hearted love for being. Depending on your personal framework of understanding these experiences, it can feel as though you’ve been in the presence of God or Christ, or that you have awakened to your Buddha Nature.
These experiences, especially to atheist and agnostic people, might sound delusional, or romantic at best, but I’m fairly sure everyone has had a taste of spiritual well being at some point, despite not recognizing it as such. It can come from the awe of a gorgeous sunset, when all self concern is left behind, where we are completely lost to the beauty and immensity of the moment. These small glimpses into our spiritual nature are not a rare phenomenon. Perhaps an arduous hike through nature reveals a spectacular view that inspires feelings of gratitude and love for the experience itself, beyond our exhaustion. In those special moments, it seems that everything else falls away, and you're entranced by the beauty of presence. Experience becomes a flow state of consciousness, where nothing is particularly personal. Instead you feel absorbed by the experience of living. These subtle experiences are at the core of spirituality.
Of course there are much more obvious and profound spiritual moments as well. This could include the transcendent experience of holding your newborn child, or the deep sorrow caused by the death of a loved one. In these peak existential moments, feelings of the value of life might flood our minds. Gratefulness, compassion, and love overcome our souls, informing us about the innate value of life itself. Peak spiritual experiences could also be revelatory about the true nature of life, and awaken us to a more enlightened realization about the meaning of life.
Modern neuroscience has recently been starting to uncover the mystery behind these kinds of spiritual experiences. Leading researcher in the field of the neurology of spirituality, Dr. Andrew Newberg, found that fMRI brain scans of people experiencing spiritual awakening “showed decreased activity in the parietal lobe in the back of the brain” (2). He goes on to say that “the usual function of the parietal lobe is to take all of the sensory information coming into the brain and help us create our sense of self and establish how that self is related to the rest of the world” (3). A decrease in activity of the parietal lobe means that the person is not as involved with their egoic sense of self, but instead engaged with other neural patterns that facilitate the spiritual emotions of connectedness with the rest of the world. The brain scans show that the relationship with existence fundamentally shifts from individual framing and concern, to being open with everything appearing in consciousness.
Scientific understanding of meditation further supports the tangible source of spirituality in our brains. A study published by the National Academy of Sciences in 2004 found that long term meditators could significantly increase gamma wave activity in the brain (4). Gamma wavelengths produced by the brain are associated with linking information from different parts of our brain. Daniel Goleman, co-author of the book Altered Traits with Richard Davidson, one of the neuroscientists involved in the 2004 study, hypothesizes that these extremely high levels of gamma waves are experienced as what buddhists would call spiritual awakening, liberation, or enlightenment (5). Heightened gamma waves are also associated with focus (6), which might be why moments of spiritual awe, like watching a sunset, make us feel like we're in a flow state of wellbeing. Between gamma wave activity in our brains, and decreased activity in our parietal lobe, the experience of spirituality is slowly becoming a measurable and testable phenomenon. These spiritual experiences that neuroscientists are validating through fMRI and EEG scans have profound implications on the psychological wellbeing of anyone in tune with them.
Psychoactive drugs like psilocybin, known as magic mushrooms, can induce spiritual experience similar to what mystics from various traditions have been reporting for millennia (7). Roland Griffiths, the leading psychopharmacological researcher at John Hopkins Medicine, has conducted many highly respected studies on the effects of psilocybin and mental health. He found “that psychedelic drugs can be used to create spiritually meaningful, personally transformative experiences” that profoundly helped patients' mental health (8).
One study where psilocybin was given to healthy adults under controlled and therapeutic conditions showed incredible benefits from the drug induced spiritual experiences. Eighty percent of volunteers reported the psychedelic experience was among the 5 most personally important and spiritually meaningful experiences of their lives. About fifty percent rated it the single most important experience, on the magnitude of the birth of a child or death of a parent. “Around 90% reported increased life satisfaction and positive behavioural change, including increased positive mood and better social relationships” (9). Long term follow ups showed that these miraculous mental health benefits were sustained.
Another study from John Hopkins measured the “effects of psilocybin . . . in 51 cancer patients with life-threatening diagnoses and symptoms of depression and/or anxiety (10).” It found that “High-dose psilocybin produced large decreases in clinician and self-rated measures of depressed mood and anxiety, along with increases in quality of life, life meaning, and optimism, and decreases in death anxiety” (11). After these spiritual experiences induced by psilocybin, cancer patients had dramatically increased their sense of well being and happiness, and been able to come to terms with their diagnoses. These strong and long lasting effects “are unprecedented in the field of psychiatry” (12). The mental health qualities that come from spiritual experiences are only starting to be studied, but early research strongly suggests that it has a profound and positive effect for our wellbeing.
Rolland Griffiths states that the spiritual experiences induced by psilocybin create similar effects on the brain as those of long term meditators. Both psychedelic drugs and meditation “produce similar changes in brain regions related to a sense of self” (13). The implications of these findings about the nature of spirituality are enormous. Griffiths sums it up best:
“The fact that psilocybin can ocasion in most people studied, mystical type experiences that are virtually identical to those that occur naturally suggest that those experiences are biologically normal. And it raises the question about why we are wired to have these salient, felt to be sacred experiences of encountering ultimate reality. Of the interconnectedness of all people, and all things. Experiences that are arguably the very biases of our ethical and moral codes common to all the world's religions” (14).
A will to live just might be pre programmed into our brains which fuels our emotional intuition about the value of life.
We’ve been given the ability to experience these life affirming qualities, which when tapped nourish our “souls” and lead us to live a more fulfilling existence. Brain scans reveal the physiological origins of spiritual experiences through fMRI and EEG scans, proving that spiritual experience isn’t a superstitious phenomenon. The work done by Roland Griffiths at John Hopkins about the implications of mystical experiences induced by psilocybin further informs the psychological benefits of spirituality. From a philosophical level, we’d have to be ignorant to overlook the implications of such findings in relation to theories on how to live a good life. Spirituality can hopefully continue progressing through modern understandings so that it can help future generations become enlightened with the powerful life affirming benefits that have helped our ancestors find meaning throughout history.
References
1. Maya Spencer, “What Is Spirituality? A Personal Exploration,” Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2012, https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/docs/default-source/members/sigs/spirituality-spsig/what-is-spirituality-maya-spencer-x.pdf?sfvrsn=f28df052_2.
2. Andrew Newberg and Mark Robert Waldman, How Enlightenment Changes Your Brain: The New Science of Transformation (Avery, 2016). pp. 24
3. Ibid.
4. A. Lutz et al., “Long-Term Meditators Self-Induce High-Amplitude Gamma Synchrony during Mental Practice,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 101, no. 46 (August 2004): pp. 16369-16373, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0407401101.
5. Daniel Goleman, “Superhumans: The Remarkable Brain Waves of High-Level Meditators | Daniel Goleman | Big Think,” Youtube (Big Think, September 13, 2018), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10J6crRacZg&t&ab_channel=BigThink.
6. Jennifer Larson, “What to Know About Gamma Brain Waves,” ed. Alana Biggers, healthline, June 22, 2020, https://www.healthline.com/health/gamma-brain-waves.
7. Roland R Griffiths, “The Science of Psilocybin and Its Use to Relieve Suffering,” Youtube (TEDMED, April 20, 2016), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81-v8ePXPd4&t=3s&ab_channel=TEDMED.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Roland R Griffiths et al., “Psilocybin Produces Substantial and Sustained Decreases in Depression and Anxiety in Patients with Life-Threatening Cancer: A Randomized Double-Blind Trial,” Journal of Psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) 30, no. 12 (December 30, 2016): pp. 1181-1197, https://doi.org/10.1177/0269881116675513.
11. Ibid.
12. Roland R Griffiths, “The Science of Psilocybin and Its Use to Relieve Suffering,” Youtube (TEDMED, April 20, 2016), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81-v8ePXPd4&t=3s&ab_channel=TEDMED.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
Comments