The Neuroscience of Religious Experience

319 Pages·2009·1.36 MB·English

by  Patrick McNamara

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THE NEUROSCIENCE OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE
Recenttechnicaladvancesinthelifeandmedicalscienceshaverevolutionized
our understanding of the brain, while the emerging disciplines of social, cog-
nitive, and affective neuroscience continue to reveal the connections of the
highercognitivefunctionsandemotionalstatesassociatedwithreligiousexpe-
riencetounderlyingbrainstates.Atthesametime,ahostofdevelopingtheories
inpsychologyandanthropologypositevolutionaryexplanationsfortheubiq-
uityandpersistenceofreligiousbeliefsandthereportsofreligiousexperiences
acrosshumancultures,whilegesturingtowardphysicalbasesforthesebehav-
iors. What is missing from this literature is a strong voice speaking to these
behavioralandsocialscientists–aswellastotheintellectuallycuriousinthe
religiousstudiescommunity–fromtheperspectiveofabrainscientist.
Dr. Patrick McNamara is an Associate Professor of Neurology at Boston Uni-
versity School of Medicine. He has previously edited the three-volume series
on religion and the brain entitled Where God and Science Meet: How Brain
and Evolutionary Studies Alter Our Understanding of Religion. He is the recipient
of a VA Merit Review Award for the study of Parkinson’s Disease and sev-
eral National Institutes of Health awards for the study of sleep mechanisms.
Dr. McNamara is a member of the American Psychological Association,
Division36,PsychologyofReligion;theSocietyfortheScientificStudyofReli-
gion; the International Association for the Cognitive Science of Religion; and
theHumanBehaviorandEvolutionSociety.

The Neuroscience of
Religious Experience
PATRICK McNAMARA
Boston University School of Medicine
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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São Paulo, Delhi, Dubai, Tokyo
Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK
Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521889582
© Patrick McNamara 2009
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the
provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part
may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published in print format 2009
ISBN-13 978-0-511-60522-2 eBook (NetLibrary)
ISBN-13 978-0-521-88958-2 Hardback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy
of urls for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication,
and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain,
accurate or appropriate.
To:
InaLiviaMcNamara
Onherfirstbirthday,September20,2008

Contents
Preface........................................ pageix
Acknowledgments...................................xv
1 GodandtheSelf.......................... 1
2 OntheSelfandtheDividedSelf.......... 21
3 MechanismsandDynamics
ofDecentering............................ 44
4 NeurologyoftheSelf..................... 59
5 NeurologyofReligiousExperiences...... 80
6 NeurochemistryofReligiosity.............131
7 Self-TransformationasaKeyFunctionof
PerformanceofReligiousPractices.......145
8 Self-Transformationthrough
SpiritPossession..........................167
9 GodConcepts.............................193
vii
viii CONTENTS
10 ReligiousLanguage........................206
11 Ritual......................................212
12 Life-SpanDevelopmentofReligiosity
andtheSelf...............................229
13 TheEvolutionofSelfandReligion........ 246
References........................................259
Index..............................................291