Science et Conscience

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Neuroscience, Consciousness and Spirituality
Schloss Reinach, Munzingen, Germany July 2nd -
4th, 2008
Neuroscience and Spirituality Basic issues,
Challenges, Findings
Mario Beauregard, Ph.D. Associate Research
Professor Departments of Psychology and
Radiology Neuroscience Research CenterUniversity
of Montreal
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Plan of the presentation

• The neuroscience of spirituality
• Basic issues and challenges
• Some findings
• Are spiritual experiences illusions caused by a
  misfiring brain?

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The neuroscience of spirituality

• Relatively new field of research at the
  crossroads of psychology, spirituality and
  neuroscience
• Goals
• To explore the neural basis of spirituality and
  spiritual experiences (SEs)
• To investigate the neural substrates and effects
  of contemplative and meditative practices
• SEs relate to a fundamental dimension of human
  existence and are frequently reported across all
  cultures
• SEs are at the heart of the worlds great
  religions
• High incidence of SEs in the adult population
• U.S. General Social Survey (1998) 39 of those
  polled reported a SE that changed their lives

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The neuroscience of spirituality

• SEs are brain-mediated, as are all other aspects
  of human experience (perception, cognition,
  emotion, etc.)
• Elucidating the neural basis of SEs does not
  diminish or depreciate their meaning and value
• The external reality of "God" can neither be
  confirmed nor disconfirmed by delineating the
  neural correlates of SEs

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A growing field
Work with Buddhist contemplatives
UCSF
Harvard
Paul Ekman
Stephen Kosslyn
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A growing field
Work with Christian contemplatives
U Montreal
Mario Beauregard
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Basic issues and challenges

• Measurement and definition of spirituality
• Subject selection and comparison groups
• Study design
• Other central questions
• Epistemological implications

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Measurement and definition of spirituality

• Subjective measures that pertain to the
  subjective nature of SEs (the 1st person
  perspective)
• The 1st person perspective is acknowledged
  (spirituality and SEs are approached with an open
  mind, respect and curious, rigorous, inquiry)
• Only a few self-reporting (validated) scales
  (e.g., The Mysticism Scale)
• Difficult to compare experiences between
  individuals and across cultures and spiritual
  traditions
• Problem with defining spiritual (definitions
  must be operationalized)

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Measurement and definition of spirituality

• Objective measures
• Neurophysiological changes associated with
  spiritual states and experiences (SSEs)
• Electroencephalography (EEG)
• Magnetoencephalography (MEG)
• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
• Positron emission tomography (PET)
  (neurotransmitters)
• Advantages and disadvantages of these
  neuroimaging techniques (spatial and temporal
  resolution)
• Major problem comparison of the
  neurophysiological changes to the subjective
  state (it is not possible to intervene during a
  peak experience to ask the subject how she is
  feeling)

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Measurement and definition of spirituality

• Objective measures
• Statistical analysis what degree of change
  should be considered significant?
• Spatio-temporal dynamics of neural networks
  correlation between brain activity and
  psychological variables (subjective ratings of
  experience, level of practice, etc.)
• Importance to evaluate subjects individually
  because SSEs may be variable phenomenologically
  across subjects
• Other physiological measures
• Changes in blood pressure, heart rate and
  galvanic skin responses
• Changes in respiratory rate and oxygen metabolism
• Hormonal and immune assessments

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Subject selection and comparison groups

• Who are the most appropriate subjects to study
  and who should represent the control group (s)?
  (global state vs. specific component)
• Level of expertise of the individuals being
  studied (e.g., meditative practices novice,
  experienced, master)
• Individual acts as her own control (e.g.,
  baseline waking state vs. meditation state)
• Control groups
• Practitioners in the same tradition but with
  different levels of expertise
• Practitioners in other traditions in which
  similar practices are performed

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Study design

• Neurophysiology of SSEs (e.g., prayer,
  meditation) (psychological and spiritual
  measures)
• Alterations of SSEs (pharmacology, transcranial
  magnetic stimulation)
• Drug-induced SSEs (e.g., LSD)
• Neurophysiology and spiritual experiential
  development
• SSEs associated with neurological and psychiatric
  conditions (e.g., temporal lobe epilepsy, mania)

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Other central questions

• Individual differences in personality and
  differences in brain activity mediating SSEs
• Contributions of genes and environment to the
  neural correlates of SSEs
• Consciousness, SEs and the brain
• Self, spirituality and the brain

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Epistemological implications

• Are SEs real (vs. everyday reality) ?
• These experiences appear more real to the
  experiencers than everyday reality
• Demonstrating that brain activity changes are
  associated with a SE does not imply that these
  changes cause the experience (correlation does
  not prove causation), and that there is nothing
  more to that experience
• Scientific materialism
• Consciousness and all other mental phenomena must
  be physical
• Empirically uncorroborated ideology

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Some findings
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Psychological effects of SEs

• People reporting SEs score lower on
  psychopathology measures and higher on
  psychological well-being scales than people not
  reporting such experiences
• The psychospiritual transformation that often
  follows SEs can involve changes in thoughts,
  emotions, attitudes, core beliefs about self and
  the world, and behaviors
• SEs are commonly associated with a transcendence
  of the personal identity and an enhanced sense of
  connection to and unity with others and the world

The Spiritual Brain (2007)
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The Spiritual Nature of Man (Alistair Hardy,
1979)

• Religious Experience Research Unit (RERU),
  Manchester College in Oxford
• Hardy collected data on SEs for a few decades
• He received over four thousand firsthand accounts
  of SEs from people of all socioeconomic levels
  (across UK)
• Hardy and his colleagues identified a variety of
  triggers for SEs
• Most common triggers
• Depression or despair
• Prayer or meditation
• Natural beauty

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The temporal lobe and SEs

• SEs sometimes occur in conjunction with temporal
  lobe epilepsy (TLE)
• TLE has been associated with intensification of
  spiritual and mystical feelings as well as
  religious conversion
• Dewhurst and Beard, 1970 Saver and Rabin,
  1997 Naito and Matsui, 1998 Devinski, 2003

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Michael Persinger

• Religious belief is an artifact of the brain
• Microseizures in the temporal lobes can
  generate SEs , i.e., these experiences are
  delusions created by the brain
• It is possible to induce such experiences by
  stimulating electromagnetically the temporal
  lobes

The God helmet
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The "God module" hypothesis (Ramachandran et
al., 1997)

• Two patients with TLE, a group of highly
  religious volunteers, and a non-religious group
• Lists of words sexual, violent, religious, or
  neutral
• Galvanic skin response (emotional arousal)
• Greater arousal in TLE patients in response to
  religious words
• Conclusion SEs are mediated by a "God module"
  localized in the temporal lobe

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Andrew Newberg

• Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography
  (SPECT) (2001)
• Subjects eight experienced Tibetan Buddhist
  meditators
• Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) changes in
  left superior parietal lobule, thalamus, and
  various prefrontal areas
• Negative correlation between rCBF increase in
  left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and rCBF
  decrease in left superior parietal lobule
• Altered sense of space experienced during
  meditation

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Newberg et al. (2001)
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Brain sources of EEG gamma frequency during
volitionally meditation-induced, altered states
of consciousness, and experience of the self
Lehmann et al. (2001)
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Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude
gamma synchrony during mental practice
Lutz et al. (2004)
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The serotonin system and spiritual experiences
(Borg et al., 2003)
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Neural correlates of a mystical experience in
Carmelite nuns

• Main goals
• To identify the brain regions and circuits
  involved in the mystical state
• To identify the neuroelectrical correlates of the
  mystical experience
• Functional neuroimaging techniques
• FMRI
• EEG

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The Mystical state(Stace, 1960)

• Sense of union with God
• Sense of having touched the ultimate ground of
  reality
• Sense of the incommunicability of the experience
• Sense of union with humankind and the universe
• Experience of timelessness and spacelessness
• Feelings of positive affect, peace, joy and
  unconditional love

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Subjects

• Sample size 15 Carmelite nuns
• Mean age 50 (Range 23 64)
• No history of psychiatric or neurological
  disorder
• Mean duration of association with the Carmelite
  order 19 years
• Total number of hours in prayer and
  contemplation approximatively 210,000

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Methods

• -Intensity of subjective experience measured
  with rating scales ranging from 0 (No experience
  of union) to 5 (Most intense experience of union
  ever felt)
• -Phenomenology of the mystical experience
  during the target state evaluated using Hoods
  Mysticism Scale (1975)
• -Qualitative interviews at the end of the
  experiment

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FMRI experiment Results

• Subjective intensity
• Mystical condition 3.06 0.93 (range 2 5)
• Mysticism Scale
• I have had an experience in which something
  greater than my self seemed to absorb me
• I have experienced profound joy
• I have had an experience which I knew to be
  sacred

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Beauregard and Paquette (2006)
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EEG experiment Results

• Subjective intensity
• Mystical condition 3.10 0.94(range 2 5)
• Mysticism Scale
• I have had an experience in which something
  greater than my self seemed to absorb me
• I have experienced profound joy
• I have had an experience which I knew to be
  sacred
• I have had an experience which cannot be
  expressed with words
• I have had an experience in which I felt that
  everything in this world is part of the same
  whole
• I have had an experience which is impossible to
  communicate

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EEG experiment Results
-Greater theta power at F3, C3, P3, Fz, Cz and
Pz -Greater gamma1 power at T4 and P4
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EEG experiment Results
-FP1-C3 pair of electrodes greater coherence for
theta band -F4-P4, F4-T6, F8-T6 and C4-P4 pairs
of electrodes greater coherence for alpha
band
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Conclusions FMRI experiment

• The results do not support the hypothesis that
  the neural circuitry mediating SEs is localized
  solely in the temporal lobes
• Mystical states are complex and multidimensional,
  i.e., they involve changes in perception,
  cognition, and emotion
• Several brain regions and systems appear to
  mediate the various aspects of a mystical state
  (at least in a Christian perspective)

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Conclusions QEEG experiment

• Mystical experiences are mediated by marked
  changes in EEG power and coherence
• These changes implicate several cortical areas of
  the brain in both hemispheres
• The presence of theta activity is consistent with
  previous EEG studies showing
• Increased frontal theta power during Zen
  meditation
• Increased frontal theta power during a blissful
  state (Sahaja Yoga meditation)

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Are spiritual experiences illusions caused by a
misfiring brain?
Near-death experience (NDE) during cardiac
arrest Encountering a being of light, or a
light (often interpreted by the experiencer as
being a deity) Self-transcendence
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The case of Pam Reynolds

• 1991 hypothermic cardiac arrest to remove a
  giant basilar artery aneurysm in her brain
  (Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix AZ Dr.
  Robert Spetzler)
• "Standstill" body temperature lowered to 60
  degrees, heartbeat and breathing stopped, blood
  drained from the head, flat EEG, brain-stem
  activity abolished (loss of the corneal reflex,
  fixed and dilated pupils, loss of the gag reflex)
• Duration of clinical death one hour
• Out-of-body experience description of the
  surgical tools and procedures associated with the
  surgery/dialogues between surgeons and nurses
• Sensation of floating out of the operating room
  and travelling down a tunnel/
• At the end of it were deceased relatives and
  friends
• Presence of a brilliant, wonderfully warm and
  loving light
• Intense SE that greatly transformed P.R.
  psychologically and spiritually

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The case of Pam Reynolds

• This anecdotal case suggests that
• Consciousness and other mental processes can
  continue when the brain does not function anymore
• SEs can happen when brain activity is absent
• A possible experiment
• Veridical perception during "standstill" surgery
  (giant brain aneurysms, aortic repair)

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NDE meditation (EEG)
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(No Transcript)
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Acknowledgements

• Vincent Paquette, Ph.D.
• Jérôme Courtemanche, M.Sc.
• Metanexus Institute and John Templeton Foundation