Review
Version 1
This version is not peer-reviewed
Human Brain and Mysticism
Version 1
: Received: 6 October 2024 / Approved: 7 October 2024 / Online: 8 October 2024 (06:18:54 CEST)
How to cite: Deshpande, G.; Majumdar, J.; Rangaprakash, D. Human Brain and Mysticism. Preprints 2024, 2024100507. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202410.0507.v1 Deshpande, G.; Majumdar, J.; Rangaprakash, D. Human Brain and Mysticism. Preprints 2024, 2024100507. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202410.0507.v1
Abstract
Mysticism has been an integral part of human society for ages. It involves both spirituality and religiosity. The former is associated with attaining higher states of consciousness without an essential belief in a supernatural power (or God), while the latter does. While there is plenty of speculative literature available on these topics, we instead focus on peer-reviewed scientific literature that is evidence-based. First, we briefly review technologies that can measure brain function. We make the case that concepts such as emotions and subjective experiences, which have long been considered outside the scope of objective scientific inquiry, are in fact amenable to objective scientific inquiry with technologies available today. To substantiate this point, we showcase scientific studies on spiritual aspects of mysticism such as meditation, mantra/chanting, and breath modulation. While we recognize that much of the research on these topics deals with their health benefits, we argue that associated brain changes are also conducive for attaining higher states of consciousness related to spirituality. Next, we present limited scientific literature on religiosity, dealing with its neural correlates, evolutionary biological origin, and usefulness for mental health. We close by arguing that the brain basis of mysticism cannot be seen in isolation from the body since these entities are intimately connected. We propose that future research should look at brain-body interactions and associated markers of mysticism using the latest technologies.
Keywords
Meditation; Yoga; Spiritual; Religiosity; Mantra and Chanting; Functional MRI; Medical imaging
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Neuroscience and Neurology
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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