SofiaTopia l Intro l Brain l Sensation l Revolution l NeuroPhilo l Biblio

The spiritual function allowing human beings to experience Divine Presence, "numen praesens" or the holy has an exclusive executant "spot" in the brain : the (right) amygdala, and by extension the hippocampus and the temporal cortex. Spiritual exercises aimed at switching on this "God-spot" may initiate the formation of a complete "God-circuit", allowing for the mature expressing of the spiritual function and its double bi-modal structure (bi-hemispheral and cortico-limbic).

Just as the neuroscience of sensoric perception may suggest ways to improve sight on the basis of the executant structures of vision, namely the eyes, the retina and the visual cortex, neurospirituality may suggest spiritual rules enabling the optimalization of the development of the spiritual function. These should be placed next to existing theologies, liturgies, ceremonies and rituals, i.e. the approved ways, so as to suggest modifications of the latter in order to upgrade the "means of grace" and facilitate spirituality and spiritual experience in this life and not (only) in the afterlife.

At present, the following "spiritual rules" seem probable :

1. A focus on spiritual experience.

Apparently, the spiritual function is not "switched on" automatically. Its activity is directly linked with the voluntary association area in the prefrontal cortex. Each person has a free choice to initiate the spiritual function (cf. Maslow on the emergence of self-realization needs). The best religious education will not suffice to turn a free human being into a spiritual individual. As long as the latter refuses and opposes to "switch on" the spiritual function, and this a priori or because the existence of such a function is refuted, spiritual development will not take off. This condition points to a safety-mechanism installed to make one 100% responsible for one's own spiritual development after the point of "no-return" is passed, namely the sincere and persued wish to experience the Divine. Humans may decide not to persue this issue (yet).

Spiritual exercises stress repetition and daily practice. The making of new neuronal pathways takes time, especially when blocks, lateralization and deafferentiation have become habitual. The "total" human is addressed. The release caused by healing is at times troublesome, but always wholesome if the effort is seen through. Spiritual guidance must assist the formation of new, wholesome habits. It should focus on the phenomenology and not hinder the development of the fragile spiritual newborn by heavy theological interpretations, declarations and other superstructures. This focus on spiritual experience is meant to, as it were, take us "out" of the neocortex and allow us to "enter" the limbic, but not to reinforce the neocortex with new verbal (left) and visuospatial (right) information. Too much orthodoxy in the beginning does not lead to a genuine spiritual orthopraxis.

The role of spiritual teachers is not to introduce orthodoxy, but help the arousal of direct spiritual experience.

2. Reptilian/Mammalian balance : ego-preservation versus relatedness.

History shows how religions try to preserve their traditions by way of blood. The "devil" is projected outside, in some "evil" space "out there" and next fought. Monastic and spiritual orders introduce strong sexual and dietical regulations, for practice has learned them extremes (total abstinence, fasting) influenced the "switch" of the spiritual function (i.e. the amygdala). Heavy cortical justifications are invented to motivate the undertaking of these and other drastic physical measures (flagellation, mortification, pain, penitence, visualization of suffering etc). The latter, associated with religious symbolism, arouse strong emotional discharges and so its icons imply fear, death and dominance/submission.

Here, the "shadow" side of the mind comes into play. In Sufism, this is called the "great war", and the clearing of personal passions & evils (cf. Jung's "Shadow-integration") should be completed before engaging in any "lesser war". Unfortunately, most religions fail to "keep the demon inside", and instead of developing a "black box technique" (a method of spiritualizing the reptilian & lower mammalian brain in secret & silence), they unleash their demons by demonizing their fellow human beings (non-believers, women, gays etc). Instead of transforming negative energy, they pile it up, causing decompression, crisis, turbulence & catastrophe.

3. Mammalian/Cortical balance : icons of belongingness versus verbal voluntary control.

The limbic pole of the spiritual function, the "God-spot", does not operate on "monotheistic" lines. Indeed, Upper Paleolithic, shamanistic spirituality is based on controlled trance allowing the shaman to "enter" the spirit-world. Although in some systems, the "Great Spirit" ruled (cf. henotheism), most of the time a polytheistic view dominated. Each "god & goddess" has its own "domain" and ritual (cf. Santaria). The religions "of the book" maginalize mystics and their direct experience of the Divine. "Rationalist" monotheism developed a superstructure negating Divine plurality, although a "problematic remainder" is left over :

4. Elementary rules for a critical, neohumanist superstructure.

Humanism is usually associated with atheism. Neo-humanism must acknowledge the spiritual function as a crucial feature of our humanity. It is at work together with other mental operators, such as determination, verbalization, visuo-spatialization, dualization, emotionalization, existentialization and conceptualization.

This view does not propose the return of any of the many religious dogma's regarding humanity and the universe. Instead of discussing whether "God" exists or not, neo-humanism fosters direct spiritual experience, allowing everybody to find out the "color" of their own spirituality (which does not imply spiritual council, guidance and devotion are no longer necessary). Especially in the beginning, spiritual culture and context are most helpful. But, without opening the "doors of perception", no self-realization needs are met and a person's full potential to humanize and individualize is postponed.

Classical humanism, with its profound discourse on human freedom and dignity, liberated the neocortex from its entanglements with outdated icons and signals. The "old" spiritual superstructure was totally deconstructed, to the point of Nietzsche's "God is dead" formula. The modern neocortex no longer processed the concept of God (cf. Laplace), traditional theologies and adjacent metaphysical systems. In classical Marxism, communism and materialist atheism, no reference to "God" is made. A metaphysics of finity was the most positivist philosophers would allow. 

These elaborated iconoclasms did not eliminate "God" from the intellectual scene. Why ? Only recently, and thanks to neurological studies of spiritual practioners as well as epileptics, the limbic nature of the "abode of God" was introduced to the debate.

The most elaborated critical language-game, theory or ideology is incapable of eliminating strong icons & powerful signals. Icons may be overwritten by adjacent emotional word/image-associations, but in cultural systems this process is slow and persist only if these "new" charges are sustained over the generations (in Amarna theology was eliminated from the record but returned in stories and tales afterwards). Signals are the landmarks of our existence and next to the "nominal" operations of the brainstem, only the "fourth state" adds to our reptilian habits. But this is a highly individual (in the sense of unique) and personal (in the sense of a someone experiencing) matter.

The dangers of too much & too little superstructure have been discussed. Are there elementary rules to keep in mind for building a spiritual superstructure ?

5. Unity and plurality in the Divine.

Hermeneutical investigations carried out elsewhere, evidence the Divine as bi-polar : in essence, one and ineffable, in existence, multiple and mysterious (hidden, invisible). Neurospirituality suggests a cortico-limbic circuit as the basis of an integrated and mature spiritual function.

It has two anchor-points : the limbic "God-spot" and the prefrontal voluntary association area. Superstructures are inevitable.

When discussing the universal characteristics of human spirituality, these polarities are fundamental and hermeneutics, mystical experience and neurospirituality confirm their importance. A conceptualization of the Divine, i.e. a cortical discourse on the Absolute involving symbolizations which do not thematize these basic polarities of theonomy, will not enhance the development of the spiritual function. Especially in radical monotheism is such a danger present. Theologians at work in the conservative branch of the Sunni tradition reject "nearness" to Allah (Arabic for "The God"), conceived as heretical blasphemy. Hence, the living source of spirituality is deafferented, for every movement of the spirit is immediately recuperated by a cortical system of symbols, stressing the impossibility of spiritual experience. In contrast, Sufism is highly mystical and developed a system of thought enabling the mystic to experience the Divine. The notion of "annihilation" became essential, for stressing the human subject was eliminated, "God" was kept pure.

Another flaw in the construction of a spiritual superstructure is made abvious with the opposite strategy. Suppose the experience of the Divine is made easy (as in Ancient Egypt, in Hinduism or more recently, in the postmodern Paganism of the New Age). Gods, goddesses, ancestors, spirits, entities, powers, energies, etc. exist on every corner, in every natural phenomena, in the soul of every human being, etc. The order of & dynamics between these spiritual entities becomes blurred, especially when efforts are undertaken to conceptualize them rationally (ante-rationality contains inherent conflicts which administer such possible confusions) ... Who is the most important entity or set of entities ? How do they maintain their dominance ? Who created them ? What is their relationship to this creator ? How to make sure that entities are not just "invented on the spot" to satisfy humans and not necessarily the Divine ?