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Guardian Unlimited | Life | Tests of faith - http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/feature/story/0,13026,1423450,00.html
Article discussing evolutionary, anthropological (Boyer), and neuroscientific (Ramachandran, Newberg) aspects of religion. |
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The Serotonin System and Spiritual Experiences - http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/160/11/1965?
American Journal of Psychiatry research showing that "binding potential" (serotonin levels) correlated inversely with scores for self-transcendence. |
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Are We Hardwired for God? - http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4351726,00.html
The Guardian newspaper's review of Pascal Boyer's book "Religion Explained". |
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What Buddhists Know About Science - http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/news/2002/07/53820
Wired article on relationship between Tibetan meditation and the brain. |
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The "God" Part Of The Brain - http://www.godpart.com/
Website for Matthew Alper's book which suggests that "humans are innately hard-wired to perceive a spiritual reality". |
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A Mystical Union - http://www.economist.com/science/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2478148
Economist article giving overview of recent research in neurotheology. |
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Neurology of Spiritual Experiences - http://www.innerworlds.50megs.com/
Articles on spiritual experience and magnetic signal brain stimulation by one of Michael Persinger's students. |
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Linking Out-of-Body Experience and Self Processing to Mental Own-Body Imagery at the Temporoparietal Junction - http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/abstract/25/3/550
Paper by Olaf Blanke and team on the neurocognitive bases of out-of-body (OBE) experiences, from Journal of Neuroscience. |
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Neurotheology & Shamanism - http://www.cognitiveliberty.org/neuro/winkelman1.htm
Dr. Michael Winkelman, Anthropology Professor at Arizona State and author of "Shamanism: The Neural Economy of Consciousness", discusses the neurological basis of shamanism, mankind's oldest spiritual practice. |
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This Is Your Brain on God - http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.11/persinger_pr.html
Wired Magazine interview of Michael Persinger, leading figure in the reductionist school of neurotheology. |
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Study Asks Whether Chemicals and Communion Are One - http://www.mapageweb.umontreal.ca/beauregm/study_asks_whether.htm
Article from "Science and Theology News" describing the neuroimaging of praying nuns performed by University of Montreal researcher Mario Beauregard. |
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Body and Mind - http://www.channel4.com/science/microsites/S/science/body/exorcism.html
Materials accompanying a TV special on body and mind, with a brief overview of older theories and notable neurotheology research. |
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Neurological Correlates of Transformational Experiences - http://www.meridianinstitute.com/reports/neurocor.html
Article building on work of Persinger and d'Aquili, looking at near-death experiences with neuroimaging. |
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Zen and the Brain - http://www.csp.org/chrestomathy/zen_and.html
Summary of "Zen and the Brain", James H. Austin's definitive work tracing the neuroscientific aspects of Zen. |
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How the Brain Creates God - http://www.nwbotanicals.org/oak/magick/createsgod.htm
Broad-ranging overview by Iona Miller, touching on archetypes, NDEs, drugs, trances, TMS, and shamanism. |
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Physiology of meditation - http://ejmas.com/pt/ptart_shin_0400.htm
Article covering meditation and its relationship to the metabolism, autonomic nervous system, endocrine system, and central nervous system. |
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Evolutionary Neurotheology and the Varieties of Religious Experience - ftp://cs.utk.edu/pub/maclennan/EvolutionaryNeurotheology-long.pdf
Article by Bruce McLennan of University of Tennessee, outlining a neuropsychological approach to religious experience based on archetypal psychology. |
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Meridian Magazine :: Neurotheology - http://www.meridianmagazine.com/ideas/040216neurotheology.html
BYU scholars give a brief overview of neurotheology, and ponder the neurological basis of Joseph Smith's revelations. |
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"Neurotheology": A semantic trap set by pseudo-science for the unwary scientist - http://www.cns.res.in/neurotheology.html
Article claiming there is no scientific rationale for the nouveau term "Neurotheology", and that researchers working on topics relating to religion should stick to the conventional Behavioural and Social Neurosciences categories. |
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Ecstasy from a Physiological Point of View - http://www.ex-premie.org/papers/religious_ecstasy.htm
Discussion of relationship between drugs, celibacy, fasting and other physical practices and ecstasy. Presented by Kaj Bjorkqvist at Symposium on Religions Ecstasy held at Åbo, Finland, on the 26th-28th of August 1981. |
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On the Neuropsychology of Religious Experiences - http://www.psych.uiuc.edu/~bhidalgo/litreview.htm
Review of literature on neuropsychology of religious experiences, including temporal lobe model, D'Aquili's model for meditative states, and substance-induced religious experience. |
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Religiosity is associated with hippocampal but not amygdala volumes in patients with refractory epilepsy -- Wuerfel et al. 75 (4): 640 -- Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry - http://jnnp.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/75/4/640
Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry article finding that epilepsy patients with high religiosity had smaller right hippocampi. |
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Numenware, a blog about neurotheology - http://www.numenware.com
Frequently updated weblog about neurotheology. Also covers some general neuroscience, Dogen, language, and Japan topics. |
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Meditation and the Brain - http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/04/02/newton0204.asp?p=1
Report on a conference held by MIT's McGovern Institute for Brain Research, bringing together Buddhists and neuroscientists. |