An emerging field of psychology is recognizing the profound link among religious experience, the brain, and mental health. It’s called “neurotheology,” a multidisciplinary field that studies the relations between religion and the human brain.

“Neurotheology is a two-way street so that it is not just neuroscience studying religion or religion commenting on neuroscience,” said Dr. Andrew Newberg, a neuroscientist and pioneer in the field, in an interview with Psychwire. “Rather, neurotheology is trying to blend the best from science and the spiritual to ultimately help us better understand ourselves as human beings and how we relate to each other in the world.”

He explained that neurotheology combines neuroscience tools, including psychology, neuroimaging, medicine, and anthropology, with serious and respectful engagement with theology. This unique combination allows neurotheology researchers to approach a wide range of questions, such as the nature of reality and free will and how meditation can assist people suffering from depression or loss.

“Structured spiritual practices have a number of different elements that can potentially be useful in a psychological context,” Newberg said. Meditation, for example, involves calm but intense focus on a given object or phrase, and is associated with increased frontal lobe function in the brain, which can have a positive psychological effect by “augmenting concentration as well as helping to regulate emotional responses.” Multiple studies have shown that meditation can reduce anxiety and stress.

Many studies, according to Newberg, have shown that religious faith and spiritual practices bring a psychological bonus, helping practitioners improve resilience and mitigate anxiety or depression. There’s even an association between spiritual and religious beliefs and protection from substance abuse.

Physically, these practices can reduce blood pressure and heart rate, improve immune function, and lower the stress hormone cortisol.

In an article for Big Think, Newberg points out that studies have shown that people who are spiritual or religious have less depression and anxiety and are less likely to commit suicide.

One of the most important psychological benefits of religion is its ability to subdue “ontological anxiety”: fear about the uncertainty of the meaning of existence. “Religious and spiritual beliefs can provide a person with a sense of meaning and purpose and also make them feel generally more comfortable with the world around them providing a positive outlook on the future,” Newberg told Psychwire.

For those of us with an Aristotelian/Thomistic bent, it comes as little surprise that scientists are identifying an interrelationship between spiritual experiences, the brain, and mental health. Thomistic theology and philosophy teach that the human being is “hylomorphic,” which means we are an integrated composite of a body and a soul. Therefore, what happens in our soul affects the body, and vice versa. Neurotheology explores that intersection.

At the same time, a critique can be leveled against neurotheology. As a primarily scientific discipline, it is bound to encounter areas outside what it can meaningfully measure and interpret. Since the spiritual realm is, by definition, non-physical, and science deals with that which is measurable, neurotheology will never be able to scientifically test, validate, prove, or disprove much about the spiritual itself, which transcends scientific investigation.

At best, neurotheology can give insights into the spiritual by some inferences about the physical effects of the spiritual life. But neurotheology cannot replace theology and spirituality, since scientific tools are unable to penetrate very far into non-physical reality. Nor is it appropriate for science to “stand in judgment” over religious experiences and try to offer “ultimate explanations” for those experiences.

An example of a fruitful neurotheological investigation would be the work of Mario Beauregard and Vincent Paquette, who published a study and a book showing the results of brain scans of a group of Carmelite nuns recalling spiritual experiences. Their conclusion was that the scientific evidence they gathered about the nuns’ spiritual experiences indicated a non-physical origin for the mystical experiences of the nuns.

Even if neurotheology remains a blunt instrument for getting to the heart of questions about ultimate reality, it nevertheless can offer useful and fascinating insights into the mysterious link between the spiritual and the physical, as well as the positive psychological and physical byproducts of religious practices.

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This article was made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal.

Image credit: Flickr-Ars Electronica, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0