Religious Experience in the Perspective of Neuroscience

For almost 18 centuries, Christianity represented for the West the Religion - the Unique and True one - all the others, from ancient paganism to Eastern spiritualities and tribal cults - being considered, at best, as precursors. How-ever, in the wake of the Reformation, the sacredness of the Bible and its uniqueness were gradually challenged by the development of sciences: philological, archaeological, historical, etc. At the extreme point of this development, we find today the direct approach to the religious feeling itself by the techniques of observation of the cerebral functioning. The idea is thus gradually emerging that the essence of the religious phenomenon lies less in the dogmas - infinitely variable from one religion to another - than in the inner experience of the sacred.The article deals with modern experimental studies of religious experience using methods of neuroscience. The author makes a demarcation between two types of religious experience. On the one hand, this is a mystical union with a personal god. On the other hand, this is a transpersonal yogic experience of the Absolute. The author comes to the conclusion that all reductionist interpretations of such an experience (for example, in terms of endorphins secretion, disturbance of body circuits, projection of memories not recognized as such, etc.) are untenable. In his opinion, such experience can be considered as a manifestation of one of the fundamental and natural human capacities, which various religious traditions try to present as Revelation and subordinate to their dogmas.

нейротеология, история религии, религиоведение, религиозный опыт, нейронауки, откровение, йога, медитация, практики созерцания, теории сознания, neurotheology, history of religion, religious studies, religious experience, neurosciences, revelation, yoga, meditation, contemplative prac-tices, theories of consciousness

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