As Carl Jung, the father of analytical psychology, wrote: These experiences are of the perennial mystery that goes by many names Gnōsis, Unio Mystica, Ma'rifah, Moksha, Yab-yum, etc. Practices of achieving altered mind states are found quite ubiquitously in traditional cultures throughout human history and are often associated with mystical or spiritual insight. Wherever our ancestors could find a route to these mystical states, their practices were seized and sanctified, ritualising the method. Mysticism and accounts of mystical type experiences are found unanimously, in all human societies the world over. Parable of the blind men and the elephant? These are all viable interpretations of the same event, none of which are necessarily wrong. The studies I mention in the OP were to hopefully show that there is no necessary differentiation to be made between a physical, a psychological, and a spiritual/mystical experience. ![]() Just because one interpretation is right does not mean that all other interpretations are wrong. Rather, we need the physical, the psychological, and the mystical interpretations to understand all parts of these experiences. Neither interpretation is necessarily wrong, and neither one by itself is a complete description. ![]() This demonstrates how the same set of data regarding these kinds of experiences are open to multiple interpretations. When he showed these brain scans to his fellow neuroscientists they said, “So that’s the part of the brain that gives you the illusion of talking to God?” He showed the same scans to the nuns, and they said, “So that’s the part of the brain that God uses to talk to me?” Newberg’s study of the neuroimaging of Carmelite nuns as they were attempting to commune with God found that, when they thought that they were successful, certain parts of their brain consistently lit up, they became more active. ![]() Andy Newberg, a neuroradiologist at the University of Pennsylvania, has conducted a series of studies on the physiology of spiritual practice and religious experience in Tibetan Buddhist monks as they meditate, in chanting Sikhs, in Pentecostals as they speak in tongues, and in Franciscan nuns as they engage in contemplative pray all of which found measurable brain activity that corresponded with the religious experiences described by worshippers.
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