Thanks for the link, Cali:
Highlights
Self-transcendence is a stable personality trait measuring predisposition to spirituality
Brain damage induces specific and fast modulations of self-transcendence
Self-transcendence increases after damage to lt and rt inferior parietal cortex
Summary
The predisposition of human beings toward spiritual feeling, thinking, and behaviors is measured by a supposedly stable personality trait called self-transcendence. Although a few neuroimaging studies suggest that neural activation of a large fronto-parieto-temporal network may underpin a variety of spiritual experiences, information on the causative link between such a network and spirituality is lacking. Combining pre- and post-neurosurgery personality assessment with advanced brain-lesion mapping techniques, we found that selective damage to left and right inferior posterior parietal regions induced a specific increase of self-transcendence. Therefore, modifications of neural activity in temporoparietal areas may induce unusually fast modulations of a stable personality trait related to transcendental self-referential awareness. These results hint at the active, crucial role of left and right parietal systems in determining self-transcendence and cast new light on the neurobiological bases of altered spiritual and religious attitudes and behaviors in neurological and mental disorders.
(My bold.)
In the old days, when I was an ardent believer, I had a few such experiences. They were in the context of certain rituals held around x-mas and Lent. I attributed them to standing in the presence of the Holy, or something of the sort. Excluding drug-induced events, my post-theistic experiences of self-transcendence have come through meditation. It's something that I can experience almost at will. The experiences themselves don't result in any religiosity, though. To the contrary, they leave me with a strong feeling of the fundamentally impersonal nature of the universe. Seems to me that the 'spiritual' part is something of an
ad hoc, insofar as it points to a religious interpretation of the experience. The experience itself (assuming that I'm experiencing what's referred to in the study), doesn't imply anything religious. Seems to me that people with at least some religious indoctrination (or at least immersed in societies where the religious alternative exists) are interpreting the experience in religious terms, perhaps due to a lack of exposure to secular alternatives.
"A philosopher is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat that isn't there. A theologian is the man who finds it." ~ H. L. Mencken
"We ain't a sharp species. We kill each other over arguments about what happens when you die, then fail to see the fucking irony in that."
"It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favor of vegetarianism while the wolf remains of a different opinion."
