Spirituality & Neuroscience.

I’m an ardent supporter of Neuroscience, and understanding human behaviour through brain architecture. The increasing wealth of data coming from fMRI, PET and CAT scans has changed much of our understanding of psychology and behaviour.

However, Neuroscience does, potentially, present us with a range of problems, not least of which are problems of reductionism, and the ‘moral neutrality’ apparently inherent within biological explanations of behaviour.

A wise friend often presents me with the issue of spirituality as a phenomenon in neuroscientific understanding, and brain based explanations of behaviour.

I takespiritualityto meana sense of connectedness to each other, and with a wider physical and meta-physical world. This inclusive connectedness goes beyond that which can be explained by purely empirical methods and measures.

Not only do I understand that people have spiritual experiences, but I also think thatthese experiences are the key human experiences.They lift us above…