[actually, this should be labelled as 'comedy' -ths]

Psychobiology of Drug-Induced Religious Experience:
From the Brain „Locus of Religion‰ to Cognitive Unbinding

November 2010, Vol. 45, No. 13 , Pages 2130-2151
(doi:10.3109/10826081003713803)
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Paolo Nencini1 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and Kathleen A. Grant2

1Sapienza University of Rome, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Rome,
Italy

2Oregon Health and Science University, Department of Behavioral Neuroscience,
Portland, Oregon, USA

The authors thank Ms. Raffaella Nencini and Mr. Michael Arrigo for translations of the
abstract.
Address correspondence to Paolo Nencini, Sapienza University of Rome, Department
of Physiology and Pharmacology, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, Rome, 00185 Italy; E-mail:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it


The recent interest in the psychopharmacological underpinnings of religious
experiences has led to both the laboratory characterizations of drug-induced mystical
events and psychobiological models of religious experiences rooted in evolution and
fitness. Our examination of this literature suggests that these theories may be
congruent only within more modern religious and cultural settings and are not
generalizable to all historical beliefs, as would be expected from an evolutionarily
conserved biological mechanism. The strong influence of culture on the subjective
effects of drugs as well as religious thoughts argues against the concept of a
common pathway in the brain uniquely responsible for these experiences. Rather,
the role of personal beliefs, expectations and experiences may interject bias into the
interpretation of psychoactive drug action as a reflection of biologically based
religious thought. Thus, psychobiological research proposing specific brain
mechanisms should consider anthropological and historical data to address alternative
explanations to the „fitness‰ of religious thought. A psychobiological model of the
religious experience based on the concept of cognitive unbinding seems to
accommodate these data better than that of a specific brain locus of religion.


Read More: http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.3109/10826081003713803

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