Rational Mysticism — An Introduction to Neurotheology

6 min readDec 29, 2021

As oxymoronic as the term “rational mysticism” may sound, it is entirely possible to approach it within a naturalistic context. Mystical experiences have been recorded throughout history across various cultures and faiths and are currently being investigated in the field of neuroscience. In the following blog post (or podcast if you’re listening to the audio version), I will share what contemporary research has to say about mysticism and how you can induce a mystical experience using the facts we currently know.

Defining Mysticism

Mystical experiences exist as a diverse range of experiences that are hard to describe, making them rather difficult to define. To create a more accurate picture, professor and neuroscientist at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital Andrew Newberg surveyed over two thousand participants across various religious backgrounds and belief systems from around the world who have had spiritual experiences. His analysis of these accounts led to his conclusion that there are five essential elements of a mystical experience:

A sense of unity or connectedness with God, the universe, or some other transcendental force
A sense of intensity
A sense of clarity and new understanding
Feelings of surrender
A sense that something has permanently changed

Of course, this description fails to take into account the varieties of mystical experiences. For instance, neurologist James Austin draws a distinction between what he calls absorption experiences (also called Samadhi in Hinduism and Satori in Buddhism), where the external world and the self dissolve into a formless unity, and the rarer kensho experiences, where the external world doesn’t disappear. Then there are those who speculate the existence of a supreme mystical state known as enlightenment, which has been described using a variety of competing definitions.

The Evolutionary Origins of Mysticism

According to Dr. Newberg and his late colleague Dr. Eugene D’Aquili, our ability to have mystical experiences might have evolved accidentally out of the neural circuitry linked to our orgasmic capacity. They point out that mystical experiences are often described using sexual language with words such as “union” and “ecstasy” and that mystical experiences and orgasms are both induced by rhythmic activity. Although they attribute mystical experiences and orgasms to different parts of the brain, Newberg and D’Aquili contend that the neurobiology of mystical experiences most likely rose in part from the mechanism of sexual response as a separate by-product.

Mystical Experiences in the Brain

There is no clear consensus on where mystical experiences occur in the brain. However, contemporary scientific data sheds light on several possible areas. The first possibility is in the temporal lobes, which are commonly linked to intense spiritual experiences in patients who have seizures originating in that area. To test this hypothesis, professor of psychology at Laurentian University Michael Persinger, along with Stanley Koren invented an apparatus known as the “God helmet.” This helmet stimulates the temporal lobes with weak electromagnetic pulses, which Persinger claims induce mystical experiences. Despite his claims, however, there are no reports resembling a mystical experience from subjects stimulated by the God machine.

Perhaps the most well-known possible correlate to mystical experiences originates from Rick Strassman, a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Mexico School of Medicine. In his book, DMT: The Spirit Molecule, Dr. Strassman hypothesized that the pineal gland might form DMT under certain conditions. Evidence supporting this hypothesis was found in a 2013 study that found DMT in the pineal glands of rodents. However, a later study in that same lab found out that the DMT came from surrounding brain tissue. Despite all this, there is no data correlating endogenous DMT to non-drug-related altered states of consciousness.

Another possible neural correlate to mystical experiences comes from the research of neurotheologians Andrew Newberg and Eugene D’Aquilli, who performed SPECT scans on eight Buddhist monks practicing a form of Tibetan meditation and three Franciscan nuns practicing contemplative prayer. Both studies showed decreased activity in the posterior superior parietal lobe, which Newberg and D’Aquili have nicknamed the “orientation association area.” They claim that a decrease in this area is associated with a decreased sense of subject-object duality in mystics.

How to Have a Mystical Experience

Newberg and D’Aquili have divided methods for inducing mystical experiences into two categories: top-down and bottom-up. Top-down methods include gentle contemplative practices such as Buddhist meditation or Christian Centering Prayer and induce mystical experiences through relaxation. Bottom-up techniques, on the other hand, generate mystical experiences through excitation and include more intense exercises such as dancing, hyperventilation, chanting, and vigorous yoga. Although the risks are quite low, Dr. Newberg advises people who have severe emotional problems, psychoses, personality disorders, cognitive impairment, cardiovascular problems, or are taking any medications relating to these symptoms to seek the guidance of a licensed health professional first before engaging in bottom-up techniques.

Dr. Andrew Newberg and his team of neuroscientists at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital make it clear that there’s no guarantee of having a mystical experience, contending that some people can have accidental experiences overnight while others train for decades and never experience anything. Despite this, their research has revealed five steps that can prime your brain for a mystical experience:

Desire to change: Desiring insight and change is critical for the experience to occur. One way to do this is to write down why you want to be enlightened and what enlightenment means to you. Another essential part of this step is to be willing to acknowledge doubt in your beliefs. Be ready to accept that some of your most cherished beliefs could be wrong.
Preparing your body and mind: Mystical experiences can be terrifying, which is why it’s good to physically and mentally prepare yourself first. Some ways to do this include gentle relaxation and awareness exercises such as moving, stretching, yawning, relaxation techniques, yoga, and meditation. Ignoring this can make mystical experiences similar to a bad psychedelic trip, so it’s good that you spend some time on this step before moving on.
Daily ritual practice: Engage in an intense ritual that will interrupt your old habits and everyday consciousness. This is done by creating a repetitive movement or sound, or assuming a specific posture. It doesn’t matter how you do this, though it’s important that it feels pleasant and allows you to enter a deeply calm and restful state. A good tip, however, is to make the ritual unusual, as this will allow your brain to become more absorbed in the activity. You should also change your rituals if they begin to feel boring, as this will drag you down to lower levels of awareness. Lastly, it’s good to gradually extend your ritual up to about 50–60 minutes, as this is usually the length required for drops in parietal lobe activity to occur.
Surrender: Completely immerse yourself in the experience and let go of all judgments and expectations. Step two will help prepare you for this.
Reflecting on the experience: Reflect on your experience. Observe all the feelings, thoughts, and sensations that flow into consciousness. Integrate your experience back into your daily life by asking yourself what insights you can attain from this experience.

Mysticism and Psychedelics

Psychedelics are hallucinogenic drugs that trigger non-ordinary states of consciousness. Some consider these states to be identical to the mystical states induced through contemplative methods, while others challenge this notion. Ultimately, it is only the perceiver who can make this judgment. I will discuss psychedelics and how they can be used for spiritual purposes in later posts.