宗教体验及其神经基础的研究

宗教体验是人在宗教活动中的心态或体悟及伴随的情感体验,它是一个过程.其神经基础的研究表明,宗教体验过程中大脑的某些特定区域被激活.这些研究表明宗教体验与认知和情绪有关,在一定程度上与早期有关宗教体验实质的结论吻合,但这并不表明大脑中存在"上帝脑区".该文简要介绍了宗教体验的概念、神经基础的一些研究,并对该领域内的一些问题做出了说明.     

从生理的角度看宗教需求的产生

个人思想中的“宗教信仰”可以在一定程度上影响人体的生理活动,让神经系统得到放松,从而使人获得舒适感。对这种舒适感的渴望,是宗教需求产生的重要原因之一。     

宗教体验的情绪活动与生理活动研究

宗教体验是人在宗教活动中的心态或体悟及伴随的情感体验,有强烈的情感特征。为了探讨宗教体验的情绪变化特征及其与生理活动的相关性,本研究用自编图片诱发情绪,以情绪调查表记录诱发情绪前后18名基督徒和非基督徒大学生的情绪主观体验变化,同时采用多导生理仪记录了其自主神经生理指标和脑电波。结果表明,基督徒与非基督徒的主观体验差异显著,并在C3C4电极所记录的脑区表现出θ波能量差异。总体上,基督教的宗教体验与普通的情绪体验不同,基督徒更多的是正性情绪体验。     

从世界三大宗教看宗教的生理根源

世界三大宗教中包含着大量描写人的生理苦痛、消除人的生理苦痛等承诺、方法,以及在天国、天园和佛世界等理想社会中人所具有的美好生理特征或者对人生理需求的圆满满足,以及在地狱、火狱等世界中更大的生理痛苦,这些内容极大地吸引了对自身生理不满的民众,促进了宗教的传播。人的生理特征构成了宗教存在和发展的重要生理根源。认识和研究宗教的生理根源,对于加深对宗教的认识,建立马克思主义宗教学具有十分重要的意义。     

西藏转经习俗与个人宗教体验

从个人与群体的心理机制去探求民间宗教生发与延续的深层结构,是研究民间宗教的重要方法之一.转经习俗是藏传佛教在民间社会盛行的信仰实践与信众日常化的朝圣仪式.转经人作为该习俗的文化主体,其丰富的个人宗教体验不仅以“灵验”主题的口头神性叙事得到自我认同与集体传播,同时折射了个体心灵世界中的强音与弱音,满足了人们差异又多元的世俗心理需求.融入到民众生活内部的、大量宗教体验的深刻存在,是转经习俗得到稳固传承的隐形动力,甚或成为藏传佛教长期扎根于青藏高原的民间机制之一.     

论宗教信仰与宗教行为的分离——以"中国汉民族宗教体验调查"为例

本文以2005年"中国汉民族宗教体验调查"结果为基础,就当代中国宗教徒的宗教冷漠、非宗教徒的宗教倾向和无神论者的宗教兴趣展开讨论,试图揭示当代中国汉族民众宗教信仰与宗教行为分离的现实,并就其缘由进行初步探讨。     

道教的宗教体验——以内丹修炼为例

文章通过对道教内丹修炼中几种特殊体验的考察,探讨了道教的宗教性和本质问题,认为道教作为宗教其"宗教性"具体体现在对"超常经验"的一步步体证,进而将道教的本质概括为"对道的体证",并进一步讨论了与之相关的义理问题。     

人格的生理基础研究综述

从生理基础来解释人格的产生,是人格研究的重要方面。随着脑科学技术等研究方法的进展,西方心理学家越来越重视这个途径,而国内对此的介绍和研究很少。该文对人格的生理基础研究进行了综述,重点从体型、神经类型和生理节律、脑中枢定位及神经递质四个层面介绍了八种主要理论。     

发展性阅读障碍的生理基础

发展性阅读障碍是关系人类健康和发展的重要课题,对其产生机制的探讨有利于寻找适当的治疗方法.文章在简要回顾阅读障碍的界定、研究内容和有关理论争论基础上,重点介绍了阅读障碍的神经基础和遗传机制.文章从大脑结构和功能单侧化、完成认知任务时大脑的激活模式、激活时间进程以及视觉巨细胞等方面介绍了发展性阅读障碍者与正常读者之间存在的差异.文章还指出许多双生子研究都发现同孪双生子的阅读障碍同现率高于异孪双生子,尤其是近期的遗传学研究鉴定出几个与阅读障碍有关的染色体,如6号和15号染色体与语音障碍和拼写障碍有关.这些研究结果说明发展性阅读障碍有一定的脑神经基础和遗传基础.     

Maturing Religious Experience and the Postmodern Self

Past attempts to define mature religion have been rooted in a modernist theological anthropology which assumes an atomistic, universal, rational, and stable human self. Yet postmodernists resist universal statements about humanity and understand the self as an ever-changing social construct. This paper suggests a theological anthropology more adequate to the postmodern world, examines maturing religious experience from this perspective, and considers ways pastoral care/counseling can nurture healthy, integrative, and maturing Christian faith in postmodern culture.     

Measuring Religiosity in a Majority Muslim Context: Gender,Religious Salience,and Religious Experience Among Kuwaiti College Students—A Research Note

The meaning of traditional and alternative measures of religiosity in a majority Muslim context is examined using the Islamic Social Attitudes Survey (ISAS). Specifically, this article reports a test of whether traditional religiosity measures are useful in a majority Muslim context. Differences between men and women are explored as well as the extent to which demographics, schools of thought, and religious socialization are significantly correlated to religious salience and religious experience. Results suggest the need to use alternative measures of Islamic religiosity and to take gender difference into account. Islamist political affiliation and religious socialization are positively associated with religious salience and experience for women, while more traditional measures such as mosque attendance and Qur’anic reading are associated with religious salience and experience for men, even after controlling for religious sect.     

Smoking,Muslim religious commitments,and the experience and behaviour of Ramadan in Pakistani men

This study examined the possibility that smoking may interfere with Muslim commitments in general and with the experience and behaviour of Ramadan in particular. During Ramadan, a sample of 29 smoking and 46 non-smoking Pakistani men responded to measures of smoking, Religious Orientation, Religious Interest, Positive and Negative Ramadan Experience, and Ramadan Behaviour. Various indices of smoking predicted a disinterest in religion, less of an Intrinsic Religious Orientation, lower levels of Positive Ramadan Experience, higher Negative Ramadan Experience, and reductions in Ramadan Behaviour. These data offered preliminary support for the suggestion that smoking presents a challenge to Muslim beliefs and practices, especially during Ramadan.     

Alpha and evangelical conversion

A semi-structured interview study was conducted among 11 ‘Born Again’ Christians eliciting their conversion narratives. Informants emphasised the importance of embodying the Holy Spirit and developing a personal relationship with Christ in the process of conversion. The Alpha Course played an important role in this process.     

Building Bridges: Teresa of Avila and self psychology

Utilizing concepts from self psychology, the author demonstrates the ways in which God functioned as a selfobject for Teresa of Avila. In addition, parallels are drawn between the spiritual journey as described by Teresa of Avila and the psychotherapeutic journey. Building bridges between the psychological and spiritual realms of experience can greatly increase our understanding of each, and enable us to help our clients become more integrated, whole persons.     

OAKESHOTT ON THE CHARACTER OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE: NEED THERE BE A CONFLICT BETWEEN SCIENCE AND RELIGION?

Michael Oakeshott reflected on the character of religious experience in various writings throughout his life. In Experience and Its Modes (1933) he analyzed science as a distinctive “mode,” or account of experience as a whole, identifying those assumptions necessary for science to achieve its coherent account of experience in contrast to other modes of experience whose quests for coherence depend on different assumptions. Religious experience, he thought, was integral to the practical mode. The latter experiences the world as interminable tension between what is and what ought to be. The question, Is there a conflict between science and religion? is, in Oakeshott's approach, the question, Is there a conflict between the scientific mode of experience and the practical mode? Insofar as we tend to treat every question as a practical one, these questions seem to make sense. But Oakeshott's analysis leads to the view that scientific experience and religious experience are categorically different accounts of experience abstracted from the whole of experience. They are voices of experience that may speak to each other, but they are not ordered hierarchically. Nor can either absorb the other without insoluble contradictions.     

THINKING ABOUT RELIGION AND EXPERIENCING THE BRAIN: EUGENE D'AQUILI'S BIOGENETIC STRUCTURAL THEORY OF ABSOLUTE UNITARY BEING

Abstract. Religious experiences, including mystical states and experience of the divine, are the ultimate reality of human existence that demand an account. Eugene d'Aquili weaves together that account using paradigms of thought which historically have made mutually exclusive claims about the nature of religious experience. While pointing out the deficiencies of the theory from a narrowly scientific point of view, this paper recognizes that neuroscience, or any other solitary discipline, is incompetent to explain religion. This paper emphasizes the significance and truth of d'Aquili's holistic theory, a religious vision which itself explains science and philosophy.     

Putting the Mystical Mind Together

This article reviews and responds to various issues that have been raised in critical analysis of our work studying the relationship between religion and the brain. An adequate response necessitates a discussion about the origins of this research, the potential pitfalls of doing empirical research in this field, and the complex requirements of interpreting the implications of such an approach. Through inquiry such as this, the study of the brain and its relation to religion and religious experience will continue to advance and uncover the many fascinating questions that await.