The Spiritual Brain

By Larry Reynolds and ChristianWeek | October 1, 2007

This book is written by a Montreal based PhD neuroscientist in collaboration with well-known Christian journalist Denyse O'Leary of Toronto. It is an attempt to prove, through discussion and experimental data, that spiritual experiences are real and not just the hallucinations of disordered individuals.

The book is very well written and offers reasonably easy to understand information about the brain/mind paradox. The text is dotted with wonderful quotes from famous scientists, thinkers and writers. The authors are unashamedly convinced of the reality of spiritual experiences and take a view that challenges the ancient philosophy now popularly known as materialism. Materialism means that the physical concrete world of things-matter and atoms-are all that exist.

Chapters of the book discuss the basic clash of philosophies that underlies much of the tension in the realm of scientific endeavour between those who believe in a god or gods and those who do not. This book is for anyone who wants to know more about Sudbury's own God Helmet, the God program or whether the mind created God or God created the mind.
MRI studies on the brain activity of contemplative Carmelite nuns are the author's unique work and are fascinating in their implications for the debate about the spiritual brain.

Convincing evidence is also presented for the case that non-drug treatment for mental health problems like obsessive compulsive disorder has an impact on the activities of the brain. Most reasonable people would be convinced that this clearly demonstrates that human will can change brain function and behaviour.

Studies of those who have had near death experiences are discussed in some detail and make very interesting reading. People who have had heart attacks, suffered "brain death" and have been successfully resuscitated seem to have similar experiences. Their contact with a loving caring force or light and reunion with deceased friends are often combined with an awareness of activities that happened in the room while they were "dead."

These experiences cannot be explained from a purely materialist viewpoint. However, some scientists, despite their claims to the contrary, are not always reasonable people and can be blinded by their faith in materialism, evolution and relativism. There is little doubt that many of them will reject the evidence presented in this book.

The Spiritual Brain has perhaps at times an excessive amount of detail as the authors are writing for both a lay audience and a scientific one. I suspect there is too much detail for one and not enough for the other. The book would have been enriched by more discussion of what constitutes knowledge, and of what the end or purpose of the reasoning mind is.

While the book offers much convincing evidence, it is unlikely that any born again atheist/materialist is going to buy this evidence. Their faith and creeds forbid the possibility of anything existing outside of the physical world. The view of the materialist is characterized as "mud to mind,"-that is, the evolution of the mind from primordial mud. Adherents to the world's major faith systems, on the other hand, see the universe as a mind (Creator) making the physical universe-mind to matter.

Much of Western pre-modern thinking used reason as a basis for faith. Theology was the queen of sciences. In an age of scientism, much scientific endeavour is based on blind faith. The faith of scientism is in the improbable idea that an ordered universe and reason itself could come about through mere random actions. Most people have a choice to believe in an uncreated universe or in an uncreated God. Human reason, experience and probability would support an uncreated God. This however is thankfully beyond proof. Who would want to worship a God who could be proven by mere mortals?

The authors should be commended for this translational work which makes advanced scientific enquiry both understandable and available to the public. This book will be of interest to scientists, both amateur and professional, as well as physicians, students, philosophers and theologians.