Study: The Effects Of Serotonin On Spirituality

According to Psychology Today and referencing the American Journal of Psychiatry, serotonin, the brain chemical in charge of moderating mood, metabolism, and sexuality, has been linked to spiritual experiences. Psychology Today reports:

A team of Swedish researchers has found that the presence of a receptor that regulates general serotonin activity in the brain correlates with people's capacity for transcendence, the ability to apprehend phenomena that cannot be explained objectively. Scientists have long suspected that serotonin influences spirituality because drugs known to alter serotonin such as LSD also induce mystical experiences. But now they have proof from brain scans linking the capacity for spirituality with a major biological element.

So what does this mean? Well, the researchers believe that it provides evidence that religiosity and spirituality are not defined necessarily or entirely by environmental or cultural factors, such as upbringing. Basically, those with a higher concentration of serotonin receptors will therefore most likely show a stronger inclination towards spiritual acceptance.

What do you think? Does this belittle the notion of spirituality or encourage it? Tell us your thoughts below.

Comments

[lostmypassword]

I have noticed that serotonin and other brain chemicals are released or used while on spiritual activities such as tarot or meditation / trance states. It has been known for centuries that it is actually pretty dangerous to do some spiritual activities without guidance because "it may induce madness" and that there are limits to how much of those activities a person can safely perform in a period of time, without experiencing collateral effects such as madness or mania

I think this recent finding that serotonin and brain chemicals are being used on spiritual quests confirms this ancient knowledge. By overusing it or doing it without preparation you risk damaging your brain cells serotonin receptors and getting depression, bi-polar disorder, allucinations or other brain chemical unbalance disorders. "Madness" as the old ones called it.

[KillgoreTrout43]

Actually, they called it "Divine Madness." There is a huge difference. Read up a little on a guy named Emmanuel Swedenborg.

[NoSillyName]

A book to put on the "to be read" list:

"The 'God' Part of the Brain", A Scientific Interpretation of Spirituality and God, by Mathew Alper
http://godpart.com/

[lorca1986]

There may be some truth to this. I have suffered from depression (low levels of serotonin) my whole life and am totally lacking in spirituality. If it is true then god definitely does not exist. Otherwise, It would mean that he has condemned some of us to hell through no fault of our own.

[darylwalmsley]

"Basically, those with a higher concentration of serotonin receptors will therefore most likely show a stronger inclination towards spiritual acceptance..."

...or towards drug abuse. Someone should do the research.

[KillgoreTrout43]

How so? Drink coffee? Smoke cigarettes? Drink beer? Whiskey? Gin? Wine? Vodka? Take asprin, Ibupropen, Tylenol, Prescription meds?.....­..........­......etc?

Please, don't play the pure white innocent.

[BerylGamse]

Part of the complex that can be termed the god gene. This finding helps demonstate that god is an evolutionary adaption that helps organisms that can forsee their own death to construct a reason to go on even though there is no other purpose in life than to create more life and then die.

[falco]

Fluoride in the water supresses (calcifies) the pineal gland - which is the gland where serotonin and melatonin are produced/regulated. That's not a good thing. We have no cavities in our teeth (yeah right - research the studies) but we are dumbed down in the process. Fluoride was added to the water in concentration camps to keep the prisoners docile. But don't believe me. This is so serious that you need to do the research yourself.

http://www.redicecreations.com/specialreports/fluoridepinealgland.html

[dannywf]

Science is helping us trust our instincts and hearts, but if we are waiting to take the plunge because we think we can have the kind of solid proof of transcendent experiences that we demand in lab experiments , we may have a long time to wait.

[caliwebman]

This encourages peoples leaps into becoming much closer to the Holy Grail itself. The grail has been found BTW. The grail is NOT cup from Jesus' last supper, nor the sword that pierced Jesus whilst he hung on the cross, and neither is the Holy Grail the bloodline of Jesus and Mary Magdelane's offsrping living today. The Grail, my world family, is this:

"The Holy Grail is a Latent, Miracle Power, that resides within each and every one of us".

Latent - having drifted into a deep sleep for some time due to our detachment from the true divine and eternal connection with divine justice. And keep in mind, She's watching you at ALL TIMES.

Also, there are many standout historical examples of ancients, tribes and even groups today that are capable of reaching much higher levels of connectivity with the divine state, and they have done this for melenia whilst taking advantage of tools such as Peyote, Mescaline, Fungus.

Lastly, should you have a person that you care for whom might be over-using such things, I shall offer you what a few years ago I offered the Pentagons INTELST board - a simple excercise that can assist anyone in attaining an immediate, direct and very lucid connection to the divine essence of soul presence, and not via use of mind alter assists. Enter the process of attainging, "The 6th Sense". - http://scottbruno.com/the6thsense.htm

Please shed this light upon your closest souls.

Gentle is the Warrior

[The Hedonistic Pleasureseeker]

Hey. What the heck is "spiritual acceptance?" As if that has anything to do with the lofty feeling of spiritual transcendance? Uh, no. I'd even suggest they're opposites.

It's interesting how so many people presume that higher levels of Serotonin are what's being referred to in this study and that higher is automatically better. Actually high levels of serotonin are extremely deadening. It flattens affect and inhibits creativity. You become "accepting" because frankly you just don't give a sh . . . hoot.

It's the balance between serotonin and other chemicals in your brain that really matters.

[KillgoreTrout43]

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/sweden.htm

Well worth a look see.

[Tartar]

Rudolph Otto coined a word `numinous` to explain his sense of being overwhelmed by the star filled sky, `that there may be something that cannot be seen`, that the nature of that experience can be overwhelming. Wikipedia`s fine summary of all this extends to Christopher Hitchens commentary about a possible relevance for athiests. And while this topic is alive, could someone comment on whether the term `optical migrane` remains meaningful?

[KillgoreTrout43]

I am not familiar with the term. Is it purely a clinical term or a mystical experience of some sort? I looked it up briefly and could not find a spiritual connotation.

[saltpeter]

Still, I don't buy into the argument that succumbing to this chemical is preferable to logic. In no way is anyone's life diminshed because they don't give in to those delusions. When it comes to the religion vs science argument there are those that will point to science as somehow being lacking; not fulfilling enough in and of itself to hold universal appeal to the psychological needs of humans. But I do think that science can, in time, answer every question that we as humans pose in regards to the nature of existence of the universe and even ourselves bar one. Science can answer every essential human query- from where, what, when, and how-- with one major exception- WHY? Science can tell us when the universe and life and human life began, where, how, and what happened but it can never tell us WHY it happened. Why the first molecule or cell split? But we humans need to know why. And when nature doesn't satisfy our queries, we turn to our, sometimes delusional, minds to give us our WHY? But here's the scoop-- THERE IS NO WHY. The closest answer to "why" that nature has to reveal is found in Darwin's theory of evolution. WHY? do things in nature happen one way insead of another. Not to gratify your ego or not to please some invisible being but SIMPLY SURVIVAL. SELF-PRESERVATION is the closet thing to religious dogma that nature has to offer. The rest is up to you.

[KillgoreTrout43]

"Still, I don't buy into the argument that succumbing to this chemical is preferable to logic. In no way is anyone's life diminshed because they don't give in to those delusions."

Who said it was? It is just a transcendence of logic, and not a permanent state. At least not permanent in it's intensity and function. It's not meant to "replace," logic and reason. It is merely a step closer to the unknown. For what is God, but an unknown?

[saltpeter]

So is that, according to Rumsfield, a known "unknown" or an unknown "unknown"? Many people permanently live with the delusion that there IS somehow a "god" and it effects many, if not all, aspects of their lives. But if a schizophrenic spent as much time giving into any other delusion that they may harbor without getting help, they would, most likely, not be able to completely function in the world. BUT WHY THIS DELUSION? Why do those who either do not have this imbalance or have learn to put it aside through the use of logic have to put up with the god delusion when no one would ask the "spiritual" to put up with, en masse, the delusions of any other schizophrenic and paranoid mind. The goal of science is to take steps toward revealing more of what will become the "known". The fear of the spiritual is that their "UNKNOWN" will be revealed to be a "known" and will, in no way, resemble the imagined delusion of their overly serotonin-ed mind.

[KillgoreTrout43]

What is "mind?" Not brain, but mind. It's not an organ within our bodies. There is no physicality to it. So what is it? And to continue along your line of thought, "why," is it?

[zaza]

"Mind" is merely the product of chemical and biological processes occuring in the brain -- one's thoughts, feelings, moods, desires, memories, etc.

Mind is not seperate entity such as a 'soul' or 'spirit' that can exist independant of the brain's functionality. In fact, no such independant entity exists. We are purely physical beings.

[saltpeter]

And it's not just a coincidence that serotonin levels also tend to be abnormally high in the minds of schizophrenics and what aids the hallucinatory effects of psychedelic chemicals like LSD. So I guess George Carlin was right by connecting religious propensity to mental illness and a form of paranoia. And this might help explain Mohammed, founder of Islam, who was known to have frontal lobe seizures that might have effected his serotonin levels and what led to his paranoid ramblings. Who knows, maybe Jesus of Nazareth had the similar afflictions. It's clear that many of his followers do.

[The Hedonistic Pleasureseeker]

Actually, it's dopamine that's abnormally high in the brains of schizophrenics. For instance, one of the adverse side effects of Wellbutrin, a dopamine reuptake inhibitor (which concentrates dopamine levels), is hallucinations and a tendency to think everything is ABOUT you. A bird flyover? Must be a secret message meant specially for you! Voices in ya head? It's GOD! Paranoia frequently ensues.

Suffering from PMDD, off-and-on various doses of serotonin-enhancing drugs, I've discovered that high levels of serotonin are NOT spiritually uplifting. They're deadening. Affect becomes flat. Creativity takes a vacation. Sex drive disappears. Ironically, you don't give a crap. About . . . anything. You. Just. Don't. Care. It's not exactly a spirit trip.

LOWER levels of serotonin heighten sensitivity to the point of psychism. Mystics, loners, and emo-schizoid-types have low serotonin, but they're also very much attracted to the esoteric and the transcendent. Monks, shamans and nuns are reclusive for a reason: It's allllll connected to the cocktails of hormones in their brains. Hypersensitives find it difficult to be around too much action, but the spirit trip that comes from being in that headspace can be addictive. Been there, done that.

[KillgoreTrout43]

That's a very cold, clinical perspective. Who's to say what spiritual markers are real or not??? I take it you aren't a romantic type.

[SomeRandomGuy]

I think the trippy spiritual-seeker types get to have a lot more fun than the snarky science types. The snarky science types are of course correct, but how much pleasure can really be derived from knowing one is correct? I know it's mildly pleasurable to feel smarter than others, but only mildly and it quickly passes. Do any of you nerds ever long for ignorance? Once we master the labor of critical thinking and formal hypothesis testing, we are forever locked out of the joyous kingdom of the noble savage: worshiping his ancestors, dancing and feasting on beasts.
ALIVE
ALIVE
ALIVE!

Is knowledge always a virtue even when it makes us snarky, dull and masturbatory?

I say let real scientists have the somber burden of rational thought, and let us unwashed masses break free from the oppressive shackles of truth so that our spirits may soar! Ignorance and joy for everyone! Down with the truth, it's worthless!

[KillgoreTrout43]

Man are you upside down. You eat beasts all the time. Unless you are a vegan. Who's stopping you from dancing? So truth is worthless??? Wow!

[PennP]

What do these scientists mean by "spirituality"? How do they measure "capacity for transcende­nce"--stri­ke that, how do they measure transcendence itself? Aren't these ALL self-reported phenomena that are completely subjective in experience and assessment?

I'm confused....

[KillgoreTrout43]

Spirituality, in this case is meant as an awareness of God, or the presence of God in our world. I don't think it can be measured objectively, as you say. The capacity for transcendence, is most likely determined by the intensity and duration of the mystical experience. The research would rely heavily on the honesty of it's subjects.

[KillgoreTrout43]

A man in Sweden, some 500 years ago, there-abouts named Emmanuel Swedenborg, wrote extensively on mysticism. It is said that he had some profound mystical experiences, and wrote all about them. He was a brilliant man, a metalurgist, chemist and mathematician. Mostly self taught, at that.

[gwittekind]

I'm not a highly religious person, I'm too suspicious for that but I I am very spiritual. These finding do not change my opinion. More and more science is showing us how incredibly perfect we have been designed.

[saltpeter]

We are less than perfect in design (why do we still have remnants of tailbones, appendixes, why do some people need glasses). Once upon a time, the earth was "Designed" to favor giant reptilian lifeform until it no longer did. But it wasn't by design that those conditions changed, it was, most likely, a cosmic accident (of huge proportions). Meteors shifted the earth just enoughto change it's atmospheric conditions (not unlike the effect we humans are imposing on atmospheric conditions). But if you want to keep insisting that science is "proving" the "intelligent design" theory, just keep watching Ben Stein movies instead of actually reading scientific journals. But the reality is that "design" had very little to do with it.

So why are there "patterns" that seem to work, you say? Because the patterns that didn't work died off. The "patterns" that you now see are formed from billions of billions of mutations over just as long a period of time that continued to work, when other traits could not adapt and went away. Not the big cosmic box of "bad design ideas" but to the genetic hinterlands of maladaptive equipment and species. "Design" is a bad description when you consider 99.999999...% of species that have ever lived have since died off. That's a terrible track record for whatever "designer" your alluding to.

[gwittekind]

Great, I'm very impressed with your knowledge and I appreciate your point. I had a few lessons in grade school that covered the big bang theory and evolution. At the risk of sounding primitive I have to say, I still believe and have faith that God is at work (the designer I was alluding to) BUT I understand your scepticism completley although not the venom behind it.

[gwittekind]

Great, I'm very impressed with your knowledge and I appreciate your point. I had a few lessons in grade school that covered the big bang theory and evolution. At the risk of sounding primitive I have to say, I still believe and have faith that God is at work (the designer I was alluding to) BUT I understand your scepticism completley although not the venom behind it.