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Mystical experience — neuroscience and theology

Mystical experiences — the sudden dissolution of the boundary between self and world, the sense of unity with all things, the encounter with a presence or a light that carries unmistakable authority — are among the most widely reported and most poorly understood human experiences. Neuroscience can describe what happens in the brain during such experiences; it cannot determine whether the experience is merely brain activity or whether the brain is, in such moments, a receiver picking up a signal that is really there. The most honest conversation between neuroscience and theology does not claim to resolve this question — it maps the territory with as much precision as possible and holds the mystery with as much honesty as possible.

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10 concepts
Intoxication and Sobriety (States of Consciousness)Longing as Spiritual MagnetismLove as a Neurochemical CovenantRemembrance (Dhikr) as Targeted Neural ReprogrammingThe Eternal Now and Timeless PresenceThe Friend (Murshid) as Mirror and NeurotransmitterThe Language Barrier and Apophatic ExperienceThe Mirror of the Heart (Spiritual Neuroplasticity)The Neuroscience of Fana (Annihilation)The Whirling Dervish as Neural Entrainment