Biology and Religion

Prof. Hani Hamed Dessoki, M.D.Psychiatry Prof. Psychiatry

Acting Dean, Faculty of Applied Mental Health sciences

Beni Suef University

Supervisor of Psychiatry Department

El-Fayoum University

APA member

History of Science and Religion• Evidence of spiritual practices dating back to ancient cave

drawings• Myths: from Greek “mythos” meaning “word” one spoken

with deep and unquestioned authority• Myths of all world cultures are strikingly, consistently similar

– Virgin births, world-cleansing floods, lands of the dead, expulsions from paradise, dead and resurrected heroes

• All religions are founded on myth• Myths are created by basic, universal aspects of the brain ,

particularly the fundamental neurological processes through which the brain makes sense of the world

Historical PrecedentMedicine and Religion

• Medicine and religion historically linked• Hippocratic writings

– physicians received authority from gods• Middle Ages

– sickness punishment from God– cure by praying– doctors were “collaborators with God”

• 15th to early 18th century– close relationship continued

Historical PrecedentMedicine and Religion

• 19th, early 20th centuries still viewed religion as important in practice of medicine

• Mid 20th century, unacceptable to discuss religion in a secular health care setting

• Past two decades, increased interest in medicine and spirituality

"Religion and science are compatible

Trend Today

• Many books on science and spirituality

• Popular literature• Templeton Foundation• Curriculum in medical

schools and residencies

Religion versus Spirituality• Religion:

– Latin religare: “to bind together”– Organizes the collective spiritual experiences of group of people into

system of beliefs, practices, and rituals– Tradition, oral and written

• Spirituality:– Latin spiritualitas: “breath”– Broader concept than religion--dynamic, personal, experiential

process– Quest for meaning and purpose, transcendence, connectedness,

values– Personal quest for answers to ultimate questions about life, meaning– Gives one a sense of peace/joy

Brain versus Mind

• Brain– Collection of physical structures that gather and

process sensory, cognitive and emotional data

• Mind– Phenomenon of thoughts, memories and

emotions that arise from the perceptual processes of the brain

Why is this Important?

• Surveys show that 90% of Americans believe in a higher being

• 90 % pray or meditate• > 70 % believe in life after death

• Majority want their physicians to discuss religion with them

• DSM-IV inclusion of diagnostic category “religious or spiritual problem”

Psychiatrists and Spirituality

• Psychiatrists are measurably less religious than:– The general population– Their patients– Other physicians

• Generally endorse positive influences on health• More likely than other physicians to note that

religion/spirituality can cause negative emotions that lead to increased patient suffering

Psychiatrists and Spirituality• More likely to encounter religion/spirituality issues in

clinical settings– (92% versus 74%)

• More open to addressing religious/spiritual issues with patients– (93% versus 53%)

• Psychiatrists are more comfortable, and have more experience, addressing religious/spiritual concerns in the clinical setting

Curlin et al, Am J Psychiatry, 2007

Studies and Physical Health• Majority of the ~350 studies of physical health have

found that religious involvement and spirituality are associated with better health outcomes.– Cardiovascular, decreased rate of CVA’s– Lowers blood pressure– Health-promoting behaviors

• “Lack of religious involvement has an effect on mortality equivalent to 40 years of smoking one pack of cigarettes/day.

Harold Koenig, MD, Duke

Studies and Mental Health

• Religious involvement associated with:– lower risk of depression.– less anxiety.– less substance abuse.– Improved self-esteem– Less social isolation

• Inverse relationship between religious involvement and suicide.

Spirituality and the Chronically Mentally Ill

• Generally viewed as pathological or symptoms of mental illness.

• Little research done in this area.• Religious delusions and auditory hallucinations

common in psychosis.• Hyper-religiosity common in mania.

Spirituality and the Chronically Mentally Ill

• Solution versus symptom• Treatment conflict or collaboration• Socialization or increased isolation• Negative versus positive religiosity• Psychosis or mystical experience or normal

experience• Mystic versus psychotic

– Distinct differences

Negative Religiosity

• “I feel God is punishing me for my sins or lack of spirituality”

• “I wonder why God has abandoned me”• “If I believed more/was a better person this

wouldn’t have happened”• Sees God as judgmental and punitive

Negative Religiosity

• Negative AH from God, Satan, demons– command AH especially worrisome

• Negative/harmful/dangerous delusions– worthless person, offended God, have to pay for

their sins, perform acts to appease God or atone for their actions

Positive Religiosity

• “I look to God for strength, support and guidance”

• “God will help me through this”• Sees God as caring• Religious beliefs provide positive self esteem

and image• Prayer/meditation as coping mechanism

Psychology and Spirituality

• Dreams– Pre-death dreams and ability to help prepare for

death– Grief dreams

• Visitation, message, reassurance, trauma– Prophetic or future dreams

• Deja-vu, out-of-body experiences, past-life regressions

Biology and Spirituality

• Approaches from multiple avenues:– Anatomy– Electrophysiology– Brain Imaging– Genetics

Neurotheology

• Pinpoint which brain regions turn on or off during experiences that seem to exist outside time and space.

• Association areas in cerebral cortex– Visual– Orientation– Attention– Verbal conceptual

Orientation Association Area

• Located posterior section of parietal lobe

• Orients the body in space; allows for 3D sense of the body

Research

• Monks mediating, nuns praying• SPECT scans before and at peak of experience

– prefrontal cortex (quieting of activity)– “orientation association area”

• Determines where the body ends and the rest of the world begins.• Sharp reduction in activity at peak of meditative experience

brain perceives that the self is endless and intimately interwoven with everyone and everything

Verbal descriptions of Experiences

“As the river flowing east and westMerge in the sea and become one with itForgetting that they were ever separate rivers,So do all creatures lose their separationWhen they merge at last into”

Hindu Upanishads

“I possessed God so fully that I was no longer in my previous customary state, but was led to find a peace in which I was united with God and was content with everything”

Franciscan nun

Electrophysiology• Epilepsy linked with spirituality throughout history

– “Sacred disease” by Greeks; demon possession in Bible• Close to 5 % of patients with epilepsy report religious auras• Patients with temporal lobe epilepsy have a heightened

response to religious language, specifically religious terms and icons

• “Temporal lobe transients”– bursts of electrical activity in the temporal lobes producing sensations

of out-of-body experiences, sense of the divine, finding God

• Increased activity in the attention association area (pre-frontal cortex) during certain types of meditation

Genetics

• “Spirituality is among the most ubiquitous and powerful forces in human life”

• Genes can predispose us to believe.

• Don’t tell us WHAT to believe

The God Gene• Measuring spirituality

– “Self-transcendence scale” • Cloninger, U Washington in St. Louis• Out of system of personality classification called the biosocial model

– Self-forgetfulness, transpersonal identification, mysticism• Heritability

– Twin studies show that spirituality is significantly heritable– Similar to many personality traits and greater than some

physical traits– More heritability than religiosity

The God Gene• Monoamines influence spirituality by altering

consciousness– Serotonin, dopamine– Blurring of the normal distinction of self and others– Provided clue as to where to search for gene candidate

• Identifying a Gene– Specific individual gene associated with self-transcendence

scale– Codes for a monoamine transporter– VMAT2 gene

• Makes protein that packages different monoamines into secretory vehicles

The God Gene

• Selective Advantage– Important role God gene plays in selective

advantage is to provide humans with an innate sense of optimism

– Psychologically, optimism provides the will to live and procreate

– Physically, optimism promotes better health and quicker recovery from disease

Religion versus Science?

Science, especiallyGeometry and Astronomy was linked directly to the divine for medieval scholars.The compass in this13th C manuscriptis a symbol of creation

Third panel of “Education”Tiffany glass, 1890Science and Religion in harmonyCentral personification of“Light-Love-Life”

“Touching the Void”

Integrated View

Creativity, Spirituality and Mental Illness

• Artists and affective disorders– Vincent van Gogh– Edvard Munch– Jackson Pollack

• Abstract Expressionist Artists of the NY School

In a Darwinian world, religious behavior - just like other behaviors - is likely to have undergone a process of natural selection in which it was rewarded in the evolutionary currency of reproductive success.

The phenomenon of human religion is both pervasive and mysterious. People have practiced religion for at least 50,000 years, far longer than agriculture and written language. Despite a few thousand years of philosophical and scientific investigation into the theories of religion, the origin and purpose of religion remains unexplained. Offered here is a novel theory that is based on empirical science and draws on evolutionary biology to account for religious behavior.

Could biology explain the evolution of religion?

The Role of Religion and Spirituality in the Resilience and Healing of African

Americans in Times of Trauma

Nancy Boyd-Franklin, Ph.D.Rutgers University

Email: boydfrank@aol.com

Spirituality: Coping with Trauma

• Importance in African American families

• Ask about spiritual beliefs• Helps to cope with trauma and loss• Use of spiritual metaphors• Instilling a sense of hope• Spiritual resilience

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Resilience & Spiritual Messages after Trauma

• God will see you through• Thus far by faith• African Americans are not strangers to

hardship, trauma and disaster• Perseverance• Healing• Forgiveness• Faith and Hope

Conclusions

• Religion/spirituality and its relationship to health and illness is increasingly being discussed and researched.

• Spiritual assessment is recommended as part of a psychiatric evaluation.

• Much evidence demonstrates that the transcendent states from which religions arise are neurologically real

Conclusions

• Religion and Science do not have to be in opposition or incompatible

• Evidence suggests that the deepest origins of religions are based in mystical experience– Religions persist because the wiring of the human

brain continues to provide believers with a range of experiences that are interpreted as assurances that God exists

Conclusions

Conclusions

“There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle; the other is as though everything is a miracle”

Albert Einstein

Conclusions “We are not physical

creatures having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual creatures having a physical experience”

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

(1881-1955)French philosopher, Jesuit priest, palentologist and geologist

Thank You