The Spiritual Brain: Science and Religious Experience

Course Overview

An award-winning scholar and practicing neuroscientist offers you 24 riveting lectures that explore the new and exciting field of neurotheology, a discipline aimed at understanding the connections between our brains and different kinds of religious phenomena.

Course Description

The religious impulse is so powerfully pervasive that neuroscience has posed a provocative question: Are our brains wired to worship? In Dr. Newberg’s 24 riveting lectures, you’ll explore neurotheology, understanding the connections between our brains and various religious phenomena. Through an academic approach, Dr. Newberg explains the neuroscientific basis for the significant role of religion and spirituality in human life. The course is grounded in brain structure and religious development from infancy through adulthood, revealing how spirituality and brain development are intertwined.

Discover how different brain areas sustain beliefs and how religious practices can impact biological functions. Explore why religion plays such a central role in human experience by examining the relationship between brain function and spirituality.

Video Lectures

1. A New Perspective on Ancient Questions (31 min)
   Exploring the intersection of science and religion.
2. Why Do We Have a Spiritual Brain? (29 min)
   Investigating the evolution of the human brain and its religious inclinations.
3. Brain Function and Religion (31 min)
   Understanding how brain processes relate to religious experiences.
4. How Does Science Study Religion? (34 min)
   Methodologies used in scientific investigations of religious phenomena.
5. Believers and Atheists (29 min)
   Analyzing differences in brain activity between believers and nonbelievers.
6. Spiritual Development (31 min)
   Tracing the development of spirituality from infancy to adulthood.
7. The Myth-Making Brain (30 min)
   The role of storytelling and myth in shaping human understanding.
8. The Brain and Religious Rituals (32 min)
   How rituals imprint religious worldviews in the brain.
9. The Biology of Spiritual Practices (32 min)
   Measuring physiological changes during prayer and meditation.
10. Religion and Health (32 min)
    The health benefits associated with religious lifestyles.
11. Religion and Mental Health (30 min)
    The relationship between religion and mental health issues.
12. Religion and Brain Dysfunction (31 min)
    Examining associations between spirituality and brain disorders.
13. Transmitters to God (29 min)
    How neurotransmitters engage in religious experiences.
14. Stimulated States and Religious Experiences (32 min)
    The impact of brain stimulation on spirituality.
15. Near-Death Experiences and the Brain (30 min)
    Insights into brain activity during near-death experiences.
16. The Believing Brain (29 min)
    Understanding how the brain constructs belief systems.
17. The Brain’s Influence on Religious Ideas (32 min)
    Examining the brain’s role in shaping religious concepts.
18. Revelation, Salvation, and the Brain (32 min)
    Exploring transformative religious experiences through a neuroscientific lens.
19. The Brain’s Influence on Religious Behavior (29 min)
    How neuroscience informs understanding of altruistic behavior.
20. How the Brain Changes God (28 min)
    The brain’s impact on personal concepts of divinity.
21. How God Changes the Brain (31 min)
    Spiritual practices reshaping neural connections.
22. Why God Won’t Go Away (29 min)
    The resilience of religion in modern life.
23. The Mystical Mind (31 min)
    Exploring transcendental states and spirituality.
24. Reality and Beyond (34 min)
    Questioning the nature of reality through spirituality and neuroscience.