Paper Title: Buddhism and the Brain: An Empirical Approach to Spirituality

Author: Grossenbacher, Peter G.

Institutional Affiliation: Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Contemplative
Psychology, Naropa University
This paper was prepared for Continuity + Change: Perspectives on Science and
Religion, June 3-7, 2006, in Philadelphia, PA, USA, a program of the Metanexus
Institute (www.metanexus.net).
Paper Abstract:
Two major social forces, science and religion, often appear in opposition to each other,
yet they coexist in the personal lives of many individuals. Interdisciplinary engagement
between the two has been hindered by erroneously conflating science with materialism
and religion with fundamentalism. In an innovative rapprochement between spirituality
and science, the most recent annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience featured a
prominent religious leader as its keynote speaker. This brought many thousands of
scientists together with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in order to explore areas of possible
convergence between science and Buddhism.
Longstanding neurobiological findings indicate that mental functions and subjective
experience are orchestrated by vast interconnected networks of brain cells. Empirical
studies of prayer and meditation are now encountering depths and nuances of experience
in religion and spirituality previously unknown to science. Meditation, the central
contemplative practice of Buddhism, develops attentive skills which mediate profound
observations of subtle human experience and is receiving great scientific interest, fueled
by recently developed functional brain imaging methods. Recent psychophysiological
studies confirm strong relations between spiritual experience and brain activity.
In Naropa Universitys Consciousness Laboratory, our program of scientific research on
meditation and contemplative spirituality finds that Buddhist meditators effectively
communicate important information about their spiritual experience. Verbal report data
convey important qualities such as profundity and ineffability and reveal a depth of
human spiritual experience not evident in most scientific studies published to date. We
find that a persons path of meditation involves training, intention, and attention in ways
that facilitate spiritual experience.
This paper takes three important steps toward understanding the nature of spirituality.
First, we demystify the thinking evident in science and religion by noticing that they
exhibit a wide range of attitudes, from faithful believing to not knowing, from disbelief to
open-mindedness, and from investment in one worldview to curiosity about the limits of
ones own knowledge. The synergy of empiricism, open-mindedness, and skepticism is
made available for both scientific and contemplative application. Second, the subtleties
of spiritual experience are explored from multiple perspectives, including a neuroscience
view that delineates the pivotal roles of attention and intercellular communication within
the nervous system. Finally, the development of contemplative spirituality is considered
with regard to meditation, the brain, self, and authenticity. The reference frame provided

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by self-concept is deconstructed via experiential analysis in a way that accords with

neurobiological sciences and Buddhism alike. Taken together, these analyses of
scientific and religious thought, spiritual experience, and spiritual development contribute
to a new neurobiologically informed perspective that offers provocative prospects for
reconciling some of the apparent disparities between science and religion.
Author Biography:
Through his scientific research work at England's University of Cambridge, the U.S.
National Institute of Mental Health, and Naropa University in Colorado, Dr.
Grossenbacher has broadened psychological science to more fully address human
capacities of awareness. He has conducted brain imaging studies on conscious
experience using positron emission tomography, electrophysiology, and functional
magnetic resonance imagery. This work builds on his undergraduate training in cognitive
science and mathematics (University of California at Berkeley) and doctoral training in
experimental psychology and cognitive neuroscience (University of Oregon). His book,
Finding Consciousness in the Brain: A Neurocognitive Approach, offers new insights
into the brains involvement in cognition, perception, and attention.
As Chair of the Contemplative Psychology Department at Naropa University, he oversees
an innovative curriculum melding scientific and contemplative modes of inquiry, and
encouraging learners to come to know themselves more deeply through meditation. As
Director of Naropas Consciousness Laboratory, he leads research teams of graduate and
undergraduate students exploring the contemplative varieties of spiritual and religious
experience. His research has been covered by the New York Times, Smithsonian
Magazine, and Discover Magazine, as well as numerous radio interviews and newspaper
articles.
Paper Text:
It often seems difficult for science and religion to come together without raising
hackles. For example, His Holiness the Dalai Lama delivered the keynote address at the
most recent annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (the Dalai Lama, ) even
though there was a petition requesting the cancellation of this address. The petition
argued against a religious leader addressing this society of scientists, and was supported
by 544 signatures (Editor, 2005). The Dalai Lama was invited because his observations
and thoughts stemming from decades of Buddhist practice (Varela, 1997) provide
relevant data and insights important to the ongoing scientific effort to better understand
human minds. The petition stated that this appearance of the Dalai Lama would grant
implicit endorsement of a religious leader and exhibit favoritism towards one brand of
meditation associated with a specific religion (Wang, 2005). The petition further noted
the disturbing precedent that this would establish, opening up the possibility of other
religious leaders addressing this society in the future. The willingness of the Society For
Neuroscience to be addressed by the Dalai Lama, even in the face of opposition,
demonstrates substantial openness within the scientific community to discourse with
religion. This unprecedented keynote address was not a product of open-mindedness
solely on the part of scientists: the Dalai Lama has himself demonstrated a keen, life-long
interest in science (Hayward & Varela, 1992; His Holiness the Dalai Lama, 2003; the

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Dalai Lama, 2005), and has enthusiastically participated in many international meetings
about science 1 .
Following the example set by the Society For Neuroscience and the Dalai Lama,
this paper focuses on neuroscience and Buddhism in order to identify and leverage some
of the compatibilities between science and contemplative religion. As a third-generation
scientist, I was raised to respect the awesome complexities of earthly existence and the
entire universe. The combination of open-minded curiosity and skeptical criticism, first
learned from my father and later reinforced by academic mentors, still governs my
thinking. I find that over 25 years of experience with meditation together with training in
Buddhist understanding of mind affords this same combination of open-mindedness and
skeptical regard for conceptualization.
Since its inception two and a half millennia ago, the Buddhist religion has
maintained a tradition of engaging spirituality, the experience of vitality, life force,
divinity, sacredness, and so on, through contemplatively observing ones own experience,
for example, in meditation. A Buddhist path of meditation emphasizes contemplation,
noticing actual experience and reflecting on this experience, rather than preserving
preconceived ideas about what should happen in life. The invitation is to let experience
arise and notice what actually happens. Slowing and stilling the mind through meditation
has the potential to reveal experiential processes that may otherwise go unnoticed.
Rather than affirming any single conception, a spirit of empiricism 2 pervades Buddhism,
requiring that ideas be tested by feel through each persons lived experience.
Over the last five years, I have directed a program of research into meditation and
contemplative spirituality at Naropa University 3 . Many participants in this empirical
research, including Buddhist meditators as well as meditators who are not Buddhist, have
reported that meditation helps them to notice more of what happens in mind, including
the details of their lived experience and also how ones own mind works (Grossenbacher,
2006). Contemplative approaches teach methods for observing experience, and therefore
people following contemplative spiritual traditions are especially well suited for
empirically illuminating spirituality.
Peoples experience with contemplative spirituality presents unique opportunities
for discovering compatibilities between scientific and religious ways of knowing. What
1

Since their inception in 1987, the Mind and Life Institutes symposia have brought together
western scientists with the Dalai Lama to discuss particular topics each meeting, such as destructive
emotions, or physical origins of the universe. For example, the Mind and Life XI: Investigating the Mind:
Exchanges between Buddhism and the Bio-behavioral Sciences on How the Mind Works meeting in
September, 2003 focused on the topics of attention, imagery, and emotion, and discussed the application of
modern methods of cognitive neuroscience, functional brain imaging, such as functional magnetic
resonance imagery (fMRI), positron emission photography (PET), and electrophysiology to display brain
activity during meditation. The serious interest in meditators first-person perspective evident at this
meeting contrasts with the third-person perspective which has been more customary in science.
2
The words empiricism and empirical derive from the Greek word empeiria, meaning experience
(Webster & McKechnie, 1983), and empirical means originating in or based on observation or experience.
3
The Naropa University Consciousness Laboratory, a training and research facility, brings contemplative
experience into psychological science to gain greater understanding of human capacities for awareness. We
use the methods and concepts of psychological science to empirically explore meditation experience and
contemplative spirituality. By investigating the experiences of contemplative practitioners, we are coming
to better know the processes by which those engaged in contemplative practices and teachings develop
emotionally, cognitively, and spiritually.

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does the systematized, third-person empiricism of science have in common with the
highly personal, first-person empiricism of Buddhism? In order to answer this question,
the following section examines the kinds of thinking generally available to both science
and religion, distinguishing empiricism from materialism and skepticism from disbelief.
By delineating the explorations conducted by a committed scientist on one hand, and a
devoted Buddhist meditator on the other, we will interweave third-person and first-person
strands of empiricism. Moving from the level of ideas to what can be learned from
experience, the next section offers an empirical approach to ascertaining the richness of
spiritual experience from scientific and contemplative perspectives. The physiological
communication among brain cells offers a third-person model for understanding what
human consciousness embodied within a living nervous system is like. In an effort to
elucidate the fruitional trajectory of contemplative spirituality, the third section focuses
on spiritual development, self, and selflessness from scientific and Buddhist perspectives.
The paper then concludes by considering prospects for further productive intercourse
between science and varieties of religion not limited to Buddhism.
Scientific and Religious Thought
Both science and religion rely on powers of the human mind in order to gain
further understanding of our place in this world. This section reconnoiters these two
approaches, and undercuts several widely held assumptions about scientific and/or
religious thinking. Helpful empirical approaches from science and Buddhism are then
highlighted, followed by and introduction to Buddhist thought and nonconceptuality.
This section establishes a common ground from which the subsequent section will pursue
scientific and Buddhist paths of exploration.
Scientific and Religious Approaches to Understanding
Whereas religion comprises a collective approach to spirituality, science is a
collective approach to understanding many topics, most not generally recognized as
spiritual. Science advances through researchers trying different approaches and seeing if
their studies converge on a similar picture: different methods, despite limitations of any
one approach, may tell a similar story. Scientific investigation advances most quickly
when results converge, answering some questions and opening more sophisticated,
nuanced, even arcane questions. In this way, the number of unanswered questions in
science increases over time. As the front of scientific knowledge advances, many
unanswered questions have become difficult for non-practitioners of science to appreciate
or even comprehend. If we were to mentally picture all scientific knowledge as inside a
bubble, this bubble is growing. As the surface area of this bubble expands, humankind
gains greater contact with whatever lies beyond this bubble. From this perspective, as
our growing (albeit limited) scientific understanding increases, we gain greater contact
with and access to the mystery of this world!
Religion addresses important issues such as meaning or purpose in life, the
sacred, morality, and other aspects of spirituality. Religion and spirituality concern
relationship: a person lives life embedded in relationships with other people, other beings,
God, spirit, values, the universe, sacredness, and even ones own experience. Everyday
perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and other contents of awareness that arise in moment-tomoment experience partake in these relationships. The worlds religions offer a reservoir

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of spiritual expertise and experience with profound meaningfulness and truth not
restricted to mere material existence. Though religions employ a variety of perspectives
and practices to understand spiritual life, some experiences of spirituality may be shared
across most or perhaps even all religions. Perhaps the major difference among religions
concerns worldview the understanding of ones place in the world together with
associated attitudes and beliefs 4 .
Distinct schools of Buddhist thought share several points in common, yet offer
contrasting analyses and conclusions about the ultimate nature of reality. Collectively,
this series of perspectives offers a disorienting (and reorienting) testing ground for faith.
Ultimately, this leads to a deeper realization than is attainable via conceptual thought
alone. It may be a universal need to feel part of something larger than oneself, and
Buddhism has a particular approach to fulfilling this need. Ontologically, Buddhism deals
with the infinity of existence as Genuine Reality or Absolute Truth. From a practical
perspective, Buddhism is concerned with what is happening (e.g., suffering), what is
possible (non-suffering), and progressing toward the possible (via a path of meditation).
A persons path of meditation, in concert with Buddhist teachings, provides a personal
means for aligning with the absolute and coming to understand how best to live life.
Erroneous Assumptions about Scientific and Religious Thought
The full promise of dialogue between science and religion remains unfulfilled in
part due to several erroneous assumptions about how adherents of science or religion
think. This section shows how some widely held assumptions fail to accurately reflect
things as they are. First and foremost, it could readily be assumed that, since science and
religion seem to concern largely non-overlapping domains of inquiry, they must involve
disparate kinds of thinking, thereby standing little chance of mutual understanding this
assumption underlies the logic found in the petition to cancel the Dalai Lamas keynote
address. However, I question the idea of there being any exclusively religious or
scientific cognition per se, given the numerous roles that thinking plays in both science
and religion. For example, logic and reason are prevalent not only in scientific thinking,
but are also well represented in many religious discourses and arguments. Metaphorical
thinking facilitates teaching and learning both fields, fostering creativity and
generalization in scientific thought, while conveying life lessons in religion and
spirituality. In sum, both disciplines partake in the wide variety of cognitive processes
available to human mentation.
Some people think that scientists have no heart. I grant that religion, more than
science, plays a primary role in guiding peoples lives, especially those who attempt to
live righteously and according to the teachings of their tradition. Religion offers more
constraints on lifestyle, social networks, and how to live life than does science 5 . Among
academics whose discipline is religious studies, there are two camps those who are
themselves personal practitioners of the religion they study, and those who are not. No
analog to this exists among academics whose discipline is science. Scientists are all over
the map with regard to lifestyle and understanding how best to live, and also vary greatly
4

For example, some religious schools of thought assert the existence of a Savior, whereas others do not.
Of course, there is great variation among individuals within any particular religion regarding lifestyle and
so on, but the point here is that whereas religion tends to offer inspiration, guidelines or even rules for how
best to live, science as a whole tends to avoid such moral guidance.

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regarding their personal religion or spiritual orientation. Nonetheless, science seeks to

address human suffering and make the world a better place, and many actual practitioners
of science are powerfully motivated by compassion in their work.
Anyone not directly involved with the enterprise of scientific exploration might
think of science as a heartless rendering of the natural world that adheres to the
perspective of reductionist materialism 6 . Materialism here means the theory that all
phenomena are ultimately explainable in terms of physical matter. Popular opinion
regards the dominant worldview of science as highly materialistic (or at the least opposed
to views other than materialism). However, conflation of science with materialism is as
inaccurate as assuming that religious means fundamentalist. The materialistic outlook
projected onto science (by non-scientists and even by some scientists) impels me to argue
for preserving the intrinsic empirical priority within science. Any philosophical
conception of reality, be it monist or dualist, constitutes a theory. No available scientific
evidence clearly supports materialism over other views. From an empirical vantage
point, there is no good reason to limit scientific thinking by adopting a materialistic
perspective. So, on a good day, science itself has nothing to do with materialism, one
way or the other.
From a perspective disenchanted with science, science is seen as stealing away
mystery and thereby draining away spirituality. This strikes me as opposite to the lived
experience of conducting scientific exploration, which markedly differs from outsiders
impressions of science 7 . Science education, at least in levels prior to college, leaves
many students untouched by the humanity and mystery inherent to science. An
alternative view celebrates how science figures some things out, illuminates them from a
scientific angle, and thereby provides the basis for appreciating ever greater ranges of
mystery. Since, the wealth of knowledge provided by science today is not well
understood by many people. Scientists (and others who understand science) must find
ways for science to more fully address abiding human concerns, such as spirituality.
Though science and religion both regularly get accused of being close-minded,
neither have the market cornered on narrow-minded thinking 8 . Overly narrow
consideration in either discipline can be self-perpetuated by avoiding meaningful
interaction with perspectives extending beyond a restricted circle of thought. The
openness to mystery (i.e., open-mindedness) of collective enterprises such as religion or
science can be compared to open-mindedness of an individual person. At the personal
subjective level, open-mindedness concerns what is happening in this next moment that is
arising now, open to the possibility of previously unexperienced or uncomprehended
events now occurring. Open-mindedness also includes open-heartedness, a readiness to
fully engage with a universe greater than ones own conceptions. Open-minded scientists
and religious people more easily enter into science-religion dialog. For example, there is
a sincere interest on the part of many Buddhists, Christians, and members of other
6

Reductionism here refers not only to the strategy of parsing complicated structures or processes into
constituent components, but also the theoretical perspective that in principle all complicated phenomena are
reducible into a set of simple constituents.
7
There is much more to science than that portrayed in mass media or evident from the technological
innovations arising out of the material sciences.
8
Two factors contribute to narrowing of mind: exclusion from possibility through specific disbelief the
believing that reality cannot be as claimed, and preemptively believing in one possibility in a manner that
automatically denies credibility to other possibilities.

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religions to see whether scientific information raises new issues, or otherwise relates to
their beliefs, tenants, or understanding of familiar topics.
Empiricism and Skepticism in Science and Buddhism
Science is both empirical and theoretical: through naturalistic observation and
experimental manipulations, scientists carefully notice what happens and think as deeply
and as precisely as possible about what it all means. Observation mediated by
perception, attention, and technological innovation makes science empirical; the
intellectual contributions of insight, creativity, constructive conceptualization, and critical
analysis make science theoretical. Science advances over time as an ongoing interplay
between observation and theory that invites competition among distinct theories. Only
when clear evidence points to one theory above others does a provisional winner emerge,
though it remains subject to possible disconfirmation by future empirical findings.
Whenever scientific theory comes into conflict with empirical results, it is the theory that
must change in the face of countervailing empirical evidence the empirical has higher
priority than theory within scientific investigation 9 . Religion also involves empirical and
theoretical aspects, though the relative priority between the two varies by religious
tradition Buddhism is one religion that grants higher priority to experience than to
belief.
At its best, science offers only a relative truth dappled with errors, without
knowing which parts are wrong a beautiful humility not claiming to know truth
absolutely. Thus far in history, science has only ever attained a partial rendering of truth:
scientific description and theoretical understanding grows and changes every century,
even every year. For example, for many years most scientific literature treated
meditation merely as an effective means of relaxation, whereas now it is increasingly
recognized as mediating other cognitive and emotional effects (Grossenbacher & Muzer,
in preparation). Historically, scientific understanding has been wrong at many points and
in several respects, therefore current scientific knowledge is likely to be wrong, though
we do not know which parts are incorrect.
Science is an ongoing, imperfect process of discovery that combines insatiable
curiosity for the world with unrelenting skepticism about any belief. Science is imbued
with both skepticism and open-mindedness. The skepticism is ubiquitous and even selfreferential in that current paradigms and theories are recognized as mere approximations
to truth. Insightful scientific thinking involves skeptically suspending ones own
understanding of reality in order to consider alternative hypotheses. The systematic sort
of skepticism in science has a close analog at the personal level, in which being skeptical
applies as much to ones own favorite ideas as it does to the notions of others.
Contemplative skepticism involves testing beliefs or other ideas against ones own
experience (Burggraf & Grossenbacher, submitted). Skeptically appraising ones own
thoughts contributes to a disciplined approach to open-mindedness how could a person
be truly open-minded if they are unwilling to deviate from a pre-established thought
pattern? Skepticism requires openness to possibility and the humility of not knowing.

Science cannot actually prove anything, as does occur in mathematics. Instead, scientists can become
convinced through the accumulation of evidence, though their conclusions may be wrong.

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Some second-order beliefs 10 may point the way toward or otherwise involve the
transcendence of belief. For example, the belief that there is more to this life than that
which is already known, understood, believed, or perceived prompts one to contemplate
that which lies beyond belief. An empirical approach emphasizes observation over any
particular theory, and thus contributes to worldviews in which thoughts, ideas, beliefs are
all considered with healthy skepticism.
Buddhist Theory and Not Knowing
Buddhism has enduringly engaged in an exacting and unbounded exploration of
subjective experience, mixing phenomenological observation and training with
conceptual theorizing. The four noble truths taught in all Buddhist lineages exemplify
the theoretical component of Buddhism: 1) Suffering, 2) Origin of Suffering, 3) Cessation
of Suffering, and 4) Path to the Cessation of Suffering. Buddhist teachings present these
as facts that can be verified through each persons own experience. The first noble truth,
that people suffer, may be easiest to verify via introspective observation. Depending on
ones experience, the remaining noble truths, that suffering has a cause, that this suffering
can be alleviated, and that a means may be found for quelling suffering, may appear more
theoretical than observable as an experiential fact. This pivotal distinction between fact
and theory hinges on whether the issue is experienced as direct observation or as a
conclusion of a reasoning process.
Spiritual teachings on not knowing point to the value of not limiting ones trust to
purely conceptual knowledge. Nonconceptual knowing is not limited to ideas alone, and
may feel visceral, embodied in some way, and for many people may typically be
unconscious. Given the vast numbers of brain cells actively communicating with each
other during any living moment, and the relatively small proportion of information
evident in a persons explicitly conscious awareness, most brain functions are not
explicitly evident in the limited clearing of consciousness. To what extent can subtle
aspects of experience, the unconscious content of mind, become available, even if only
minutely or indirectly, to a persons awareness? Trusting in intuition entails a deep
sensitivity, an ability to notice and recognize subtle experience that customarily is not
fully conscious.
The Science and Spirituality of Experience
I approach the definition of conscious human experience inductively by
collectively drawing from each individuals own conscious experience (Grossenbacher,
2001b). Human experience is widely recognized as inherently unknowable to any person
other than the one having direct and immediate access to their own experience: our
experience unfolds within unadulterated subjectivity 11 . Immediate phenomenal quality,
what it is like right now to be consciously experiencing life, is as universal an aspect of
10

We can distinguish between first order beliefs (beliefs about self, world, reality, experience), and secondorder beliefs those beliefs that are themselves about belief. For example, a particular belief in the power
of believing constitutes a second-order belief.
11
Experience is very idiosyncratic, inherently private, and difficult to share completely with another
person. Though the idiosyncratic nature of each persons subjectivity may concern people who want to
know a common ground, a deeper understanding of human subjectivity may reveal human participation in
the cosmic mystery of life as an authentic (and thereby real) shared basis of human experience.

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human experience as one can find. This section convenes the scientific and
contemplative perspectives that bear on the subjective phenomena of experience in a
confluence that unfolds along a conjoined path of spirituality and meditation.
Scientific Understanding of Experience
The private phenomenal content 12 of conscious experience, that which a person is
aware of, corresponds with objectively observable behavior and brain activity.
Perception entails becoming conscious of bodily events such as breathing or limb
movement, as well as events in the surrounding environment 13 . Percepts, those contents
arising from sensory stimulation, are one kind of conscious content, and there are
others 14 . There is an unspoken presumption that ones own sensory experiences mirror
those of others, e.g., that the red they see is the same red I see. This unspoken assertion
undergirds our ability to use language to communicate: if my listener did not experience
much the same sensations as I do under comparable circumstances, how could one ever
share any experience with another person? This useful assumption invariably breaks
down. For example, plenty of people who experience synesthesia on a regular basis have
sensory experience utterly different from that of others, such as seeing letters of the
alphabet printed black on white appearing in a rainbow variety of colors (Grossenbacher
& Lovelace, 2001).
Dr. Francisco Varela helped found Naropa University in the early 1970s, and
devoted the last years of his life to integrating scientific and contemplative perspectives
in an approach called neurophenomenology (Depraz, Varela, & Vermersch, 2003). He
pioneered the measurement of brain activity of meditators trained to carefully observe
their own experience, in contrast to the preponderance of psychological research that has
used students enrolled in introduction to psychology regardless of their preparedness for
observing their own experience. Western cultures appear blind to very important
individual differences in the ability to make highly detailed and subtle observations about
ones own experience, mistakenly assuming that everyone has developed equal levels of
introspective skill. In fact, we find that people untrained in any reflective or
contemplative practice, e.g., meditation, tend to describe their experience in a very
limited fashion, and distorted descriptions are typical. This could result from insufficient
training in: making fine observational discriminations, sustaining attention toward ones
own experience for extended periods of time, or utilizing a high-fidelity vocabulary for
describing observed experience. Participants insufficient levels of these skills may help
12

There is more to conscious experience than content: all content of consciousness is embedded within the
current degree of wakefulness and emotionality. Changes in subjective perspective produced by arousal and
emotion typically last from minutes to hours, and effects of caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, and other drugs
demonstrate that specific chemical neurotransmitters help to regulate mental energy and emotional tone.
13
We experience the world through our senses eyes, ears, tongue, nose and skin are the permeable barrier
through which messages enter us. Energy in the world, such as light or sound, gets converted into activity
in the nervous system as a series of electrical and chemical impulses which steadily grow in complexity as
they travel the pathways of our brains. These electrochemical impulses inform us that we are smelling a
flower, seeing the Eiffel Tower, tasting a tomato, hearing music, or feeling the grass amidst our toes.
14
There are qualities of experience such as openness, vastness, warmth, and so on that are analogous to
sensory qualities, e.g., there may be a sense of warmth or a sense of pain resembling more purely sensory
experiences, expressed with some of the same language, and be hard to distinguish from truly sensory
experience. In fact, interpersonal warmth and emotional pain may overlap with their allied sensations, and
it can be difficult to differentiate between feeling warmth in the body and/or feeling warmth emotionally.

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to explain why so much of the scientific research on consciousness completed so far

misses the heart of human experience. Another factor concerns topics of great
importance (e.g., authenticity or compassion) being largely ignored by most researchers.
In our own work, we programmatically explore the experience of meditators using
methods developed by researchers who themselves meditate, an approach known as
grounded theory. We have obtained rich data sets on spirituality in the lives of
meditators sampled from a variety of religious traditions (Grossenbacher, 2006). This
ongoing work provides the empirical findings necessary for inspiring and constraining
much needed neurobiological and interdisciplinary avenues of research into spirituality.
Everyday English language divides the whole of experience into subcategories
that imply anatomical distance between matters of the heart and concerns of the mind. In
contrast to this implied segregation into different bodily organs, the central nervous
system is intimately involved in not just thinking thoughts but also with perceiving the
world, feeling emotion, active embodiment, and so on. The rich domain of mental life
affords a wide range of content in human consciousness, including perception, imagery,
thought, language, emotion, planning, and action. The accumulating evidence suggests
that every conscious experience has its corresponding pattern of brain activity 15 .
Cognitive neuroscience has revealed impressive coherence between moment-to-moment
changes in consciousness and the related activity of neurons throughout the brain
(Grossenbacher, 2001a). It might naturally be assumed that human brains are hard-wired
and, like machines, they remain unchanged from one moment to the next. Scientific
inquiry has yielded an entirely different understanding about living brains: changes in
brain circuitry occur because of the particular experience that an individual undergoes.
Learning from experience involves cognitive processing of information and cellular
activity that changes the physical microstructure of the brain. Only by virtue of these
experience-dependent changes does the whole person, including mind, brain, heart, and
spirit, become who they are in the next moment. The unique organizational details of
each persons brain continue to be refined as a result of ongoing experience throughout
life 16 , and the interplay between experience and brain organization extends throughout
ones life.
Each living human body contains a vast web of intricately networked neurons
communicating with each other via chemical neurotransmitters 17 . As a connected
15

However, it would be a mistake to conclude that consciousness must be identical with brain activity.
True, conscious human experience may constitute what living is like for an embodied nervous system.
However, the history of human knowledge is too rife with revisions to previously endorsed understandings
for us to know scientifically at this point whether monism (materialism, panpsychism, etc.) or dualism offer
correct theoretical interpretations.
16
How does the unique pattern of connectivity within each individuals brain affect mental activity? Even
when sensing the same physical stimulus, different people can have very distinct conscious experiences.
Suppose that two people, one a musician and the other a painter, differ in the way auditory or visual
sensory information appears in the content of conscious awareness. Idiosyncratic variation in
neuroconnectivity among brains probably correlates with these differences in phenomenal experience.
17
A brain functions by virtue of communication between neurons and the dynamic information processing
within this intercellular communication. The principle function of a neuron is to produce signals that
influence the activity of other cells. Neurons are uniquely shaped cells, having long fibers extending from
the cell body to convey signals to other neurons. A neurons signaling activity is influenced by the signals it
receives from other neurons across synapses, the junctions between neurons. A typical neuron receives
signals from thousands of other neurons. Brain function hinges on neural connectivity, the physical contact

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ensemble, this nervous system conducts the living bodys movements and internal
orchestra of physiological functions. Cortex, the large and thickly wrinkled outermost
portion of the human brain, contains parallel layers of neurons (gray matter). The
underlying white matter contains fibers which connect neurons in one cortical area to
neurons in other brain areas. The cortex and its connections are critically important for
conscious experience 18 . Recording the activity of individual neurons has revealed that
several parts of the brain are active in response only to stimulation in a particular sense
modality, such as vision or touch 19 . The incredibly dynamic nature of living neural
systems is evident in the ever-present signaling between neurons 20 . A neural circuit is a
set of connected neurons which transform one set of neural signals (received by the
circuits input neurons) into another set of signals (conveyed from the circuits output
neurons as input to other circuits) 21 .
Human Capacity for Spiritual Experience
An empirical approach to spirituality and religion requires taking peoples
experience seriously 22 . It might help for the reader to call to mind some spiritual
experience that is personally familiar in order to test the claims made in this paper against
the readers lived experience. Please do so now cast your mind back to one of your
most spiritual experiences ever Many people have had spiritual experience involving a
powerful sense of something greater than that to which they have been accustomed. We
which transports high fidelity signals between neurons. Electrical changes in neurons reflect their signaling
activity, and can be measured with disk electrodes placed on the scalp.
18
Many cells in the brain, neurons and glial cells, are intimately involved in subjective experience. The
sometimes paltry and simplistic qualities of mundane conscious experience can hardly account for the vast
complexity of the communication among these brain cells. This disparity has led some thinkers
(presumably non-neuroscientists) to claim that we only use a small percentage of our brain. On the
contrary, each of us uses our entire brain all of the time, but not in a way that is explicitly evident in our
conscious subjective experience. As embodied beings, we are experiencing this rich and vast complexity
nonetheless, albeit unconsciously.
19
Many neurons more selectively respond only to stimulation of a particular part of the receptor sheet, such
as the upper left quadrant of the eye, or the index finger of the right hand. A neurons receptive field, e.g.,
the portion of eye or skin which evokes responses, can shift with changes in attention and body posture
(Grossenbacher, 2001b).
20
Each synapse of a receiving neuron receives signals at a rate which reflects the activity of the source
neuron. Some synapses receive inhibitory signals which tend to quell activation of the receiving neuron.
Other synapses receive excitatory signals which tends to boost the firing rate of the receiving neuron. The
moment-to-moment pattern of firing across these inhibitory and excitatory synapses controls the rate that
the neuron signals its own output targets.
21
This neural computation involves millisecond-by-millisecond alterations in the firing of neurons
throughout the circuit. The specific computations made by a neural circuit are determined by the
organizational architecture of inhibitory and excitatory connections between the neurons within the circuit.
Brain circuits become tuned by synaptic pruning, the selective disappearance of those synapses which
contribute least to the neuronal computations of each circuit. These changes in connectivity happen because
the system is fundamentally restructuring itself in response to experience. By establishing new connections
or eliminating old connections between neurons, the functional architecture of the brain changes.
22
Of course, overt behavior what a person does on the world stage also constitutes empirical evidence.
However, a persons action in the world can only be known to others by virtue of these observers
subjective experience. Though this pivotal necessity of subjective experience could seem obvious, it
appears overlooked by many thinkers who entirely miss the critical role that actual conscious experience
plays in the development of knowledge, understanding, and perhaps even wisdom.

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know this because such experience has been noticed, remembered, and described by
participants in our studies (Grossenbacher, 2006).
Some people think that they have never had spiritual experience if they did not
recognize it as such or cannot recollect such experience 23 . The possibility of memory
distortion poses a conundrum for determining the universality of spiritual experience 24 .
Previous scientific debates about other specific kinds of subjective experience can be
instructive. A substantial debate about visual imagery involved two camps of
psychological scientists, those who thought visual imagery really happened vs. the
disbelievers. Many scientists based conclusions on their own subjective experience;
some experienced visual imagery and some did not. Only clever laboratory
experimentation convinced the field as a whole that indeed visual imagery does actually
occur because it could be assessed and measured (Grossenbacher, 2006). A similar
assessment regarding spiritual experience could uncover that experience in people if they
have it. If so, such sophisticated measurement could more widely establish spiritual
experience as an empirical observation. The theoretical ramifications of this scientific
assessment could always be subject to debate, but the actual observation might one day
be taken as given by scientists.
Let us consider the ramifications of brain changes due to spiritual experience.
One prospect concerns the training effect through which even brief, low-intensity
glimpses of the sacred may pave the way for this persons brain to gain greater ability to
accommodate longer and more intense spiritual experiences. This process of gaining
greater capacity for spiritual experience may constitute a major factor in spiritual
development. This suggests that it might be possible for relevant experience, perhaps
including germane training and practice, to facilitate gaining such capacity.
Meditation Cultivates Awareness
Meditation is now receiving great interest, at the personal level as a means for
spiritual development, and publicly as a topic for scientific investigation. Fueled by
recently developed functional brain imaging methods, a growing movement of high
quality scientific study of meditation is now contributing to a larger scientific and
interdisciplinary exploration of consciousness and spirituality.
Awareness is entirely experiential, and is governed by the psychological
processes of attention. For example, people have sensations all the time, but are only
aware of the ones they pay attention to. What people remember from their experience
23

Regarding the question of whether a given person has had spiritual experience, so much hinges on that
persons capacity to not just have the experience, but also to recognize it as such, identify it, label it, encode
it, store it, retrieve it later, give voice to it, and report about it so as to be able to ascertain, Yes, I have had
spiritual experience. Anyone reporting lack of spiritual experience might be entirely accurate or they may
not have been able to recognize the spiritual nature of experience. Worldview may help determine whether
a person appears to have had spiritual experience. If for example, Joseph thinks that spiritual experience is
incompatible with a rational and scientific understanding of reality, and he subscribes to that worldview,
then any experience that appears incompatible could arouse psychological defense mechanisms such as
denial that distort this experience, either causing him to forget entirely about it, or less drastically changing
the memory of the experience.
24
I endorse the Universal Spirituality Hypothesis which posits that humans have much in common in their
subjective experience of spirituality, as suggested by many inter-religious scholars. It remains to be
determined precisely which aspects of spiritual experience are not tied to any particular religion, faith, or
creed.

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depends on what they have attended to. Attention comprises those processes through
which we alter what is happening by emphasizing some things and de-emphasizing
others, filtering conscious experience, and may be sustained, focused, distributed, shared,
etc. 25 Highly focused attention centers on one thing; less focused or more distributed
attention is spread out over many things. By focusing attention on only part of all that is
happening, all conscious experience is subject to this control of attention. The ongoing
stream of conscious content can be influenced by personal intent, or volition, but often
proceeds into unintended topics. Psychological science distinguishes between two modes
of attentional control: salient stimuli draw attention to themselves via exogenous
control of attention, whereas self-directed attention is considered endogenous (arising
from within rather than from without). Meditation techniques vary with respect to the
relative balance of these two modes. Concentrative techniques that focus attention on a
single object for a sustained period emphasize endogenous control. Other techniques that
encourage awareness of unanticipated events recruit both control modes. Thus, a
meditator may gradually de-emphasize endogenous control by intentionally inviting the
spontaneity afforded by exogenous influence 26 .
Meditation can be understood as a training of attentional skills. Placing attention
on the breath, sensations of the body, or even an external object, as is done in some forms
of meditation, opens the practitioner to a level of nuance in their experience that goes
beyond the seemingly simple technique. This becomes the basis for further exploration,
self-understanding, development of awareness, and transformation. Changes in
awareness due to attention may not be limited solely to dynamic fluctuations over
relatively brief periods of time. Factors such as the manner of attending, the duration of
attending, and the intention associated with attending may all combine synergistically to
modulate the nature of conscious experience.
The resulting manner of attending may then manifest both during meditation and
postmeditation, with experiences during meditation becoming accessible in other
circumstances. Meditation develops inner resources for maintaining open awareness
when engaged in daily life the key is that meditators draw on their own inner capacities
that have been cultivated during periods of time intentionally set aside for contemplative
practice. The manner of directing attention during meditation may include, singly or in
combination: one-pointed concentration, wide-spread diffusion, and other attentional
modes. With regard to the sustaining and returning of attention, fundamental mental
operations in meditation, attention may be focused continuously or intermittently, with
any interrupted focus potentially resuming as soon as enabled by awareness of the
interruption. We understand mindfulness as this sustaining and returning of attention to
the task of attending in which focus is maintained on what the mind is doing
(Grossenbacher & Muzer, in preparation).

25

In a physical environment where things are moving fast, consciousness might speed up to match. When
someone speaks quickly using a lot of difficult concepts, a listeners attention may be unable to keep up.
Conversely, some people have more trouble attending to slow-paced phenomena, being easily distracted by
other phenomena, e.g., being distracted by thoughts from sustaining concentration on the breath. This
switching among objects of attention is a different aspect of attention than focusing.
26
In this way, a primarily exogenous control strategy can share the willed aspect associated with
endogenous control. This transcends the paradox of not trying to be in to much control of ones mental life
while participating in influencing experience.

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Buddhist traditions of meditation require experiential learning with personal

instruction, and involve sustaining attention with clarity. By resting in an upright posture
and focusing attention over several minutes, the mind can relax. When relaxation
combines with sustained attention, awareness becomes less obstructed. Bodily
experience becomes heightened and more subtle. Rather than staying in their heads, many
meditators find that increased bodily awareness carries with it a greater number and
variety of sensations occur. This enriched sensory experience grounds the person in the
present moment, providing greater sensitivity, empathy, and unimpeded expression while
interacting with others. With extended meditation practice, a persons unintended habit
of nearly constant thinking or imagining transitions into a more purposeful alternation
between intentionally thinking and taking a relaxing break from thinking. Meditators
become more attuned to and skillful with their emotional life, with their thoughts, and
even their attentional capacities. The practice of combining relaxation and awareness
leads to honoring whatever experience is arising, inviting enough space to be cognizant
of the emotion and whatever else might be going on, not having the mind shrink-wrap
itself around a particular thought or emotion. These effects have a lasting impact on the
meditators life, and foster an increasingly broad or inclusive worldview. Though
difficult to speak about in a concise manner, the words being and becoming come
close to encapsulating this important facet of transformative learning that actually
impacts how a person manifests in the world.
Experience Depends on Worldview
A persons worldview might limit or otherwise constrain their conscious
experience. Consider, for example, the long-lived debates among philosophers pitting
materialism against various alternatives such as dualism and panpsychism. The
alternatives to materialism, though distant from each other in their ontological conception
of reality, share the feature of animacy, spirit, or recognition of something important
beyond mere matter. Parallel to this division between mere materialism and more
enlivening worldviews, so too there may be found two sorts of experience corresponding
to these two perspectives. That is, one person might live life with an appreciation for
vitality that is both experienced directly and conceived of as such, whereas someone else
might know that the universe is merely material and have experience that fits within this
view. Qualities such as awe, wonder, profundity, omnipotence, omniscience, all-wise,
all-knowing, all-powerful, etc. are evident in religious and spiritual experience. These
include qualities that may be considered as being outside of oneself, part of oneself, part
of God, or ascribed to other sources. Whether deemed as outside of ones self or not, I
consider all of a persons experience to be potentially amenable to empirical
investigation. From this perspective, the manifest qualities themselves may be more
important than the source to which they are ascribed.
A persons actual lived experience may agree or conflict with ones worldview.
Experience that is in accord with ones understanding of self, the world, and reality is
much easier to comprehend and remember. People who have recognized their own
spiritual experience may view it within a religious framework, or apart from any
particular religion. Ones own worldview may be easiest to leave unexamined when
either (a) ones dominant mode of experience is congruent with ones worldview, or (b)
life is lived with sufficient speed and/or distraction that the mismatch between ones

page 14 of 20

conceptualization of reality and the actual feel of lived experience does not suffice for
provoking deep reflection into the meaning of life. Once a person begins to question
their own worldview based on the evidence of their lived experience, an important and
entirely new activity of seeking resolution to this fundamental incongruity may become
prominent in this persons life.
Contemplative Spiritual Development
In an effort to see where an empirical approach to spirituality leads, this section
considers the spiritual ramifications of meditation, including selflessness and the
realization of authentic presence. This provides fruition for the understanding developed
by interweaving the empirical strands of neurobiology and Buddhism in the previous
section.
Spiritual Ramifications of Meditation
Profound shifts take place when one begins to look inward after looking outward
for so much of ones life. For many people, meditation involves contemplating the nature
of awareness and reality 27 , which could appear to others as becoming selfish or too
serious, at least for a time. Through meditating, many people increasingly recognize and
embody open awareness, which can lead to an ongoing, conscious engagement with
bodily experience involving both sensitivity and agency (Grossenbacher, 2006).
Awareness of multiple perspectives can be fostered by contemplating other peoples
experience, and can lead to compassionate concern for the experience of others
(Grossenbacher, 2006). Awareness can be experienced deeply and directly as the quality
of being wakeful and alert, highly cognizant without anxiety, a thorough resting that can
be calm, relaxed, quiet, even serene, imbued with a sense of expansive opening that has
the capacity to extend beyond any boundary (Grossenbacher, 2006). A sense of opening
up, inviting, or supplicating may specify that which is being invited as a particular being,
wisdom, ones higher self, or may leave this unascribed.
Contemplative insight involves noticing both the content of awareness (beliefs,
thoughts, emotions, and sensations that could otherwise go unnoticed), and the frame of
awareness the experiential surround in which any particular content of awareness
occurs (Grossenbacher, 2001b). Meditation facilitates recognizing glimpses of greater
awareness that naturally happen from time to time, inviting them, and working further
with awareness. Noticing more aspects of lived experience promotes greater
understanding of how ones mind works, as well as our effects on others. This shows the
pivotal role that awareness plays in contemplative spiritual development.
Many spiritual paths seek greater awareness, wisdom, contact with the infinite,
knowing God, noticing and appreciating the nuanced and multi-layered nature of our
experience. One relatively simple possibility 28 is that the development of greater depth
27

One opposite effect meditation can be emotional numbness or detachment from experience in which the
spaciousness experienced in meditation is utilized to more effectively avoid painful or otherwise
undesirable experience, for example, avoiding becoming emotionally affected by an argument. This
constitutes a sophisticated defense mechanism to suppress emotion like anger, and can be rationalized as
having transcended the turmoil of emotion. This is one of several important reasons why a personal
meditation instructor is so helpful in guiding a meditation practitioner.
28
A primary principle of scientific reasoning, Occams Razor, advises that when faced with two or more
possible explanations, we should choose that which is simpler.

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of being, awareness of mystery, or appreciation of the sacred, involves the activity of

brain cells that had not previously participated so much in day-to-day conscious
awareness 29 . This neurobiological account applies to cases in which there are infrequent
experiences, like a once-in-a-lifetime revelation, occasional glimpses of spiritual
attainment, as well as cases in which there may be gradual development and/or sustained
realization of spiritual development. Making oneself available to spiritual experience
may be necessary (but not sufficient) for spiritual experience to occur, in that spirituality
does not seem to be entirely governed by a persons volition 30 . One explanation for the
unpredictable and uncontrollable nature of spiritual experience posits the involvement of
unconscious processes that require particular configurations of activity throughout many
regions of the brain in order to directly impact conscious experience. If this hypothesis is
correct, then in mundane experience, the sacred gets pushed outside the foreground of
awareness, backgrounded by compelling action on other fronts of experience. It can be
extraordinarily difficult to focus on the sacred in the face of strong competition that
appears segregated from the spiritual. Aspiring to invite further contact between the
mundane and the sacred within ones life provides one way for a person to recognize the
sacred in more moments of lived experience. Greater connectivity, both experientially in
consciousness and physiologically in functional neuroanatomy, could help sustain
attention to sacred spirituality.
Perspectives of the Self and Selflessness
In any given moment, the scope of ones awareness may be narrow or broad,
depending on the distribution of attention among sensory, emotional, cognitive, and other
domains of experience. For example, Jennifers conscious awareness in a single moment
may be entirely devoted to the experience of an emotion such as sadness, including
constituent bodily sensations and thoughts of sadness. Suppose the scope of Jennifers
awareness includes all that plus other content. This additional content has the potential to
cause confusion or even overwhelm. Alternatively, awareness could encompass current
emotion, sensory experience, social interaction, and so on in a manner that lends greater
perspective to the emotional experience rather than competing with it. This latter,
perspective-broadening scenario exemplifies a contemplative approach to ones
experience. Perspective broadening around a thought or feeling allows for awareness to
be only partially occupied by the central focus of attention. This spacious manner of
attending to ones own experience, a contemplative metacognition, facilitates
nonjudgmentalness and compassion 31 .
When noticed, a persons moment-to-moment variations in scope of awareness
can reveal differences in perspectives that a single individual operates with at different
times. The accumulating experience of this variation can lead to gaining awareness of
more than one perspective at a time. How can entertaining multiple perspectives
contribute to learning, insight, or spiritual development? As a neurobiological
hypothesis, conscious traversal among distinct perspectives may recruit distinct networks
29

This hypothesis that some brain cells are active in a particular configuration during spiritual experience
may become increasingly testable in this era of functional brain imaging.
30
If it were, then we might imagine there being fewer lapses, back-sliding, dry spells, and so on.
31
Our preliminary data indicate that meditation fosters equanimity toward ones own experience, entailing
a gentle attitude of not taking ones own experience too personally.

page 16 of 20

of activated neurons in the brain. If this hypothesis is correct, then perspective-taking

could facilitate the mental self-governance needed to cultivate spiritual experience by
virtue of gaining the skills of quieting activity in some neural networks while augmenting
(or at least preserving) activity in other neural circuitry. In this way, gaining perspective
is a potent means for integration among previously segregated subsystems of
intercommunicating neurons.
It can be quite natural for people to go about living life from a perspective of an
individual self which somehow stands independent from other people, animals, living
things, and even the entire rest of the universe. Certainly, each person treks across the
world stage in a single human body, and this physically unified form lends itself to the
impression of there being a unitary subject of ones conscious experience the self.
Without careful and extended investigation, this supposed self is readily granted the
status of existence. That is, people commonly adopt and maintain ways of thinking and
acting that presume some degree of reality to the existence of self. This presumption of
self is evident in self-referential statements such as, I just watched a movie. Rather
than being merely an artifact of language use, self can play a central role in an
individuals worldview.
The theme of transformative ascent is evident in many religious and spiritual
traditions. The transformative nature of climbing a mountain allows experiencing greater
perspective, seeing new things or seeing things in new ways, of being closer to God, of
leaving the customary concerns of mundane living behind, transcending them, getting
high, and connecting with that which is greater. The sine qua non of transformational
ascent is a heightening departure, first from ones customary experience, and ultimately
from ones customary worldview. Awareness can broaden ones perspective beyond the
individuals customary egocentrism. This selfless approach makes room for all of a
persons capacities to come into play by de-emphasizing the perspective of ones own
self concept and by letting go of the need to so stringently control ones mental life.
From a Buddhist perspective ego is simply a number of processes (psychological and
physiological) working together. Egolessness can be understood as moving beyond the
bounds of ego, wherein the learner no longer is so readily convinced by their own
personal response or default attitudes.
Within the totality of a persons entire being, it can be psychologically useful to
distinguish between self and its surroundings interior to the person. For example,
consider a person in whom self is primarily identified with ego. In this case, other
aspects of ones total being such as scary shadow material that may be repressed, or a
brilliantly blissful sense of joy that may seem too intense to accommodate, get identified
as some sort of non-self. From religious perspectives that externalize a persons
experience, particular portions of that non-self may be considered as pertaining to Satan
or God. (Alternatively, for religious perspectives that do not externally locate the origin
of an experience, Satan or God is within, thereby more evidently fitting within the
domain of psychology.)
Buddhism is skeptical about self and non-self being separate from one another, a
non-dual approach that promotes concern for every aspect of being. Buddhism
presents a number of techniques, trainings, and other ways to dissolve the apparent
duality of mortal existence by transcending the customary notion of self, and offers a
compassionate and selfless understanding of reality that cultivates connection with people

page 17 of 20

and the phenomenal universe. For Buddhists, each moment of experience holds the
wakeful potential of sacred worldview that brings a selfless (non-dual) appreciation of
life. All the phenomena of mind, including all worldly events, are from this perspective
prized as an ever-available means for waking up to an infinite reality.
Realizing Authentic Presence
One might have an experience of insight that shows a new way of looking at
things, and it often takes time to manifest this new insight. Until someone starts behaving
differently based upon what they have realized, they have not realized it as fully as they
could. In this sense, complete realization is the difference between mere conscious
content (what we are aware of) and how we actually live day to day. Inauthentic habitual
patterns keep one out of the present, and authenticity requires meeting all experience, no
matter how difficult, with awareness. Being authentic, answering ones true calling,
involves a feeling of presence together with uncertainty about the unknown that is
coming next, and so can be exciting yet terrifying at the same time. A person may be
especially ripe for their next advance in learning at certain points in time. When the
world auspiciously meets that readiness, this can be a very profound experience, and
might be understood by some people as spirit moving them. In authentic action, the
person behaves honestly and compassionately in each moment, even if what needs to be
done is difficult. Buddhist training shows that any obstacle can be utilized as a teacher
by facing the challenge at hand, recognizing it with insight, working patiently with it, and
perhaps learning how this obstacle can be used or transcended. There are classic
Buddhist teachings on turning poison into medicine, a helpful pharmacological
metaphor for working with ones own difficult states of mind in a way that leads to
progress and growth. This leads one to make progress in their life not by walking away
from an obstacle, but by actually transforming it and/or being transformed.
Further Engaging Science and Spirituality
Spiritual exploration is a path of discovery, as is science, and they can inform one
another. We have already seen that an empirical approach, whether scientific or
otherwise, naturally emphasizes actual human experience. Deep empiricism, evident in
both science and Buddhism, relies on a combination of open-mindedness and skepticism.
The highly contemplative approaches to experience provided by Buddhism and
meditation help to illuminate contemplative spirituality within the view of science.
Recent scientific studies on prayer, meditation, compassion, and other topics
pertaining to religion and spirituality have opened a door. This door gives people with
scientific sensibilities greater access to the riches of spirituality. For example, some
recent studies have found significant physiological effects of spiritual practice
(Grossenbacher & Muzer, in preparation). Though inadequate for explaining the
processes involved in religious life, these findings are enough to fuel growing scientific
and multidisciplinary interest in understanding how contemplative practice cultivates
compassion, love, and appreciation of sacredness and infinity. Science may not have
proven itself to be very helpful with regard to spiritual inquiry, but there is nothing
intrinsic within spiritual experience that affords no scrutiny from science. Science has
advanced furthest on topics that seem relatively non-spiritual only as an artifact of
history. To the extent that human subjective experience correlates with patterns of brain

page 18 of 20

activity, then spiritual experience provides an important area of potential growth for
scientific exploration of brain, mind, and heart. Indeed, the cognitive neuroscience of
spirituality is only dawning now, and brims with a vast, scientifically uncharted horizon.
Science pertaining to spirituality is readily perceived as supporting one religion at
the expense of other religions, as demonstrated by the recent objection lodged by
hundreds of scientists (Wang, 2005). The likelihood of other religious and spiritual
traditions to be represented at future scientific meetings holds the potential for
ameliorating the perceived selectivity in supporting Buddhism over other religions. This
broadening of science-religion dialogue will require tremendous outreach from both
sides. To what extent will scientists approach religion and spirituality with open minds?
How many religions make themselves available to deeply engaging with science? By
open-hearted communication and willingness to participate in empirical research,
religious people can help inspire continued growth of science to better address more of
human spirituality. Science may help to reveal aspects of spiritual experience that are in
common among religions, a finding that could facilitate broadening of perspectives on
life, death, and other matters of great importance to billions of us.
Acknowledgements
Cynthia Drake resiliently engaged in numerous conversations on several topics
addressed herein, delightfully bridging among personal experiences and theoretical
perspectives. Dr. Susan Burggraf rigorously challenged my thinking about religion, and
encouraged me to emphasize my neurobiological account of spiritual experience. Piper
Murray provided thoughtful suggestions for bringing the essence of this paper into
sharper relief. Janie Worm assisted invaluably with manuscript preparation, and
contributed to a discussion deflating the idea that science drains away mystery and
spirituality.
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