A Modern Science Approach to Religious Mysticism - Research Paper Example

?A MODERN SCIENCE APPROACH TO RELIGIOUS MYSTICISM: PERSPECTIVES OF HUMAN PSYCHOLOGY, HUMAN SOCIETY, AND HUMAN BIOLOGY UNVEILED Reg. No: Course: Instructor’s Name Introduction Mysticism is described as the awareness of and specifically a personal experience of the state of consciousness, features of reality or status of being which is beyond human comprehension and it includes experience of Supreme Being. Religious mysticism refers to “spirituality of direct experience of God”.1 Direct experience with God is a form of knowledge that goes beyond just intellectual comprehension but is also marked with joy and love. Religious mysticism is usually a unique phenomenon from other kinds of experiences in the world. For instance, when explaining the Christian mysticism, one can never fully define it but could explain it based on what it does not constituent such experience. Religious mysticism is not an experience that comes and goes but it refers to an everlasting experience with the supernatural being and leads to a person becoming transformed into a believer. Between the 18th and 20th Century, several theorist and researchers from different disciplines have proposed different views on which religious beliefs can be based on experience.2 One of these individuals was Immanuel Kant who was a German philosopher. Kant argued that the moral obligation on what is wrong or right is what rationalizes religious beliefs and belief in a supernatural power. Other German theologians; Albert Ritsch and Friedrich Schleiermacher supported the view by Kant. Although this perspective has been rejected by other theorists, it is still influential in explaining religious beliefs and belief in divine intervention. The other perspective of explaining religious experiences is that it encompasses all human dimensions that include social, economic, political, psychological and political in conformance to the Supreme Being.3 Zaehner argued that in religious mysticism, all the otherness disappear and an individual comes to the transcendent and that in contrast to argument that religious experiences entail all human facets; a believer becomes aware that s/he is not different from cosmos or the supernatural but rather lives as part of that cosmos.4 From Zaehner’s perspective, religious experiences entail the different rituals and practices that are observe within different religious groups. Perhaps Huxley provides the best basis for this paper. Huxley in The Perennial Philosophy believed that all mystical experiences within all religions are the same. The purpose of the following paper is to explore the accounts and development of the supernatural worldwide within various religions, and appreciate how religious mysticism can be understood from the perspectives of current scientific theories that attempt to explain their genesis. In order to help organize this essay, three theories that represent different ways of scientifically understanding religious experience will be used. The first theory suggests that religion stems from an inherent function of the human mind. The second theory argues that religion is essentially a social creation that is imposed upon reality, while the last theory draws from modern science and points to the origin of religious experiences in our genes. In short, these three theories describe religious experience as originating from human psychology, human society, or human biology, and draw inspiration from the views of the earlier philosophers and scholars. Human Psychology: Neural Basis of Religious Mysticism In his book titled Neurotheorogy, Laurence O. McKinney sort to use a scientific approach to explain the religious experiences. The author argued that the growth of pre-frontal cortex in human brain creates illusions of chronological time which later become an important part of an adult’s cognition after the passage of three years.5 McKinney argued that a person’s inability to remember earlier images perceived by the young brain causes one to form thoughts such as where did s/he come fro and where everything goes. The attempt to answer such questions is what leads to development of various and divergent religious beliefs that are presently held. Due to the influence of the Neurotheology, further studies and laboratory experiments have been set up to explore the topic further. The studies particularly seek to map out various regions of human brain and identify which sub regions within the brain are specialized to undertake a particular task.6 These studies rely on brain imaging techniques and these studies have found out that religious feeling and experiences are part of the functioning of the human brain rather than communication with a supernatural being. One of the researchers to confirm the assertions made in Neurotheology was Norman Geschwind, an American behavioral neurologist who noted that religious traits are closely associated with the temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE).7 The traits identified are referred as the Geswichwind syndrome and they include hypergraphia, pedantism, low sexual interest, hyperreligiosity and fainting spell.8 Other scientists, Ramachandran and colleagues conducted similar experiments on individuals showing signs of TLE. He found that the seizures often come with strong religious mystical and such individuals are usually preoccupied with mystical thoughts. They also explained that increased activity within the brain circuit is associated with involuntary response to religious words and symbols and that only one part of the brain is active in events of mystical experiences.9 They successful proved that TLE is associated with religious feelings and therefore religious experiences are essentially similar across humans. Human Society: Social Construction of Religious Mysticism Arguments on social construction of the good and real have been brought forth by people from different disciplines in humanities and science. Such arguments have caused enormous controversies relating to concepts of truth, knowledge, reason, authority, progress and objectivity.10 They have stirred what is considered as “cultural wars” and “science wars”. Presently, researchers can no longer contend with the assumptions postulated in traditional scientific and scholarly work and other areas fields such as education, mental health, organization of life and politics following changes in perspectives.11 From the mid 19th century; social scientists consider bureaucracies and organizations as instrumental of social structures which are not affected by culture.12 Prior to this period, organizations were considered to adhere to general laws of efficiency instead of local cultural orders. This perspective emerged from a trend of differentiating instrumental realms of social life, for instance, science, management and economics.13 However, this has changed with the emergence of the organizational theory which was brought forth in the 1970s. During this period, theorists argued that the rational management theory and its practices as a symbol and myth and they therefore began to investigate social construction of such rationalized organizations.14 Early organizational theorist did not consider organizations as cultures because modern world perspectives consider instrumental institutions as being non-symbolic, which reflect the principles of universal economic laws instead of local social customs.15 The other reason is that organizational theory is a hybrid of theoretical social sciences and the applied disciplines. Max Weber presented an argument in his works which brings out the differences between the modern perspectives which view “rationality as a cultural and sociological perspective” to view all understandings and practices as part of culture.16 Weber was influenced by the Enlightenment vision which made him interpret rationality from a single perspective. Max concluded that rationalized societies are governed by rules, are usually specialized and hierarchical.17 The universal principles held of a rationalized society adhere to transcendental laws instead of the idiosyncratic social practice that was emerging.18 Weber links the existence of rational additive customs not on a global set economic law which dictate the measures of efficiency, but on the coincidence of Protestant religious evolution that was happening in the West. Weber argued that all social behavior is undefined and the social practices may be understood wholly via interpretation. One interpretation can be poised as being objectively correct. Consequently, rationalized social behaviors for instance the modern organizations may only be interpreted subjectively.19 Whenever one engages in a rationally purposeful act, such an action may be easily understood given that such an individual seeks to achieve certain end by selecting an appropriate means based on the specifics of the circumstance and in conformance to what experience has taught such a person to interpret such a situation.20 Consequently, based on ones religious inclination, a person will pursue a certain way to end based on the principles taught. For instance, although one has an opportunity to enrich himself through crime, he chooses to work for his wealth based on the teachings of the religion. Theorists on the area of social construction further argue that social order and ideology leads to creation three levels of actors which are integrated. These levels include individual, organization and society. The three are an abstraction and reification and are greatly intertwined which makes them inseparable.21 One of the factors facilitating social construction is the uniformity of the organizations nationwide despite the varying regional cultures within such organizations. In social construction, the social living of such a society becomes orderly and predictable given that there is shared definition of roles and expectations and authority rests on the conception of social reality.22 In light of the above explanation, religion plays a critical role in defining the all the social expectations for different members of the society and each person is expected to live in conformance to such expectations. An Islam dominated community will therefore be constructed distinctively and its lifestyle can only be explained subjectively based on the principles of its religion.23 Similarly, a Christian dominated community will demonstrate distinctive organization which is defined based on the principles of such religion. The presence of distinctive principles in Christianity and Islamic constructed societies makes such societies transcend beyond national boundaries. Therefore, a Christian dominated society shows similar characteristics regardless of the country. Additionally, the laws which govern the resulting societies emanate from the same origin.24 For example, the Roman still conforms to the Catholic teachings and the society is constructed to adhere to those principles. Human Biology: Genetic Basis of Religious Mysticism Whenever a believer is asked what drives them to show the kind of devotion s/he has, the most common answer is there is nothing but a sense which makes one feel a high power beyond such an individual. The Western people also contend that devotion in religion emanates from the fact that God handed laws which everyone must practice and uphold. However, there is a belief among various groups that religion is critical for survival proponents of this belief holding that religion helps to preserve our bodies and minds.25 This has consequently raised a debate in the disciplines of religion and science on what came before the other; is it God or the need for God.26 Otherwise brought out, theorists try to unravel whether humans created religion based on the cues given from above or rather evolution instilled into humans a sense of religion which would help bring the society together and help the humans together. Given that some individuals are usually more spiritual than others, there emerges different views on whether such are the doings of nature or nurture. In case an individual’s genetic makeup does not influence them in religion, theorists seek to understand the reasons why there are some people who are able to hear the word while others remain deaf to it?27 Even among the non-religious people, it is evident that religion and its teachings play a great role in the society since the place would be chaotic with cheating, killing and thieving being the order of the day as attract no punishment.28 Despite religion being considered as an evolutionary luxury, the need for it becomes ingrained into an individual’s genome; and with greater intensity for every successive generation. A person who develops a spiritual trait easily passes such traits to their offspring. In a book published by Dean Hamer, “The God Gene: How Faith is Hardwired into our Genes”; Hamer who is a molecular biologist argues that human spirituality is usually an adaptive trait which he was able to identify in the gene.29 Hamer explains that spirituality is carried together with the code which produces neurotransmitters which regulates ones moods. In addition, the microbiologists further expounded that humans do not respond slightly to the activity of the brain, but asserts that every person adheres to the laws of nature and we respond to chemical reactions happening in ones brain.30 In the book of Ecclesiastes, it is recorded that God set eternity in the hearts of men although they cannot understand what God did from the start to the end. Scientists do not oppose to this scripture although they feel that heart can be replaced with genes.31 Hamer began studies which point out to the fact that an individual’s spiritual trait is ingrained in the genome in 1998 when he conducted a research in 1998 when researching on smoking among 1000 men and women.32 He administered Temperament and Character inventory (TCI) that helped him measure self-forgetfulness, mysticism and transpersonal identification. When he put all the factors together, Hamer concluded that science comes close to helping a person in measuring spirituality. Hamer conducted a side assessment of spirituality where following intensive research, he hit a breakthrough. The variation in the gene known as vmat2, that is, vesicular monoamine transporter determined how each individual scored in the self-transcendence test which encompasses the three traits outlined earlier.33 Individuals having nucleic acid cytosine within a particular spot ranked high in the tests while those who showed nucleic acid adenine on the same spot ranked low in the test.34 Change in the location of the base of the gene also influenced an individual’s ability to feel self-transcendence. Although Hamer explained that having feelings of self-transcendence does not necessarily imply that they translate their beliefs into a belief, but they have higher chances compared to their counterparts who do not have such feelings. Furthermore, Hamer warns that although he identified the connection between genetic make-ups with spirituality, this is not the same as with religion given that spirituality is simply a state of mind while religion refers to the way that states get ingrained into law.35 Buddhism in particular upholds the belief of gene-ingrained spirituality. According to this religion, individuals inherit the spirituality trait from the person such an individual lived in the previous life. The spiritual trait helps an individual to acquire trust of the universe, become generous and open. In addition to Hamer’s studies, previous studies conducted on identical twins had shown that the spiritual and religious beliefs between the two showed overlapped.36 From these studies, it is evident that the spirituality traits of fraternal twins are more or less the same which supports the argument that an individual is born with spirituality trait inbuilt in the genetic makeup. Conclusion Religious mysticism is based on the argument that one is ready to accept what can be proven from experience. Religious mysticism also implies to those activities which are not obvious to the common intellect. In exploring this field, Immanuel Kant argued the moral obligation on wrong or right are justified by religious beliefs and belief in divine intervention and super natural power. Religious experiences touches on all human facets such as political, social, economic, psychology among others. Religious beliefs may be explained from the neural perspectives where it is argued that the ability of ones brain to forget events that occurs when they young lead an individual to question where he came from and this forms the starting point for one to synthesis different religious ideologies. Various researchers have conducted various studies in the area. These experiments do not prove that God exists and communicates with us. Neither do they prove that God doesn't exist, and that religious experiences are reducible to nothing but brain chemistry. The scientists themselves cautioned against any such sweeping conclusions. Our experience of sunlight causes electrical and chemical changes in our brains, but it does not follow that the sun is reducible to nothing but brain chemistry. The same is true of religious experiences. Biological perspective has also been explored in explaining religious beliefs among different personalities. This research revealed that there is a spirituality gene in every person. Moreover, the study to investigate the linkage between genes and spiritual beliefs based on twins and the study concluded that the spiritual beliefs of twins closely overlap. Religion also explains the social construction in the society. Religious beliefs helps create common and identifiable principles around which a society is formed. Bibliography 1. Adair-Toteff, Christopher. "Max Weber's Mysticism." 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