hanipsych, biology of religion
TRANSCRIPT
Biology and Religion
Prof. Hani Hamed Dessoki, M.D.Psychiatry Prof. Psychiatry
Acting Dean, Faculty of Applied Mental Health sciences
Beni Suef University
Supervisor of Psychiatry Department
El-Fayoum University
APA member
History of Science and Religion• Evidence of spiritual practices dating back to ancient cave
drawings• Myths: from Greek “mythos” meaning “word” one spoken
with deep and unquestioned authority• Myths of all world cultures are strikingly, consistently similar
– Virgin births, world-cleansing floods, lands of the dead, expulsions from paradise, dead and resurrected heroes
• All religions are founded on myth• Myths are created by basic, universal aspects of the brain ,
particularly the fundamental neurological processes through which the brain makes sense of the world
Historical PrecedentMedicine and Religion
• Medicine and religion historically linked• Hippocratic writings
– physicians received authority from gods• Middle Ages
– sickness punishment from God– cure by praying– doctors were “collaborators with God”
• 15th to early 18th century– close relationship continued
Historical PrecedentMedicine and Religion
• 19th, early 20th centuries still viewed religion as important in practice of medicine
• Mid 20th century, unacceptable to discuss religion in a secular health care setting
• Past two decades, increased interest in medicine and spirituality
"Religion and science are compatible
Trend Today
• Many books on science and spirituality
• Popular literature• Templeton Foundation• Curriculum in medical
schools and residencies
Religion versus Spirituality• Religion:
– Latin religare: “to bind together”– Organizes the collective spiritual experiences of group of people into
system of beliefs, practices, and rituals– Tradition, oral and written
• Spirituality:– Latin spiritualitas: “breath”– Broader concept than religion--dynamic, personal, experiential
process– Quest for meaning and purpose, transcendence, connectedness,
values– Personal quest for answers to ultimate questions about life, meaning– Gives one a sense of peace/joy
Brain versus Mind
• Brain– Collection of physical structures that gather and
process sensory, cognitive and emotional data
• Mind– Phenomenon of thoughts, memories and
emotions that arise from the perceptual processes of the brain
Why is this Important?
• Surveys show that 90% of Americans believe in a higher being
• 90 % pray or meditate• > 70 % believe in life after death
• Majority want their physicians to discuss religion with them
• DSM-IV inclusion of diagnostic category “religious or spiritual problem”
Psychiatrists and Spirituality
• Psychiatrists are measurably less religious than:– The general population– Their patients– Other physicians
• Generally endorse positive influences on health• More likely than other physicians to note that
religion/spirituality can cause negative emotions that lead to increased patient suffering
Psychiatrists and Spirituality• More likely to encounter religion/spirituality issues in
clinical settings– (92% versus 74%)
• More open to addressing religious/spiritual issues with patients– (93% versus 53%)
• Psychiatrists are more comfortable, and have more experience, addressing religious/spiritual concerns in the clinical setting
Curlin et al, Am J Psychiatry, 2007
Studies and Physical Health• Majority of the ~350 studies of physical health have
found that religious involvement and spirituality are associated with better health outcomes.– Cardiovascular, decreased rate of CVA’s– Lowers blood pressure– Health-promoting behaviors
• “Lack of religious involvement has an effect on mortality equivalent to 40 years of smoking one pack of cigarettes/day.
Harold Koenig, MD, Duke
Studies and Mental Health
• Religious involvement associated with:– lower risk of depression.– less anxiety.– less substance abuse.– Improved self-esteem– Less social isolation
• Inverse relationship between religious involvement and suicide.
Spirituality and the Chronically Mentally Ill
• Generally viewed as pathological or symptoms of mental illness.
• Little research done in this area.• Religious delusions and auditory hallucinations
common in psychosis.• Hyper-religiosity common in mania.
Spirituality and the Chronically Mentally Ill
• Solution versus symptom• Treatment conflict or collaboration• Socialization or increased isolation• Negative versus positive religiosity• Psychosis or mystical experience or normal
experience• Mystic versus psychotic
– Distinct differences
Negative Religiosity
• “I feel God is punishing me for my sins or lack of spirituality”
• “I wonder why God has abandoned me”• “If I believed more/was a better person this
wouldn’t have happened”• Sees God as judgmental and punitive
Negative Religiosity
• Negative AH from God, Satan, demons– command AH especially worrisome
• Negative/harmful/dangerous delusions– worthless person, offended God, have to pay for
their sins, perform acts to appease God or atone for their actions
Positive Religiosity
• “I look to God for strength, support and guidance”
• “God will help me through this”• Sees God as caring• Religious beliefs provide positive self esteem
and image• Prayer/meditation as coping mechanism
Psychology and Spirituality
• Dreams– Pre-death dreams and ability to help prepare for
death– Grief dreams
• Visitation, message, reassurance, trauma– Prophetic or future dreams
• Deja-vu, out-of-body experiences, past-life regressions
Biology and Spirituality
• Approaches from multiple avenues:– Anatomy– Electrophysiology– Brain Imaging– Genetics
Neurotheology
• Pinpoint which brain regions turn on or off during experiences that seem to exist outside time and space.
• Association areas in cerebral cortex– Visual– Orientation– Attention– Verbal conceptual
Orientation Association Area
• Located posterior section of parietal lobe
• Orients the body in space; allows for 3D sense of the body
Research
• Monks mediating, nuns praying• SPECT scans before and at peak of experience
– prefrontal cortex (quieting of activity)– “orientation association area”
• Determines where the body ends and the rest of the world begins.• Sharp reduction in activity at peak of meditative experience
brain perceives that the self is endless and intimately interwoven with everyone and everything
Verbal descriptions of Experiences
“As the river flowing east and westMerge in the sea and become one with itForgetting that they were ever separate rivers,So do all creatures lose their separationWhen they merge at last into”
Hindu Upanishads
“I possessed God so fully that I was no longer in my previous customary state, but was led to find a peace in which I was united with God and was content with everything”
Franciscan nun
Electrophysiology• Epilepsy linked with spirituality throughout history
– “Sacred disease” by Greeks; demon possession in Bible• Close to 5 % of patients with epilepsy report religious auras• Patients with temporal lobe epilepsy have a heightened
response to religious language, specifically religious terms and icons
• “Temporal lobe transients”– bursts of electrical activity in the temporal lobes producing sensations
of out-of-body experiences, sense of the divine, finding God
• Increased activity in the attention association area (pre-frontal cortex) during certain types of meditation
Genetics
• “Spirituality is among the most ubiquitous and powerful forces in human life”
• Genes can predispose us to believe.
• Don’t tell us WHAT to believe
The God Gene• Measuring spirituality
– “Self-transcendence scale” • Cloninger, U Washington in St. Louis• Out of system of personality classification called the biosocial model
– Self-forgetfulness, transpersonal identification, mysticism• Heritability
– Twin studies show that spirituality is significantly heritable– Similar to many personality traits and greater than some
physical traits– More heritability than religiosity
The God Gene• Monoamines influence spirituality by altering
consciousness– Serotonin, dopamine– Blurring of the normal distinction of self and others– Provided clue as to where to search for gene candidate
• Identifying a Gene– Specific individual gene associated with self-transcendence
scale– Codes for a monoamine transporter– VMAT2 gene
• Makes protein that packages different monoamines into secretory vehicles
The God Gene
• Selective Advantage– Important role God gene plays in selective
advantage is to provide humans with an innate sense of optimism
– Psychologically, optimism provides the will to live and procreate
– Physically, optimism promotes better health and quicker recovery from disease
Religion versus Science?
Science, especiallyGeometry and Astronomy was linked directly to the divine for medieval scholars.The compass in this13th C manuscriptis a symbol of creation
Third panel of “Education”Tiffany glass, 1890Science and Religion in harmonyCentral personification of“Light-Love-Life”
“Touching the Void”
Integrated View
Creativity, Spirituality and Mental Illness
• Artists and affective disorders– Vincent van Gogh– Edvard Munch– Jackson Pollack
• Abstract Expressionist Artists of the NY School
In a Darwinian world, religious behavior - just like other behaviors - is likely to have undergone a process of natural selection in which it was rewarded in the evolutionary currency of reproductive success.
The phenomenon of human religion is both pervasive and mysterious. People have practiced religion for at least 50,000 years, far longer than agriculture and written language. Despite a few thousand years of philosophical and scientific investigation into the theories of religion, the origin and purpose of religion remains unexplained. Offered here is a novel theory that is based on empirical science and draws on evolutionary biology to account for religious behavior.
Could biology explain the evolution of religion?
The Role of Religion and Spirituality in the Resilience and Healing of African
Americans in Times of Trauma
Nancy Boyd-Franklin, Ph.D.Rutgers University
Email: [email protected]
Spirituality: Coping with Trauma
• Importance in African American families
• Ask about spiritual beliefs• Helps to cope with trauma and loss• Use of spiritual metaphors• Instilling a sense of hope• Spiritual resilience
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Resilience & Spiritual Messages after Trauma
• God will see you through• Thus far by faith• African Americans are not strangers to
hardship, trauma and disaster• Perseverance• Healing• Forgiveness• Faith and Hope
Conclusions
• Religion/spirituality and its relationship to health and illness is increasingly being discussed and researched.
• Spiritual assessment is recommended as part of a psychiatric evaluation.
• Much evidence demonstrates that the transcendent states from which religions arise are neurologically real
Conclusions
• Religion and Science do not have to be in opposition or incompatible
• Evidence suggests that the deepest origins of religions are based in mystical experience– Religions persist because the wiring of the human
brain continues to provide believers with a range of experiences that are interpreted as assurances that God exists
Conclusions
Conclusions
“There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle; the other is as though everything is a miracle”
Albert Einstein
Conclusions “We are not physical
creatures having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual creatures having a physical experience”
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
(1881-1955)French philosopher, Jesuit priest, palentologist and geologist
Thank You