The Neuroscience of Religious Experience

Dr Patrick McNamara is an Associate Professor of Neurology at Boston University School of Medicine. He has previously edited the three-volume series on religion and the brain entitled Where God and Science Meet: How Brain and Evolutionary Studies Alter our Understanding of Religion. He is the recipient of a VA Merit Review Award for the study of Parkinson's Disease and several National Institutes of Health awards for the study of sleep mechanisms. Dr McNamara is a member of the American Psychological Association, Division 36, Psychology of Religion; the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion; the International Association for the Cognitive Science of Religion; and the Human Behavior and Evolution Society.

1. Religion as seen through the eyes of the self; 2. On the self and the divided self; 3. Mechanisms and dynamics of decentering; 4. Neurology of the self; 5. Neurology of religious experiences; 6. Neurochemistry of religiosity; 7. Self-transformation as a key function of performance of religious practices; 8. Self-transformation through spirit possession; 9. God concepts and religious language; 10. Ritual; 11. Lifespan development of religiosity and the self; 12. The evolution of self and religion.