The Spiritual Brain - by Mario Beauregard & Denyse O'Leary (Paperback)

About the Book

Challenging books such as Richard Dawkinss "The God Delusion" and Sam Harriss "The End of Faith," a neuroscientist offers compelling evidence that it is God who creates spiritual experiences and not the brain.

From the Back Cover

Do religious experiences come from God, or are they merely the random firing of neurons in the brain? Drawing on his own research with Carmelite nuns, neuroscientist Mario Beauregard shows that genuine, life-changing spiritual events can be documented. He offers compelling evidence that religious experiences have a nonmaterial origin, making a convincing case for what many in scientific fields are loath to consider--that it is God who creates our spiritual experiences, not the brain.

Beauregard and O'Leary explore recent attempts to locate a "God gene" in some of us and claims that our brains are "hardwired" for religion--even the strange case of one neuroscientist who allegedly invented an electromagnetic "God helmet" that could produce a mystical experience in anyone who wore it. The authors argue that these attempts are misguided and narrow-minded, because they reduce spiritual experiences to material phenomena.

Many scientists ignore hard evidence that challenges their materialistic prejudice, clinging to the limited view that our experiences are explainable only by material causes, in the obstinate conviction that the physical world is the only reality. But scientific materialism is at a loss to explain irrefutable accounts of mind over matter, of intuition, willpower, and leaps of faith, of the "placebo effect" in medicine, of near-death experiences on the operating table, and of psychic premonitions of a loved one in crisis, to say nothing of the occasional sense of oneness with nature and mystical experiences in meditation or prayer. Traditional science explains away these and other occurrences as delusions or misunderstandings, but by exploring the latest neurological research on phenomena such as these, The Spiritual Brain gets to their real source.

Review Quotes

"The Spiritual Brain is a wonderful and important book that provides new insights into our experience of religion and God. It offers a unique perspective to the ongoing dialogue between science and religion. This book is a necessary read for both the scientist and the religious person." - Andrew Newberg, M.D. Associate Professor of Radiology and Director of the Center for Spirituality and the Mind at the University of Pennsylvania. Co-author of Why We Believe What We Believe
"Is spiritual experience an illusion caused by a misfiring brain, as many scientists believe, or is it something more? In The Spiritual Brain neuroscientist Mario Beauregard and journalist Denyse O'Leary persuasively argue that it is indeed something more. This means the mainstream neurosciences may have overlooked something of profound importance about who and what we are. If you have a mind, you will find The Spiritual Brain a refreshing antidote to the strange arguments offered by some scientists who insist that their minds, and yours, are meaningless illusions." - Dean Radin, PhD, Senior Scientist, Institute of Noetic Sciences and author of The Conscious Universe and Entangled Minds
"Neuroscientist Beauregard and journalist O'Leary mount a sweeping critique of a trend in "the pop science media" to explain away religious experience as a brain artifact, pathology, or evolutionary quirk. . . . Never shrinking from controversy, and sometimes deliberately provoking it, this book serves as a lively introduction to a field where neuroscience, philosophy, and secular/spiritual cultural wars are unavoidably intermingled." - Publishers Weekly
"A sweeping critique of the trend to explain away religious experience as a brain artifact, pathology, or evolutionary quirk." - Publishers Weekly
Mario Beauregard and Denyse O'Leary have produced a provocatively titled book covering an equally provocative topic. - Christian's Scholar Review
Lends scientific credence to the existence of a higher or universal consciousness. - Booklist (starred review)
Drawing on Beauregard's own research into religious experiences, a researched case for the nonmaterial--and ultimately spiritual--nature of man. - World Magazine
Beauregard uses evidence to show that the self or soul is not simply locked inside the skull. - Philadelphia Inquirer
In a chapter recounting a fascinating neural study of Carmelite nuns reliving and recalling deep mystical states in prayer, The Spiritual Brain concludes that, while neural science cannot disprove or prove the existence of God, it can rule out the inadequate explanations that materialism applies to religious, spiritual and mystical experiences. - America Magazine
"A refreshing antidote to the arguments offered by some scientists who insist that their minds, and yours, are meaningless illusions." - Dean Radin, PhD, Senior Scientist, Institute of Noetic Sciences and author of The Conscious Universe and Entangled Minds
I heartily advocate the purchase of this book - Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith
Drawing on Beauregard's own research into religious experiences, a researched case for the nonmaterial--and ultimately spiritual--nature of man.
In clear, readable prose, avoiding highly technical language, neuroscientist Beauregard argues merely physical explanations for religious experience are insufficient. Recommended." - Library Journal
"A very important book, clearly explaining non-materialist neuroscience in simple terms appropriate for the lay reader. The Spiritual Brain clearly shows that non-materialist neuroscience is not simply a controversial view held by some neuroscientists, and greatly contributes to the on-going paradigm shift that is revolutionizing our understanding of the relationship of the spirit, the mind, and the brain in the 21st Century." - Jeffrey M. Schwartz, MD, Research Psychiatrist, UCLA, author of The Brain Lock and The Mind and the Brain
"A very important book, clearly explaining non-materialist neuroscience in simple terms appropriate for the lay reader." - Jeffrey M. Schwartz, MD, Research Psychiatrist, UCLA, author of The Brain Lock and The Mind and the Brain
"The Spiritual Brain is a wonderful and important book...a necessary read for both the scientist and the religious person." - Andrew Newberg, M.D. Associate Professor of Radiology and Director of the Center for Spirituality and the Mind at the University of Pennsylvania.and co-author of Why We Believe What We Believe.