Translational Neuroscience Network Giessen, Germany; Computer-Based Modelling in the field of 3R Animal Protection, ICAR3R, Faculty of Medicine, Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen, Germany; Institute of Clinical Neuroanatomy, Neuroscience Center, Goethe University, Frankfurt Main, Germany. Electronic address: Peter.Jedlicka@informatik.med.uni-giessen.de.
2 papers in the library · 3 citations · publishing 2025-2026
Spiritual and religious practices represent a major cognitive transition in evolution, rooted in complex brain structures, dynamics, and plasticity. This review examines neural mechanisms underlying such experiences, including meditation, prayer, near-death experiences, ecstatic epilepsy, psychedelic states, and spirituality changes after brain lesions. It addresses whether these experiences can be neurobiologically explained, discussing predictive processing theory's suggestion that ecstatic states may involve impaired prediction. The beneficial and therapeutic effects of spiritual routines are placed in evolutionary medicine context. The authors argue that fruitful neurospirituality research avoids both excessive reductionism and dualism, favoring limited reductionism balanced by integrative approaches from dynamical systems, complex systems, and network theory.
Biological evolution appears to increase complexity, but defining complexity is difficult. Measures that assign low complexity to both highly ordered and highly random systems and high complexity to intermediate systems show that most biological systems fall in this range. These measures quantify the information an organism stores about its environment, supporting the idea that evolution increases the knowledge organisms accumulate about their niche. This aligns with cognitive biology, which views evolution as a progressive accumulation of knowledge or epistemic complexity, resembling a cognitive ratchet pushing toward higher complexity. A dynamic environment creates problems to be solved, and each solution becomes embodied knowledge. The framework also links to integrated information theory, suggesting that human self-reflection marks a new qualitative level in epistemic complexity.