Neurophenomenology of the Supernatural Sense in Religion
Method & Theory in the Study of Religion January 1, 2004 Frederic Peters 1 citation
Scholarly definitions of religion typically involve awareness of a supernatural dimension, a phenomenon found in virtually all human societies since paleolithic times. Advances in neuroscience show that phenomenal experience is identical to brain activity, raising the question of why an evolutionarily adapted brain generates a sense of the supernatural. Psychology identifies three primitive interpretive modules that produce a sense of causative essence, located in brain areas whose output is experienced as non-material, like thought. These neurophenomenal essences correspond to three forms of otherworldly spirit essence found across religious history, forming the basis of the supernatural sense.