Sensing the Divine: Influences of Near-Death, Out-of-Body & Cognate Neurology in Shaping Early Religious Behaviours (New Approaches to the Scientific Study of Religion, 9)

"This book proposes another unique basis for the origins of religion from disturbances in brain function. It proposes the novel idea that near-death and out-of-body experiences (ND/OBE) engendered "a sense of the divine" in ancient man. As the author points out, key aspects of ND/OBE are thematic of all later established religions. These include journeys to heaven, sightings of brightly-lit godlike figures, and dead people now alive. Thus, ND/OBE could be the originating source of these spiritual motifs. To this, the author adds a fourth factor: various brain influences contribute to or modulate ND/OBE. Such cognate neurological disorders include REM-sleep intrusions, sleep paralysis, narcolepsy, and the Guillain-Barré syndrome. Errors due to aberrant switching between key neural control centers disrupt critical state-boundaries between consciousness and dreaming. This may induce NDE. Thus, in this state, subjects temporarily fail to understand where they are, undergo loss of self, and detached from the world. They imagine a "union with Gods." Here, then, is the biological basis of ineffability. Ancient humans gained beliefs about the "supernatural" through day-to-day existence. This book argues that near death experiences and cognate neurological conditions, some genetically-determined, could have facilitated, even augmented such beliefs. Hence, in configuring another realm of "spiritual" experience beyond the known environment, these neurological possibilities offer effective traction."--Publisher's website Preface 6 Contents 8 Chapter 1: Introduction 11 References 20 Part I: Anthropological Perspectives 22 Chapter 2: Tracing Our Origins 23 Putting the Jigsaw Together 23 Timeline – Going Through the Species Variants 24 Out of Africa: Once, Twice - or More? 27 Considering Anatomically Modern Humans and Their Successive Societies 28 Social Milieu – And Its Evolutionary Importance 31 Overview 34 Appendixes 35 Addendum I.1: Language and Speech 35 Language and Speech, Speech Production and Hearing 36 The Origins of Speech & Its Facilitators 40 Tool Production and Acquisition of Language 42 Overview 43 Addendum I:2: The Brain, the Frontal Cortex, the Social Brain & Ideas of Morality 44 Brain Structure – General Anatomical Considerations 45 The Structural Domains of Pre-frontal Cortex 46 Functional Aspects of PFC 47 A “Theory of Mind” (TOM): What I (Should) Know About What You Know 49 Moral Issues 50 Overview 51 References 52 Addendum I:1 53 Addendum I:2 55 Chapter 3: Evolving Man, Evolving Social Animal 58 Societal Evolution Envisaged Through Child-Rearing and Women’s Roles 59 The Origin of the “Unit-Family” – And Its Wider Outcomes 61 References 66 Part II: Near-Death/Out-of-Body Experiences and Cognate Neurological Aberrations 69 Chapter 4: The Phenomenology of the Near-Death Experience 70 Critical Aspects Concerning the Phenomenology of NDE 71 Neurological Basis of NDE as a Re-awakening Phenomenon 74 Further, Independent Empirical Corroboration that ND/OBE Are Brain-Derived 83 NDE Narratives: Critical Interrogations of Their Semantic Content 85 Hellish Experiences 87 Summary 88 Addendum II: 1: Sleeping – Perchance to Dream 92 Sleeping 92 Sleeping and the Brain 93 The Beginning and the Ending: Hypnagogic and Hypnopompic Dream Hallucinations 95 Summary 97 References 98 Addendum II: 1 99 Chapter 5: Pathological Dream-States: Comparisons with ND/OBE 101 Neuropathological Influences on Dreaming and Dream-Sates 103 Functional Aspects 105 On Having Nightmares, or a Visitation by the Night-Mare – and More 107 Neuropathology of Heightened Dream Activity 110 Dreaming and NDE Compared 111 Whose Brains Are “Normal”? 114 A Cautionary Note in Ending 116 References 116 Chapter 6: The Neurophysiology & Phenomenology of the Out-of-Body Experience 120 Preliminary Approaches to Out-of-Body Phenomenology 121 Modern Views Concerning the Aetiology of OBE 126 References 127 Chapter 7: Upwards & Onwards: Flight as an Ancient Connection to the Divine 129 Going Places 130 Upwards and Onwards 131 Dissecting the Ascension Motifs 133 Overview 136 References 138 Part III: The Origins of Spirituality and Religion 140 Chapter 8: The Post-experiential Subject 141 Aspects of the Post-experiential Changes in Personality 142 Death Anxiety 142 Re-formulated Attitudes to Daily Life 143 Newer Approaches to Other People and Their Needs 144 Altered Religious Beliefs and Attitudes Towards Religion in General 144 Dealing with the Omega Problem and Other Anomalous Experiences 146 More Soberly, What Is It About the Paranormal and All the Rest? 147 The Meaning of It All 148 References 149 Chapter 9: Developmental “Hows” of the Spiritual Dimension 151 Animism; Anima = Spirit; and Spirituality 153 Ancestor Veneration and Ancestor Spirits 154 The Role of ND/OBE Phenomenology as Means of Sensing of the Divine 155 Concerning Wider Genetic/Neurological Backgrounds 160 Overview- Revelatory Origins and the Very Early Evolutionary Phases of Religion 163 Addendum III.1: Shamanism 164 Definitions, the Shaman’s Public and Contributory Role 166 The Shamanic Trance 167 The Shaman’s Outward Journey 170 References 171 References for Addendum III.1: Shamanism 174 Chapter 10: Resume 176 ND/OBE Phenomenology, Altered States of Consciousness, Ketamine & Psychedelism 179 ND/OBE Phenomenology, The Post-Experiential Subject, and Experiential Phenomenology 182 Concluding Remarks 187 References 189 Glossary 192 Bibliography 194 This book proposes another unique basis for the origins of religion from disturbances in brain function. It proposes the novel idea that near-death and out-of-body experiences (ND/OBE) engendered "a sense of the divine" in ancient man. As the author points out, key aspects of ND/OBE are thematic of all later established religions. These include journeys to heaven, sightings of brightly-lit godlike figures, and dead people now alive. Thus, ND/OBE could be the originating source of these spiritual motifs. To this, the author adds a fourth factor: various brain influences contribute to or modulate ND/OBE. Such cognate neurological disorders include REM-sleep intrusions, sleep paralysis, narcolepsy, and the Guillain-Barre syndrome. Errors due to aberrant switching between key neural control centers disrupt critical state-boundaries between consciousness and dreaming. This may induce NDE. Thus, in this state, subjects temporarily fail to understand where they are, undergo loss of self, and detached from the world. They imagine a "union with Gods." Here, then, is the biological basis of ineffability. Ancient humans gained beliefs about the "supernatural" through day-to-day existence. This book argues that near death experiences and cognate neurological conditions, some genetically-determined, could have facilitated, even augmented such beliefs. Hence, in configuring another realm of spiritual experience beyond the known environment, these neurological possibilities offer effective traction