Religious Conversion and Neural Science, Research Paper Example

Abstract

Long before scientific evidence was uncovered to support the associations, it was been widely believed that life-altering emotional experiences bring with them distinct changes to the brain and the body.   These experiences often take the form of something on the order of a religious conversion, which term may be applied to any deeply moving alteration in an individual’s state of emotional and mental being; whether or not a deity or faith is specifically the focus, the experience occurs at a similarly profound level.   At such times, those transformed undergo radical shifts in their physical states as well, and modern science consistently reveals data to support that there is no true dichotomy between the mind and the body.   It appears undeniable that the connections between the mind and the body are so inextricably linked that any emotionally traumatic experience, from an unalloyed turning to God to a surrendering to a higher power in order to break free of addiction, both emanates from and potently affects an individual’s physical and mental make-up.

Introduction

It is typically problematic to examine the chemical and biological links to religious conversion and/or life-altering experience because there is often a belief that a religious agenda is present in the analysis.   That is to say, it is commonly perceived that any attempt to connect physical manifestations with such experience must be a form of advocacy for the experience, or a means of adding substance to faith-based conversion.   Proof is viewed as endorsement, or proselytizing, for the benefits of turning to religion.   This is, however,  only one form an investigation may take, for the greater concern is to establish these connections irrespective of individual creeds and ambitions.

There is as well an ancillary issue, in that religious conversion is frequently associated with addiction recovery.   The association is not baseless; many recovery organizations, most notably Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), overtly refer to theological elements in their practices and programs.   Furthermore, the nature of the two experiences is uncannily similar.   Religious conversion is an abrupt awakening of the soul and spirit to a new means of seeing.  “Rebirth” is not too strong a means of phrasing it, and “rebirth” is essentially what the recovering addict undergoes.   It is experience of the most drastic kind for any individual, for the entire framework dictating thinking, feeling, and behavior is virtually reinvented.   In both cases, the individual is transformed on every level regarding living.

Agendas here are, ultimately, irrelevant, because what is most important is identifying just how the human body and brain translates such experiences in biological ways.   More importantly, it must be recognized that these occurrences are inevitable.   No matter the source of the personal transformation, be it the sudden generating of faith in God, the abandoning of drug addiction, or both, the brain and the body respond.    Moreover, as will be noted, the effects are not necessarily always reactive; the brain may trigger the need for the religious experience before its further effects are manifested, as substance abuse may prompt, as a survival mechanism, the recovery which will carry with it later changes to the brain chemistry and bodily functions.   The reality is irrefutable: when so impactful a change to a person’s inner being as a religious conversion occurs, or a similar admission of powerlessness necessary to end addiction is made, the body and the mind are working in symbiotic concert.

Conversion as Catalyst

For the sake of clarity, it must first be established that “conversion” on a spiritual level encompasses a variety of forms, each in its own way indicative of personal change to a life-changing degree.   This is most commonly perceived to be of a religious variety, wherein the individual suddenly and radically embraces a previously unknown concept of God, or a viewpoint spiritually based.   Such a conversion is the “phenomenal” level of the experience and, while it may appear to be a relatively straightforward, if necessarily drastic and profound, occurrence, it is necessary to understand that this is by no means the sole such transition in terms of cause and effect.

For example, it is interesting to note that, in the Roman Catholic church, conversion is currently not only seen as an embracing of the faith for the first time, but equally as a returning to it after an absence, typically one of spiritual exploration or denial (De Sanctis,  2003,  p. 28).   There are conversion purists, not unexpectedly, and they hold to the distinction that any conversion not defined by a radical and strictly religious awakening is more on the order of spiritual or personal development.   The greater reality remains, however, that the biology at play within the human brain and body is unconcerned with such definitions.   What matters, first and foremost, is that mental and emotional change occurs rapidly, and on a profoundly visceral level.

So, too, is it unnecessary to draw a line between addiction and strictly religious conversions, for, again, the processes remain the same.   No matter the impetus, in all such cases there is a willful turning to, or surrendering to, God or a power acknowledged to be greater than that of the self.   In all such cases, motive is as well remarkably similar; there is a lack or a weakness within the individual, and the conversion comes about because, ultimately, nothing less will suffice.  That is to say, the religious convert with no history of addiction is no more “entitled” to the transformation than the substance abuser, because need at that level transcends chemical dependency.

Before the catalyst of the conversion takes place, as noted, the human is never merely a blank template waiting for it.  Clearly, forces both mental and physical must be at work to facilitate the transformation, and this must be the case simply because of the biological changes which occur afterward.   There is, again, no real dichotomy between the mind and the body, and  the spiritual components of the individual are equally influential in affecting the human as a whole.   Consequently, it is not unusual for an alcoholic to be driven to conversion by the physical distress the addiction creates.   As the body is in danger, it will seek to recover through appeals to the mind’s higher functions, which in turn trigger emotional and spiritual reactions.   So evident is the association, in fact, that, although AA refuses to promote any specific theology, conversion is in a sense expected as a recovery aid; Jung himself espoused the need for a “vital  spiritual experience” in combating alcohol addiction (Martin,  2008,  p. 292), an endorsement employed in the AA literature.   This does not, however, lessen the value or impact of the conversion.  Rather, it simply identifies a chain of events in keeping with a person’s totality of being.  So too, then, is the strictly religious convert’s transformation dictated by a similarly pressing need.   The circumstances are remarkably similar, in that the mind and/or soul is ailing and in need of radical assistance.   Only one factor is crucial: conversion is occurring because a substantial requirement within the individual demands that it occur, and this must invariably be a phenomenal change affecting the complete individual.

Cognitive and Biological Levels

It is difficult, if not virtually impossible, to determine specifically how conversion dictates behavioral and biological changes in terms of cause and effect, because the nature of the experience itself is so multifaceted.   There is substantial evidence, of course, on specific, chemical and cerebral alterations; nonetheless, tracing the exact path or process by which these alterations precipitate one another is at best a highly complex and indeterminate affair.   For example, a person may attend a meeting of AA or a religious service with no sense or intention of undergoing any alteration in belief.   The individual’s body, however, in complying to the physical circumstances of the gathering, may be inducing neural changes already.   Input is being taken in through no active effort of the person, and being translated into his or her own state of being.  That is to say, the body is in a sense one step ahead of the mind, and is setting in motion the more internal manifestations of the inner experience to follow (McNamara,  2006,  p. 160).

A large dilemma in establishing accepted definitions of moral or emotional cognition, particularly in regard to post-conversion states of being, lies in how open to interpretation such concepts are.   It is generally accepted today that emotions and the most intensely spiritual feelings occur within, or by means of, neural pathways, but the difficulty arises in the intrinsically subjective manner in which these feelings and sensibilities are viewed.   “Self-awareness”, for example, is a morally cognitive element vastly subject to gradations of meaning (Easton, Emery,  2005,  p. 12).   It is known that neural pathways are employed to allow for this process, but the nature of it is, aside from variations in definition, inherently bound up with other processes not necessarily reliant upon biology.

In a very real sense, modern awareness of how biology and conversion are mutually dependent factors is a double-edged sword.   Knowledge is gained because chemical activities are identified as reacting to, or causing, emotional states, yet the sheer interdependence of the physical and the mental/spiritual appears to be so intricately interwoven as to render isolation of factors an insurmountable difficulty.   While there is evidence that certain areas of the brain are consistently affected by elevated levels of emotional experience, there are as yet no actual borders to these regions, in terms of “where else” the experience is ingested by the brain.   When, for example, religious conversion is studied, there is an invariable increase of brain activity in the temporal lobes.   A recent study of a group of nuns, however, found that, when they were asked to recall and relive certain spiritual experiences, a variety of cerebral areas were increasingly more active (Carter, Aldridge, Page, Parker,  2009,  p. 170).   Moreover, there were no identifiable  consistencies; variations in cerebral activity were, in a word, just that personal.

On a more concrete level, fortunately, are certain areas of the brain which research has shown to be subject to the changes induced by religious conversion.   More precisely, as these cerebral areas reflect physical and chemical changes induced by emotional states, they reveal the extent to which conversion consequently affects an individual’s biology.   The amygdala is a relatively small structure located deep  within the brain’s medial temporal lobes, and it is a rather extraordinary collection of cells.   The amygdala stores a great deal of emotionally-related information and experience, and it registers heightened levels of activity in responses to fear, pleasure, and other emotions.  More importantly, it stores the information it acquires, and provides associative reflexes based upon past experiences  (Kalat,  2008,  p. 360).   This crucial brain function is something of a distinct bridge between the chemical and the emotional, or ephemeral; for example, the center of the amygdala takes in fibers from the olfactory tract, and direct stimulation of this area through the presence of certain smells and aromas will usually trigger an emotional response (Atran,  2004,  p. 189).   More pertinent to the question of conversion, electro-physiological measurements indicate that the amygdala plays a central role in the absorption and integration of extreme emotional states, through the release of the hormones oxytocin and vasopressin (Lerner, Lamb, Freund,  2010, p. 37).   In other words, it serves to safely modulate for the body experiences which might otherwise actually create danger, as in threats to the cardiovascular system induced by shock.   This is essential, as the nature of religious conversion is so emotionally charged as to be highly disruptive to the system.

Beyond this, N-Acetylaspartic acid (NAA) is a highly concentrated molecule in the brain, and serves as a marker for neuronal activity.   This acid has been most studied in relation to those undergoing recovery, as it tends to reveal a restoration of cerebral activity after an individual has withdrawn from alcohol, or other control substances:  “Increased frontal lobe and cerebellar NAA levels have been observed after approximately thirty days sober” (Shenton, Turetsky,  2011,  p. 456).   Interestingly, the patterns seem to indicate fluctuation; it appears that there is no simple “recovery”, but a process by which the emotional responses of the individual gradually revert to previous patterns.   The nucleus accumbens, collections of neurons found in each hemisphere of the brain, both facilitate addiction and thwart the consequences of it.  That is to say, these neurons, in determining reward, pleasure, and placebo sensations, foster addiction because they attach powerfully to the initial pleasures substance addiction generates.  Simultaneously, they block and/or diminish the degree of such pleasure as the addiction moves into cyclical form (Kalat,  p. 76).   So, too, do they reflect the heightened response activity generated by the conversion experience, as they seem to better equip the individual to function in his or her new, altered consciousness.   To that end, and dramatically, the nucleus accumbens has been identified as greatly reducing fear responders following conversion experience, be it the surrendering to God induced by addiction or otherwise.

All of these neural and chemical reactions are inextricably tied to both addiction and, conversely, the euphoria that comes from powerful conversion experience.   What they indisputably reveal is that, while alcohol temporarily diminishes fear and generates a kind of euphoria, these brain regions and the hormones they trigger are poised to supply the means for channeling safely the emotional disruptions arising from a non-alcohol related conversion of a spiritual kind.   The same neural mechanisms which have been clearly identified as impacting from drug addiction are in place to accommodate all the facets of emotional attachment, which include euphoria and reward, and which must accompany the conversion experience (Vaillant, 2008,  p. 198).    It may well be argued, in fact, that the focus on these processes as relating to substance abuse has been something of a byway, as they exist to support and facilitate the emotional well-being of non-addicts.

Conclusion

In a sense, all religious conversion and any ending of an addiction is a surrendering to God, in that the individual finally accepts the limitations of his or her own resources.  “God” is consequently either the traditionally acknowledged deity or the greater, and more powerful, unknown component which the person requires to be whole.   If addiction brings on a moral crisis as well as a physical one, so too must there be a crisis of some kind within the person undergoing a religious conversion; in both instances, there are voids which must be filled, and the individual is aware of this because survival is dependent upon it.

It is possible that research will one day uncover more in the way of chemical and biological promptings for conversion.   Enough is known already about the brain’s ability to process and facilitate emotional experience in this regard to render it likely that it is capable of far more, and instigate conversion before any actual consciousness of it is evident to the individual.   As moral cognition is further delved into, the question of where individual will surrenders to currently unknown, but greatly influential, forces within the brain must also be examined.   Until then, there is the knowledge that the links between spirituality, emotion, and the body’s biology are absolutely valid.   The reality is definitive: when so dramatic a change to a person’s being as a religious conversion occurs, or a similar admission of powerlessness necessary to end addiction is made, the body and the mind are working as one.

References

Atran, S.  (2004.)  In Gods We Trust: The Evolutionary Landscape of Religion.  New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Carter, R.,  Aldridge, S.,  Page, M., & Parker, S.  (2009.)   The Human Brain Book.  New York, NY: Penguin Books.

De Sanctis, S.  (2003.)  Religious Conversion: A Biopsychological Study.  Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing.

Easton, A., & Emery, N.  (2005.)  The Cognitive Neuroscience of Social Behaviour. New York, NY: Psychology Press.

Kalat, J. W.  (2008.)  Biological Psychology. Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning.

Lerner, R. M.,  Lamb, M. E., & Freund, A. M.  (2011.)  The Handbook of Life-Span Development.  Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Martin, C. R. (2008.)  Identification and Treatment of Alcohol Dependency.  London, UK: M&K Update, Ltd.

McNamara, P.  (2006.)  Where God and Science Meet: The Neurology of Religious Experience. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.

Shenton, M. E., & Turetsky, B. I.  (2011.)  Understanding Neuropsychiatric Disorders: Insights from Neuroimaging.  New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Vaillant, G. E.  (2008.)  Spiritual Evolution: A Scientific Defense of Faith.  New York, NY: Broadway Books, Inc.