Prayer, meditation, chanting, fasting, contemplation of sacred images and the ingestion of mind-altering substances have been prescribed for spiritual aspirants for millennia. What’s new is our present capacity to scientifically examine the physiological and neurological correlates of spiritual experiences.

Until scientific studies had been conducted, spiritual states were often dismissed by much of the scientific community as being unhelpful to leading the good life as reason understood it. At best, prayer and meditation might have been allowable as some sort of coping mechanism for dealing with stress, fear and depression.

So these practices were deemed to be something akin to autohypnosis or merely comforting self-delusion. They certainly could not produce physical changes or long-lasting psychological improvement. Or could they?

Read the rest here