Does a selective drug exist that could increase a person's spirituality and religiosity? Are there pills available that would allow a person to suffuse their perceptual consciousness with a feeling of the presence of an otherworldy supreme being? Will the very same drug increase feelings of serenity, peace and magic? I mentioned previously about a British psychiatrist who argued that we could use drugs to enhance specific traits of humanity. What does neuroscience have to say about human spirituality?Serotonin is a neurotransmitter involved in the regulation of a variety of brain processes. There are a number of different serotonin receptors that are located in various brain regions. In the past, researchers have correlated a specific serotonin receptor with scores of self-transcendence. The 5-ht1a receptor is located in the dorsal raphe nuclei, the hippocampus, and the neocortex. The researchers found that people who had the lowest density of 5-ht1a receptors in these key areas were more "spiritual" on average than people with a higher number of 5-ht1a receptors. There are several different interpretations of this specific research. A lower number of 5-ht1a receptors could mean one of many things. Usually when a receptor is being overactivated by a neurotransmitter, though, it downregulates or decreases in number. So a lower density of 5-ht1a receptor probably means that the receptor is being activated at an increased rate.
Several drugs like MDMA, LSD and psilocybin have an effect on the 5-ht1a receptor. All of these drugs have the capacity to increase perceptual feelings of otherworldliness. MDMA is an indirect agonist that increases 5-ht1a receptor activation by causing a massive increase of actual serotonin in the synapse. Psychedelics like LSD and psilocybin, on the other hand, directly activate the 5-ht1a receptor without the need for serotonin. They act as false neurotransmitters and can increase activity at that specific receptor (partial agonism). Psilocybin specifically has been known to sometimes induce serene spritual experiences that have a very profound perceptual conscious value. Psilocybin's action on the 5-ht1a receptor may be part of the reason the drug is able to amp up spiritualism and feelings of being one with the universe. These drugs are hardly usable for most people, though. They instill states of consciousness that are far too radical for people to live on regularly. They are fairly dirty drugs that have a wide range of effects on a variety of other neuroreceptors. There may, however, exist more selective drugs which a person could responsibly use every day that don't induce hallucinations.
Currently there is evidence that a main component of the mood elevating effect of serotonin boosting drugs is the result of agonism/activation of post-synaptic 5-ht1a receptors. Activation of other serotonin receptors like 5-ht2a, 5-ht2c and 5-ht3 may be more associated with the adverse side effects of SSRI's like sleep problems, anxiety and apathy. A selective serotonin reputake inhibitor (SSRI) is basically a drug that non-selectively activates all types of serotonin receptors by increasing serotonin in the synapse. Do SSRI's have the capacity to amp up feelings of supernaturalism as a result of their capacity to increase 5-ht1a activation? My guess is that they might. However SSRI's can also have a negative impact on dopaminergic functioning especially in the prefrontal cortex due to their non-selective effect on other 5-ht receptors. This can often leave a person more apathetic, demotivated and having a reduced sense of joy for life. I would imagine killing your dopaminergic functioning is scarcely a recipe for spiritual motivation.
There is perhaps a more promising approach. Buspirone is a 5-ht1a partial agonist that has mood elevating properties and is FDA approved for treating anxiety. Buspirone acts as a false neurotransmitter and directly engages the 5-ht1a receptor. By activating the 5-ht1a autoreceptors it actually decreases serotonin in the synapse and subsequently decreases activation of all 5-ht receptors (by serotonin). However buspirone directly activates postsynaptic 5-ht1a receptors at an increased rate. So buspirone doesn't have the same negative effect on dopaminergic function as SSRI's. Postsynaptic 5-ht1a receptor activation (specifically in the hippocampus and neocortex) may be associated with a mood elevating effect, an increased sense of self-transcendance and a feeling of inner peace. So I would imagine that buspirone probably has a greater likelihood of boosting a person's feelings of spirituality. Perhaps even more selective and potent 5-ht1a agonists (sometimes referred to as serenics for their propensity to reduce anxiety) will become available at some future date.
How would a company go about marketing a pill to make you more religious? Would they have to concoct a new brain disorder (low spiritual acceptance disorder perhaps)? I think feelings of this sort could be of perceptual value, even if you are an atheist. Some conscious states induced by specific drugs can be extremely profound and life changing. I think greater control of our brain processes (perhaps through neurotechnology) will allow for a fine tuning of perceptual qualia. The future could definitely be interesting as we are increasingly able to shape our perception to whatever we so desire.
7 comments:
Did Bush take too many or too few of these? :)
I think that spiritualism is the wrong term to be using here. The drugs may make you feel peaceful, feel contemplative, have strange ideas or hallucinate. And some people (probably those who are already prone to these sensations) may experience it as something spiritual, but others may experience it as something entirely different. There are already people who use drugs to be more spiritual while others use it for other reasons. So calling it a religious pill is probably not right. (similarly, some people get more creative with marijuana, but you can't say it's a creativity drug).
Either way, I don't see these being marketed until things like marijuana, MDMA or LSD are legalized also.
Totally concur.
Obviously the drugs do different things in different people. Not everyone is going to have a spiritual experience. Religious feelings are complex and their are many aspects to those emotions.
Yeah, we're on the same page. In people who are prone to it, it likely will increase religious experiences, but in those with low spirituality, it probably won't do much, so it probably can't be marketed as making someone with low spirituality more spiritual.
A researcher has used transcranial magnetic stimulation to make people feel a presence of a higher power.
It can also happen with temporal lobe seizures, but not everyone with a temporal lobe seizure (or with temporal TMS) will feel a presence or have a spiritual sensation.
Speaking from direct experience, Psilocybin can gain you a feeling of the interconnectedness of the entire universe. Deeply spiritual? Hell yes. Deeply religious? Not in the least. I don't feel "god" I feel everything. But I can understand how those who already believe in "god" could mistake the experience.
I just thank science I was able to have the experience.
Personal experience.
Many years ago I took LSD for the first time ("Rainbow" variety). I took four hits. I was a vaguely spiritual person without much in the way of specific beliefs, but I did at the time believe in some sort of "God/s". However, my experience did not affirm me in my beliefs. I felt that I became, at the peak of the experience, n/one with the universe and existence. "I" was blanked out. It's very difficult to describe, because it was as if "I" was everything but was simultaneously nothing, a convenience for the sake of temporal manifestation. There was no sense that this was mandated or created or maintained by any higher power; to be n/one with the universe was to be utterly beyond any sense or need of self or identity. It was also very joyful and meaningful, the very essence of what Robert Pirsig would call Quality.
Mind you, I understand that this is simply what I experienced under the influence of a potent hallucinogen. I don't think it's "True" or accurate; I didn't even then. But it was profound, and it was what I would certainly call spiritual.
'Shrooms were more organic in their effects. There was a deep sense of belonging to the processes of the earth and life. A low-ish dose of MDMA (with Ketamine chaser) filled me with a deep sense of intimate, loving connection to my partner and the environment that would once have seemed spiritual to me but now seemed, well, just holistically healthy.
Please note: I do not regularly take drugs, nor do I advocate their use generally. I don't think drug use is "cool". My drug experiences came about because I chose to seek them out for my own reasons and I read a lot about the effects (including risks to health) before I engaged in them. Only an idiot takes drugs on a whim.
That said, I find it interesting that a certain portion of the raver culture has, in tandem with its promotion of ecstasy, developed a philosophical/ethical position that it calls PLUR (for Peace, Love, Unity, Respect).
Forgive me coming extremely late to the thread. I'm jumping in because there's a pattern in the posted comments. Several people have empirically experienced something deeply spiritual, yet have dismissed it as 'unreal' without apparently giving a great deal of thought as to how to judge the real from the unreal (or indeed, whether it is worth any attempt to do so).
MHX said: in those with low spirituality, it probably won't do much
MXH, do you have evidence for that, personal or otherwise? That might sound like an attack on your argument, but I mean it as a genuine question so that any evidence can be shared.
The drugs may make you feel peaceful, feel contemplative, have strange ideas or hallucinate. ... Probably those who are already prone to these sensations may experience it as something spiritual
This description seems pejorative, particularly the word 'hallucinate'. It is not clear to me why the subjective experience of reality by a person not consuming psilocybin should be considered more real than that of a person who has consumed the substance, unless one starts with the unvalidated assumption that the current configuration of life on earth is the only one in which life might flourish.
On earth, there is competition and co-operation between apparently discrete living entities for scarce resources. The balance between the two lies self-evidently where it lies because that particular balance is optimal for natural selection. A changed environment or changed genome could create a configuration where the 'ideal' balance were more towards co-operation. It would seem reasonable in such a scenario that a diet which involved regular consumption of so-called hallucinogens or entheogens might make for human beings better adapted for reproduction. In such a society, overpowering feelings of togetherness and mutuality would be not only be commonplace, but might be required for survival. Non-consumption of the necessary 'psychoactive' substances might be perceived to lead to delirium and combativeness. People would be deemed, quite validly, to be hallucinating about the true nature of being for lack of having had a 'shroom.
We are where we are, but we could easily have been somewhere else.
saintneko said: Deeply spiritual? Hell yes. Deeply religious? Not in the least. I don't feel "god" I feel everything.
Whether you feel 'god' depends, obviously, on what the word 'god' means. To many so-called spiritual people, 'god' means 'everything'. To them, perhaps you did feel 'god'.
Moody said: Mind you, I understand that this is simply what I experienced under the influence of a potent hallucinogen. I don't think it's "True" or accurate; I didn't even then.
Moody, it is easy to infer from your post that you believe that what you experience the rest of the time is true and accurate. But how do you know? Our current scientific knowledge of the physical world suggests that 'stuff' is not at all what it appears to be. Using philosophical tools from Zhuangzi's butterfly dream, Plato's Cave or even the relatively modern film The Matrix, we can easily see how it is irrational to trust anything we believe we know, at all.
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