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Secular, Non-dogmatic Spirituality

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Part of the book series: Studies in Neuroscience, Consciousness and Spirituality ((SNCS,volume 4))

Abstract

The concept of non-dogmatic spirituality is worked out and described. It is shown that this is directly linked to the scholastic period when the question of whether direct experiential knowledge of the total reality was possible was discussed. It will then be shown that this is contingent on how we actually modulate our consciousness, following which the importance of consciousness and different states of consciousness are addressed.

The concept of different states of consciousness and of a map of such states is elaborated. Different states of consciousness are discussed and defined, and their differences explained. Findings from the neurobiology and physiology of meditation and relaxation are presented and discussed. The psychology of meditation and spiritual practice is presented and the potential effects of continuous spiritual practice are discussed in a psychological framework.

Constants of spiritual experiences across ages and cultures are discussed, as well as the question whether there is such a thing as a culturally and historically independent spiritual experience that is similar for many people. While most scholars of religion nowadays would subscribe to a constructivist framework, the position adopted here is a moderately realist one, stating that spiritual experiences are probably common in core but modified culturally as they are expressed and integrated. It is shown how the adoption of such a non-dogmatic spirituality as a general way of living would address many questions which we face at the moment, and which science or religion alone do not seem to be able to solve.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The sensus interior can be found practically everywhere in the psychology of the Middle Ages. It is especially prominent and influential in the Liber De Spiritu et Anima, the book on the Spirit and the Soul, which is a kind of medieval psychology textbook that had been ascribed to St. Augustine for a long time, but was probably authored by Alcher of Clairvaux who was a friend of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (Norpoth 1971; Pseudo-Augustinus and von Clairvaux 1896). The notion of sensus interior can also be found in William of Saint-Thierry, who was venerated as a saintly writer and friend of Saint Bernard and therefore had huge influence (Saint-Thierry 1854, 2001). From there the notion was taken up widely. In my systematic piece on Hugh of Balma (Walach 2010) I have tried to clarify this history of reception and its consequences. St. Bonaventure also uses this notion in his very important piece De Reductione Artium Ad Theologiam, the reduction of philosophy to theology (Bonaventura 1961).

  2. 2.

    The notion of “abduction” here means a scientific way of conclusion, not the more familiar term of being abducted by someone against one’s will. It is very rarely discussed in the theory of science. I have discussed this more widely in my German language textbook on the theory of science (Walach 2013). To put it briefly, abduction is a mode of conclusion in which we use many disjunct and individual elements to find a theoretical structure that can combine them. It is what good detectives like Sherlock Holmes do. Abduction reflects the creative side of science that cannot be formalized. It leads to novelty. This is the point where scientific knowledge and spiritual experience touch. Perhaps they are simply two different ways of the same modality of insight.

  3. 3.

    The term “culture of consciousness” is a direct rendering of the pali word shamatta, which is a translation of the sanskrit samadhi. Sila, the behavioural-ethical foundations of the 8 fold path to liberation, is complemented by shamatta, the culture of consciousness, which comprises right intention, right concentration and right mindfulness, and leads to panna, the fruits of insight and wisdom. Culture of consciousness is thus an ancient concept meaning that we have to take care of our mind, just as we have to take care of our body. It was used in that secular context, as far as I can see, for the first time again by Metzinger (2006).

  4. 4.

    I use “affect” in this context in the common sense as emotional tones of sense impressions, recollections, memories and experiences. This is quite different from the technical usage in the mystical psychology of the middle ages which I have discussed earlier.

  5. 5.

    Here are three examples of many possible: practitioners of a mindfulness meditation retreat were capable of distinguishing visual cues that others saw as indistinguishable (Brown et al. 1984). Experienced mediators can stabilize bistable stimuli as in binocular rivalry where two images can be perceived and normally change automatically (Carter et al. 2005). We found that experienced meditators can stabilize a flipping image of a bistable Necker-cube when instructed for twice as long as untrained controls, thereby changing the perceived “nowness” of perception (Sauer et al. 2012).

  6. 6.

    The discussion as to whether these experiences remembered in deep hypnosis are indeed memories of factual events or mental constructions is still not resolved. Followers of constructivist theories assume that these are all fabrications. However there is some good clinical material that would question such a radical constructivist thesis. Practically speaking, it is likely to be a mixture of construction and factual memory. Clinicians would normally agree that some of the experiences remembered in deep hypnosis are actually factual, and it is only this principal possibility which is referred to here.

  7. 7.

    Hesychastic is the adjective derived from the Greek term Hesyche, meaning stillness, quietness. (See Louchakova 2005).

  8. 8.

    This would be Brentano’s “intentional relationship” that, he said, was characteristic of consciousness.

  9. 9.

    Whether it is actually true that mystical and sexual ecstasy are the same is quite another matter. Perhaps this is the only way Bernini could visually transport the meaning of ecstasy.

  10. 10.

    Different traditions emphasize different sides of the coin. In fact it will always be a mixture of practice and personal striving, letting go and receiving “grace”. P. Lassalle, a Christian Jesuit practicing Zen used to say that although grace is an indispensible element of the Christian tradition it does help if we make an effort and walk half way towards grace by practicing (Enomiya-Lassalle 1992).

  11. 11.

    In the same sense, I also think that attempts to produce definite cartographies or maps of the transpersonal and spiritual realm are very naïve. It is beyond doubt that there is a long list of descriptions of such experiences, starting with detailed descriptions within Christian Mysticism, for instance by Teresa of Avila, and up to the elaborate maps of Yoga or other Eastern traditions. However there are also the questions of whether these maps are comparable, whether phenomenally similar states are really similar, whether all speak of the same thing, and so forth. Therefore it is probably better to tone down one’s goals and to try and reach clarity about those stages about which we can find consensus, without one tradition trying to colonise another and trying to suggest that the states described by it are better than those of others. This may be applied to both directions: towards the East or West. The East is very popular with transpersonal psychologists, many of whom think Eastern traditions have experiences and states of consciousness that are superior to the ones described by Christian authors. They think that these Eastern states are deeper and wider in terms of spiritual experience: Very often such an opinion is born out of a lack of knowledge. The same is also true in relation to the West where some Christian theologians think that the idea of personality and the theology of Grace are theoretically superior to apersonal Eastern concepts. If we were able to leave those dogmatic discussions aside for a moment and find consensus about the way that leads to the threshold before discussing the furnishing and the number of rooms in the house, we would have already gained a lot. In this sense I am not interested in describing the house that many of those who talk about it have never entered. It is sufficient to give a description of how to reach the threshold.

  12. 12.

    The basic experiments have been conducted by Robert Ader. In the handbook which he edited with his colleague Cohen there is a competent review of the current literature on all possible topics (Ader and Cohen 1975; Ader et al. 2000).

  13. 13.

    Noradrenaline and norepinephrine; or adrenaline and epinephrine are equivalent notions. In the modern literature the terms norepinephrine and epinephrine are normally used.

  14. 14.

    This does not mean that hygienic measures should be neglected. On the contrary. Our increase of quality of life and survival time are probably mainly due to our increased hygiene standards, as McKeown (1980) has made clear. But one should not assume that we are Lord of the microbes. Each and every aggressive pressure that we exert against bacteria through antibiotics and disinfection will necessarily lead to a small amount of resistant germs that survive and then reproduce. In this way we will always be faced with more resistant bacteria. Bacteria have been around millions of years before humans and likely will survive us.

  15. 15.

    It is interesting to note that research in this area of wisdom is becoming accessible again (Ardelt 2004).

  16. 16.

    This was pointed out nearly 40 years ago by Herbert Benson (1975) and shortly afterwards by Deane Shapiro (1980). Although the knowledge itself is old, there is always a delay until knowledge, academic knowledge that is new at that, seeps into the general consciousness and becomes part of the culture. In that sense a revisiting of these old adages is still useful, I find, especially, since we now have some more powerful methods of neurobiology at hand.

  17. 17.

    The most important studies to date are: Anderson et al. 2008; Barnes and Orme-Johnson 2006; Paul-Labrador et al. 2006; Rainforth et al. 2007; Walton et al. 2002, 2004. Whether this evidence is enough to recommend it as a general health measure is another question. I here employ it as an argument that in fact meditation does influence cardiovascular activity. Clinical trials always look into the generalized and minimalized effect, as participants in trials will always have to agree to be also randomized into a control group, and hence are different to people who actively decide to do something. While it is probably not useful to prescribe meditation like a beta-blocker, it might be highly effective if one takes a responsible decision to implement meditation.

  18. 18.

    This research is conducted by Roel and Eduard van Wijk. See van Wijk (2008a) for a good overview of the research on biophotons in general, also van Wijk et al. 2005, 2006, 2008b. A comprehensive review of this research is available in a book chapter: van Wijk et al. (2014).

  19. 19.

    This was the type of meditation researched in the study by Antoine Lutz.

  20. 20.

    This change from dispersed to coherent activity, even though the global activity was reduced, is also a signature of our own study, briefly reported above: See previous note.

  21. 21.

    Unfortunately this important research is not well published. It is, to my knowledge, only available in a book chapter in German language (Guttmann 2002).

  22. 22.

    “quod solum aspirabit, non cogitabit – don’t think, breathe” is the instruction; see Hugh of Balma’s Mystical Theology, V.46. The counting follows the critical edition and is the same in all translations. Original text: de Balma (1995). An English translation is available in Carthusian Spirituality: The Writings of Hugh of Balma and Guigo de Ponte (Martin 1997). I have elaborated on the meaning and interpreted his approach in Notitia Experimentalis Dei – Experiential Knowledge of God: Hugh of Balma’s Mystical Epistemology of Inner Experience – A Hermeneutic Reconstruction (Walach 2010).

  23. 23.

    While the temporal resolution of the EEG is in the range of milliseconds, that of fMRI is about one second and that of PET is still slower. But PET and fMRI can give a clearer understanding about the localization of activity, and PET can also resolve questions about which particular transmitter systems are active. While EEG data can also be mathematically reconstructed to give information about deeper resonators in the brain, using methods such as LORETA, this is mathematically not trivial and will only reveal activity in still comparatively superficial structures with any certainty.

  24. 24.

    A good overview can be found in Ott et al. 2011. See also Meditation Research: State of the Art (Schmidt and Walach 2014) for a good anthology of recent data and their synthesis.

  25. 25.

    Theravada is the old Buddhist school that traces itself back to the original teachings of Buddha. Here concentrative types of meditation are practiced, but also open monitoring meditation such as mindfulness meditation is central.

  26. 26.

    There are literally hundreds of studies documenting this. Metanalytic reviews generally document robust effect sizes of moderate size that are clinically relevant for the issues at hand. However, what is still unclear is the question of whether meditation itself or mindfulness is the decisive factor, or whether it is rather an unspecific effect of the mix of elements. For instance, our own study (Schmidt et al. 2011), which is probably one of the first and very few actively controlled clinical trials, documented a small specific effect of mindfulness versus active control to about a quarter of a standard deviation. For meta-analytic reviews see Grossman et al. 2004; Piet et al. 2012; Keng et al. 2011; Ledesma and Kumano 2009; Schmidt 2012.

  27. 27.

    This training was inspired by the author’s Zen practice and crucial elements of it are mindfulness and being present in the moment and in times of trouble: Linehan 1993; Linehan et al. 2006.

  28. 28.

    This is similar to what I have mentioned above: sequential operation and holistic operation. A very good comprehensive review of this research is presented by McGilchrist (2009).

  29. 29.

    See Chap. 3, where this question has already been discussed.

  30. 30.

    It is interesting to note that this neurotheological model of Newberg and D’Aquili is very close to the model of personality developed by Kuhl, personality system interaction theory. This also assumes two antagonistically operating systems that are anatomically identical with the two hemispheres. The system that is associated with the left language dominated hemisphere is called intention memory. This consciously focuses on information about aims and goals and is associated with the object recognition system. Its task is the conscious recognition of a lack of coordination of inner goals and outer situations or, in general, the conscious and focused analysis of situations. Both systems together are analogous to the causal operator. Kuhl calls the system that is associated with the non-dominant i.e. right hemisphere of the cortex “extension memory”. This is a mainly implicit and unconsciously operating system that carries all representations of ourself, and is mainly effectively associated with episodic memory. Associated with it is the intuitive behavioural control, which contains automated routines. These two systems are analogous to the gestalt operator. See Kuhl 1994, 2000a, b.

  31. 31.

    Interestingly, men have larger amygdale in general than women, but especially the right amygdala is larger in men, while the left is larger in women. This may explain the male bias to react quickly and automatically to perceived threats and danger. This may also explain why women have a rather more positive attitude towards “soft” issues, such as spirituality or ecology. See Cahill 2006.

  32. 32.

    As aptly expressed by the title of the wonderful book The Ever-Present Origin by Gebser (1985), who would call states of fully integrated enlightenment experiences “integral consciousness”. This is the original source of the term, together with Vivekananda’s usage.; See MacPhail 2013.

  33. 33.

    These systems have often been equated with the executive control system and the alerting system in the terminology proposed by Posner; See Lutz et al. 2008b; Tang and Posner 2009.

  34. 34.

    This combination of physical exercise and mediation technique is probably at the root of the success of Kabat-Zinn’s (2003) structured mindfulness based stress reduction program, mentioned above, in which those elements are combined.

  35. 35.

    Matthew 18:3.

  36. 36.

    Authentic Zen-enlightenment experiences are reported by Kapleau (1969) in his book. The Three Pillars of Zen: Teaching, Practice, Enlightenment. Quite a few of the experiences reported were from Westerners and are not distinguishable by their narratives. Also, in a new qualitative study, Gisela Full interviewed Westerners who have had a deep awakening experience. Some of them had not even heard of the concept before they had the experience, and yet they are, phenomenologically speaking remarkably similar (Data are being prepared for publication).

  37. 37.

    See The Experience of No-Self. A Contemplative Journey (Roberts 1984). Compare also the data in Meditation-induced changes in perception (Full et al. 2013), which indicate that such experiences are indeed factual, although rare.

  38. 38.

    Phil 2:5–7.

  39. 39.

    Bonhöffer was a protestant priest and a member of the resistance circle against Hitler. He was imprisoned in the concentration camp Flossenbürg where he was killed. The prayer cited is from his final diary.

  40. 40.

    Alfred Delpp was a Jesuit priest who was also associated with the resistance circle against Hitler and was killed when found out.

  41. 41.

    The modern theory of science reflection shows that this is not a useful notion of science. Good science doesn’t do that. Compare Fischer 1999, 2003, 2007; Laudan 1977.

  42. 42.

    The encounter between Erich Fromm and Fritz Perls and Zen masters is a prominent example of such encounters in the more recent history of psychology. Jack Kornfield, probably the best known mindfulness teacher in the West, inspired Kabat-Zinn to develop his own training, and the Mind and Life Institute nourishes contacts between neuroscientists and Buddhist meditation; another example of such contact. In this precise intersection the creativity of the life process itself can be seen.

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Walach, H. (2015). Secular, Non-dogmatic Spirituality. In: Secular Spirituality. Studies in Neuroscience, Consciousness and Spirituality, vol 4. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09345-1_5

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