Abstract
The classical work by William James in context of current ideas in religion and modern psychology points to the difference between a “moralist” and a religious or mystical understanding. James described that specific psychological mechanisms related to religious experience (“re-unification”) are compensatory influences on divided consciousness or heterogeneous self, which is determined by a conflict between moral and immoral behavior symbolized by a personified evil as for example the ‘Satan’. According to recent findings there is not widely accepted evidence about specific neural mechanisms of these processes related to psychological integration and re-unification. Nevertheless recent findings indicate very specific and significant influences of these specific experiences related to meditation on brain functions and morphology.
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Laker, M.K. Religious Experiences and Mind-Brain Sciences in the 21st Century. Act Nerv Super 57, 34–41 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03379622
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03379622