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Spirituality and Happiness: A Neuroscientific Perspective

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Understanding Happiness

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Abstract

Spiritual practices lead to untold benefits, particularly leading to a tranquil and happy mind, besides manifesting a plethora of holistic health benefits. While neuroscience views spirituality as a functioning of the mind, is there more to it? A key focus of the chapter is on advanced imaging modalities like functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), positron emission tomography PET), etc. These non-invasive imaging technologies are greatly furthering our understanding of the intricate mechanisms and connections linking spirituality and happiness/wellbeing. Some of the advances in neuroscience imaging, establishing the crucial link between spirituality-associated structural and functional changes in the brain (neuroplasticity), are discussed. The role of long-term meditation (focused attention, open monitoring, and automatic self-transcending) and music in enhancing the explicit functions of specific areas of the human brain and inducing neuroplasticity are also enumerated. Does being spiritual help in better stress management and a happy mind? This question has been addressed in the light of advances in neurosciences, particularly discussing the role of genetic and epigenetic factors. The spiritual belief system and its concomitant psychological and health benefits are highlighted. Strong research evidence indicates that spiritual practices can be harnessed for cognitive training of military personnel and astronauts and space-farers in future, and amid the current ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, spirituality can help build resilience and help establish a peaceful state of mind. These issues have been addressed in the light of contemporary literature. The last sections of the chapter discuss future perspectives and highlight how, with advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence, it should be possible in future to modulate artificial neural networks to enhance happiness. With the limitations of current modalities to investigate the functioning of the highly complex human brain, neuroscience research is likely to take several years to fully unravel the mysteries of spirituality and consciousness; however, nearly everyone can benefit from the contentment and true happiness that naturally comes from being spiritual!

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank numerous researchers from the core of their hearts, who very kindly shared preprints and pdfs of their research papers on priority even during the prevailing worldwide COVID-19 pandemic when the situation was terrible in many of their respective countries. In fact many of the researchers who helped us were themselves severely affected with COVID-19 or had their near and dear ones in critical condition or even lost their colleagues and family members at that time. Some sent reprints even from their hospital beds. Despite severe constraints, they graciously contributed to this scientific endeavour. We sincerely thank them for their magnanimity. Special thanks are due to Dr. Frederick Travis, Director, Center for Brain, Consciousness and Cognition, Maharishi International University, Fairfield Iowa, USA, Prof. Yoram Barak, Dept Psychological Medicine, Dunedin School of Medicine, Dunedin, New Zealand; Dr. Michael Dambrun, Laboratory of Social and Cognitive Psychology, Université Clermont, Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France; Dr. Christine Parsons, Associate Professor, Interacting Minds Center, Dept. of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Germany; Dr. Antonino Valessi, Department of Neuroscience & Padova Neuroscience Center, University of Padova, Padua, Italy, and Brain Imaging and Neural Dynamics Research Group, IRCCS San Camillo Hospital, Venice, Italy; Prof. M. G. M. Hunink and Prof. M. K. Ikram and Dr. A. I. Luik, Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus MC University Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and Ms. Erica Krus, Management Assistant; Dr. David Muehsam, National Institute of Biostructures and Biosystems, Italy, and Consciousness and Healing Initiative, La Jolla, CA, USA; Dr. Sonia Goulet, Professeure titulaire, École de psychologie, Université Laval, France; Dr. Reza Rostami, Atieh Clinical Neuroscience Centre, Tehran, Iran; Prof. Tommaso Costa, GCS-fMRI and FocusLab, Koelliker Hospital and Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Italy; Prof. Paul Fitzgerald, Professor of Psychiatry, Epworth Healthcare, Director, Epworth Centre for Innovation in Mental Health, Monash University, Australia; Dr. Perla Kaliman, Associate Professor, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain; Dr. Raphaëlle Chaix, Eco-Anthropologie et Ethnobiologie, UMR 7206 CNRS, MNHN, Univ Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, France; Prof. ssa Maria Luisa Rusconi, Department of Human and Social Sciences, University of Bergamo, Italy; Dr. Dilip Jeste, Sam & Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging, University of California San Diego, USA; Dr. Autumn Gallegos Greenwich, University of Rochester Medical Center, New York, USA, and several others, whose names have got inadvertently left out. By the time this book gets published, there are many who are not with us today. Our sincere prayers for the departed souls. Thanks are due to my student Ms. Renu Bala Yadav, for helping with the figures and Mr Tanmay for helping with the section on neural networks. R. A. is thankful to the Director, Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences, Delhi, India, for support and encouragement in multifarious ways.

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The views and opinions expressed in this article, being full of academic/scientific nature, are entirely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of DRDO/Government of India or the Indian Institute of Technology or any other organisation(s) whatsoever. The article contains only unclassified information, and the pictures have been used for illustrative purposes only. No endorsement of any spiritual practise of any religious/spiritual organisation/tradition is made, and the users are advised to exercise their own intellect, wisdom, and discretion before using them.

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  1. Defence Research and Development Organization, Defence Institute of Physiology & Allied Sciences, Delhi, 110054, India

    Rajesh Arora

  2. Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, India

    Manas Kumar Mandal

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  1. Rekhi Centre of Excellence for the Science of Happiness, Kharagpur, West Bengal, India

    Saamdu Chetri

  2. Indian Institute of Management Ranchi, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India

    Tanusree Dutta

  3. Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, West Bengal, India

    Manas Kumar Mandal

  4. Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Rekhi Centre of Excellence for the Science of Happiness, Kharagpur, West Bengal, India

    Priyadarshi Patnaik

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Arora, R., Mandal, M.K. (2023). Spirituality and Happiness: A Neuroscientific Perspective. In: Chetri, S., Dutta, T., Mandal, M.K., Patnaik, P. (eds) Understanding Happiness. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3493-5_2

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