It all started with Tylenol. Until the age of 34, as a faithful Christian Scientist, I had never swallowed an aspirin or visited the doctor, except for the time I was rushed, unconscious, to the hospital after falling off a horse. But on that fateful day in 1994, I broke down and popped a Tylenol.

That one rebellious act led to more serious questions. Can I have faith in my religion? What can I believe? And then, a series of scientific questions: Why are some people more spiritual than others? Is there a God gene? Is there a God spot in the brain, a place where God communicates with us? Are we hard-wired to connect with God? Can we train ourselves to access another, spiritual realm? Is there life after death? And for that matter, is there any evidence for God at all?

These questions launched me on a scientific and spiritual journey. I interviewed some of the world’s top scientists to describe what their groundbreaking research reveals about our human spiritual experience. In the process, I studied the brains of Buddhist monks and Carmelite nuns while meditating, traveled to a peyote ceremony in Arizona, flew to Canada to don the “God helmet, and persuaded a neuroscientist at the University of Pennsylvania to record my brain activity as I prayed in a scanner. I may not be able to give you absolute answers, but you will surely feel provoked, energized, and richer at the end of our journey.

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