For much of the 20th century, mainstream science shied away from studying spirituality. Sigmund Freud declared God to be a delusion, and others maintained that God, if there is such a thing, is beyond the tools of science to measure. But now, some researchers are using new technologies to try to understand spiritual experience. I spent a year exploring the emerging science of spirituality for my book, Fingerprints of God. One of the questions raised by my reporting: Is an encounter with God merely a chemical reaction?

May 18, 2009 | NPR
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According to polls, there's a 50-50 chance you have had at least one spiritual experience — an overpowering feeling that you've touched God, or another dimension of reality. So, have you ever wondered whether those encounters actually happened — or whether they were all in your head? Scientists say the answer might be both.

May 19, 2009 | NPR

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Scientists are making the first attempts to understand spiritual experience — and what happens in the brains and bodies of people who believe they connect with the divine. The field is called "neurotheology," and although it is new, it's drawing prominent researchers in the U.S. and Canada. Scientists have found that the brains of people who spend untold hours in prayer and meditation are different.

May 20, 2009 | NPR

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Ninety percent of Americans say they pray — for their health, or their love life or their final exams. But does prayer do any good? For decades, scientists have tried to test the power of prayer and positive thinking, with mixed results. Now some scientists are fording new — and controversial — territory.

May 21, 2009 | NPR

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Is God all in our heads—a product of brain chemistry? Or is the human brain like a radio that can tune into the divine?
Feb. 7, 2019 | Medium
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If an anxious, ambitious television star who worries about a theoretical receding hair-line can find some relief, the book suggests, maybe you can, too. Guest interviewer Barbara Bradley Hagerty finds out how ABC's Dan Harris did it.

May 2015 | Interfaith Voices
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Some say it's like the common cold, or a run-of-the-mill dry spell in an intimate relationship. There are times when people of faith feel, for a while, far from God. Guest host Barbara Bradley Hagerty sits down with two spiritual scholars to talk about their own experiences with "the dark night of the soul" and how they get through it.

November 2016 | Interfaith Voices

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We've all heard the stories about near-death experiences: the tunnel, the white light, the encounter with long-dead relatives now looking very much alive.

Scientists have cast a skeptical eye on these accounts. They say that these feelings and visions are simply the result of a brain shutting down.

But now some researchers are giving a closer neurological look at near-death experiences and asking: Can your mind operate when your brain has stopped?

May 22, 2009 | NPR

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