2005 Conference Report

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2005 Conference Report
by Ted Laurenson

Star 2005: Varieties of Spiritual Transformation: Scientific and Religious Perspectives

The question of whether at least some kinds of spiritual transformation represent encounters with aspects of how things "really are," as opposed to naturalistic products of our amazingly complex minds, bodies and socially constructed selves, hovered over this conference like a ghost, awaiting its summoning at the final conference session. There, conferees and speakers openly debated - but of course did not resolve - the issue, bringing to a close both an interesting and, depending on the attendee, enthralling or somewhat frustrating week that dealt with some of the most difficult to define, least grippable, aspects of human experience. Because the subject was bound to elicit highly varying responses, I will focus to a greater extent than usual in these newsletter recapitulations on my own responses.

The conference was organized by co-chairs Andy Newberg and Karl Peters. Karl, an emeritus professor of philosophy and religion at Rollins College, co-editor of Zygon and long-time IRAS officer (including past president), also served splendidly as the chapel speaker. Andy, a psychiatrist, radiologist and researcher at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, both delivered the keynote address and the Sunday evening lecture.

Karl's deeply naturalistic and profoundly personal chapel presentations were informed by a wide-ranging knowledge of religious narratives, symbolism and their interpretation. In them he explored the manner in which both ordinary and extraordinary, but nevertheless to-be-expected, events of our lives - ranging from the transitions entailed by anyone's life development to coping with death and tragic injury - can open up vistas of self understanding and creative ways of encountering both the world and the self that partake of the deep and the sacred. His emphasis on personal openness as both the result of and path to transformation fittingly framed the week's discussions.

In his keynote address Andy voiced a tribute to long-time, now deceased, IRAS member Eugene D'Aquili, with whom he first collaborated in his brain-imaging investigations of the neurological correlates of meditational and related mystical experiences. He then conducted the audience experiment of asking members to raise their hands if they felt that they had themselves had important personal transformative experiences. On a further poll, most people who responded further indicated that they classified their experiences as religious or mystical. Noting that this was typical, Andy went on to emphasize that such experiences could be either negative or positive and can affect people personally, socially, biologically and in their responses to the non-human environment.

University of Pennsylvania anthropologist Sol Katz, another past president and long-time IRAS stalwart and principal organizer of a number of research projects on spiritual transformation funded by the John Templeton Foundation through the MetaNexus Institute (of which Sol is president), noted in following comments that such transformations involve the internal perception of a dramatic change in the self. True to his anthropological perspective, Sol emphasized cultural differences in the manner in which people interpret these experiences, that they can arise both spontaneously and as a result of extensive practice, and the desirability of both tolerating and engaging the uncertainties that such a perspective entails. In the final plenary lecture at the end of the week, Sol would seek to link personal transformation to biological and cultural mechanisms of adaptation and revitalization. In addition, he put forth a speculative suggestion concerning differences between the brain chemistry of humans and other primates that might account for our capacity for mystical experiences.

In one of his customary splendid meditations, Phil Hefner, emeritus professor of theology at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, Zygon co-editor with Karl and the third member of this conference's triumvirate of IRAS's most venerable luminaries, framed spiritual transformation in the context of the human imaginative capacities and open-ended possibilities, both incomplete and incompletable. In his view we encounter, both in such experiences and their contemplation, the sacred, the mysterium tremendum, which is not about morality but power. Yet the sacred infuses the ordinary, and it is because it never altogether stops being ordinary that we can study it scientifically. Organized religion, Phil said, both seeks to foster such experiences and to channel them, as well as to help sustain those for whom such experiences do not occur. However, both vigilance and discernment are required to separate the ersatz from the superficial, the easy tendencies of a self-help culture, and to resist the myth of technological control that would seek to reduce our encounters with the ultimate to the everyday. Taking up a common theme with Sol, Phil emphasized the importance of the revitalizing capacities of individual transformative experiences for cultures as a whole and the necessity to engage those experiences as an urgent reality in dealing with humanity's many challenges.

Andy's plenary talk masterfully recapitulated his and Gene D'Aquili's and others' brain research and the epistemological conundrums inherent in the discussion of whether the brain truly experiences another realm in meditational states that perceive "absolute unitary being." Because that work and those arguments have been the subject of previous IRAS presentations and, among other things, a number of Zygon articles, I will simply note that the utility of the research was the subject of considerable skepticism on the part of the some members of the hard-headed medical/scientific component of the audience. Several of that cadre took the view that we remain far too ignorant of fundamental brain functioning to gain useful insight into the nature of mystical experience with the gross investigational tools now available. This skepticism does not deny that portions of the brain appear to be differentially activated in the process of meditation and deep prayer, but it denies that such observations confer any real knowledge. Nevertheless - and despite the fact that it is virtually impossible to investigate even this kind of brain correlate of unplanned (and unplannable) epiphenal experiences - many in the audience found Andy's presentation deeply engaging.

The attractive presentations by David Hufford, professor of too many things to list at Penn State College of Medicine (although not a medical doctor), and Bruce Greyson, professor of psychiatry and personality studies at the University of Virginia Medical School, focused on the individual phenomenology of experiences shared by many people. David described terrifying experiences during sleep paralysis of an evil being seeking to crush one's capacity to breathe while Bruce dealt with the better known (in our culture) encounter with divine light in near death experiences. Both David and Bruce cited evidence that these kinds of experiences occur cross-culturally and are uncorrelated with prior religious belief, and that they carry a profound psychological impact - in one case of an encounter with pure evil, the other of ultimate good. Persons who have had near death experiences are particularly likely to change their religious outlooks by developing a more loving personal spirituality, but not generally a devotion to social good. While rigorous in their presentations, David and Bruce adamantly refused to take a position as to whether such experiences are "merely" brain-based, with both insisting on the need to respect people's own phenomenological reports. David, who separately discussed showered-by-light mystical experiences at the beginning of his talk and made himself available in a workshop to talk with conference attendees about their own experiences, equally refused to dismiss the possible objective reality of alien abduction experiences.

In discussing empathetically based spiritual healing practices in Puerto Rico, Joan Koss-Chioino, emerita professor of anthropology at Arizona State University, used film clips to demonstrate the healers' practices. She went on to focus on way the healers establish a direct emotional connection with group members attending a healing session, in contrast to the cooler scientific approach of Western medicine. Again, she refused to answer questions concerning her own belief, or not, in the spirits invoked by the healers. Although working from an altogether different tradition grounded in traditional psychotherapeutic practices, Richard Schwartz, founder of the Center for Self Leadership in Illinois, used similar tools to illustrate his compassionate approach to therapy. He showed how he concentrates on helping patients discover and bring to the fore parts of themselves they have previously rejected (or suppressed) to engage in a kind of caring and connected, and ultimately transforming, self dialogue.

Rounding out the social science presentations, on Tuesday night Jean Kristeller, professor of psychology at Indiana State University, presented the results of research, largely conducted in geographical area where she teaches, showing interesting correlations between various religious and spiritual orientations and measures of physical and emotional health. Mystical or other self-described transformative spiritual experiences were not common in her study groups, however. Separately, she readily acknowledged a lack of data demonstrating an effect of spiritual orientations or practices on the course of cancer. In front porch and cocktail party conversation Jean demonstrated a remarkable range of knowledge concerning research in the area and deep methodological sophistication that would make her a natural candidate for further involvement in IRAS's investigations.

Finally, circling back to the high theoretical, Ashok Gangadean, professor of philosophy at Haverford College, articulated a view of Eastern-oriented logic that, he argued, cast into a different, and less dominating, light the traditional dualistic approaches of Western philosophy. Ashok's attractive and charismatic lecture style elicited a number of respectful but skeptical comments from the audience, to which he responded candidly and without apology, and he frequently commented on his positive evaluation of other speakers' openness to varying approaches.

As always at IRAS conferences, this cornucopia of principal presentations was accompanied by an amazing variety of workshops, musical presentations by the talented pick-up choir, wonderful and personally revealing candlelight presentations, interesting movies and dancing late into the evening, combined with the many rich personal interactions for which the conferences are famous. While my own participation concentrated on workshops related to religious naturalism, others reported deep and personally useful experiences in small groups organized to foster caring interchanges in response to the conference theme. Set in the crystalline beauty of Star, the conference represented a worthy continuation of IRAS's ongoing exploration of the mysteries we were organized to investigate and bring into dialogue.

| HOME | ACTIVITIES | CONFERENCE | PUBLICATIONS | AFFILIATIONS | ORIGINS | MEMBERSHIP | LINKS | GALLERY |

Copyright © 2006 The Institute on Religion in an Age of Science, Inc.

	*Working for a dynamic and positive relationship between religion and science since 1954.* \| HOME \| ACTIVITIES \| CONFERENCE \| PUBLICATIONS \| AFFILIATIONS \| ORIGINS \| MEMBERSHIP \| LINKS \| GALLERY \|
	2005 Conference Report by Ted Laurenson
	Star 2005: Varieties of Spiritual Transformation: Scientific and Religious Perspectives The question of whether at least some kinds of spiritual transformation represent encounters with aspects of how things "really are," as opposed to naturalistic products of our amazingly complex minds, bodies and socially constructed selves, hovered over this conference like a ghost, awaiting its summoning at the final conference session. There, conferees and speakers openly debated - but of course did not resolve - the issue, bringing to a close both an interesting and, depending on the attendee, enthralling or somewhat frustrating week that dealt with some of the most difficult to define, least grippable, aspects of human experience. Because the subject was bound to elicit highly varying responses, I will focus to a greater extent than usual in these newsletter recapitulations on my own responses. The conference was organized by co-chairs Andy Newberg and Karl Peters. Karl, an emeritus professor of philosophy and religion at Rollins College, co-editor of Zygon and long-time IRAS officer (including past president), also served splendidly as the chapel speaker. Andy, a psychiatrist, radiologist and researcher at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, both delivered the keynote address and the Sunday evening lecture. Karl's deeply naturalistic and profoundly personal chapel presentations were informed by a wide-ranging knowledge of religious narratives, symbolism and their interpretation. In them he explored the manner in which both ordinary and extraordinary, but nevertheless to-be-expected, events of our lives - ranging from the transitions entailed by anyone's life development to coping with death and tragic injury - can open up vistas of self understanding and creative ways of encountering both the world and the self that partake of the deep and the sacred. His emphasis on personal openness as both the result of and path to transformation fittingly framed the week's discussions. In his keynote address Andy voiced a tribute to long-time, now deceased, IRAS member Eugene D'Aquili, with whom he first collaborated in his brain-imaging investigations of the neurological correlates of meditational and related mystical experiences. He then conducted the audience experiment of asking members to raise their hands if they felt that they had themselves had important personal transformative experiences. On a further poll, most people who responded further indicated that they classified their experiences as religious or mystical. Noting that this was typical, Andy went on to emphasize that such experiences could be either negative or positive and can affect people personally, socially, biologically and in their responses to the non-human environment. University of Pennsylvania anthropologist Sol Katz, another past president and long-time IRAS stalwart and principal organizer of a number of research projects on spiritual transformation funded by the John Templeton Foundation through the MetaNexus Institute (of which Sol is president), noted in following comments that such transformations involve the internal perception of a dramatic change in the self. True to his anthropological perspective, Sol emphasized cultural differences in the manner in which people interpret these experiences, that they can arise both spontaneously and as a result of extensive practice, and the desirability of both tolerating and engaging the uncertainties that such a perspective entails. In the final plenary lecture at the end of the week, Sol would seek to link personal transformation to biological and cultural mechanisms of adaptation and revitalization. In addition, he put forth a speculative suggestion concerning differences between the brain chemistry of humans and other primates that might account for our capacity for mystical experiences. In one of his customary splendid meditations, Phil Hefner, emeritus professor of theology at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, Zygon co-editor with Karl and the third member of this conference's triumvirate of IRAS's most venerable luminaries, framed spiritual transformation in the context of the human imaginative capacities and open-ended possibilities, both incomplete and incompletable. In his view we encounter, both in such experiences and their contemplation, the sacred, the mysterium tremendum, which is not about morality but power. Yet the sacred infuses the ordinary, and it is because it never altogether stops being ordinary that we can study it scientifically. Organized religion, Phil said, both seeks to foster such experiences and to channel them, as well as to help sustain those for whom such experiences do not occur. However, both vigilance and discernment are required to separate the ersatz from the superficial, the easy tendencies of a self-help culture, and to resist the myth of technological control that would seek to reduce our encounters with the ultimate to the everyday. Taking up a common theme with Sol, Phil emphasized the importance of the revitalizing capacities of individual transformative experiences for cultures as a whole and the necessity to engage those experiences as an urgent reality in dealing with humanity's many challenges. Andy's plenary talk masterfully recapitulated his and Gene D'Aquili's and others' brain research and the epistemological conundrums inherent in the discussion of whether the brain truly experiences another realm in meditational states that perceive "absolute unitary being." Because that work and those arguments have been the subject of previous IRAS presentations and, among other things, a number of Zygon articles, I will simply note that the utility of the research was the subject of considerable skepticism on the part of the some members of the hard-headed medical/scientific component of the audience. Several of that cadre took the view that we remain far too ignorant of fundamental brain functioning to gain useful insight into the nature of mystical experience with the gross investigational tools now available. This skepticism does not deny that portions of the brain appear to be differentially activated in the process of meditation and deep prayer, but it denies that such observations confer any real knowledge. Nevertheless - and despite the fact that it is virtually impossible to investigate even this kind of brain correlate of unplanned (and unplannable) epiphenal experiences - many in the audience found Andy's presentation deeply engaging. The attractive presentations by David Hufford, professor of too many things to list at Penn State College of Medicine (although not a medical doctor), and Bruce Greyson, professor of psychiatry and personality studies at the University of Virginia Medical School, focused on the individual phenomenology of experiences shared by many people. David described terrifying experiences during sleep paralysis of an evil being seeking to crush one's capacity to breathe while Bruce dealt with the better known (in our culture) encounter with divine light in near death experiences. Both David and Bruce cited evidence that these kinds of experiences occur cross-culturally and are uncorrelated with prior religious belief, and that they carry a profound psychological impact - in one case of an encounter with pure evil, the other of ultimate good. Persons who have had near death experiences are particularly likely to change their religious outlooks by developing a more loving personal spirituality, but not generally a devotion to social good. While rigorous in their presentations, David and Bruce adamantly refused to take a position as to whether such experiences are "merely" brain-based, with both insisting on the need to respect people's own phenomenological reports. David, who separately discussed showered-by-light mystical experiences at the beginning of his talk and made himself available in a workshop to talk with conference attendees about their own experiences, equally refused to dismiss the possible objective reality of alien abduction experiences. In discussing empathetically based spiritual healing practices in Puerto Rico, Joan Koss-Chioino, emerita professor of anthropology at Arizona State University, used film clips to demonstrate the healers' practices. She went on to focus on way the healers establish a direct emotional connection with group members attending a healing session, in contrast to the cooler scientific approach of Western medicine. Again, she refused to answer questions concerning her own belief, or not, in the spirits invoked by the healers. Although working from an altogether different tradition grounded in traditional psychotherapeutic practices, Richard Schwartz, founder of the Center for Self Leadership in Illinois, used similar tools to illustrate his compassionate approach to therapy. He showed how he concentrates on helping patients discover and bring to the fore parts of themselves they have previously rejected (or suppressed) to engage in a kind of caring and connected, and ultimately transforming, self dialogue. Rounding out the social science presentations, on Tuesday night Jean Kristeller, professor of psychology at Indiana State University, presented the results of research, largely conducted in geographical area where she teaches, showing interesting correlations between various religious and spiritual orientations and measures of physical and emotional health. Mystical or other self-described transformative spiritual experiences were not common in her study groups, however. Separately, she readily acknowledged a lack of data demonstrating an effect of spiritual orientations or practices on the course of cancer. In front porch and cocktail party conversation Jean demonstrated a remarkable range of knowledge concerning research in the area and deep methodological sophistication that would make her a natural candidate for further involvement in IRAS's investigations. Finally, circling back to the high theoretical, Ashok Gangadean, professor of philosophy at Haverford College, articulated a view of Eastern-oriented logic that, he argued, cast into a different, and less dominating, light the traditional dualistic approaches of Western philosophy. Ashok's attractive and charismatic lecture style elicited a number of respectful but skeptical comments from the audience, to which he responded candidly and without apology, and he frequently commented on his positive evaluation of other speakers' openness to varying approaches. As always at IRAS conferences, this cornucopia of principal presentations was accompanied by an amazing variety of workshops, musical presentations by the talented pick-up choir, wonderful and personally revealing candlelight presentations, interesting movies and dancing late into the evening, combined with the many rich personal interactions for which the conferences are famous. While my own participation concentrated on workshops related to religious naturalism, others reported deep and personally useful experiences in small groups organized to foster caring interchanges in response to the conference theme. Set in the crystalline beauty of Star, the conference represented a worthy continuation of IRAS's ongoing exploration of the mysteries we were organized to investigate and bring into dialogue.

	\| HOME \| ACTIVITIES \| CONFERENCE \| PUBLICATIONS \| AFFILIATIONS \| ORIGINS \| MEMBERSHIP \| LINKS \| GALLERY \| Copyright © 2006 The Institute on Religion in an Age of Science, Inc.