The Cognitive Neuroscience of Religious Experience

Patrick McNamara is Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Northcentral University, California. For 20 years he was based at Boston University School of Medicine where he was Associate Professor of Neurology. He has published extensively on the topics of neurology and psychology of religion, including Religion, Neuroscience and the Self: A New Personalism (2020). He is a founding editor of Religion, Brain and Behavior, and co-founder of the Institute for the Biocultural Study of Religion.

• Acknowledgments; 1. Introduction: assumptions and reasons; 2. On decentering; 3. On the self and the divided self; 4. The cultural and evolutionary background to the neuroscience of religion; 5. Neurology of religious experiences; 6. Psychedelics and religious experiences; 7. Mystical experiences; 8. Religious experiences and transformative experiences; 9. Supernatural agents and god concepts; 10. Ritual; 11. Religious language; 12. Group effects and religion.

'A very welcome update of the most important book to date on the neuroscience of religion.' Robin Dunbar, Professor of Evolutionary Psychology, University of Oxford, UK