March 1st Notes REL 304 The Physiological Foundations of Religion Bodily states and Mental experience - Body

dy shapes experience - Body motivates behavior - Body conditions sense of self The brain is embodied and the body is embedded Early ideas in the biological study of religion - G. Staley Halls development psychology of religion an individuals religious development follows their physiological development o Maturity >>> Religiosity>>> - Temperament and religious types an individuals prevailing mood and emotional reactivity shape their religious experience. - Constitution and religious types physical body proportions (together with temperament) shape the way we perceive and express religion - Hypnotism minds that are easily susceptible to hypnotic suggestion are also more prone to inner thoughts and experiences taken to be religions in nature Bodily States and Religious Experience 1. Bodily conditions profoundly influence psychological states, including those commonly understood to be religious or spiritual Religious rituals and practices (physical) > Spiritual experience (mental) > Religious teachings and institutions (cultural) Religious teachings interpret mental experience in a particular way and the experience in turn confirms the religious teaching Experience > Belief >Experience > Belief (tautology circular) 2. Most religious rituals and spiritual practices are techniques that manipulate bodily processes to produce a desired emotions and states of consciousness. 3. Religious rituals and practices can manipulated physiological conditions in three principal ways: a. Under-stimulation of bodily states i. Fasting ii. Meditation iii. Prayer b. Overstimulation of bodily states i. Ecstatic dance and music ii. Rites of passage iii. Worship iv. Pilgrimage v. Physical pain

vi. Sex c. Alteration of mental states (direct) i. Non-hallucinatory trance ii. Drug altered consciousness Humans are embodied beings non merely psychic entities. Mental states are directly dependent on bodily conditions.