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Storms, eclipses, earthquakes, and other “inexplicable” phenomena were once attributed to God(s), but as our grasp of the natural has expanded, so the authority of the supernatural has waned. Religious experiences, much like storms, eclipses, and earthquakes, were once beyond our comprehension, and with no other way to explain them, it is reasonable that feelings of love, hope, joy, power, significance, and transcendence – experienced in a religious context – might be attributed to God. A growing body of evidence from fields such as neuroscience, psychopathology, pharmacology, and psychology is, however, starting to provide fascinating new insights into this once inexplicable phenomenon.
In Manufacturing Mania, John Hunter brings this evidence together in an accessible way, explaining that states typically associated with certain mental disorders are often interpreted as religious experiences, that similar states can be induced in healthy people by manipulating brain chemistry, that a natural process can manipulate brain chemistry in the way described, and that Christianity, whether intentionally or not, makes use of this process. The result is a compelling argument that what many perceive as religious experiences may simply be abnormal brain states that occur with the right priming and in the right context.
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