Soul, Psyche, Brain: New Directions in the Study of Religion and Brain-Mind Science [Hardcover]

Kelly Bulkeley (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1403965080 | ISBN-13: 978-1403965080 | Publication Date: October 20, 2005 | Edition: First Edition

Soul, Psyche, Brain is a collection of essays that address the relationships between neuroscience, religion and human nature. The book highlights some startling new developments in neuroscience that have many people rethinking spirituality, the mind-body connection, and cognition in general. Soul, Psyche, Brain explores questions like: What are the neurological effects of meditation and prayer? How does the mind develop psychological and spiritual self-awareness? And what are the practical implications of brain-mind science for religious faith and moral reasoning?

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Soul, Psyche, Brain has successfully re-set the starting point for any serious interdisciplinary conversation on the topic of religion. By so doing, this book at once updates all parties, levels the intellectual playing field, and lays open new possibilities for collaborative research-both reflective and empirical-on the topic of religion across a broad range of disciplines."--Nina P. Azari, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Hawaii at Hilo

"Bulkeley provides a unique and valuable resource reporting from the cutting edges of the encounter between neuroscience and religion. Fields as diverse as emotion and dream studies, complexity theory, spiritual development, Christian and non-Christian theology--and more--contribute to the ferment. Those working in any or all of these areas will find here resources to stretch their mind."--Carol Rausch Albright, author of The Humanizing Brain: Where Religion and Neuroscience Meet

About the Author

Kelly Bulkeley, Ph.D. teaches at the Graduate Theological Union and John F. Kennedy University. He is author and editor of several books on religion, psychology, and dreams, including The Wondering Brain, Dreams: A Reader, Visions of the Night, and The Wilderness of Dreams.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; First Edition edition (October 20, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1403965080
• ISBN-13: 978-1403965080
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,392,097 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The New Face of Interdisciplinary Studies of Mind, Brain and Spirituality, September 17, 2007

By 

Dr. Richard G. Petty (Atlanta) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Soul, Psyche, Brain: New Directions in the Study of Religion and Brain-Mind Science (Paperback)

One of the most important undertakings in neuroscience and psychology is to try and achieve a rapprochement between different observations and descriptions of experience: to honor, respect and embrace physical, psychological and spiritual experiences without trying to reduce them to physical accidents.

This undertaking matters: how we see ourselves and our experiences has everything to do with the way in which we treat each other, the other inhabitants of our world and the planet itself. If we allow ourselves to believe the fiction that we live in a meaningless clockwork universe, there is little to restrain the rampant bullying, exploitation and disregard for life that we see all around us. If done well, books like this one can do a great deal to expand our worldview without falling into the traps of materialism or solipsism. And this book is very well done.

The editor - Kelly Bulkeley - teaches Religion and Psychology at San Francisco Theological Seminary and at Santa Clara University in California. His name has become well known in the arena of dream studies: he is a former President of the Association for the Study of Dreams and is the author of several books on dreams.

In Soul, Psyche, Brain he has enlisted a number of experts to contribute essays that address the relationships between neuroscience, religion and human nature.

The book highlights some important new developments in neuroscience that are generally not well known outside the field. Some may have a great many implications for cognition, consciousness, spirituality and link between the mind and body. Each has many practical implications, not only for how we see ourselves, but also for the neuroscience of ethics, morality and the law.

The contributors include religious scholars, psychologists and a physicist. The resulting dialogue and discussion is an excellent example of what can be achieved by a high level multidisciplinary exchange by people who know their own field, as well as comprehending the nuances of others' areas of expertise. It is also striking how far we have come form the days when many authors tried to reduce profound spiritual and mystical experiences to neurological puzzles or some half-understood interpretation of theoretical physics.

Since the contents of the book are not yet available on the Amazon website, and the pre-publication chapter list is slightly different from the one in the book, here is a brief breakdown of the chapters and contributors. Kelly Bulkeley begins with an excellent overview, followed by twelve chapters:

1. Genes, Brains, Minds: The Human Complex: Holmes Rolston III
2. Brain, Mind, and Spirit - A Clinician's Perspective, or, Why I Am Not Afraid of Dualism: James W. Jones
3. Psychoneurology Dimensions of Anomalous Experience in Relation to Religious Belief and Spiritual Practice: Stanley Krippner
4. Sacred Emotions: Robert A. Emmons
5. Where Neurocognition Meets the Master: Attention and Metacognition in Zen: Tracey L. Kahan and Patricia M. Simone
6. From Chaos to Self-Organization: The Brain, Dreaming, and Religious Experience: David Kahn
7. Converting: Toward a Cognitive Theory of Religious Change: Patricia M. Davis and Lewis R. Rambo
8. Cognitive Science and Christian Theology: Charlene P.E. Burns
9. Overcoming an Impoverished Ontology: Candrakirti on Buddhism and the Mind-Brain Problem: Richard K. Payne
10. Religion and Brain-Mind Science: Dreaming the Future: Kelly Bulkeley
11. Religion out of Mind: The Ideology of Cognitive Science and Religion: Jeremy Carrette
12. Brain Science on Ethics: The Neurobiology of Making Choices: Walter J. Freeman

Each chapter has a self-contained reference list, and there is a decent index.

There are many nuggets in this book, but a few of my favorites: Sacred emotions; Attention and metacognition in Zen; Dreaming and religious experience: Candrakirti and the mind-brain problem. I particularly liked the last of these: Candrakirti wrote a famous commentary on the thought of the Buddhist sage Nagarjuna, but I have not seen much about his work that is quite as clear as Richard Payne's essay in this book.

For anyone interested in the interface between the brain, consciousness and spirituality, there is a great deal of exceptionally interesting material in this book, and I recommend it highly.

Richard G. Petty, MD, author of Healing, Meaning and Purpose: The Magical Power of the Emerging Laws of Life

4.0 out of 5 stars A Lot of Great Authors and Information, February 20, 2011

By 

cporras - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Soul, Psyche, Brain: New Directions in the Study of Religion and Brain-Mind Science (Hardcover)

There are some amazing authors in this book and the subject of mindfulness, mystics, and Spirituality. I would recommend this book.Soul, Psyche, Brain: New Directions in the Study of Religion and Brain-Mind Science