Why God Won't Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief

Book memo

The author demonstrates the relationship between mystical experience and brain activities. Of course, the result is interesting to me, but I think that the mystical experience which enables us to be part of everything is the ultimate state of mystical experience. From Wilber’s perspectives, that kind of the mystical experience could be categorized into “nondual” state. However, there is a variety of states of consciousness up to the nondual state: gross, subtle, causal, and witnessing state. So, I’m curious about how our brain states changes in accordance with the alteration of the consciousness states.

Furthermore, the author elucidates the relationship between mystical experiences and human brain in terms of neurobiology. Also, the author explains: “Humans, in fact, are natural mystics blessed with an inborn genius for effortless self-transcendence.” However, why do we have such an intrinsic characteristic? Is the process toward self-transcendence a manifestation of human evolution?