Hello and welcome to the psychology podcast with Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman where we give you insights into the mind, brain, behavior, and creativity.

Each episode will feature a new guest who will stimulate your mind and give you a greater understanding of yourself, others, and the world we live in.

Hopefully we'll also provide a glimpse into human possibility.

Thanks for listening and enjoy the last. So today I'm really excited to have Dr. Andrew Newburgh on the show.

Andy is a neuroscientist who studies the relationship between brain function and various mental

states.

He is a pioneer in the neurological study of religious and spiritual experiences

a field known as neurotheology.

His research includes taking brain scans of people in prayer, meditation, rituals, and

trans-states in an attempt to better understand the nature of religious and spiritual practices and

attitudes. His latest books are how God changes your brain and how enlightenment changes your

brain. Thanks so much for talking to him in with me today Andrew.

Oh thanks Scott, thanks for having my on your program.

Wow, you study some pretty hefty topics.

You know, have you always sort of thought at this kind of really

existential deep level like is this was a kid did you were you fascinated with these

kinds of questions? I think I really was you know it's something that when I was a

kid, I was always asking questions. And you know, it was funny, I was very disturbed by the fact that there were people who had different religions or different political,

you know, different political parties and perspectives of course very relevant today.

You know I felt like well if we're all looking at the same world how can we all

haven't come to the same conclusion shouldn't there be some uniform answer that we all

come to and clearly I mean when you do look at religious

...