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On Point | Podcast

What neuroscience tells us about spiritual experiences

On Point | Podcast

WBUR

Talk Show, Daily News, News, Npr, On Point, Daily

4.23.5K Ratings

🗓️ 21 July 2023

⏱️ 49 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What happens in the brain when you pray or meditate? Neurotheology explores the connection between our synapses and spiritual revelations.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Fred Redis and his sister were in the ICU waiting at their mother's bedside.

0:05.9

She was 84, suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and in the last moments

0:11.0

of her life.

0:12.3

We stood by her side and I see you for hours and we wanted to be there like everybody

0:20.3

I guess at the moment the person dies.

0:23.1

Evening came, a doctor suggested they take a break.

0:26.4

Their home was just over the hill from the hospital.

0:28.9

And so we went home and my sister was lying in my mom's bed and I was standing next

0:36.1

to the white baby grand piano and my mom loved the place.

0:39.2

She was all about music and musical instruments and I never really liked that clock but anyway

0:44.9

I looked at it and I noted that it was 641.

0:53.0

My mom's dog was sitting at my feet and I bent down to pet her and just after I looked

1:00.3

at the clock and that's when I got this heavy pressure.

1:05.8

It was a warm pressure sensation at the face of my spine that just moved gently up.

1:11.8

It was really pleasant and peaceful and it was unlike anything I'd ever experienced

1:19.3

ever.

1:20.3

That's the best way I can describe it, the indescribable and I knew it was mom's spirit.

1:27.6

Just at that moment the phone rang and my sister picked it up.

1:30.7

It was the hospital saying my mom had just died at 641.

1:37.7

Fred believes it was not a coincidence.

1:40.2

As he said, to him that warm, peaceful sensation was his mother making one last visit in spirit.

1:47.9

He changed the way he thinks about death, especially now that he's in his 70s.

...

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