What happens in your brain when you reach a meditative state? By using brain imaging on Buddhist monks, Dr. Andrew Newberg has discovered that meditation can lead to a decrease in activity in the part of the brain responsible for orientation and an increase in the area that is active when you focus on a specific task. This can certainly match the meditative experience of being outside of space and time. Dr. Newberg has been using research such as this to explain why humans continue to believe in the mystical and, indeed, in God. “Our brains may, in fact, be naturally calibrated to spirituality.” This trait may have been essential to our survival. Our reality of knowledge and emotions can be a scary place without faith, whether you place it in yourself or others. (This article reminded me of a Wired Magazine piece called “This Is Your Brain on God” which described Michael Persinger’s quest to invoke spiritual experiences by tickling people’s temporal lobes.)