Spirituality and wellness

Is God in our genes?

 Time Oct. 25, 2004
 “Does our DNA compel us to
seek a higher power?”
 Do we seek spiritual outlets
because they are adaptive?
 Does spirituality help humans
cope and flourish?
 Foster health and well-being?
 Buddhist Belief
 Existence of a spirituality “gene”.
 Inherit a tiny fragment from a previous life.

 This small “gene” merges with those we

inherit from our parents.
 Shape our physical and spiritual profile.
 God Gene
 Dean Hamer is a geneticist works at
National Cancer Institute (NIH).
 Ph.D from Harvard Medical School.
 The God Gene: How faith is
hardwired in our genes
 Idea came from a study on smoking
and addiction.
 Temperament and Character Inventory
 TCI designed by Robert Cloninger.
 Researcher on genetics of addiction.
 Self-transcendence trait made up of:
 1) Self-forgetfulness: To get entirely lost
in an experience.
 2) Transpersonal: Connectedness to the
larger universe.
 3) Mysticism: Openness to things not
literally provable.
 Self-transcendence Gene
 Hamer ranked 1000 subjects on Cloninger’s self-
transcendence trait.
 Got DNA samples from subjects.
 Focused in 9 genes involved in production of
monoamine neurotransmitters related to mood and
reward (serotonin, dopamine).
 Gene for vesicular monoamine transporter.
 VMAT gene variation high in those with trait.
 VMAT gene for spirituality?
 Buddhists have found Hamer’s
finding “amusing and fun”.
 What do you think?
 Is our tendency to believe in God
due to levels of our brain
chemicals?
 Most religious leaders are not
impressed.
 John Polkinghorne
 British clergyman.
 Winner of the Templeton Prize in Science
and Religion.
 “You can’t cut faith down to the lowest
denominator of genetic survival. It shows
the poverty of reductionist thinking.”
 Reductionist thinking: The nature of
complex things can always be reduced to
(explained by) simpler or more
fundamental things.
 Spiritual inheritance
 God “gene” may be a stretch.
 But spirituality does convey adaptive value.

 Could be inherited in a broad sense.

 Might help us cope and flourish.

 Promote health and well-being.

 Those who possess this trait more likely to

have productive lives and strong families.
 Minnesota Twin Studies

 MZ twins share more in common than do DZ twins.

 Phobias, illnesses, habits.
 MZ twins more likely to share spirituality but not
religious faith.
 Spirituality is search for meaning in life, need to relate
to something greater than one’s self.
 Religion is how spirituality is channeled by
institutions, specific beliefs and rituals.
 Spirituality and religion

 Spirituality is found in all

human cultures.
 Expressed differently in
religious faiths.
 Common mechanism for
transcendence.
 Changes in Brain Function

 Writing and speaking brain

active now.
 Processing language.
 PET scans show language
areas active.
 Limbic system (emotional
brain) is quiet.
 Path to Meditative State
 Begin meditation exercise.
 Parietal lobe goes quiet:
time and space.
 Frontal lobes becomes more
active.
 Inputs from limbic system.
 Deep Meditation
 Powerful feelings begin to emerge.
 Time and space disappear.
 Feeling of peace.
 Lose world around you.
 Spiritual experience
 Centering prayer.
 Quiet, reflective state.
A meditation class
 What are the benefits?
 Spirituality has a biological expression.
 Benefits: Provides good stress reducer.
 Neuroscientist Michael Persinger:
 “God experience is a brilliant adaptation.
It’s a built-in pacifier.”
 Seek meaning in our lives.
 Hope there is a purpose to it all.
 Religion provides additional benefits.
 Religion and Health
 Most medical schools now expose
students to spiritual issues.
 Harvard Medical School: Armand
Nicholi
 Question of God
 Contrasts Freud and C.S. Lewis.
 Viewpoints about the role of
religion in psychological and
physical health.
 Religion and well-being
 Benefits of participation in
religious behavior.
 Not just beliefs.
 Those that attend services on
regular basis report greater
well-being and better health.
 More than just social
association.
 Six factors
 1. Provides Social support
 Social support strong predictor of
well-being.
 Community of like minded
individuals.
 Social psych: we strongest bond
with others like ourselves.
 Help others with problems in
mind, body and spirit.
 2. Support Health Lifestyles
 Many religions urge moderation
in use of alcohol and drugs.
 Some prohibit use.
 Others promote family
guidelines.
 Discourage other risky behavior.
 Natural helpers: Referral sources.
 3. Personality Integration
 Deeper commitment helps
people focus on goals and
strivings.
 Life-long path of discovery.
 Meditation and prayer help us
integrate our personalities.
 Who we are and what we are
about.
 4. Increase Generativity
 Erik Erickson’s Developmental Stages
 Stage Seven – later adulthood, marked
by generativity versus stagnation
 In this stage generativity refers to the
adult's ability to care for another person.
 Not just your own children but the next
generation(s).
 5. Unique Coping Strategies
 Providing hope, optimism.
 Relief from stressors.
 Place lives in a greater
perspective.
 Positive forms: Working with
higher power to get through
difficulty.
 Negative forms (guilt and
blaming) offer no relief.
 6. Sense of Purpose
 Life has meaning and purpose.
 Religion provides framework for
life’s journey.
 Traditions and rites of passage.
 Add meaning to events.
 Good times and bad.
 Sense of control: Not just pawns.
 Not alone on our journey
 Prayer: “You are close to us as breathing and
further than the farthest most star.”
 Provides moral code of conduct.

 Most religions have a version of “do unto

others as you would have them to unto you.”
 Foster a sense of self-worth, shared meaning
from the community.
 Dark Side of Religion
 Religion can become evil.
 Religious wars.
 Exclude and devalue
others who don’t share
your beliefs.
 Ethnic cleansing.
 John Lennon’s dream of a
perfect world with “no
religion too”.
 Benefits from other sources?
 Commitment to an important cause.
 Examples: Promoting peace, protecting
nature, securing equality.
 Might provide sense of purpose, social
support, generativity, personality
integration.
 Healthy lifestyle?

 Unique coping strategies?

 Spirituality takes many forms.
 Have to be engaged.
 Not just beliefs, but also actions.
 Benefits come from active
participation.
 Walk the talk.
 Generativity: Care for the next
generation.
 Amazing returns on your
investment.