Intersecting Religion and Neuroscience

In November 2005, Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibetan Buddhism, gave a speech at the 35th annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) in Washington, DC. His talk was the first of the “Dialogues between Neuroscience and Society” series, intended to involve non-scientists in the SfN’s annual conference. The reasoning behind him being invited to speak at the meeting was the recent output of studies regarding the effects of meditation, especially Buddhist meditation, on brain function (Epstein, 2005). One highly influential study, conducted by a research team led by Richard Davidson from the University of Wisconsin and published one year prior to this meeting*, demonstrated that Tibetan monks showed more gamma wave activity than less experienced meditators (Lutz, Greischar, Rawlings, Ricard & Davidson, 2004). Given that this activity is typically associated with functions such as perception and consciousness, these findings suggested that meditation may be linked to improvements in brain functioning concerning these domains. Another notable investigation conducted by researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital found increased cortical thickness in more experienced meditators (Lazar et al., 2005).

Despite the potential validity and utility of meditation research, many members of the SfN were outraged that a religious and political leader would be speaking at a neuroscience conference. Some of these members emphasized that the purpose of these conferences was to highlight new advances in research within the discipline, an aspect which the Dalai Lama’s speech would be lacking (Kaufman, 2005). Others criticized the robustness of meditation research itself. However, the primary source of the upset was the bridging of science and religion, with many members suggesting that a religious figure had no business speaking on the subject of neuroscience (Epstein, 2005). In response to this criticism, the SfN’s president, Carol Barnes, noted that the Dalai Lama had been corresponding with prominent neuroscientists for nearly two decades, making him a suitable speaker for the “Dialogues between Neuroscience and Society” series. Nevertheless, an online petition was created, requesting that the Dalai Lama’s invitation be revoked, and received almost 800 signatures (Kaufman, 2005). Several scientists who signed up to speak at the conference withdrew their presentations and boycotted the meeting altogether. In contrast to the large uproar regarding the news of the Dalai Lama’s invitation, his speech was well-received for the most part by the members who were in attendance. He addressed the concern of having a religious figure speak at a scientific conference by asserting that the moral principles at the core of certain religions, such as compassion and the responsible use of knowledge, are necessary considerations in scientific disciplines. In other words, he claimed that without moral and ethical considerations, the progression of scientific research yields new problems for society. He gave the atomic bomb as an example, which was an advancement in technological science, yet it still presented great ethical concerns. Thus, the Dalai Lama contends that the relationship between scientists and religious/moral leaders is important to foster with respect to the advancement and betterment of society.

*For the full study, see Lutz et al. (2004).

References

Adam, D. (2005, July 27). Plan for Dalai Lama lecture angers neuroscientists. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/jul/27/research.highereducation.

Epstein, D. (2005, July 28). Dissing the Dalai Lama. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/07/28/dissing-dalai-lama

Kaufman, M. (2005, November 13). Dalai Lama talks to scientists. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2005/11/13/dalai-lama-talks-to-scientists/8672035b-ec76-4f11-89d8-546d23b8afcf/

Lazar, S. W., Kerr, C. E., Wasserman, R. H., Gray, J. R., Greve, D. N., Treadway, M. T., McGarvey, M., Quinn, B. T., Dusek, J. A., Benson, H., Rauch, S. L., Moore, C. I., & Fischl, B. (2005). Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness. Neuroreport, 16(17), 1893–1897. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.wnr.0000186598.66243.19

Lutz, A., Greischar, L. L., Rawlings, N. B., Ricard, M., & Davidson, R. J. (2004). Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 101, 16369–16373. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0407401101

Contributors

• Kalyan Krishnareddygari
• Kundan Ahluwalia

Cognitive Neuroscience

This section is currently under construction.