Symposium Description:

Recent advances in fMRI brain imaging techniques pose interesting implications for
understanding the cognitive processes involved in moral reasoning, meditation, prayer,
healing, spiritual experience, and other aspects of religion. The aim of this symposium is
to bring together a panel of experts with experience either in neuroscience or in the study
of religion to discuss these implications.

We are especially interested in recent neuroscience research on meditation and prayer,
but also in the broader epistemological and philosophical implications arising from this
research. What assumptions do neuroscientists make about religion? In what ways do
new understandings of human cognition challenge assumptions about the personal and
social functions of religion? What is being learned about meditation and prayer? How
are recent scientific approaches influencing popular perceptions of religion?

Panelists:

Jonathan Cohen, Director
Center for the Study of Brain, Mind and Behavior
Princeton University 

Richard J. Davidson
Vilas Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry
University of Wisconsin at Madison 

Professor Margaret Kemeny
Department of Psychiatry
University of California at San Francisco 

Clifford D. Saron, Ph.D.
Center for Mind and Brain
University of California at Davis 

Professor Wayne Proudfoot
Department of Religion
Columbia University 

Professor Leigh Eric Schmidt
Department of Religion
Princeton University