riCH(əw)əl

When the unitary states generated by neurobiology of ritual occur in a religious content, they are usually interpreted as a personal experience of the closeness of God. In this sense, ritual offers a way to resolve neurologically the fundamental problem that all systems of mythology must address -- that is, the awe-inspiring distance normally perceived between humans and their gods. According to Joseph Campbell, this existential dilemma is "the one great story of myth; that in the beginning we were united with the source, but that we were separated from it and now we must find a way to return.

Restoring this original union between individuals and their spiritual source is the promise of virtually every known system of belief, from the primal myths of early hunting cultures to all the great religions that flourish today. In Christian theology, for example, Jesus provides the pathway to God; in Buddhist belief, oneness with all can be reached by following Buddha's teaching; and in Islam, reconciliation is possible through submission to the will of al-Lah.

Such assurances, spelled out in scriptures, can provide a powerful basis for faith and an effective buffer against existential fears. But these assurances are, ultimately, only ideas, and even in their most potent state, can only be believed in the mind b the mind. The neurobiology of ritual, however, turns these ideas into felt experiences, into mind-body, sensory, and cognitive events that "prove" their reality. Buy giving us a visceral taste of God's presence, rituals provide us with satisfying proof that the scriptural assurances are real.

Roman Catholics, for example, can experience Jesus' presence in the most intimate and unifying way, through the sacrament of the Eucharist, which fulfills Christ's promise of union and eternal life. In the same fashion, Buddhists use meditation and other contemplative rituals to transcend their attachments to the egotistical self, and all the moral suffering those attachments cause, and to lose themselves in the serene oneness of existence that the buddha so eloquently described. Thus, the neurobiological effects of ritualized behaviors give ceremonial substance to stories of myth and scripture. This is the primary function of religious ritual -- to turn spiritual stories into spiritual experience; to turn something in which you believe into something you can feel. It's why dervishes whirl, why monks chant, why Muslims prostate themselves and why primeval hunters, hoping to win the favor the great animal spirits, donned the skins of bears and wolves, and danced reverently around the fire.

In every time and culture, it seems, humans have intuitively found ways to tap the nurobiological mechanism that give ritual its transcendent power, by bringing their most important myths to life in the form of ritualized behaviors. "No human society has bet been found," says Joseph Campbell, "in which...mythological motifs have not been rehearsed in liturgies; interpreted by seers, poets, theologians, or philosophers; presented in art; magnified in song; and ecstatically experienced in life-empowering visions.

Roman Catholics, for example, can experience Jesus' presence in the most intimate and unifying way, through the sacrament of the Eucharist, which fulfills Christ's promise of union and eternal life. In the same fashion, Buddhists use meditation and other contemplative rituals to transcend their attachments to the egotistical self, and all the moral suffering those attachments cause, and to lose themselves in the serene oneness of existence that the buddha so eloquently described. Thus, the neurobiological effects of ritualized behaviors give ceremonial substance to stories of myth and scripture. This is the primary function of religious ritual -- to turn spiritual stories into spiritual experience; to turn something in which you believe into something you can feel. It's why dervishes whirl, why monks chant, why Muslims prostate themselves and why primeval hunters, hoping to win the favor the great animal spirits, donned the skins of bears and wolves, and danced reverently around the fire.