Kalat, 2016, p. 85), and the functioning of many of its structures is modulated
by serotonin (Puig & Gulledge, 2011). Dopamine, in turn, is produced at
different locations of the brain and is involved in brain functions such as
motor behavior, motivation, and working memory (Chinta & Andersen,
2005; Arias-Carrión et al., 2010). One of the most important contributions
of dopamine to brain functioning is its role in memory and learning: it
reinforces the memory of rewarding behaviors, thus motivating the organism
to return to rewards experienced in the past (Arias-Carrión et al., 2010;
Gazzaniga et al., 2014, pp. 526–32). In the context of religious experience,
McNamara emphasized that elevated levels of dopamine lead to pleasurable
and positive moods.
The process I am about to describe, following McNamara (2009,
pp. 131–43), is partly based on empirical data gained from the study of
entheogenic substances. However, McNamara (p. 138) suggested that“[w]e
can be relatively confident that [...] entheogens produce religious experiences
by activating the same brain circuit that normally handles religious experi-
ences.”When entheogenic substances enter the brain,first they reduce the
secretion of serotonin and increase thesecretion of dopamine in the central
parts of the brain (pp. 134–5). Further, these substances bind to serotonin
receptors (that is, they block the“docking stations”that can receive sero-
tonin messengers). We have seen that serotonin is needed for the normal
functioning of higher cognition in the prefrontal context; consequently, its
reduction leads to a suspension of intentional states. Further, some of the
neurons that have just become inactive would normally constrain the func-
tioning of neurons responding to dopamine; consequently, the activation of
the respective dopaminergic neurons is now unchecked. As a combined
result of the suspension of this regulation and the overflow of dopamine,
religious and hallucinatory experiences arise, particularly due to the hyper-
activation of dopamine-modulated neurons in the limbic and temporal
cortices.Finally,astheneurotransmitters begin to rebalance and the inhib-
ition of the prefrontal cortex decreases, higher cognitive functions such as
workingmemoryandattentionreturn,and a process of learning and insight
takes place.
I will now turn to Michael Marsh’s model of the sequence of extra-
corporeal experiences (ECEs). Marsh (2010, pp. 73–9) observed that out-
of-body and NDEs in many controlled or well-known conditions can be
associated with a very short timeframe, typically in the order of seconds or
minutes. Further, such experiences seem to occur during the phase of
awakening from an unconscious state,even if that state lasted much longer
(pp. 86–91; cf. McNamara, 2009, p. 144). This observation correlates with
(reported or deduced) information about the length and timing of religious
experiences, OBEs, alien-abductionexperiences, and NDEs in people who
recovered from traumatic events and whose experience can be linked to a
Religious Experience 161