utterances, and ecstatic bodily experiences.”This study found decreased
activity in the prefrontal cortex, suggesting the lack of intentional control
over glossolalia. Additionally, activation patterns related to emotional change
were detected (in the left caudate nucleus, located next to the thalamus). The
lack of conscious focus is thus evident in this type of glossolalia but there is no
sign of dramatic changes in the temporal lobes (although the caudate nucleus
does extend to the temporal lobe). No change has been observed in the parietal
lobe (usually associated with various aspects of the self), either.
It is far from being the case that the majority of religious people simply
accept religious teachings due to conformist biases, as Livingston assumed.
Quite to the contrary, it can be argued that most religious people have
(moderate) religious experience on a regular basis in rituals, meditation, or
simply as a way of perceiving the world around themselves. Such experiences
form mutually constraining relationships with the religious beliefs held by the
same people as well as with the ritual, doctrinal and institutional structures of
the movements to which they belong. Thesefindings suggest that religious
experience can be characterized by a certain position on a volitional scale.
Some religious experience is the result of concentrated, willful activity, whereas
others arise from resonating with an external stimulus. The volitional-
resonant scale of religious experience correlates with other elements of
religion: different styles of ritual practice, community structure, and theological
emphasis. The volitional experience of the Protestant Bible readers, Franciscan
nuns, and Tibetan meditators in the above-mentioned examples presupposed
the transmission of textual or meditative traditions (maintained by gener-
ations of experts) as well as the involvement of community members who
invested considerable time and energy into being trained in those traditions
over several years. One cannot gain much religious experience from reading
sacred texts unless there are religious experts who transmit and interpret the
texts; then it takes time to acquire the hermeneutical skills that are necessary to
understand and appreciate the texts;finally, one needs allocated time and
space for meditative practice. We can call such a tradition a volitional tradition
and the community maintaining it a volitional religious community.
Resonant experience in Newberg et al.’s glossolalia study presupposed a
ritual setting with music and singing, which gradually gave way to speaking in
tongues. A more usual setting for glossolalia would be a communal ritual,
where participants’experience is synchronized by cues that they take from
each other’s behavior. A newcomer can relatively easily pick up those cues,
participate in the ritual with minimal effort, and gain religious experience after
some practice. In this case, we can speak of a resonant tradition and a resonant
religious community. There are varieties of religious experience that can be
situated on the volitional-resonant scale between fully volitional and resonant
experience. Guided meditation making use of an audiotape, for example,
presupposes experts who produce such tapes based on traditions maintained
150 Cognitive Science and the New Testament