Religion Brain & Behavior最新文献

{"title":"Two kinds of presence (at least): a commentary on T.M. Luhrmann’s “How God Becomes Real”","authors":"Ben Alderson-Day","doi":"10.1080/2153599X.2022.2050791","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2022.2050791","url":null,"abstract":"Everett, D. (2008). Don’t sleep, there are snakes: Life and language in the Amazonian jungle. Profile. Flood, G. (2021). Meditation in hinduism: Tantra. In M. Farias, D. Brazier, & M. Lalljee (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of Meditation (pp. 79–98). Oxford University Press. Henrich, J., Heine, S., & Norenzayan, A. (2010). The weirdest people in the world? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33 (2-3), 61–83. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X0999152X Honoré, E., Rakza, T., Senut, B., Deruelle, P., & Pouydebat, E. (2016). First identification of non-human stencil hands at Wadi Sūra II (Egypt): A morphometric study for new insights into rock art symbolism. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 6, 242–247. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.02.014 Kabat-Zinn, J. (2017). Too early to tell: The potential impact and challenges—ethical and otherwise—inherent in the mainstreaming of dharma in an increasingly dystopian world. Mindfulness, 8(5), 1125–1135. https://doi.org/10. 1007/s12671-017-0758-2 Kopenawa, D., & Albert, B. (2013). The falling sky: words of a Yanomani Shaman. Harvard University Press. Lewis, N. (1988). The missionaries. Secker & Warburg. Lévi-Strauss, C. (1992). Tristes tropiques. Penguin. Luhrmann, T. M. (2012). When God talks back: Understanding the American Evangelical relationship with God. Alfred E. Knopf. Luhrmann, T. M. (2020). How God becomes real: Kindling the presence of invisible others. Princeton University Press. Open Science Collaboration. (2015). Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science. Science, 349(6251). https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aac4716 Vaz de Caminha, P. (n.d.). A Carta de Pero Vaz de Caminha. http://www.dominiopublico.gov.br/download/texto/ ua000283.pdf. Vilaça, A. (2013). Two or three things that I know about talking to the invisible. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 3(3), 359–363. https://doi.org/10.14318/hau3.3.016 Viveiros de Castro, E. (2002). The inconstancy of the Indian soul: The encounter of catholics and cannibals in 16th century Brazil. Prickly Paradigm Press. Viveiros de Castro, E. (2007). The crystal forest: Notes on the ontology of Amazonian spirits. Inner Asia, 9(2), 153– 172. https://doi.org/10.1163/146481707793646575","PeriodicalId":45959,"journal":{"name":"Religion Brain & Behavior","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77784468","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Invisible humans and their gods","authors":"Pablo Albernaz, Miguel Farias","doi":"10.1080/2153599X.2022.2050792","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2022.2050792","url":null,"abstract":"In her new book, Tanya Luhrmann (2020) offers a theory of religion of universal scope: effort is required to contact and sustain the presence of an invisible other, which is why people regularly pray and engage in rituals. Focusing one’s attention, through thoughts and behaviours, on the invisible kindles—like a small fire—the presence of the supernatural. The concept of kindling, like most of the other ideas and mechanisms cited to support her theory of religion, derives from a wide corpus of psychological science, from learning theory to the cognitive science of religion. The writing of this book is clear; it steers away from jargon or strips it to the bear essentials; in that sense, it is a joy to read and widely accessible to a large audience. Something exciting about it is that one can easily think of applications of Luhrman’s theory of religion well beyond the scope of the book. Take the example of secular rites surrounding nationalism, the efforts people are willing to undertake to feel that their nation is a real entity; or consider the success of mindfulness meditation as a secular religion, where individuals go through the effort of meditating twice a day to reach a pure state of awareness that changes their wellbeing and perception of the world (Kabat-Zinn, 2017). The list of examples can easily go on. It is precisely the ease with which one can—rather intuitively—think of applications of Luhrman’s theory that made us stop and ask: what does this theory exactly explain about which religions? There is a growing sense of discomfort within psychological science about universal claims; this is due to a greater awareness of significant cultural variations of how the mind works and of difficulties in replicating key findings, and also an acknowledgement of the biased samples used in psychological research (Henrich et al., 2010; Open Science Collaboration, 2015). If psychology, which has the ambition of generalizing its theories to all of humankind, is undergoing a more subdued phase, when it comes to the anthropological study of religion, the path towards universal claims has, for a long time, been a rocky one (to put it mildly). There are very good reasons for this distrust, as universal theories of religion tend to be inextricably associated with a difficulty in acknowledging other perspectives of experiencing the world that do not fit with our own categories. Luhrmann acknowledges the challenge of religious diversity in chapter 1, when she writes “... there is something quite culturally specific about the way that people in the modern West think about what is real” (p. 4), but she then very quickly evades the question by claiming that other people also differentiate between what is natural and supernatural. There is a wide range of nonWestern otherness that could be explored, but her examples focus mainly on the works of Viveiro de Castro and Aparecida Vilaça, who have studied indigenous peoples from the Amazon region. Luhrmann appears to","PeriodicalId":45959,"journal":{"name":"Religion Brain & Behavior","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83332405","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"San trance dance: embodied experience and neurological mechanisms","authors":"Benjamin C Campbell","doi":"10.1080/2153599X.2022.2118360","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2022.2118360","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The San trance dance has attracted considerable attention in terms of ethnography and rock art, as well as the human capacity for altered states of consciousness. However, its implications for shamanic ritual and associated states of consciousness remain undeveloped without understanding the brain mechanisms involved. Here I integrate previous models of trance with findings from neuroscience and ethnographic reports to outline a neurological model. I suggest that physical exertion leads to activation of the sympathetic nervous system and release of noradrenaline along the spine leading to the feeling of rising energy the San call !num. Associated hyperventilation activates the amygdala and insula producing fear and the experience of being underwater. With trance, changes in activity of the insula lead to disruption of the right temporal parietal junction, blurring self/other distinctions and leading to body distortion and the experience of flight. Resulting changes in face and body perception are integrated with pre-existing social information in the anterior temporal lobes generating images of human, animal and theriomorphic figures. I also suggest that persistent hunting leads to sustained focus underlying the ability of San men to undergo trance, and makes the Eland central to images of trance in San rock art.","PeriodicalId":45959,"journal":{"name":"Religion Brain & Behavior","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2022-10-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73940048","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Faith and fertility in evolutionary perspective","authors":"J. Shaver, L. Spake, R. Lynch, M. Shenk","doi":"10.1080/2153599X.2021.2023618","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2021.2023618","url":null,"abstract":"The role of men’s home production. Feminist Economics, 17(2), 87–119. https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2011. 573484 Esping-Andersen, G., & Billari, F. C. (2015). Re-theorizing family demographics. Population and Development Review, 41(1), 1–31. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2015.00024.x Goldscheider, F., Bernhardt, E., & Lappegård, T. (2015). The gender revolution: A framework for understanding changing family and demographic behavior. Population and Development Review, 41(2), 207–239. https://doi. org/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2015.00045.x Hackett, C., Stonawski, M., Potančoková, M., Grim, B. J., & Skirbekk, V. (2015). The future size of religiously affiliated and unaffiliated populations. Demographic Research, 32, 829–842. http://www.jstor.org/stable/ 26350133 https://doi.org/10.4054/DemRes.2015.32.27 Hochschild, A. (1989). The second shift. Avon Books. Iannaccone, L. R. (1998). Introduction to the economics of religion. Journal of Economic Literature, 36(3), 1465–1495. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2564806 Kaufmann, E. (2010). Shall the religious inherit the earth? Demography and politics in the twenty-first century. Profile. Lesthaeghe, R. (2010). The unfolding story of the second demographic transition. Population and Development Review, 36(2), 211–251. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2010.00328.x Lutz, W., Skirbekk, V., & Testa, M. R. (2006). The low-fertility trap hypothesis: Forces that may lead to further postponement and fewer births in Europe. Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, 4, 167–192. https://doi.org/10. 1553/populationyearbook2006s167 Martin, D. (2005). On secularization: Towards a revised general theory. Ashgate. McDonald, P. (2000). Gender equity in theories of fertility transition. Population and Development Review, 26(3), 427–439. http://www.jstor.org/stable/172314 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1728-4457.2000.00427.x Pace, E. (2007). Religion as communication: The changing shape of Catholicism in Europe. In N. E. Ammerman (Ed.), Everyday religion: Observing modern religious lives (pp. 37–50). Oxford University Press. Stolzenberg, R. M., Blair-Loy, M., &Waite, L. J. (1995). Religious participation in early adulthood: Age and family life cycle effects on church membership. American Sociological Review, 60(1), 84–103. https://doi.org/10.2307/ 2096347 Tilley, J. R. (2003). Secularization and aging in britain: Does family formation cause greater religiosity? Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 42(2), 269–78. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1387842 https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5906. 00178 United Nations. (2020). World fertility and family planning 2020 highlights. Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. ST/ESA/SER.A/440. Voas, D. (2008). The rise and fall of fuzzy fidelity in Europe. European Sociological Review, 25(2), 155–168. https:// doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcn044","PeriodicalId":45959,"journal":{"name":"Religion Brain & Behavior","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2022-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78917475","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Disentangling the relationships between religion and fertility","authors":"L. Spake, Anushé Hassan, R. Sear, M. Shenk, R. Sosis, J. Shaver","doi":"10.1080/2153599X.2022.2127212","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2022.2127212","url":null,"abstract":"In this issue of Religion, Brain & Behavior, scholars from multiple disciplines offer comments on Philip Jenkins’ Fertility and Faith (Jenkins, 2020). The debate, and Jenkins’ response to the commentaries, contribute to moving scholarship forward in an often-neglected area in the scientific study of religion. The book tackles an extensive literature, synthesizing work on several topics: drivers of secularization, drivers of fertility decline, the relationship between religion and fertility, and whether these relationships are consistent across countries and religious communities. Through this synthesis, Jenkins argues that religiosity and fertility are tightly linked, rising and falling in tandem through time and across the world. The commentary authors highlight several questions that remain unsolved by Jenkins’ synthesis. Voas (2022), for example, notes that Jenkins does not favor one mechanism over another, suggesting that changes in both religiosity and fertility may affect change in feedback loops. Potentially, Jenkins’ non-preference for a single mechanism is because he does not employ a strong theoretical framework to explain the relationship between religiosity and fertility, as Lynch and co-authors argue (2022). This is complicated by the range of data available to study this question. Globally, analyses of religiosity and fertility have to deal with the problem of scales of analysis, balancing studies at individual-versus country-level data, as Peri-Rotem (2022) highlights. Focusing on global trends to the exclusion of individual-level data, as well as using a lens which prioritizes a Western and present-centered viewpoint, has the potential to erase local and temporal variation in the relationship between family formation and religion both in Western and global settings (Brown, 2022; Shaver et al., 2022; Walters & Sear, 2022). Our own work employs evolutionary theory and in-depth fieldwork to investigate the dynamics between religion and fertility. In the remainder of this editorial, we describe our efforts as part of the Evolutionary Demography of Religion project, which was designed to further understand the links between religiosity, fertility, and child success. Three of the commentaries on Fertility and Faith were contributed by members of the Evolutionary Demography of Religion team, and here we give a general description of this project. In doing so, we hope to explain how the project will further advance our understanding of the complex relationship between religion and fertility. The project’s central hypothesis is that religious systems promote collaboration between individuals, thus facilitating greater access to social support systems among more religious women and/or families (e.g., help with childcare). The support provided to religious women and families can help offset the costs of reproduction, resulting in higher fertility compared to their secular counterparts (Shaver, 2017). Moreover, differences in fertility betwee","PeriodicalId":45959,"journal":{"name":"Religion Brain & Behavior","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2022-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74323018","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Comparing the three states of Dhikr, meditation, and thinking about God: an fMRI study","authors":"M. Saraei, A. Newberg, Seyed Ruhollah Hosseini, Tahereh Bayati, S. A. Batouli","doi":"10.1080/2153599X.2022.2108888","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2022.2108888","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Objectives: While there are researches on the neural processes of some religious/spiritual practices like mindfulness meditation, no fMRI research on brain functions of mindfulness in Islam is available. Methods: In this study, by using a 3T MRI machine and recruiting 31 (16F) mentally and physically healthy and highly religious individuals, we performed four different tasks during the fMRI: doing Islamic Dhikr, listening to a voice on body scan meditation, freely thinking about God, and being in resting state. The brain activations relevant to these four conditions were estimated and later compared. Results: Twenty-two distinct neural networks of brain activations were observed. Several brain areas showed similar activations between the four conditions, such as the angular gyrus and parahippocampus. A few areas were only different in resting state, such as caudate and anterior cingulate. The three tasks also showed differences such as in precuneus and posterior cingulate. Discussion: This study demonstrates similarities and differences between the three spiritual tasks and how they lead to transcendent experiences and emotional regulation. It also suggested that Muslims do these three mindfulness practices in a non-directive way, resulting in an increased activity of the default mode network.","PeriodicalId":45959,"journal":{"name":"Religion Brain & Behavior","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86046329","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Interpreting the rapidly changing landscape of spirit tech","authors":"Kate Stockly, W. Wildman","doi":"10.1080/2153599X.2022.2091010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2022.2091010","url":null,"abstract":". Technological aides that allow more control over timing","PeriodicalId":45959,"journal":{"name":"Religion Brain & Behavior","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2022-07-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82182057","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The promises and pitfalls of facilitated spiritual experiences for the study of religion","authors":"Jonathan Morgan","doi":"10.1080/2153599X.2022.2091008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2022.2091008","url":null,"abstract":"Therapy,” Tai Chi, mindfulness, and drumming. The secular Cancer Support Community of Central Ohio, for example, offers Tai Chi, yoga, mindfulness and drumming. 10. Central Ohio, not exactly known as the Berkeley, CA of the Midwest, nevertheless has a tax-funded organization called The Worthington Community Center that offers courses like “Family Yoga,” “Hatha Yoga,” and “Tai Chi for Health and Meditation.” 11. In fact, the two terms share much in common. Although the entirety of Belief without Borders treats this subject, specific definitions of both spirituality and religion can be found at pps. 4-7. 12. Renowned author Catherine L. Albanese asked her students to define spirituality. Their definitions were all over the place, including “an awareness and recognition of the intangible connections between all things,” “a subjective ideology that both constructs and expresses moral conviction,” “an understanding of a higher essence of oneself through all the capacities of the body,” ”the source withing oneself that can guide one’s way of life,” and “a feeling of heightened inner awareness brought about by outer experiences” (Albanese, 2001, p. 1). SBNRs I’ve met make a distinction between spirituality as interior, heart-felt, and personal vs. religion as dogmatic, organized, external, and public. See Mercadante (2014), Belief without Borders, Chapter 4 “Common Themes,” 68-91. 13. Not to be too hyperbolic about it, but a person who becomes converted to white supremacy could meet many of these criteria.","PeriodicalId":45959,"journal":{"name":"Religion Brain & Behavior","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2022-07-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84736654","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"On breaking NOMA, and the dangers of technologically-enhanced flower chains: a commentary on Spirit Tech","authors":"J. Riley","doi":"10.1080/2153599X.2022.2091006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2022.2091006","url":null,"abstract":"Briggs, D. (2012, February 16). Dynamic “nones” hold key to future of American religion. The ARDA: Association of Religious Data Archives. http://blogs.thearda.com/trend/featured/dynamic-%E2%80%98nones%E2%80%99-holdkey-to-future-of-american-religion/ Cooper, B., Cox, D., Lienesch, R., & Jones, R. P. (2016). Exodus: Why Americans are leaving religion—and why they’re unlikely to come back. Public Religion Research Institute. http://www.prri.org/research/prri-rns-2016-religiouslyunaffiliated-americans/ Fetsch, E. (2014, March 13). Are millennials leaving religion over LGBT issues? PRRI (blog). http://www.prri.org/ spotlight/leaving-religion-lgbt-issues/ Gartenberg, C. (2021, November 16). Meta’s oculus quest 2 has shipped 10 million units, according to Qualcomm. https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/16/22785469/meta-oculus-quest-2-10-million-units-sold-qualcomm-xr2 Koenig, H. G. (2012). Religion, spirituality, and health: The research and clinical implications. ISRN Psychiatry, 2012, Article 278730. https://doi.org/10.5402/2012/278730 Luhrmann, T. M. (2012). When God talks back: Understanding the American evangelical relationship with God (Reprint ed.). Vintage. Mitchell, T. (2021, December 14). About three-in-ten U.S. adults are now religiously unaffiliated. https://www. pewforum.org/2021/12/14/about-three-in-ten-u-s-adults-are-now-religiously-unaffiliated/ Mueller, P. S., Plevak, D. J., & Rummans, T. A. (2001). Religious involvement, spirituality, and medicine: Implications for clinical practice. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 76(12), 1225–1235. https://doi.org/10.4065/76.12.1225 Reed, R. (2022). Goosing the emerging church: The wild goose festival. In T. Shoemaker, R. Schneider, A. X. Cascade (Eds.), The emerging church, millennials, and religion: Curations and duration (Vol. 2, pp. 3–30). Cascade Books. Schnabel, L. (2021, April 29). Religion both helped and hurt during the pandemic. Scientific American. https://www. scientificamerican.com/article/religion-both-helped-and-hurt-during-the-pandemic/ Shimron, Y. (2020, February 11). Is the rise of the nones slowing? Scholars say maybe. Religion News Service. https:// religionnews.com/2020/02/11/is-the-decline-in-religious-affiliation-slowing-some-scholars-say-maybe/","PeriodicalId":45959,"journal":{"name":"Religion Brain & Behavior","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2022-07-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90767901","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Spirit Tech and the Nones","authors":"R. Reed","doi":"10.1080/2153599X.2022.2091007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2022.2091007","url":null,"abstract":"This morning I entered my favorite exercise class. The coach was there, full of encouragement. She led the class through some warm-up exercises and then the music began. The workout was a typical cardio-oriented set with rapid movements designed to get the heart beating and the blood flowing. All through the song, the coach issued advice on form and encouragement. The music faded from the first song and I caught my breath for a few seconds before the next song started and the process began again. This might sound like a fairly usual event held at gyms across the nation, yet this didn’t take place at a gym. It took place in my basement. And rather than a view of weights and treadmills, from my view the first workout took place at the foot of the Chichen Itza pyramid, the second on Easter Island. I am in a virtual reality program on the Meta (Oculus) Quest called Supernatural. The coach, while a real person, is pre-recorded and present physically only for the warmup and cooldown exercises. Otherwise, she exists as an encouraging voice in my ear, giving me suggestions and advice for the workout while my gaze is fixed on gorgeous landscapes. As the pandemic shutdown gyms across the country, people turned to other options that allowed them to remain socially distant but keep up their exercise routines. Peloton bikes that also include a similar coach and environment became a costly alternative. But the Quest headset I purchased cost $300 dollars, and for an extra $20 a month I work out in a 360-degree photorealistic environment, from the pyramids of Giza to the glaciers of Iceland to the tropical shores of New Caledonia. During these workouts, I am whisked from place to place, where I hit balloons with virtual bats while I squat and lunge. I begin with this anecdote because as I read Wesley Wildman and Kate Stockly’s Spirit Tech, particularly the chapter on virtual reality, I was reminded about my morning experience, panting at the foot of Chichen Itza’s pyramid. What has become clear to me is that Supernatural is not merely about physical exercise. Early on, the program included a meditation option where a subscriber can be guided through a 10-minute meditation, likewise in one of these beautiful spots around the world. Additionally, while the coaches spend their time talking about form and encouraging physical activity like deeper lunges or harder strikes, they also spend a good deal of time talking about things like self-love, courage, forgiveness, and sacrifice. What the program promotes is more a self-help spirituality that starts with the physical but quickly transitions to the spiritual. The fact that the program is called “Supernatural” is meaningful in more than one sense. It is, of course, a non-sectarian spirituality. The religion of Supernatural is self-help and selfhealing, with no god, no scripture, only the ritual of regular exercise, and a final short homily that the coaches do as they demonstrate cool-down exercises. Spirit Tech antici","PeriodicalId":45959,"journal":{"name":"Religion Brain & Behavior","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2022-07-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83038433","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}