As physician Larry Dossey put it, “We are conscious not because of the brain but in spite of it. - Bruce Greyson

As writer Dinty Moore put it: “If there is a God, I should live my life according to principles of kindness, compassion, and awareness, and if there is no God, well then I should live my life according to principles of kindness, compassion, and awareness anyway. How wonderfully simple.

MRI scans of the brain show that meditation, a mental practice of focusing the nonphysical mind, changes your physical brain over time by decreasing the size of brain areas that react to stress.

In addition, recent neuroimaging studies of people under the influence of psychedelic drugs have shown that the elaborate mystical experiences associated with these drugs are accompanied by decreased brain activity.