The Future of Religion

Stanley Krippner, Ph.D.

Alan Watts Professor of Psychology, Saybrook
Graduate School & Research Center

The etymology of the English language word

“religion” comes from a Latin verb meaning “to bind

together.” The word “yoga” originates from a similar

concept, namely “to yoke the human and the divine.” So

when we discuss religion, we are referring to a group of

people pursuing a connection with divinity, however the

group might conceptualize that term. When we think

about the future of religion, we are assuming that

religious institutions and ideas are capable of change,

even though many of them insist that they are the

recipients of a final revelation. However, students of

religion from Hans Kung to Huston Smith have

emphasized the transformations that have been a part of

religious traditions over the centuries. When predicting

the future of religion in the 1970s, scholars foresaw more

secularization, the decline of religious institutions, and the

explosion of “cults” and “sects.” They were partially right

and partially wrong. For example, a number of “new

religions” have appeared, including those using ayahuasca

as a sacrament; whether they should be called “sects” or

“cults” depends upon who is in charge of the labeling

process. Paradoxically, the world has become more

secular, and church attendance has declined in many

countries. On the other hand, conservative churches have

grown in membership, and some of the most prominent

players on the global scene are evangelical Protestants,

conventional Catholics, Hasidic Jews, Tibetan Buddhists,

Hindu nationalists, and Islamic fundamentalists. An

organization, the World Network of Religious Futurists

has been established to track these developments, many of

which are impacting the world in ways that were

unforeseen by students of religion in the 1970s.

When discussing religious and spiritual issues, I

have found it useful to distinguish the two terms. For me,

the word "religious" refers to the adherence to an

organized system of beliefs about the divine (something

deemed worthy of veneration and worship) and the

observance of rituals, rites, and requirements of that belief

system. “Spirituality,” on the other hand, can be thought

of as one's focus on, and/or reverence, openness, and

connectedness to some process or entity believed to be

beyond one's full understanding and/or individual

existence. Any rituals, behaviors, or beliefs that

accompany this process are internally generated rather

than reflective of an external authority or institution.

Albert Hofmann (2005) lamented that “a very

deep problem of our time is that we no longer have a

spiritual basis in our lives. The churches are no longer

convincing with their dogma. Yet people need a deep

spiritual foundation for their lives” (p. 50). In other

words, Hofmann also differentiates spirituality from

religion. He continued, “In the past, this [spiritual]

foundation was built on accepted religious creeds, which

people believed in. But today such beliefs have less

power. We can not believe things that we know are not

possible, that are not real. We must go on the basis of that

which we know—that which everyone can experience. On

this basis, we must find the entrance to the spiritual

world” (p. 50). Some people claim to have found this

entrance by means of LSD-type substances, sometimes

referred to as “entheogens.” I use the term “potential

entheogen” instead of “entheogen” because there is no

assurance that ingesting LSD, peyote, or mind-altering

mushrooms will bring about a spiritual experience

“bringing forth the God within,” as the term implies. The

variables of set and setting are more complex than the

substance itself, and to label these substances

“entheogens” simply posits a promise that is rarely

delivered.

The Network of Spiritual Progressives challenges

the idea that the Christian Right is the only segment of the

United States with a concerned interest in moral values as

they apply to society. According to its organizer, Rabbi

Michael Lerner, in great numbers Americans are

experiencing spiritual crises stemming from the practical

imperative faced by those in the modern workplace: to put

profit and power above everything else. This leaves love,

compassion, and a sense of meaning a distant second,

evoking suffering and spiritual pain (Catalfo, 2005). But

as Albert Hofmann (2005) observed, “Not all young

people are looking for money and power. Some are

looking for happiness and satisfaction born of the spiritual

world” (p. 50).

However, this search for spirit can be co-opted by

religious groups that divide rather than unite people.

Considerable attention has been given to the Muslim

terrorists who embark on jihads against infidels, including

those Muslims whose beliefs differ from theirs. In

addition, most of the forty ongoing wars in the world are

religious as well as political and territorial wars, ranging

from Chechnya and Kashmir to Sri Lanka and Sudan. But

the Religious Right in the United States also has used

divisive tactics in their attempt to capitalize on spiritual

pain and use it for their own purposes. Either overtly or

covertly, the Religious Right has identified several types

of “despised others” such as people of color, immigrants,

gays, Jews, and Muslims, as the sources of pain. Relieved

to having their deep-seated pain acknowledged and

concerned with the moral ground upon which they were

raising their families, many Americans have gravitated to

this message and to the extremist political agenda of the

Religious Right. However, that agenda conflicts with the

middle class’s own economic self-interest as well as the

fundamental ethical precepts of the great religious

traditions, such as healing the sick, comforting the

afflicted, sheltering the homeless, and celebrating the

interconnectedness of all life.

The Religious Right has been remarkably

successful because there was no other game in town.

However, every major progressive movement in

American history was driven by religious values:

abolition of slavery, women’s suffrage, child labor laws,

civil rights, etc. (Catalfo, 2005). The Network of Spiritual

Progressives is one of several groups in the United States

that refuses to allow the Religious Right to claim

hegemony regarding spiritual issues. Another group, the

Interfaith Alliance, is a cohort of progressive members of

the clergy and religious practitioners who work to

implement a dynamic agenda that reflects the moral and

ethical values needed in the 21st century. The

Center for Sexuality and Religion is also an interfaith

group, one that attempts to provide a moral and ethical

basis for sexual practices, but seeks an orientation that

reflects scientific data, humanistic values, and human

diversity. Integrative Spirituality describes itself as an

online spiritual consciousness community that enables

people to share their transformational experiences, to find

and communicate with “spirit mates,” and to participate in

surveys about spirituality. It is associated with the

Institute of Noetic Sciences and has a data base of 40,000

pages of wisdom from various spiritual traditions.

Religious and spiritual experiences appear to have

been hard-wired into humanity’s genetic legacy,

suggesting that they played an adaptive role during human

evolution. Religion, for example, fosters group discipline

and could have given hunter-gatherers an advantage for

survival as they grouped together both for worship and for

defense against their enemies. Spiritual experiences have

been investigated by Andrew Newberg and Eugene

d'Aquili (2001) who studied both Buddhist meditators and

Franciscan nuns. Using single photon emission computed

tomography (SPECT), they found that (when compared to

the baseline waking record) specific regions of their

participants' brains showed increased blood flow, while

other regions showed marked decreases during their

experiential reports. It is not unreasonable to suggest that

these meditators and nuns permanently altered their brains

in such a way to predispose themselves to spiritual

experiences through a neurological process referred to as

"kindling.” On the other hand, it is possible to have a

spiritual experience without the practice of contemplation

or prayer. The neuroscientist Michael Persinger (1987),

another researcher in this field, suggested that spiritual

experiences can be evoked spontaneously and

unexpectedly by mind-altering plants, unusual diets,

grief, fatigue, sensory deprivation, sensory over-

stimulation (e.g., piercing music) and various personal

dilemmas and stressors, all of which seem to be

associated with the brain’s temporal lobe lability.

For Newberg and d’Aquili, all spiritual and

religious experiences share several characteristics: a

progressive increase of unity over diversity, a progressive

sense of transcendence or otherworldliness, progressive

incorporation of an "observing Self" in the experience,

and a progressive increase of certainty in the objective

existence of what was experienced in the state (p. 243).

This body of research is sometimes referred to as

"neurotheology.” However, I think this term is a

misnomer. "Theology" is properly defined as the

methodological study of the nature and properties of

alleged deities (or of a single deity). Cognitive and

affective neuroscience have not provided, and have not

attempted to provide, this type of knowledge. The studies

just cited have focused on peoples' experiential reports,

the psychoneurological correlates of these reports, the

way these reports can be categorized, and the manner in

which these experiences might be evoked (through

contemplation, plants, electrical stimulation, and the

like). No claim can be made that these correlates indicate

causation; it would be both reductionistic and premature

to claim that brain activity "causes" a spiritual experience.

The question can be asked, "Is a naturally-occurring

spiritual experience more valid than an induced

experience?" However, such a question assumes that the

"validity" of "naturally-occurring" spiritual experiences

has been established. However, investigators have not

even agreed on the questions that would need to be asked

to establish such validity.

On the other hand, there are enough data available

to investigate the application of these findings. Evoked

spiritual experiences could address existential issues such

as finding meaning in life. A review of one's spiritual

experiences could provide a means of establishing one's

"personal mythology" or "personal theology." In addition,

spiritual experiences evoked by LSD-type substances (see

Pahnke, 1966) have been utilized therapeutically with

terminal cancer patients, with combat veterans suffering

from post-traumatic stress disorder, and with alcoholics

and drug addicts.

In the meantime, if religious and spiritual

experiences are part of humanity’s genetic heritage, both

social scientists and philosophers need to realize that

“God won’t go away,” to use the title of Newberg and

d’Aquili’s book. The philosopher Cornell West (2002)

has argued for a combination of Christian and Marxist

perspectives for a “revolutionary Christianity.” West’s

writings have been seminal in helping me formulate my

suggestions for the ideal religion of the future, a religion

(or consortium of religions) that needs to incorporate at

least four elements.

These religions needs to be transcendental,

acknowledging the existence of some process or entity

worthy of respect and reverence, whether it is named God,

the Goddess, the Eternal Tao, the Ground of Being, or

something else. As Albert Hofmann remarked, “The

material world is only the manifestation of the spiritual

world”; the so-called “perennial philosophy” that can be

found in all religions suggests that the discovery of the

spiritual world impacts and changes people’s behavior

and attitudes in positive ways, and that this transformation

is both profound and long-lasting. Long before the

development of contemporary religions, indigenous

cultural groups had developed a repertoire of plants,

chants, rhythmic music and movement, self-regulatory

practices, and voluntary shifts in attentional states to

produce spiritual and religious experiences. The case can

be made that religion was more experiential in those

groups than in contemporary societies, and that peoples’

contact with transcendent realms was more frequent than

it has been in modern times. As Hofmann has observed,

“Young people are looking for meaningful experiences…,

for [something] that is the opposite of the material world.”

Secondly, the religions of the future need to be

embodied; they need to accept and cultivate bodily health,

sensual pleasure, and sexual diversity. Religious

institutions have a centuries-old record of sexism,

homophobia, and rage against the body. This is a legacy

in need of radical change if religious institutions are to be

viable in a world suffering from an AIDS pandemic, as

well as child abuse, wife battering, the murder of one’s

own family members in the name of “honor,” and the

persecution of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and

transgendered individuals. Insofar as AIDS prevention is

concerned, most of those representing organized religion

have been part of the problem. Too many churches,

temples, and mosques either refuse to disseminate

information about life-saving sexual practices, or spread

information that is distorted, biased, or falsified.

Regarding the role of women, mainstream religion has a

record of opposition to their participation in church

governance and leadership, and has even denied their

right to control their own bodies. Although contemporary

religions did not initiate the practice of cliterectomy, they

have been slow in opposing this mutilation of a vital

female organ. Not only have most mainstream religions

condemned a woman’s right to abortion, but family

planning, birth control, and even feminine hygiene have

been discouraged or forbidden.

Although some traditions advocate celibacy as a

route to higher consciousness, other traditions see sexual

activity as a venerable vehicle for attaining mystical

insights. Jenny Wade (2004), a transpersonal

psychologist, interviewed nearly 100 people with various

sexual orientations and from several religious

backgrounds, constructing a typology of mystical,

spiritual, or transcendent experiences during sex. Her

typology was based on a model developed by the

psychiatrist Stanislav Grof (1998) who analyzed reports

from thousands of clients participating in LSD-facilitated

psychotherapy and/or so-called "holotropic breathwork."

Wade reported that her research participants' transcendent

experiences resembled those of Grof's group, especially in

such areas as "ecstatic union" and the movement of

"kundalini energy." Indeed, Newberg and d’Aquili (2001)

posited that romantic love, as characterized by the phrase,

"It's bigger than both of us," may be a transitional phase

between aesthetic and religious experience, a signpost on

the way to a state they call "absolute unitary being," a

state in which the boundaries of entities within the world

disappear and the self-other dichotomy is obliterated. It is

equated with the "void," with "nirvana," and/or "the

experience of God" (p. 236).

The third hallmark of future religions is that they

need to be socially relevant and liberating, opposing

tyranny and social injustice. Religions of the future need

to afford opportunities for sharing, compassion,

peacemaking, and the manifestation of love. This love

should be extended to the natural environment, a resource

that is threatened by global warming, pollution,

desertification, and the destruction of the rain forests.

Albert Hofmann has advised people “to go out into the

countryside” because “such places are of the world of

nature, to which we fundamentally belong. It is the circle

of life, of which we are an integral part.” But the

meadows and woods extolled by Hofmann are being

threatened by human insensitivity and greed. This misuse

of technology, as Hofmann has reminded us, “could not

have emerged from a consciousness of reality in which

human beings are not separated from the environment but

rather exist as part of living nature.”

Finally, the religions of the future needs to work

with science and not in opposition to the scientific

method, scientifically gathered data, and scientifically

conceived theories. Science and religion ask different

questions; science inquires as to “how?” while religion

queries “why?” So-called “scientific creationism” is an

oxymoron, one that is dogmatic rather than scientific and

that denies the beauty of Darwinian Theory as well as its

remaining mysteries. Albert Hofmann adds that “We are

at a phase of human development where we have

accumulated an enormous amount of knowledge through

scientific research in the material world. This is important

knowledge, but it must be integrated.” For Hofmann, “the

different forms of religion are no longer adequate. They

are simply words, words, words, without the direct

experience of what it is the words represent.” But science

that is not integrated into our lives can end up simply as

“words, words, words” as well. Future religions can assist

people to extract meaning from scientific data, balancing

what Hofmann calls “these two sides of our lives.”

In other words, the new religions will be a

dramatic contrast to the old religions that insist that an

idea is either true and revealed or false and heretical.

Science has always been an incomplete project; outmoded

theories are replaced by new data and novel hypotheses

are put forward in attempts to explain fresh discoveries.

The religions of the future also need to admit that they are

incomplete processes, but represent a quest that is

necessary to inspire and provide consolation for the

human species, especially during times when inspiration

and hope are rare commodities.

What role will LSD-like substances play in the

religions of the future? Peyote, mushrooms, and

ayahuasca are currently utilized as sacraments in both old

and new religious institutions. However, Albert Hofmann

reminds us that “it is quite possible to have [spiritual]

experiences without drugs.” With or without the use of

LSD-type substances, religions that are both transcendent

and embodied, both socially conscious and scientifically

informed, have the potential to help mend the torn

cultures that already devastate the landscape of this new

century.

References

Catalfo, P. (2005, Winter). A new bottom line. Tricycle,

25-26.

Fox, M. (2006). A new reformation: Creation spirituality

and the transformation of Christianity. Rochester, VT:
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frontiers of human consciousness. Albany: State
University of New York Press.

Hofmann, A. (2005). From molecules to mystery:

Psychedelic science, the natural world, and beyond. In R.
Walsh & C. Grob (Eds.), Higher wisdom: Eminent elders
explore the continuing impact of psychedelics (pp. 47-53).
Albany: State University of New York Press.

Hofmann, A. (1980). LSD: My problem child. New York:

McGraw-Hill.

Newberg, A., & d'Aquili, E. (2001). Why God won't go

away. New York: Ballantine.

Pahnke, W.N. (1966). Drugs and mysticism. International

Journal of Parapsychology, 8, 295-314.

Persinger, M.A. (1987). Neurophysiological bases of god

beliefs. New York: Praeger.

Rorty, R., & Vattimo, G. (2005). The future of religion.

New York: Columbia University Press.

Wade, J. (2004). Transcendent sex: When lovemaking

opens the veil. New York: Paraview Pocket Books.

West, C. (2002). Prophesy deliverance: An Afro-

American revolutionary Christianity (anniversary
edition). Westminster, England: John Knox Press.

This paper was prepared for presentation at LSD: Problem

Child and Wonder Drug, An International Symposium on
the Occasion of the 100th Birthday of Albert Hofmann,
13-15 January, Basel, Switzerland. Its preparation was
supported by the Chair for the Study of Consciousness,
Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center, San
Francisco, California, U.S.A.