Dopamine or God...St. Teresa of Avila elaborates.

Note: Prayer and meditation experience - While engaged in Christian meditation I have started to have moments lasting about one second, of mental and physical intensity. I am not sure if it is just the result of catching myself falling asleep, or if something is happening spiritually that might be a precursor to some greater connection. Anyone have this experience?

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We all know about people who hear voices telling them to hurt themselves or other people. It seems to be the stuff both movies and life are unfortunately filled with. We observe street people talking to no one that we can see. People commit crimes because they are told to do it by voices purporting to be the Devil or God. 

My beautiful med school daughter informs me that heightened religious experience is often one of the first signs of psychosis.She says its really a dopamine shift. There is too little dopamine in certain parts of the brain and that causes negative symptoms like withdrawal, lack of interest in activities, etc.There can also be too much dopamine in other parts of the brain and that causes the more obvious symptoms like delusions and hallucinations. Why these hallucinations are so often of a religious nature is left unknown. 

One wonders how these experiences differ from the real voice of God that can come in our dreams, our minds and sometimes actually audibly. How can we tell if we need a psychiatrist or a priest?  


St. Teresa of Avila takes some time to make the distinction between fake religious experiences brought on by mental illness and the real thing. She was very concerned that people understand when they are being blessed with communion or being tricked by the devil, the intellect, or if it is a delusion of the mentally sick.

According to St. Teresa, the affects of God, rather than mental illness are certainty, peace and interior delight.

1. The words are manifested in works. As an example, if the person hears a voice saying "be not troubled", the person is instantly feeling calm and not troubled.
2. The real religious experience leaves the person both in peace and joy.
3. The words do not fade from memory for a very long time, sometimes remaining forever.

She also explains the difference between true revelation and that which is manufactured by the intellect.

1. A genuine spiritual voice is so clear that you remember every word including the tone and every syllable.
2. The transmission often comes unexpectedly even in the middle of a conversation.
3. In a false spiritual voice ones imagination composes bit by bit what the soul wants to hear. In a real one, one hears truth.
4. In an authentic spiritual voice, the mind grasps truth far more profoundly and with much greater immediacy than the intellect could ever present on its own.
5. The truth conveyed may use words but at the same time, transcends all words.