A small band of researchers is exploring the neurology of religious experience by trying to discover where in the brain religious experience is actually experienced. In the first of what they hope will be a series of experiments, researchers are recording electrical activity in the brains of seven Carmelite nuns through electrodes attached to their scalps. Their aim is to identify the brain processes underlying the Unio Mystica-the Christian notion of mystical union with God.
The Economist March 12, 2004