Why Do We Feel Connected in a Spiritual Group? Hyperscanning Spiritual Communities

Using a variety of photos, charts, videos and other visual aids, this talk will introduce the new field of social neuroscience, and its principal tool, “hyperscanning.” By analyzing the brains of 2, 4 or 12 subjects simultaneously, hyperscanning studies have revealed surprising levels of “brain-to-brain
synchrony” and correlations as subjects act, sing, discuss something or do other activities together. Though there are no hyperscanning studies of spiritual communities (yet—funding still being sought), this evidence highlights new implications to the common group experience of “feeling connected.” The upshot: when we feel connected in a sangha, a Tai Chi group, a group meditation, or a spiritual or religious ritual, our brains and physiologies are likely becoming measurably connected.