If you have a high need for order and structure, you tend towards fundamentalism because you have rule-based gods because that is what your brain needs to feel safe.

If you take the big five personality test if you are high in openness and low in your need for structure or authority then you're going to tend towards a more mystical kind of god.

If you're on the autistic spectrum, this data looks like a U. So you're either like fundamentalist in whatever your religion is or you're atheist but not really in between.

If you have high sensitivity to pattern and agency detection, then you're going to create gods that actively intervene in this world.

If you are high in anxiety and uncertainty avoidance, you're going to create protective parental gods.

If you have high disgust sensitivity, your god is going to emphasize cleanliness.

If you are high in empathy, however, you're going to have personal, relational, and forgiving gods.

If you are low in empathy and emotionality and high in rationality, you're not going to get that uh Jesus is my best friend kind of god. You're going to get a deistic abstract god.

If you're high in individualism, you're going to have more of a personal DIY spirituality.

If you're high in collectivism, you're going to create tribal ancestral community-based kind of kinds of gods.

So, an interesting one is if you have cognitive decline, you're going to create passive or absent gods.

split brain studies where a patient was shown the question do you believe in God and the left hemisphere the speaking side answered um yes but the right hemisphere responding by you know your left hand writing will write no. So you'll actually have two different beliefs within your own brain which I find fascinating like split brain studies I could listen to those like all godamn day like those are so interesting.

Uh, psychedelics, this is a little different because this isn't a brain injury, but it certainly affects your brain. Uh, you're going to experience God as more of an experience rather than a person. So, what happens is psychedelics will uh shut down the default mode network of your brain.

Near-death experiences, uh, a little bit similar but different. Um, they're you're more likely to see God as light and love. So, what happens is during near-death states, you get oxygen deprivation and surges in neurotransmitters like DMT and serotonin.

With depression, you get one of two things that happen. So in major depressive disorder MDD, dopamine and serotonin levels drop causing anhedonia which is an inability to feel pleasure and it also uh increases your cognitive rigidity or your black and white thinking just as an effect of your depression.

So, strokes are super interesting because you can get a spiritual awakening. So, what happens with strokes? Strokes particularly in the right periodal lobe will reduce ego centered thinking and increase your feelings of unity with the universe just like you would on a psychedelic trip.

So, here's the path that I see most often in my work as a spiritual director because I have a master's degree in Christian theology and I was raised Mormon. So, the majority of the people who I see who resonate with me are Mormon and Christian clients.

brain studies and split brain stuff

We're very early in our science

let me know if um if I kind of nailed your personality type and the God that you either used to believe in or believe in now

I'm very curious. So, let me know in the comments and I'll see you next