From “The Awakened Brain: The New Science of Spirituality and Our Quest for an Inspired Life” by Lisa Miller, PhD
Our collaborative Columbia team began to look at possible genetic correlates of depression and spirituality. We identified four single candidate genes associated with the neurotransmitters in the brain systems of depression and spirituality, and assessed these genes in the children and grandchildren of individuals at high and low risk for depression. We found that dopamine, serotonin, one of their transporters (called VMAT1), and oxytocin are all positively associated with a high level of importance of spirituality or religion. The genes for the neurotransmitters associated with bonding, transcendence, vitality in life, and a deep sense of peace and well-being are within the system of the awakened brain, and all directly correlate with personal spirituality. Interestingly, these same genes are correlated with both personal spirituality and depression, but in opposite dominant-recessive directions, suggesting once again that depression and spiritual awareness share some common physiology – that there is shared neural ground between spirituality on the one hand and depression on the other,
We all have the neural wiring for awakened awareness. What do recessive and dominant genes suggest? Only that just as some people see color more vividly, with more rods and cones in their eyes, so some people see the hues of awakened awareness more readily. Let this not be another realm for ranking or comparing ourselves to others. We all have what we need for awakened awareness, a doorway into a broad range of personal journeys and adventures, a common portal to a more unified and loving world. We share a foundational, neura, genetic common ground, and we each uniquely experience awakened life based on our own vibrant perceptual constellation.
Our work on single candidate genes brings high resolution to Dr. Kendler’s landmark twin study on the general heritable component of spirituality. He found that one-third of the impact on our spirituality comes from genes. That means that two-thirds of the impact on our spirituality comes from how we cultivate our natural capacity. Spiritual awakening depends more on the deliberate use of our inner life than it does on our relative endowment from biology. Biology is a contributing factor to our capacity – but it doesn’t stand alone to define our destiny. Each of us has a choice in how we engage with the world. This can give us enormous respect and compassion for ourselves and for every person, because we all exist within the shared landscape of spirituality. We are all on a path of awakening, again and again facing new challenges, closing and opening doors, moving ever and always toward greater awakening.