Dopamine, Serotonin, Oxytocin, Endorphins and a multitude of other chemicals either are used to treat specific mental conditions or have known effects on the functioning of the human brain and nervous system. In the hands of competent medical professionals, properly administered medications can relieve genuine suffering of mental illness patients. There’s a lot scientists have learned about human neurology and specifically the brain—and that we continue to learn more is worthy of celebration.
The related field of psychology is equally fascinating and shares some interests with neurology, such as in observing which parts of the brain are activated by environmental stimuli.
With all of the various professions studying human mental, emotional, and neurological behavior, it appears that there may be a point in the future when what we see, hear, feel, and think will be readily understood by objective causal explanations.
I doubt such a level of understanding will ever be reached, partly due to the seemingly limitless chain of potential underlying causal factors. These factors include subatomic interactions, as well as the effects of electric, magnetic, and gravitational fields on chemical reactions—of which neurochemicals are not exempt (it would be fascinating to read an argument to the contrary). However, the more we can learn about how the brain works, the greater our chances of providing further relief to those suffering from mental illness. There’s also the darker side of authoritarian behavioral control, experimented with (if crudely so) in the 20th century—but so far it appears that no one has yet thus perverted science on a grand scale.
The postulation that there is a physics based cause for every thought humans have, and every emotion humans feel, has implications about human free will. Personal responsibility would be the first casualty of such an assumption. The potential for mischief from this line of reasoning is great. If you felt that your thoughts and actions were preordained or driven by forces that you did not control, why bother trying to have any independent thoughts at all?
So then, if we accept that there is a spiritual dimension to humans that is not driven by neurological chemistry—and that neurological chemistry itself is affected by spiritual factors—exactly what are those spiritual factors? Discerning a credible answer from the cacophony of gaslighting is a daunting, but not impossible, task. It’s fair to consider that charlatans who prey on the ignorant and emotionally needy by falsely claiming they have a special channel to God are not the answer to this spiritual aspect (and it’s natural to imagine that God has a special place in hell, wherever or whatever that may be, for such predators).
Pursuing science can itself be a humbling experience (especially when you prove your own hypotheses wrong). Similarly, we all can be wrong about spiritual things when we try to think them through without including the spiritual dimension. Consider the account in the Gospel of Luke of Jesus’ exclamation in the Holy Spirit: “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants … .” (Luke 10:21) Spiritual awareness 1, neurochemicals 0.
Consider that just about every civilization or tribe that has ever existed has had a spiritual practice in one form or another—complete with charlatan wolves hunting vulnerable and gullible sheep. Even atheism is considered sacrosanct in that respect by its adherents. I would postulate that, similar to the evolution of the eye in response to visible light, humans’ sensitivity to spiritual factors is the result of their contact with such factors—and the natural selection value in having that spiritual sensitivity is undeniable.
In this environment the question is: how does spirituality manifest itself. Any physical manifestation (such as viewing or hearing) would be coincidental to the causal spiritual factor. Or perhaps working in concert with it—the spiritual and physical together, each supporting and testifying to the other.
In the end, I think there is a there there; and I am there here, now. Jesus and the Holy Spirit show the way there, here. The resultant brain synapses join in chorus with the spiritual symphony. Sweet music, indeed.