The emerging field of spiritual neuroscience: An interview with Mario Beauregard, PhD. Interview by Sheldon Lewis.

Mario Beauregard, PhD, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Montreal in Canada, has been studying the neuroscience of consciousness and mystical experience for many years, including a study investigating the brain activity of Carmelite nuns, for which he has received considerable media attention. He conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Texas and the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University. He was selected by the World Media Net, a consortium of major daily newspapers in Europe and North America created at the turn of the new millenium as one of "100 Pioneers of the 21st Century." He is co-author with Denyse O'Leary of the book The Spiritual Brain: A Neuroscientist's Case for the Existence of the Soul (HarperOne, 2007). Dr Beauregard was recently interviewed by Sheldon Lewis, editor in chief of Advances.