Where Science Meets the Sacred
An interdisciplinary symposium bringing neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, and clinical science into direct conversation with prayer, altered states, and spiritual therapeutics.
Friday, February 27, 2026 · Somerville, Massachusetts · In person and live on Zoom
About the Symposium
Neurospirituality is the scientific study of spiritual practice and spiritual experience. This symposium convenes researchers, clinicians, and philosophers working at the emerging frontier where brain science, healing, and meaning meet.
The symposium is hosted by the Neurospirituality Lab at Mass General Brigham, a pioneering research group building rigorous, clinically relevant approaches to prayer science, mystical-type experience, and spiritual therapeutics.
The inaugural 2025 Neurospirituality Symposium was a triumph. It proved there is real demand for a forum that can hold both rigor and awe. It brought an interdisciplinary community into the same room and generated sustained dialogue across fields. The 2026 symposium builds on that momentum with confidence and ambition.
Advance registration required for both ticket types.
Why Attend
Be on the frontier of the field. Engage with researchers and practitioners advancing work at the intersection of neuroscience, psychology, and spirituality. The program emphasizes careful reasoning and responsible methodology, with attention to what can be measured, what can be inferred, and where uncertainty remains.
Program Quality
The program prioritizes substantive arguments, transparent methods, and disciplined interpretation. Sessions focus on clarifying empirical findings, theoretical limits, and unresolved problems, with the goal of advancing the field on sound scientific and conceptual footing.
Interdisciplinary Scope
Contributors represent neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, and clinical practice. The symposium fosters cross-disciplinary dialogue while maintaining respect for the distinct standards, methods, and epistemic commitments of each domain.
Unique Atmosphere
Few spaces draw together scholars, seekers, and the spiritually-curious together under one roof like the Neurospirituality Symposium. We strive to offer a seat at the table to a wide range of perspectives. We aim to cultivate rich multicultural and multifaith conversations in the context of science.
Featured Speakers
An interdisciplinary lineup shaping the emerging science of spiritual experience.
Phillip Goff, PhD
Philosopher of mind working on consciousness, explanation, and the relationship between science and subjective experience, with particular focus on panpsychism and the limits of physicalist accounts of mind.
Shahar Arzy, MD, PhD
Neurologist and clinician-scientist investigating the neural basis of self-representation, bodily awareness, and dissociative phenomena, with a focus on how disruptions to brain networks shape identity, perception, and anomalous experience in neurological and psychiatric conditions.
Gabriela Torres Platas, PhD
Neuroscientist at Northwestern University studying contemplative sleep practices, including Tibetan Dream Yoga. Her work combines EEG, phenomenological methods, and two-way communication during lucid dreaming to examine how awareness, emotion, and mental training shape dream experience, with translational interest in mental health and resilience.
Michael Lifshitz, PhD
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at McGill University and the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, Lifshitz studies how practices such as meditation, hypnosis, prayer, placebos, and psychedelics shape subjective experience by combining phenomenology, neuroscience, and ethnography to understand the plasticity of consciousness and the modulation of agency.
CJ Lacompty, PhD
Researcher focused on measurement, lived experience, and the challenges of building instruments that can capture spiritual practice and spiritual development without collapsing nuance.
Jesse Fox, PhD
Counseling psychologist whose work focuses on research and clinical training in religious and spiritual competencies, with emphasis on assessment, ethical integration, and preparing clinicians to engage meaningfully with clients’ spiritual and religious concerns.
Lia Antico, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Mindfulness Center, Brown University, where she investigates behavioral and neural mechanisms related to burnout, anxiety, and resilience and develops and evaluates mindfulness-based interventions to support well-being, particularly among healthcare professionals; she also teaches mindfulness and leads meditation in both secular and spiritual contexts.
Nathan Fisher, PhD
Scholar of religious studies and cognitive science studying contemplative experience in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions, with a focus on phenomenology, appraisal, and differential diagnosis at the intersection of spirituality and clinical care.
A World-Class Setting
The Assembly Row campus is a modern convening space within Mass General Brigham’s integrated academic health system. It includes well-equipped conference rooms and shared areas designed to support meetings, discussion, and informal interaction. Located next to the MBTA Orange Line, the site is easily accessible while offering a setting distinct from traditional academic auditoriums. The space is well suited for interdisciplinary meetings that prioritize focused exchange and collaboration.
Join the Symposium
This is a small, focused meeting designed to support discussion and exchange. Pricing is intended to keep participation accessible.
Advance registration required for both ticket types.
Sponsorship Opportunities
The Neurospirituality Symposium is supported through a small number of aligned institutional and individual sponsors. Sponsorship helps underwrite the cost of the meeting and directly supports rigorous, clinically grounded research at the intersection of neuroscience, spirituality, and health.
If you are interested in sponsoring the symposium or learning more about sponsorship options, please contact us directly.