Spirituality & Health
A vision to advance the scientific understanding of spiritual experiences and practices to transform clinical care, enhance human flourishing, and illuminate the profound connections between mind, body, and spirit.
A New Era of Medicine
Establishing the Center for Spirituality & Health represents a bold vision: to fully integrate the scientific study of spirituality into medical research, education, and clinical practice, creating a future where spiritual health is recognized as fundamental to human wellness.
Neurospirituality Research
The Center will serve as home to the pioneering Neurospirituality Lab, mapping brain circuits underlying spiritual experiences, using advanced neuroimaging and lesion network mapping to understand the biological foundations of faith, hope, and transcendence.
Laboratory Incubator
The Center will create an innovative ecosystem fostering specialized research laboratories at the intersection of spirituality and health, beginning with oncological spirituality and cardiovascular spirituality research programs.
Prayer Science
The Center will conduct rigorous scientific investigation of prayer practices across traditions—from Christian contemplative prayer to Buddhist metta meditation—examining their psychological, physiological, and spiritual effects.
Clinical Translation
The Center will translate discoveries into precision spiritual therapeutics—evidence-based spiritual practices tailored to individual patients to address clinical symptoms through shared neural substrates.
Education & Training
The Center will train the next generation of clinicians, researchers, and spiritual care providers in neurospirituality, preparing them to address whole-person health with scientific rigor and compassionate wisdom.
Global Impact
The Center will convene scholars, clinicians, and spiritual leaders worldwide through symposia and collaborative networks to advance understanding of spirituality’s role in health across cultures and traditions.
Laboratory Incubator
The Center will serve as an incubator for specialized laboratories investigating spirituality’s role in specific health domains. These laboratories will combine cutting-edge neuroscience with clinical research to develop spiritual therapeutics for complex medical conditions.
Neurospirituality Lab
The foundational laboratory of the Center, continuing its pioneering work in brain circuit mapping of spiritual and religious experiences. The lab’s research has already identified neural networks for spirituality, religiosity, faith, hope, and compassionate love, published in leading journals including Biological Psychiatry and PNAS. Under the Center, this work will expand and accelerate.
Oncological Spirituality Research Laboratory
This laboratory will investigate the intersection of spiritual beliefs, practices, and experiences with cancer diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship. The lab will examine how spirituality influences coping mechanisms, treatment adherence, quality of life, and psychological well-being in oncology patients, with the goal of developing integrative spiritual care protocols.
Cardiospirituality Research Laboratory
This laboratory will explore the profound connections between cardiac health and spiritual well-being. The lab will investigate how spiritual practices influence cardiovascular outcomes, stress responses, and heart disease recovery, while examining the symbolic and experiential dimensions of the “heart” across medical and spiritual traditions.
Center Director
Michael Ferguson, PhD
Harvard Medical School
Director, Neurospirituality Lab
Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Former Lecturer on Neurospirituality
Harvard Divinity School
Dr. Michael Ferguson is a Harvard neuroscientist, multidisciplinary scholar, and pioneer of the emerging field of neurospirituality—the study of spiritual traditions, practices, and experiences using applied methods from neuroscience. In the history of Harvard University, he is one of the few faculty members to have held simultaneous appointments at both Harvard Medical School and Harvard Divinity School.
Dr. Ferguson’s groundbreaking research has mapped the neural circuits underlying spirituality and religiosity, publishing landmark studies in Biological Psychiatry and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). His work revealed that spiritual experiences are centered in the periaqueductal gray—one of the most evolutionarily preserved structures in the brain—suggesting that spirituality is deeply woven into our neurobiological fabric.
Research Breakthroughs
- Identified brain circuits for spirituality, religiosity, faith, hope, and compassionate love
- Published in Biological Psychiatry, PNAS, NeuroImage, and Network Neuroscience
- Pioneered “clinical neurospirituality” paradigm for spiritual therapeutics
- Led Prayer Science initiative studying contemplative practices across traditions
Beyond research, Dr. Ferguson is a gifted educator and mentor. He has received excellence in teaching honors from Harvard College, where he has taught courses including Neurospirituality, Virtue Science, and Cognitive Neuroscience of Meditation. He has led graduate seminars on mysticism and neuroscience and teaches online Mindful Self-Compassion courses.
For three years, Dr. Ferguson served as Director of Wellness and Self-Discovery for first-year students at Harvard College, coordinating monthly wellness events and directing the annual Earth Compassion Retreat at Harvard Forest. These multi-faith retreats brought together students with teachers from Native American, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, and Buddhist traditions for contemplative practice, sound meditation, and Qigong.
His research has been supported by prestigious funding from the Templeton World Charity Foundation (Prayer Science), the Osher Foundation (nature connectedness), and philanthropic supporters of psychedelic spirituality research. His TEDx talk, “This Is Your Brain On God,” has been viewed nearly 200,000 times.
Dr. Ferguson earned his PhD in Bioengineering from the University of Utah, where he studied religious experience using functional MRI. He completed postdoctoral fellowships in Cognitive Neuroscience at Cornell University and Cognitive Neurology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center before joining the Harvard Medical School faculty.
Of historical note, Dr. Ferguson and his husband, Seth Anderson, were the first same-sex couple legally married in the state of Utah. He was also the named plaintiff in Ferguson v. JONAH, the landmark case that marked the first time an American court declared homosexuality is not a mental disease—a critical victory in the gay rights movement.
Media & Publications
The Center’s work builds upon pioneering research that has garnered widespread attention from leading scientific journals, medical institutions, and public media, advancing dialogue about spirituality’s place in modern medicine.
A Neural Circuit for Spirituality and Religiosity Derived from Patients with Brain Lesions
Landmark study identifying brain circuits centered on the periaqueductal gray that are causally involved in spiritual and religious experiences.
Brain Networks Associated with Religious Fundamentalism
Groundbreaking research mapping neural substrates of religious fundamentalism and its overlap with confabulation networks.
Exploring Neurospirituality with Michael Ferguson
In-depth profile examining Ferguson’s journey from Mormon childhood to pioneering neuroscientist bridging faith and science.
Brain Circuit for Spirituality?
Coverage of research suggesting spirituality is rooted in fundamental neurobiological dynamics deeply woven into our brain’s architecture.
This Is Your Brain On God
Popular TEDx talk viewed nearly 200,000 times exploring the neuroscience of spiritual experiences and religious belief.
The Jesus Prayer Project
Launch of Templeton-funded research exploring the psychological, behavioral, and spiritual effects of ancient Christian contemplative prayer.
Neurospirituality: Science, Circuit, Soul
CME-accredited presentation demonstrating how neuroscience and spirituality can mutually inform clinical opportunities for spiritual therapeutics.
Science Exploring the Sacred
Annual gathering of researchers, clinicians, and scholars examining prayer science, psychedelic spirituality, and mystical experiences.
Funding Partners
The Center’s pioneering research will build upon proven support from leading foundations and philanthropic partners committed to advancing scientific understanding of spirituality and health.