Spiritual Evolution: How We Are Wired for Faith, Hope, and Love

If you want to read just one good book about spirituality, I highly recommend George Valliant's (2008) Spiritual Evolution: A Scientific Defense of Faith. Vaillant is a research psychiatrist (which means the book is crammed with neurobiology) and directed Harvard's Study of Adult Development for 35 years. His conception of spirituality revolves around the eight positive emotions that involve human connection. He argues throughout that prosocial behavior is part and parcel of natural selection, that positive emotions both promote and follow prosocial behavior, and that this process occurs in the limbic and parasympathetic systems and the amygdala (rather than in conscious, cognitive thought processes), and that humanity is moving (from an evolutionary perspective) in the direction of greater spiritual (prosocial) interaction.Vaillant would argue that spirituality defies rational, cognitive description. Vaillant's final chapter, entitled "The Difference Between Religion and Spirituality", is primarily a fascinating discussion of Alcoholics Anonymous ("AA"), which he concludes is mostly a spiritual rather than a religious program. AA certainly has its detractors, but it has also helped an awful lot of people to maintain sobriety, and Vaillant's discussion of the spiritual aspect of the program was most interesting. Given my emphasis on the importance of humor, I was also pleased to note his comment that AA meetings tend to be filled with laughter and humor (although, beneath it all there is a "deadly seriousness"). Excellent book.

It is difficult to bring clarity to the difference between religion and spirituality, but he has done it. Simple yet powerful concepts in this book fill each page and help us to understand ourselves better. A good example of one of these concepts is that normal human development is actually a spiritual progression. He shows with great success how religion harnesses our positive emotions and how cults abuse them. After reading his book I have renewed hope that we can all coexist, and that we can put the nonsense to rest.

An easy-to-read book filled-to-the-brim with wisdom, one that can help us all understand the reasons we want to adopt a spiritual lifestyle in the first place -- the promotion of optimal physical body-mind wellness. Indeed we are witnessing a revolution in-the-making where physicians become priests of optimism based upon science-fact, not faith alone!These are phenomenal insights into energy-medicine protocols that links quantum physics to our biology of belief akin to my colleagues dedicated to change in paradigms from the prophets of doom and gloom to the truth that we are being groomed to bloom: Bruce Lipton, Gregg Braden, et. al.In brief, I will say this much now: This book is a bestseller-to-be for it is teaching us how to manage our time (and space) wisely and how once united in our vision of the future, we will shapeshift our whole global mind-body-spirit field of consciousness towards the supreme model of well-being envisioned by our Creator -- a literal Garden of Eden!Dr. John Jay Harper, author of Tranceformers: Shamans of the 21st Century.

I have never read anything by this author that I didn't like. This book arises out of his experience with a longitudinal study on the natural history of mental illness. Within this study was around 180 alcoholics that he followed through most of their life. His finding that Alcoholics Anonymous was superior to professinal treatment led him to consider how spirituality contributed to his process. I have been dealing in these issues for 30 years and find his book breathtakingly to the point. It is a must read for Ministry and Professional's involved in recovery.

Would have appreciated a summary at the end of each chapter. That said this is a great resource on the power of positive emotions

Wow - a great book from a legend in the field of psychological and well being research. Vaillant has really outdone himself with this book. Using data from the last 80+ years (much of it from the Harvard men's study), he talks about love, joy, passion, faith and other elements of our spiritual lives in easy-to-understand, yet impactful ways.

As a "Buddhist/atheist/humanist I have strong suspicions and negative experiences with organized religions. This man looks the the ineffable, non- verbalizable experience of "connectedness" through the portholes of neuroscience, socialization and personal intuition. I read slowly and reread which is not like me. I found much of myself and my thinking concretized in there. A+

A thought provoking read which deserves 4 stars however to find the in-line notes were not hyperlinked shows Amazon still does not understand the concept of eBooks. Please fix this