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Do your pets have spiritual experiences?
Most people recognize that human beings are capable of having spiritual experiences, but do animals share the same ability? According to new research out of the University of Kentucky (UK), they do. Similar brain structures, say scientists, give animals the capability of having out-of-body experiences and other alterations of consciousness in similar ways as humans do.
Published in the journal Neurology, the study hypothesizes that because human brains are capable of being altered to change visual and sensory perception, there is no reason why animals with similar brain structures cannot experience the same things.
"[T]he link between REM and the physiological crises causing near-death experience are most strongly linked in animals, like cats and rats, which we can study in the laboratory," Nelson explained further.
The team also correlated similarities between animal and human brain structures that give rise to mystical experiences, noting that both systems permit "experiences that are nonmaterial, intangible, introspective".