Neurotheology, also known as spiritual neuroscience, is the study of correlations of neural phenomena with subjective experiences of spirituality and hypotheses to explain these phenomena. Proponents of neurotheology say there is a neurological and evolutionary basis for subjective experiences traditionally categorized as spiritual or religious. The subject has formed the basis of several popular science books.

"Neurotheology" is a neologism that describes the scientific study of the neural correlates of religious or spiritual beliefs and practices. Other researchers have rejected the term, preferring to use terms like "spiritual neuroscience" or "neuroscience of religion". Researchers in the field attempt to explain the neurological basis for religious experiences, such as:

Aldous Huxley used the term neurotheology for the first time in the utopian novel Island. The discipline studies the cognitive neuroscience of religious experience and spirituality. The term is also sometimes used in a less scientific context or a philosophical context. Some of these uses, according to the mainstream scientific community, qualify as pseudoscience. Huxley used it mainly in a philosophical context.

Fr. Andrew Pinsent (born 19 August 1966) is Research Director of the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion at Oxford University, a member of the Theology Faculty, a Research Fellow of Harris Manchester College and a Catholic priest of the diocese of Arundel and Brighton in England. A focus of his present research is the application of insights from autism and social cognition to 'second-person' accounts of moral perception and character formation. His previous scientific research contributed to the DELPHI experiment at CERN and he is a co-author of thirty-one publications of the collaboration.

Fr. Pinsent has a first class degree in physics and a D.Phil in high energy physics from Merton College, Oxford, three degrees in philosophy and theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and a further Ph.D. in philosophy from Saint Louis University. He is also a member of the United Kingdom Institute of Physics and a tutor of the Maryvale Institute in Birmingham. He has been interviewed for various media, including the BBC and EWTN, on issues of science and faith. He has also written for the Catholic Herald, who identified him as a prominent young Catholic. His most recent book is The Second-Person Perspective in Aquinas’s Ethics: Virtues and Gifts, Routledge 2012. Besides academic publications, he is a co-author of the Evangelium catechetical course and the Credo, Apologia, and Lumen pocket books.

Julian Jaynes (February 27, 1920 – November 21, 1997) was an American psychologist, best known for his book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (1976), in which he argued that ancient peoples were not conscious.

Jaynes defines "consciousness" more narrowly than most philosophers. Jaynes' definition of consciousness is synonymous with what philosophers call "meta-consciousness" or "meta-awareness" i.e. awareness of awareness, thoughts about thinking, desires about desires, beliefs about beliefs. This form of reflection is also distinct from the kinds of "deliberations" seen in other higher animals such as crows insofar as Jaynesian consciousness is dependent on linguistic cognition.

Jaynes wrote that ancient humans before roughly 1200 BC were not reflectively meta-conscious and operated by means of automatic, nonconscious habit-schemas. Instead of having meta-consciousness, these humans were constituted by what Jaynes calls the "bicameral mind". For bicameral humans, when habit did not suffice to handle novel stimuli and stress rose at the moment of decision, neural activity in the "dominant" (left) hemisphere was modulated by auditory verbal hallucinations originating in the so-called "silent" (right) hemisphere (particularly the right temporal cortex), which were heard as the voice of a chieftain or god and immediately obeyed.

William Penn Adair "Will" Rogers (November 4, 1879 - August 15, 1935) was an American cowboy, vaudeville performer, humorist, social commentator and motion picture actor. He was one of the world's best-known celebrities in the 1920s and 1930s.

Known as Oklahoma's favorite son, Rogers was born to a prominent Cherokee Nation family in Indian Territory (now part of Oklahoma). He traveled around the world three times, made 71 movies (50 silent films and 21 "talkies"), wrote more than 4,000 nationally-syndicated newspaper columns, and became a world-famous figure. By the mid-1930s, Rogers was adored by the American people. He was the leading political wit of the Progressive Era, and was the top-paid Hollywood movie star at the time. Rogers died in 1935 with aviator Wiley Post, when their small airplane crashed in Alaska.

His vaudeville rope act led to success in the Ziegfeld Follies, which in turn led to the first of his many movie contracts. His 1920s syndicated newspaper column and his radio appearances increased his visibility and popularity. Rogers crusaded for aviation expansion, and provided Americans with first-hand accounts of his world travels. His earthy anecdotes and folksy style allowed him to poke fun at gangsters, prohibition, politicians, government programs, and a host of other controversial topics in a way that was readily appreciated by a national audience, with no one offended. His aphorisms, couched in humorous terms, were widely quoted: "I am not a member of an organized political party. I am a Democrat."

Frank Pastore (born August 21, 1957 in Alhambra, California) is a former professional baseball pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds from 1979 until 1985, and for the Minnesota Twins in 1986. He then began a long schooling, earning degrees in business administration, philosophy of religion and ethics, political philosophy, and American government from various universities.

On 5 January 2004 Pastore became the host of The Frank Pastore Show on KKLA 99.5 FM in Los Angeles. It is the largest Christian talk show in the United States.

On 5 November 2004 an opinion piece Pastore authored, entitled "Christian Conservatives Must Not Compromise" was published in the Los Angeles Times. In it, he references Leftism as "this evil ideology" and says that "the Left must be defeated in the realm of ideas," and has provoked a strong reaction on some message boards.

Pastore is a graduate of Damien High School in La Verne, California. His nephew, Nick Pignotti, now plays soccer at the University of La Verne.

Pastore held the official record for completing the 72-ounce steak meal challenge at The Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo, Texas, having eaten the entire meal in 9½ minutes in May 1987 (this was his 7th successful completion of the feat) until March 24, 2008, when competitive eating champion, Joey Chestnut, finished the meal challenge in 8 minutes & 52 seconds. Pastore congratulated Chestnut on air shortly afterward. His record was featured on The Travel Channel's show Steak Paradise.