Before temples were built of stone, the body already knew how to worship. In this episode, Dr. Juan Carlos Rey of CrowsCupboard.com explores how the brain’s own narcotic chemistry - endorphins, enkephalins, and dynorphins - shapes the experience of love, faith, music, and transcendence.
Drawing on the work of Candace Pert (1973), who first identified the brain’s opiate receptors, Jaak Panksepp (1998), who revealed the primal circuits of care and play, and Björn Lindström (2015), whose studies of synchronized movement uncovered the opioid basis of social bonding, Dr. Rey guides listeners through a physiological theology of awe. Every drumbeat, every chant, every shared breath becomes evidence that the sacred is written in chemistry.
From early laboratory discoveries to modern neuroimaging of musical ecstasy, The Observable Unknown traces how meaning itself may be the body’s oldest high - how ritual, rhythm, and relationship activate an interior pharmacy of connection. The conversation extends into psychiatry and philosophy: what happens when trauma dulls these receptors, when faith becomes analgesic, or when hope itself behaves like a biochemical placebo?
Listeners will leave understanding that spirituality is not opposed to science - it is embodied by it. The neurons that ache, the hormones that heal, the molecules that bind us together are the same forces that generate compassion and purpose.
Listen to The Observable Unknown wherever you find your podcasts. Rate, review, and share your reflections; each voice adds resonance to this dialogue between measurable matter and mystery. To learn more about upcoming classes, such as Intuition Decoded, or to contact Dr. Rey directly, visit CrowsCupboard.com or connect on LinkedIn and X (Twitter): @DrJuanCarlosRey
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