The Jaina Doctrine of Karma And The Science Of Genetics: Self Transcendence And Genes

Of course static alone cannot tell us what that common root is. It could be the result of a gene. But it could equally well be the result of environment or culture. Self transcendence is, so far, the simplest way we have to measure spirituality. One reason for confirming the validity of the self-transcendence scale was that we wanted to measure individual differences in spirituality and co-relate them with genes. It was also important, however to know if there were any group differences in the scale, because these would complicate and possibly compromise the genetic analysis. Our data base of 1388 subjects allowed us to examine the relationship between self transcendence and three potentiality important demographic variances - race, age and gender.

A statical analysis showed that the higher scores of women could not be accounted for any of the other personality factors we measured. It might be something to do with the fact that women are more willing to express their feelings than men or perhaps there is something about our society that brings out the spiritualty in women. Or it might have something to do with their genes, a possibility we would later have a chance to test experimentally. Although statistics cannot tell us what spirituality is or is not, or where it comes from, it can help to measure spirituality in individual and conform its uniqueness. In a study of the connection between genes and spirituality, that is a good place to start.^[62]

Unlike most young children, Jane and Rose loved going to church, not just on Sunday but during the week as well. They both decided as teenagers to devote their lives to the church and took their vows together. Today, sister Jane Frances and sister rose Marie are nuns at the same convent in Akron, Ohio. In addition to their mutual interest in God and spirituality, Jane and Rose have one other important similarity: their DNA. They are identical twins - the product of the same fertilized egg. Twins, especially identical ones like Jane and Rose, are fascinating. There is something mysterious and alluring about people who look and sound identical. But identical twins are more than curiosities. Because they share identical DNA, for scientists they offer a way to dissect the role of genes and environment in complex human characteristics like spirituality.

The main use of twins in behaviour genetics research is to determine heritability, which is defined as the percentage of variation in a behaviour that is due to genetic differences. Heritability can be most directly measured by comparing identical twins who were separated at birth and raised apart. Because such twins have the same genes but are raised in different environments, the extent to which they are similar to each other is a direct approximation of heritability. The degree of similarity can be calculated as a corelation.

The result of their study were consistent, for every scale examined, genes seemed to play an important part. The calculated heritabilities were all between 41 and 52 percent, meaning that genes were responsible for roughly half of the variation in religiousness from one twin to next. In other words, the study seemed to suggest that at least part of the reason people believe that religion can help to answer life's questions in their DNA.^[63] In other words, nearly half of the reason that the twins felt religion helped them, spent time privately praying and head a sense of God's presence was inherited. Since these twins were raised by different parents, in different neighbourhoods, and sometimes even in different religions, their similarities seemed to be the result of their DNA rather than their environment. Something in their genes helped to push them towards religion.

How did the researchers conduct their studies? First they evaluated the data, using a modeling technique that took into account three main sources of variation in self transcendence: genetic influences, shared environmental influences. The first two factors make twins alike, the third makes them different. The analysis indicated that genes are responsible for 48% of the variation in self transcendence in twins both male and female. The remaining 52% of variance was due to environmental factors for females. Age also had an effect, in males it accounted for 4 percent of variance (Environmental factors accounted for the other 48%).
The researcher also examined the data by a statistical technique called "multivariate modeling". Once again, they found that genes played an important role in self-transcendence.

Using this analysis, the estimated heritabilities were 37% for men and 41 for women, which are similar to the numbers obtained in first analysis. The take home lesson from the Martin and Evas study was clear: genes are a major factor in self transcendence. In other words, spirituality is in good measure an inherited trait. This was a surprising result. The implication is that spirituality, at least as measured by self transcendence, does not result from outside influences. Contrary to what many people might believe, children don't learn to be spiritual from their parents, teachers, priests, imams, ministers or rabbis, nor from their culture or society. All of these influences are equally shared by identical and fraternal twins who are raised together, and yet the two types of twins are strikingly dissimilar in the extent to which they correlate for self transcendence. In other words, William James was right: spirituality comes from within. The kernel must be there from the start. It must be part of their genes.^[64]

Maslow, Cloninger and many others before them and since have argued that spirituality and religiousness are fundamentally different. The twins studies, by looking quantitatively at both qualities in a single population, strongly support and distinction. More important, they tell us something about why they differ. Religiousness, as measured by church attendance is learned in the classical sense - from parents, teachers, religious leaders and seers. People go to the Church or mosque or temple because that is what they were told to do? Spirituality, as measured by self transcendence is more innate. It comes from within, not from without. Of course spirituality has to be developed, just like any other talent. But the evidence suggests the predisposition is there from beginning.

What makes some siblings, like Tenkai and his brother, so spirituality dissimilar despite their common upbringing? and what makes others, like Gloria and Louise, so similar despite their very different life trajectories? Could it be something in their genes? There was only way to find out.^[65]

The first gene on the list of candidates was D4DR, which codes for a receptor that senses the presence of dopamine one of the monoamines in the brain. It was a prime suspect for several reasons. In the Coming's study, dopamine was the neurochemical most strongly associated with self transcendence of all those examined. Comings speculated that this was because the D4DR gene contains an extremely variable repeated DNA sequence that changes the number of amino acids in the protein, which in turn alters the way it works in the brain. Some people have only three copies of this odd sequence: others have as many as eleven copies. D4DR's high association with self transcendence might also be because it is expressed both in the limbic system of the brain - the seat of emotions - and the prefrontal region of cortex - the think part of the brain. Moreover this gene had previously been linked to novelty seeking, a personality trait that is slightly correlated with self transcendence.

There was a clear association between the VMAT2 (on chromosome 10) polymorphism and self transcendence. Individual with A and C in their DNA - on either one chromosome or both scored significantly higher than those with an A. The effect was greatest on the overall self-transcendence scale and was also significant for the self-forgetfulness sub scale. With transpersonal identification and mysticism, the effect was in the same direction but just short of statistical significance. Somehow, this single base change was effecting every facet of self-transcendence, from loving nature to loving God, from feeling at one with the universe to being willing to sacrifice for its improvement. To delve further into the biology of spirituality, we need to understand more about how monoamines work normally in the brain to produce the greatest hat trick of biology: consciousness.^[66]