Fingerprints of God, by Barbara Bradley Hagerty

On the recommendation of my parents, I started to read Fingerprints about two weeks ago. I tried to write a review about it a couple of nights ago, but found myself stymied, and instead wrote a (brilliant) analysis of Green Eggs and Ham. But now that I've had time to let the thoughts in Hagerty's book marinate, I think I'm ready.

I enjoyed this book. It was thought-provoking, interesting, challenging, and ultimately comforting. Hagerty, a journalist who at one point had left her Christian Scientist religion by the wayside, says very early on that she was motivated to begin researching whether there was any scientific research that supports that God exists because she had an unexplainable experience that she could only chalk up to being a brush with the divine. Hagerty prides herself on being truthful and factual, and half the battle was fought when she actually convinced herself to pursue this project, throwing her fears of ridicule to the wind.

In her quest to discover whether science and religion really are at odds, Hagerty interviews myriad doctors and researchers, mystics and ministers, attends a peyote ceremony, and hears the first-hand accounts of many people who claim to have had a spiritual experience. Along the way, some scientists point toward mathematical experiences that would indicate the existence of a higher being, and in rebuttal are brushed off by other researchers who insist that there is only the observable universe. And, evenhandedly, Hagerty spends a good amount of time interviewing atheists and asking them why they believe that there is no God - and then prints the rebuttals of scientists who believe. 

One thing that struck me: when Hagerty talked to people who had had spiritual experiences, she noted that each person's perception of God seemed to to fit with their religious upbringing. For example, a Buddhist who has a brush with God during meditation sees the eyes of the Buddha, a Christian has a vision of Jesus, and a Muslim has a conversation with Mohammed. All of these people were fundamentally, irrevocably changed by their experiences - and yet, their view of spirituality was broadened. While those people might continue to find God in their various religions, each recognized that God is really bigger than all of that, and equally accessible.

The universality of God resonates with me. When I was in high school (and still a devout Lutheran), a friend of mine matter-of-factly stated that I must believe that she was going to hell, since was not a Christian. I didn't know how to respond to that, and I realized that this was one part of my church's beliefs that I could not agree with. Thus began a struggle with my beliefs that eventually led me to separate myself from Church (in my head, it's always capitalized), and I haven't gone back as of yet. I don't know if I'm going through a rebellious phase, like an adolescent angrily telling her parents, "I'm nothing like you!" or whether I'm just looking for something that will resonate more with me. It's still up in the air. But I liked that every person that Hagerty interviewed about his or her mystical experience reiterated that above all, there was a feeling of endless love, acceptance, and a knowledge that all is as it should be.

If I am going to talk about spirituality, sooner or later I always get around to my uncle, who passed away when I was twenty. He and I had been extremely close since I was in fourth grade, and while we initially just started out by exchanging letters talking about how our days were going, as I got older he began to tell me what he believed. My uncle believed in past lives and meditated extensively. He sometimes had out-of-body experiences during his meditations. He had a sense of perspective about things that I found funny, especially, because, well, - according to him - your car breaking down just won't be a big deal six lives from now. We had lively exchanges and debates and managed never to evangelize the other. He died of cancer, and in the months leading up to his death, he was strangely unconcerned. "Life is an adventure," he told me. "What about death?" I asked him. He shrugged and raised one eyebrow: "Well, that's an adventure too." 

I don't want to say I was skeptical of my uncle's spiritual experiences, because that would make you think I actually gave them some thought. Let's face it - I was twenty, and while our conversations were interesting, reincarnation and the one-ness of everything didn't mean much to me. And - okay, I'll admit it - nobody else I knew talked about this kind of stuff. But Hagerty interviews people who bring up very similar experiences to what my uncle would discuss with me. And that makes me think - what if?...If these experiences are out there - if God is out there, accessible and available - if someone like my uncle was able to reach it...?

Fingerprints of God brought all of these thoughts and questions up in my head; none of these questions have answers yet, but I can't blame that on the book. I liked the modest way that Hagerty tackled the project - she knew she was going into a hotbed of controversy, and admitted she had a stake in the final answer, being a lapsed Christian Scientist herself. That made me take her objections more seriously, and made me believe her a little more when she talked about an experience that moved her. All in all, this was a good examination of spirituality beyond religion, and the scientists that believe in it - or don't.

Favorite quote: "Unlike spiritual experience, religious belief can never be tested by a brain scanner or even by historical record. No one can prove that Jesus is the Son of God. What religious belief does is attempt to explain in a compelling narative the unseen reality that lies at the heart of spiritual experience."