Barbara Hagerty The Fingerprints Of God Summary

Barbara Hagerty's book, "The Fingerprints of God: The Search for the Science of Spirituality," is one woman's attempt to look for a scientific explanation for human condition of spirituality. Hagerty interviewed countless scientists, theologians, and self-proclaimed mystics in order to find out if some people are simply "wired to search out God, to place eternal questions above all others" (Hagerty, 84). Much more research is still to be done on the "science of spirituality," but one interesting point is made in chapter seven of her book: there seems to be a strong correlation between physical or mental illness and what were perceived to be visions of God or other spiritual entities. Hagerty lists a large number of religious leaders who have

Instead, she entered the convent of the Argenteuil after giving birth to a child out of wedlock with her lover Peter Abelard. After joining the convent, Heloise was praised for her piousness and devotion to God and eventually became the first abbess of the Paraclete, but she never had any visions or mystical experiences during her lifetime. Her time in the religious community was marked by self-doubt: she joined the convent because Abelard told her to, which she makes clear when she states, "love for God has not been my motivation" (Mystics, Visionaries, and Prophets, 118). Perhaps her lack of visions stemmed from her inner battle between her pious persona and her true feelings, but one matter of importance is that throughout her life she did not suffer any extreme bouts of illness. She did not excessively fast like Catherine of Sienna, whose health rapidly deteriorated later in life, nor did she suffer from any "mysterious illness" (Mystics, Visionaries, and Prophets, 248) as Teresa of Avila was recorded to have dealt with. From a scientific standpoint, this would indicate that Heloise did not have visions because unlike Catherine and Teresa, she was predominately healthy throughout her

She was blessed with visions throughout her life that helped her to speak out against the Church's abuses of power, but her health also suffered because of her extreme fasting practices. Soon before her death, Catherine was "afflicted with a paralyzing attack...[Leaving her] unable to eat or drink" (Mystics, Visionaries, and Prophets, 213). Hagerty's book would suggest that perhaps Catherine had an "overactive temporal lobe," which means that her brain was structurally and functionally different from the brains of people who do not have visions. If this was true of Catherine of Sienna, then the reasons for her close connection to the spiritual realm could simply have stemmed from a brain