The writer, barrister and traveler Charles Foster, gave a lecture in the Palace of Westminster last night at a Theos event entitled Wired for God?

In the lecture, Foster explored the nature of spiritual experience and argued that it could not simply be explained by biological processes. 'There's a tendancy to oversate the overlap between the effect of drugs and religious experience,' he said. 'But attempts to replicate religious experiences with drugs are not consistently successful.'

In response to the lecture, Professor Susan Blackmore (pictured below), a freelance writer, lecturer and broadcaster, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Plymouth, drew on her experiences of drug use and argued that religious experiences could be similarly explained.

The event took place in the Jubilee Room with an invited audience of scientists, theologians, journalists and politicians.

Information on Charles Foster’s book, Wired for God?, is available here.

To listen to a recording of the event, click here.