How can I tell the difference between spiritual experience and brain chemistry?

This question has haunted seekers for centuries, and I think the either-or framing itself is the trap. When I write about union with the divine, I'm not dismissing neuroscience—I'm pointing to something the brain *does* when it touches the sacred. Love floods your system with oxytocin; that's real. But the *meaning* of that flood, the way it reorganizes your understanding of existence—that's not reducible to chemistry alone. Think of it this way: a brain scan showing activation in your default mode network during prayer is like showing the canvas and pigments of a Vermeer. True, but incomplete. What matters is whether the experience changes you—whether you emerge more compassionate, more aware of connection, less afraid of death. Those outcomes are measurable too, just differently. The honest answer: you can't neatly separate them, and you don't need to. What you *can* do is pay attention. Does this state of consciousness make you more loving, more honest, more rooted in reality? If yes, the mechanism matters less than the fruit. If you're using "it's just brain chemistry" to dismiss genuine transformation, or using "it's purely spiritual" to avoid getting help when you need it—that's when you've lost the thread. Stay curious about both.