Research suggested that spiritual experiences originate deep within primitive areas of the human brain-areas shared by other animals with brain structures like our own.
"Since only humans are capable of language that can communicate the richness of spiritual experience, it is unlikely we will ever know with certainty what an animal subjectively experiences," Discovery News quoted Kevin Nelson of the University of Kentucky as saying.
"Despite this limitation, it is still reasonable to conclude that since the most primitive areas of our brain happen to be the spiritual, then we can expect that animals are also capable of spiritual experiences," added Nelson.
The finding is an extension of his research on humans, which has been published in many peer-reviewed journals.
"In humans, we know that if we disrupt the (brain) region where vision, sense of motion, orientation in the Earth's gravitational field, and knowing the position of our body all come together, then out-of-body experiences can be caused literally by the flip of a switch.
"There is absolutely no reason to believe it is any different for a dog, cat, or primate's brain," he said.
Other mammals also probably have near-death experiences comparable to those reported by certain humans, he believes. Such people often say they saw a light and felt as though they were moving down a tunnel.
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