Brain Games, which began its fifth season February 14, uses mind games to unveil cultural mores and universal behavior. It devotes its February 21 episode The God Brain—shot in Jerusalem against the backdrop of the world’s major religions—to the neuroscience of religious experience.

The Story of God with Morgan Freeman, a six-part series debuting April 3, explores different cultures and religions around the world to uncover the meaning of life and ask questions of the ages: Who or what is God? Where did we come from? Why does evil happen? What happens when we die?

Brain Games host Jason Silva speculates that religion has its origin in early psychedelic ritual. “When people claim to see God or have a near death experience, the same thing that happens to them is the same thing that happens with people who take ayahuasca or DMT, a potent psychedelic from a vine in South America that’s been used in religious ceremonies,” he says.

“There’s a lot of research that says the origin of many of the world’s religions is psychedelic in nature, and that early man discovered certain psychedelic agents could transform their perception of the world,” he adds. “But just because it’s grounded in neurochemistry doesn’t make the experience any less real.”

The episode also investigates how architecture and ritual inspire feelings of transcendence, and asks whether technology giving us godlike powers is the same as making us godlike. Silva also conducts a “mind game” in which players are offered money to say they didn’t believe in God. “Some people say whatever you want for $1,000,” says Silva. “But when it comes to saying they don’t believe in God, they’re incapable of saying it, even for money. Even people who weren’t that religious. It’s as though it was ‘just in case God exists.’ Like an insurance.”

Silva also sees religion as mechanisms for both achievement and coping. “The urge toward any religious affiliation comes from a fear of death, fear of meaninglessness,” he says. “In a world where science has disrobed so much mystery, some people see that as a marvel increasing their awe and rapture, and others as deadening, because it shows everything is explainable. Some will respond positively and build more rockets and go to the moon, while others will kill other people in the name of the nihilism of this awareness.