Elizabeth Devita-Raeburn in this article, Choosing Your Religion, discusses the link between VMAT2 and spirituality, a discovery by Dean Hamer, Ph.D., a geneticist at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland.
In analyzing DNA samples with questionnaires of a group of college students, Hamer found that “most spiritual people tended to have a particular version of VMAT2, which controls feel-good brain chemicals, such as serotonin and dopamine, which keep us upbeat and motivated to seek out pleasure”, but also prime us for religious experiences.”