At the Dec. 13 Sunday Morning Dialog, Ann Sherwood, holder of a Ph.D. in cell biology and currently a free lance medical writer, spoke on the intersection of science and ritual as it pertains to our being in the environment.

Sherwood, a founder and continuing member of SisterCircle, described how the rituals they observe of cycles in the Celtic calendar have helped her through the illness and deterioration of her mother from a stroke. During that time she struggled with many ethical questions, including "What is being alive?"

Her earliest religious experience came at about age 12 as she gazed at Glacier Lake and felt "God is everywhere!" This feeling of awe at that age, the later scientist Sherwood believes, from her research, is a result of brain formation and is experienced by many at that stage of their lives.

As a scientist she believes modern neurological studies indicate that rituals such as meditation can cause physical changes, especially in the brain's temporal lobe where there may even be a connection to a belief in a God.

Raised a Roman Catholic, Sherwood was used to ritual and finds SisterCircle provides the rituals she now needs to connect her to the universe.

During the dialog several members of the Circle expressed their concurrence with her beliefs in the value of their observances, whereas others doubted the scientific proof of such a need.