 Some neurological research has attempted to identify which areas in the brain are involved in so-called "mystical experience" and the temporal lobe is often claimed to play a significant role, likely attributable to claims made in Vilayanur Ramachandran's 1998 book, "Phantoms in the Brain", However, these claims have not stood up to scrutiny.In mystical and contemplative traditions, mystical experiences are not a goal in themselves, but part of a larger path of self-transformation.Lay scholars of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries began their studies on the historical and psychological descriptive analysis of the mystical experience, by investigating examples and categorizing it into types.