"Except for the point, the still point, there would be no dance, and there is only the dance." ~ T.S. Eliot in "Burnt Norton"

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Religious and Spiritual Experiences Affect our Brains


The link below is from a radio interview from TALK OF THE NATION npr News about religious and spiritual experiences affect our brains.
Dr. Andrew Newberg is the author of "Principles of Neurotheology," and he is the director of research at the Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and Medical College. He studies the relationship between the brain and religious experience. In his research, he scanned people’s brains while they are meditating or praying and then he compared what was going on in their brains at that point to what is happening in their brain when they're at rest.  He approached that by using SPECT imaging technique that requires putting in a small intravenous catheter in a mediator’s arm. During meditation, he infuses a small amount of radioactive material in order to process images of the brain while meditating. Dr.Newberg found that people who engage in religious and spiritual practices have more active areas in their brains. He also found that during meditation “blood flow increase in the frontal cortex, the place where we are focusing on problems, and decrease in other areas of the brain”. These changes “help to lower the level of anxiety and depression and make us feel better”. They also help us to stay calm even after the meditation.
What do you think of his finding? For people who meditate or engage in religious practices have you experience the same outcome (feeling calm, positive or energetic after mediating) ?

17 comments:

  1. The findings of this study do not surprise me. When you pray, your mind typically goes to a peaceful place, if you minimize distractions when doing so. As far as God having most of the impact that causes the brain to function as if we were sleeping, I am not sure. When we are in deep prayer, I suppose it's possible that there is some spiritual power that God may affect in some capacity. However, I lean more towards this tendency to be natural. When a person is upset and tense, anxiety or depression will ensue. When a person is totally focused on one, peaceful, thing, they will feel calm and happy post-meditation. Certainly, these emotions will carry over to our physical well-being, too. There may not be scientific proof to this, but it is something I notice in myself.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I find Dr. Andrew Newberg's work intriguing. It is certainly an interesting idea to be able to further understand how a human relates to ideas of God, prayer, and spiritual practice in terms of brain activity; especially considering the work he has done among a wide variety of religious faiths and practices, in addition to his comparative work using brain scans before, during, and after analyzed spiritual activity. While I find his work an interesting combination between religious and scientific study. I, unlike him, would not attribute any observed physical or mental developments to Godly influences. I would agree that meditation as a practice can help people, even patients suffering from Alzheimer's, focus, attain a more calm demeanor, and even aid in memory. However, I don't believe these effects are a result of God's interference, but merely a results of streamlining your mind.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dr. Newberg's findings reinforce my own assumptions regarding what happens during a spiritual experience. I find that the common result, derived from my own experiences and others who practice religion, is calm, focused, stimulating thought. The mind that is sometimes running on "autopilot" during more mundane activities is revitalized through introspection and spiritual reflection. Regardless of one's religious beliefs, such an experience can be therapeutic, restorative, and invigorating.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I also don't find these results too surprising. When we actively engage our mind in anything synapses fire and chemicals are triggered. Seeing the reactions we see in the mind from prayer and meditation don't surprise me that they trigger the area of the brain that are known to help solve problems and keep us focused. This being said, I don't think that just because we see a physical response there isn't a spiritual experience. We constantly experience things based on thought and feelings that show a physical response but also give us an experience other than the brain can show. The feeling of the smile of a small child, the small acts of kindness that we see in others, falling in love. These experiences and more connect to us in a spiritual sense that biology can see, but that transcend the physicality of this world and lift us to something more than biology can produce. I believe that it is this aspect of our humanity that we can't see under a microscope or in a scanner. It is a mystery that maybe we will one day understand but for now leave alone. His findings, like I said and like Jonathan before me, don't surprise me and are expected. When you are in a state of peace and serenity it would be expected that coming out of that you would feel calm and relaxed. Likewise a state of stress or tension would also give you a similar outcome even after that event occurs.

    ReplyDelete
  5. A couple years ago, I had the opportunity to stay in a Buddhist temple for a week. The entire week we woke up at 5am and meditated with the monks before breakfast. Every morning the meditation started by the monks saying to us that we must not think of any "outside" things when we meditate. It was actually not as easy as it might sound. A lot of times we find ourselves somehow thinking about random things. The monks told us that one way to learn how to focus and concentrate while meditating is to slowly count from 1 to 10. With the slow counting, we would realize how often we lose our concentration because we frequently forget the number we just counted. Therefore, I am not surprised by Dr. Newberg's finding at all. Meditation takes a lot of concentration and this level of concentration is achieved through practices. However, I do not believe this is related to "God's presence". One does not have to be religious to experience such concentration and peace through meditation.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I find this field of Science interesting because it relates to the methods employed by Science and Religion. Dr. Newberg's observations follow a rigorously scientific approach in that they rely on empirical evidence characterized by measurable anomalies in the brain (in this case, biological anomalies.) A few of the comments above tap into the methods of Religion which analyze intent, meaning, 'feeling' and other intangible concepts which relate to what we have been exploring in class related to "the soul." From a Scientific perspective, I think it would be beneficial to explore all permutations of this study: how does the brain react in a state of zen in which religion is not a component? how does the brain react when fervently working on a task or exploring a newly invented idea? Does this brain activity specifically associate itself with the Divine or is it a brain reaction related to the perception of the Divine?
    This also has serious Religious ramifications. If Dr. Newberg's observations are indeed specifically associated singularly with the Divine, he has essentially revealed the otherwise invisible tether of prayer which links man with his Creator. This leads into new questions related to the legitimacy of God, the capacity man has to communicate with God, and the biological traits which are most closely associated with the Divine It would be intriguing to apply this study to the topic of evolutionary origins of man. As seen in our readings, online video clips, and museum exhibits, the evolution of early man is marked by expansion of certain areas of the brain. Is it possible that the development of the frontal cortex came at the same time as the development of language, symbol, and philosophical thought? Is our prayer line to God merely a biological phenomena in the brain and if so, what caused its development?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Before reading about Newberg I never did consider the impacts that prayer can have on the mind. Regardless of what one believes it is fascinating the findings that Newberg found but it also has its own implications for churches and religious groups. If in fact spiritual beliefs are only confined to the mind then why bother praying with others who feel or believe in different to you or have different sensations? When I pray seldomly do I feel a strong spiritual movement other friends of mine have strong sensations. Does this mean I lack spirituality compared to them? Perhaps the function of prayer on the brain can also help explain our inner faith.

    ReplyDelete
  8. In the interview Dr. Newberg talks about the brain scan of atheists and he found that atheists who were asked to meditate did not have the same results as a religious people.
    Why do you think brain effects are not result of the “present of god”?

    ReplyDelete
  9. I think one of the best statements he issued within this piece is that we shouldn't hasten to make a decision either from the religious perspective or from the atheistic point of view on this general topic. We must realize, from either perspective, that though these are only theories, they are also logically thought out reasonings that are engaging in dialogue between science and religion And I think it's quite interesting and likely, like many before me have stated, that people engaging in these similar practices of mediation or having religious experiences would experience similar outcomes. Generally, they are in similar states of mind of calmness etc.. that could certainly lead to the stated conclusions. As to your question about the atheists, I definitely thought it was interesting that the atheists could not "turn their brain on" as he says which lead to dissimilar experiences as those who meditated on God that were religious. It at least gives some credence to the aspect that some point of the brain is activated by these thoughts. Whether it is a natural phenomenon or simply something that is triggered only through a meditative thought process is more difficult to say. But I think this a great NPR piece that I applaud for getting the decision and dialogue between religion and science moving forward in the modern day.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I find that Dr. Newberg's observations are very interesting and that he has a lot of evidence to back his thoughts, however whether engaged in prayer or engaged in something else, different forms of brain activity are going to occur. For some people, engaging in these religious and meditating states of minds are what puts them at peace. However, for some people, their "peaceful" place could be triggered by some sort of other activity. I do not believe that people who are more at peace are because of an influence by God, but just influenced though their "happy" thoughts alone.

    ReplyDelete
  11. This study gives us an interesting opportunity to look at religion through the lens of a scientist. However, I don't think that these findings particularly have anything to do with some connection to God or a higher power. I think it is more so that prayer and meditation allows us to slow down for a little while and help us to think more clearly through our problems. Last semester, I went to a Buddhist meditation center for a religions project. This certainly gave us all a break that was calming and gave us a set amount of time where all we were supposed to do was relax without any distractions. I do have to question though how accurate this study is. Meditation is difficult as it is, and it must be quite distracting to try to pray or meditate with a needle in your arm that is injecting radioactive fluid into your blood. I guess that would depend how sensitive the parts of the brain are to this sort of thing.

    ReplyDelete
  12. For me this would make sense because from the scientific standpoint sometimes when a person is calm and serene they are able to complete more compared to when they are not. I however do believe that this can be achieved in ways other than prayer or meditation. For example when a singer goes on stage to preform or when an athlete plays a big game, I believe that they also achieve this serenity. I think a lot of it differs from person to person and that it's more of a thing that happens when someone finds inner peace. Some people find this peace when they are at church while others may find it in the gym. The only thing is that not many people make time throughout their day to focus on themselves so they don't ever get to a certain level of calm.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I'm a psychology major so his findings would naturally be pertinent to me. It makes perfect sense for blood flow in the brain affecting parts of it that would lower or inhibit negative thoughts and isolate them during prayer. After all it does require faith, just as you would have faith in someone doing well on an exam or a concert. I do find it particularly interesting that the atheist subjects did not have the same outcomes as their theistic counterparts. This may suggest a lack of faith on their part may be responsible, though there can be other ways to confirm this (regular meditation).

    ReplyDelete
  14. Although the findings are interesting I am also not too surprised by it because no matter what we do in a daily basis we have brain activity and are thinking whether it is problem solving or relaxation etc. So of course during meditation this type of activity would occur because it is a time when people calm their thoughts and relax and as this scientist shows through his own study brain activity reflects this type of reaction. However I do not think that this has anything to do with faith but rather the subjects own practice with meditation. Had the study used Buddhist monks who are famous for their meditation then the results would probably be alot different from the theist results simply because they are more practiced. Even for the atheists that were used as test subjects they may not think or meditate upon problems as another atheist might. The outcomes of this test seem interesting but I am still skeptical because of how many variables are unaccounted for such as each subjects use of meditation and practice of it in their daily lives. I believe that it is too early into his research to jump to any conclusion about whether this activity in the brain has anything to do with faith or religion or is simply a natural reaction from the brain.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I believe that these fingings are pretty accurate according to my experiences. I have always felt that when I pray that I am transported to a more peaceful place regardless of where I am and what else is going on around me. Although my emotions tend to have a larger affect as to how long it takes for me to get to the tranquil point in my prayer. Although this is only based on my exerpiences I do feel that there is more validation for me and for him because our result are the same or at least they feel the same. Now the presence of god is something different that can not really be measured by a scientific method because not everyones image or experience of god is the same

    ReplyDelete
  16. I believe meditating benefits people in multiple ways. I participated in the stress relieving research study last spring semester and meditation was a main focus. Whether you think of meditating as a religious or spiritual experience, reflecting on what is running through your head can make you feel more at ease. It is a calming experience because you change your focus from racing to peaceful thoughts. It makes a person take a step back and reevaluate the problems he or she is facing. I think it's so interesting that this scanner was able to prove the beneficial aspects of meditation. After I did the workshop, I definitely felt less stressed and anxious. Now instead of "meditating" I pray, but if a person isn't religious I feel like meditating gives similar results. I think it all comes down to belief. No one can ever know whether God exists so a person can thank God for their new found calmness/peacefulness or they can look at it a different way. Either way, it works!

    ReplyDelete
  17. The study of Neurotheology is extremely interesting. Scientists are acknowledging the importance of reflecting upon the idea of God and how it positively affects the human brain. We can clearly observe the gap between science and theology closing and becoming intertwined. Listening to the ways in which meditation improves one sense of belonging is a beautiful thing because it reinforces the idea that God is necessary in finding one’s self. While I did not find the study’s result to be surprising, I was intrigued by 15% increase of memory. From this radio interview, I grasp the importance of introspection and the focus it brings.

    ReplyDelete