If you would like to submit a question or make a comment, please email Dr. Taylor at thebrain@arlenetaylor.org.
I consider contemplative meditation to be a stress reducer and an aspect of spirituality. It involves calmly and quietly pondering a specific idea or concept as compared with concentrating on a specific sound, word, or mantra. It may include Directed, Mindful, Quieting, Stress-reducing meditation forms, as well as some types of prayer. Avoid getting hung up on any “rules” or “shoulds” about your style of contemplative meditation. I can tell you how I do it.
I define religion as affiliation with a specific denominational organization. I think of spirituality as a personal connection with a Higher Power, or the ability to attach a spiritual meaning to personal and significant events.
Some individuals who attend church regularly can be very spiritual; others are not. And vice versa. A clergyman who attended The Brain Program gave me this definition: Religiosity is for those who don’t want to go to hell. Spirituality is for those who have been there and don’t want to go back.
Ideally, religion would foster one’s spirituality but that is not always the case. Both can be important. If I had to make a choice I would take spirituality.
Interesting question. Whether a person believes their prayer was answered depends on their expectation that an “answer” means that they get what they want or prayed about. There is also the possibility that the prayer was answered but the answer was “no.” Scores of studies have shown that prayer does work, especially in relation to prayers about health. And much like forgiveness (the person who does the forgiving benefits the most in terms of health), the person who does the praying may benefit the most, as well, especially in terms of health and anti-aging effects to the pre-frontal cortex.
You may want to review my PowerPoint slide set entitled, “Prayer Changes Your Brain.”
Research on the impact of prayer on the brain and body have burgeoned in the last decade. Studies by Andrew Newberg MD, co-founder of the field of Neurotheology, have shown that different types of meditation and prayer (and prayer is a form of meditation), affect parts of the brain differently, the results of which can be seen on brain scans. Each appears to beneficially impact neurological function, physical, and emotional health. For example:
Prayers that focus on gratitude, celebration, or a positive vision of the future (as well as rejecting anger and resentment) have been found to:
In relation to group prayers, I guess it depends on your definition of “good.” The two parietal lobes of the human cerebrum or gray matter integrate sensory information, particularly determining spatial sense and navigation. They are activated when you sense yourself as separate from other things in the world and distinguish yourself as separate from other individuals. This is very helpful in boundary-setting and understanding where you stop and another begins. Think of it as the opposite of enmeshment. It turns out that the parietal lobes are deactivated during religious experiences such as singing hymns and saying group prayers. This causes you to temporarily feel more ‘at one’ with a Higher Power and enhances a sense of unity with members of a congregation or with all humanity or the universe at large.
A metaphor? The brain tends to learn quickly with metaphor—so here is one that may help. Imagine that you are standing in a field with three bison and imagine they are calm and even friendly. Your brain perceives each as a separate entity and certainly as separate from you. Compare this to individual prayers or prayers in a very small group of two or three persons. Now change your mental picture and imagine that you are in a field with three hundred bison all standing together. Your brain perceives them as a group rather than three hundred separate entities.
If the original three bison decided to charge down the field, there would be some noise but relatively little impact on the environment. If the three hundred bison decided to charge down the field, however, there would be the noise of 1200 pounding hooves that might even cause the ground to shake, to say nothing of possible clouds of dust. (Just imagine what it must have been like to witness 3,000 or 30,000 or 300,000 or 3,000,000 charging bison earlier in the world’s history. The collective power would be impressive.)
Three hundred individuals all reading the familiar Lord’s Prayer or other church prayers together appears to produce a temporary sense of being more “at one” with a Higher Power and enhances a sense of unity with members of the congregation or with all humanity or the universe at large. Since a social network is one component believed to help increase potential longevity, the act of singing and praying by the whole group could be considered one type of social networking.
In addition, there appears to be a bridge that connects the left temporal lobe (doing, rituals) with the right temporal lobe (being, spiritual). Actually participating in a left hemisphere ritual with the other attendees such as reading aloud or reciting or reading a congregational prayer or singing songs with words can trigger a right hemisphere spiritual response in a way that simply observing the ritual does not.
You may find the following books interesting:
First, recognize that each brain is a different as the person’s thumbprint. No two brains are ever identical in structure or function. This means that another brain will never precisely understand yours, or perceive any concept, belief, or value exactly the same way. And vice versa.
Having said that, I do believe parents have a duty to stand for something, and to role model their values and beliefs, especially related to spirituality. You didn’t indicate the age of your child. Role-modeling morals, values, ethical practices, beliefs, and spirituality (and expecting some level of behavioral cooperation in a minor child) is very different from demanding that a child conform in every particular and at every age.
Whether or not your child (especially a son) decides to imitate your values and beliefs relates to how you actually live (e.g., your behaviors are congruent with your beliefs).
I believe that the relationships between people is very important and should be preserved, if possible, whether or not the individuals construct identical values and beliefs, or exhibit conforming behaviors in every specific. Remember that people tend to return to environments where they feel comfortable and accepted….
Actually I have a bit of difficulty with this type of assertion. I’ve watched people spend decades trying to answer a question that probably has no answer. In the process they’ve lost their health, career, relationships, spirituality, and a whole host of other things. That seems rather counter productive and is a loss in and of itself.
The Biblical story of Job posed a similar question. The answer seems to be that God didn’t do it and suggests that one’s Higher Power doesn’t always interfere in the everyday lives of human beings to prevent the effects of injury and loss.
How human beings can orchestrate the death of innocent people in the name of a cause be is religious, social, or political is beyond me. How can they? It’s an absolute oxymoron, especially when the deed is done in the name of God, or Mohammad, or Allah, or Buddah. It makes no logical sense to hear someone assert, “I passionately believe in such and such and I’m going to hurt you because you don’t believe as I do.” Or, “I don’t like what you did so I’m going to do something hurtful to you in return.”
Yes, human beings probably do have a tendency to want to even up the score. History is abundantly clear, however, that in many cases little good comes from it to say nothing of the resources wasted in the process. I can only chalk it up to a brain dysfunction of some sort (such as in a sociopathic personality) or to some unhealed woundedness in the person’s life that turned into an addiction for revenge (as perhaps in the case of Hitler).
I guess it would partly depend on how large a “group” you are talking about. Two or three can be a group, albeit smaller than two or three hundred or thousand. I am not a theologian, but I did look up that scripture in several translations (e.g., KJV, NIV, NRSV): “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I (God) am there….” None of the translations specifically mentioned prayer in that verse.
Studies have shown that prayer, a form of meditation, provides benefits to the person(s) being prayed for—and even more benefits to the individual who is doing the praying. There also appears to be some unique benefits to group prayers as in spiritual and/or religious services.
Briefly, the parietal lobes of the brain are involved in helping an individual perceive that he or she is a separate being from other persons—a perspective necessary for the process of individuation, for setting appropriate boundaries, and avoiding enmeshment. When two or three persons are praying or meditating, each is likely very aware of being a separate person.
There is also some evidence that during corporate or large group prayers, especially when prayers are read aloud, repeated from memory, or sung, the parietal lobes are dampened down, which reduces the sense of individuality and separateness from others. This promotes a sense of oneness with a Higher Power and with the group in general.
Metaphorically, you might imagine seeing two or three Bison in a field. Seeing only a few creatures, you are aware of each as a separate entity. Now imagine seeing a herd of Bison, 100 or 1,000. You are more likely to be aware of the mass of creatures rather than each as an individual creature. And should they decide to charge en masse, the power of the whole herd would be exponentially greater than when just two or three were charging.
Therefore, prayer has been found to be effective when done by one person or a group of any size. Alone, the person will have more of a sense of individuality. En masse, the entire group may experience a sense of connectedness with each other as the parietal lobes are dampened down.
You won’t find it. As far as I know it doesn’t exist! I probably was sharing examples of my adolescent and sometimes misguided sense of humor! As a preacher’s kid, I had plenty of opportunity to hear scripture quoted or misquoted and I did my share of misquoting. For example, when attending the children’s division of a church where my father was a guest speaker, I was sometimes asked to repeat a Bible verse from memory. It was such fun (if I thought I could get away with it) to repeat Hezekiah 13:13—Better to be silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt. It sounded very authentic! Later on of course, I’d dissolve in laughter as I recalled the puzzled expressions on some faces.
I thought it was double the fun because what sounded like a wise saying was attributed to someone who was quite unwise, to say nothing of the fact that the book of Hezekiah didn’t exist. By way of excuse, let me point out that I was quite young at the time and my brain was still developing!
Around 700 BC, so the story goes, King Hezekiah became very sick and feared for his life. Ambassadors from Babylon came bearing gifts because they’d heard of his illness. Unfortunately, Hezekiah opened his big mouth and voluntarily showed the visitors every item of value in his palace and in his kingdom. The King recovered, but years later all his treasures were stolen in a raid—based on information gleaned from that visit. Too bad! Obviously Hezekiah didn’t know my preacher-father who regularly quoted the mythical 11th commandment: “Thou shalt not explain.”
That’s an interesting question. Both temporal lobes in the human brain seem able to decode speech sounds. There also seems to be a difference in advantage or in lateralization of function: the left hemisphere has an 85% advantage for decoding speech sounds in Wernicke’s Area (while 15% may be devoted to decoding voice tonality and inflection). The right hemisphere has the opposite (an 85% advantage for decoding non-speech sounds and 15% devoted to decoding speech sounds. That both temporal lobes appear able to decode speech sounds as well as non-speech sounds, is important. If an individual loses hearing in one ear the other ear may be able to decode both speech and nonspeech sounds (although one type will likely require more energy and attention to do so).
In terms of gender differences, unimpaired, both male and female brains are able, with attention and intention, to hear and decode each other’s speech sounds. However, PET Scan studies have shown that the female brain tends to use both hemispheres when decoding human voices. The male brain, on the other hand, tends to use the left hemisphere when decoding male voices and the right hemisphere when decoding female voices. It appears, therefore, that it takes more energy for males to decode female voices (although they CAN do that), and often may not really be decoding content by the time the female finally gets to the bottom line (although the male may have enjoyed “listening” to the sound of her voice).
Theoretically, a deity should be able to listen to and hear any application from a human brain. Perhaps when you are thinking of a Higher Power as “father,” however, you might want to “use the bottom line” approach as you would with a male brain. On the other hand, when you perceive a Higher Power as “mother,” you might want to chatter on and tell the whole story from the beginning as you would with a female brain.
Hundreds of studies and several books related to the benefits of prayer/meditation are available. Dr. Dale Matthews of Georgetown University evaluated 210 of the studies, all of which concluded that prayer / meditation was beneficial.
You may want to refer to Brain References—Spirituality and the Brain for additional information.
As I’m sure you know, an individual can be “fit” in any number of different categories. Spiritual fitness is one of those. My brain’s opinion is that a definition of spirituality is quite simple. Separate from religion and religiosity—which describes affiliation with a dogma, theology, or religious organization—spirituality describes the spirit with which you live life. It underlies everything.
The word savvy can be defined as encompassing characteristics including astuteness, practical knowledge; astuteness, sharp-wittedness, common sense, shrewdness, and the ability to make good judgments. Because I think genuine spirituality is so important I am actually in the process of preparing a PowerPoint presentation on the Components of Savvy Spirituality. Note: The Longevity Lifestyle Matters program includes fourteen brain-based and researched components, one of which contains the concept of spirituality.
Good question. I definitely consider spirituality and religion as two separate concepts. Sometimes they are combined in an individual’s life and sometimes not. Neurotheologians Newberg and Waldman, in their book Why We Believe What We Believe, point out that the human mind may be “naturally calibrated to embrace spiritual perceptions.” There seems to be some consensus that, whatever else the human brain is, it is relational, sexual, and spiritual.
My working definition of spirituality goes like this: Spirituality encompasses the spirit in which you live life, including ethical and moral choices; a sense of something greater than yourself; the recognition of a meaning to existence that transcends immediate circumstances; a sense of awe, vision, or goals to achieve the highest possible levels of brain-body health and a Longevity Lifestyle—for as long as it is possible to do so.
In the past most research studies lumped religiosity and spirituality together—although these words describe different concepts. There is now a move to separate these two concepts, insofar as it is possible to do so, in an effort to study the impact of each on health and longevity. Some of the inherent challenges of defining and measuring spirituality lie in separating religiosity from spirituality, which is particularly important when studying participants who consider themselves spiritual but not necessarily religious.
A brief overview of history shows clearly that religion and spirituality do not always align. Just check out information on the religious crusades or “‘holy wars” that killed many an individual simply because the person didn’t believe or practice rituals in the way the crusaders did. (Some believe that some of the current wars being fought may have similar underpinnings.)
As translated, two of the Ten Commandments are “do” precepts while eight of them are “do not” precepts. This style may relate more to the brain-function concept of free will than to the art and science of affirmation.
First, according to the authors of The Mind & the Brain, studies by scientist Ben Libet suggest that free will operates not to initiate a voluntary act but to either allow or suppress it—once the thought has surfaced in the brain. “Since the volitional process is initiated in the brain unconsciously, one cannot be held to feel guilty or sinful for simply having an urge or wish to do something asocial. But conscious control over the possible act is available, making people responsible for their actions.” Some have paraphrased the “do not” Commandments as a concept: if you become aware of an urge to kill or steal or lie or commit adultery (etc.), make a positive choice to refrain from taking that action.
Second, when information comes to the brain in two or more sensory systems with, there is increased likelihood that the information will pass directly into long-term memory. History indicates that when the Ten Commandments were given to the Israelite slaves after they left Egypt, the specific environment contained a great deal of sensory stimuli with emotion (e.g., lightening, thunder, earthquake, extensive preparation, specific rules for safety). Since this group of individuals may not have possessed reading/writing skills at that time, this set of circumstances may have increased the likelihood of the ten rules going directly into long-term memory.
The term, “The Three Bs,” has been attributed to a Jewish Rabbi. They stand for: belonging, believing, and behaving. They could be applied beneficially to family systems, almost any religious denomination, and perhaps to other organizations as well. The term is a way of describing the preferred order in which expectations and behaviors related to “membership” can be applied.
By way of example, writings from the Holy Bible invite people to belong to the family-of-God (2 Corinthians 6:18). Then ask them to believe (John 3:16). And finally offer guidelines to behave in a manner that is consistent with the beliefs and expectations of family membership (Romans 12:17-21).
Unfortunately, many family systems, religious denominations, and other organizations apply The Three Bs out of order, which can be detrimental to everyone. Concentrating first on expectations for behavior can interrupt one’s learning to believe. A failure to believe can interfere with one’s sense of belonging. And emphasizing believing before a sense of belonging is acquired can result in behaviors that, even if appropriate, tend to be exhibited conditionally rather than consistently.
