Meditation is, in many ways, a form of prayer. It essentially forms a conduit through which your mind and spirit can “hook up” with the unconscious, the unseen, the things of the spirit: God. There is no surprise that the Psalms and other scriptures have people constantly speaking about the meditations of their heart and how that manifests results in their lives. Meditation is a way to still your consciousness and connect with the unknown and the unknowable.
Surprisingly, for some, there is demonstrable physical proof of this, and it is called neurotheology. There is a lot of prominent, even secular, research being done on this concept, exploring the physical connection between meditation and prayer and the effects on the brain chemistry and responses. There is a demonstrable physical manifestation in people who meditate and pray, connecting with the divine.
There are studies and books out there about neurotheology; especially interesting and significant ones are by Andrew Newberg, a neuroscientist who works with the University of Pennsylvania. He conducted several clinical studies on the physical manifestation of prayer and meditation on peoples’ brains for years, and one of the books recounting his discoveries is “How God Changes Your Brain”. He performed studies where the brains of deeply religious and spiritual people were scanned, and his research covered more than ten years.
What Newberg discovered was that the part of the brain that‘s related to processing all the sensory information we take in and put out helps us formulate our personal sense of self, or of who we are.
For instance, a Pentecostal preacher, who was a long-term subject in Newberg’s studies, was examined before, during and after periods of prolonged meditation and prayer. During these sessions, his brain was scanned and the results recorded. The procedure was, when the subject reached a “critical mass” point (when the subject reached his peak of prayer, or had gotten deep into meditation, a dye was injected into the subject’s brain, allowing Newberg to watch the actual, real-time blood flow inside his brain.
During one particularly fulfilling session, the subject emerged from the session beaming. “The first thing that got me was I could hear God’s voice,” the man, a pastor, said. “And it so enamored me — I mean, it changed me dramatically. I couldn’t wait to pray!” It turns out that this man has prayed at minimum two hours per day, for the past twenty-five years! He says, “I think we’re wired for the supernatural.”
The results are obvious: increase frontal lobe activity, which indicates focused, intense attention. Newberg, ever the impartial scientist, cautions that he can’t “prove” that people are actually connecting or communing with God, but that there is actual, circumstantial, evidence for this premise.
In study after study, prayer and meditation provoke genuine physical changes in its practitioners. Meditation is complete concentration, after all, which will manifest itself in the frontal lobes. However, not just the frontal lobes are affected; there are demonstrable changes to other parts of the brain: the parietal lobes got dark on the scans, indicting intense profusion of blood in the area.
“This is an area that normally takes our sensory information, tries to create for us a sense of ourselves and orient that self in the world,” Newberg explains. “When people lose their sense of self, feel a sense of oneness, a blurring of the boundary between self and other, we have found decreases in activity in that area.”
These effects aren’t confined to Christians. Even Buddhist monks and devout Sikhs, who were participating in intense meditation. The feeling of oneness with the universe, the sensation of a connection with God, is universal, and it shows itself in the brain.
The fact is, God commands us to meditate upon His goodness, give thanks, and pray. This conduit is there for a reason, to give us a way to touch the divine, in whose image we are made. By allowing yourself to connect with God through meditation and prayer, we build a bridge between ourselves and the spiritual world, and we will reap the benefits of this, in a calmer demeanor, a more positive outlook on life, and even lowered blood pressure. Connect with God today through meditation and prayer, to experience this wonderful sensation and do more good in your life and that of others, since our actions and attitudes influence others in the ripple effect.
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