First of all we need to know that the main organ which works during our meditation or praying is parietal lobe. It concerns matters of faith. Obviously, there are more organs which works hardly during that activities (for instance thalamus or frontal lobe) but parietal lobe works the hardest.
We are “needy creatures” like authors says and we make our brain’s spiritual centers to use all the time. We pray for peace, we meditate for serenity or travel to Lourdes in search of miracle or go to Mecca to show our devotion. But there is nothing we pray – or chant or meditate – for more than health.
There is one very important thing: “The way the brain works is so compatible with religion and spirituality that we’re going to be enmeshed in both for a long time” – says Dr. Andrew Newberg, a professor of radiology, psychology and religious studies at the University of Pennsylvania.
“Enmeshed in the brain” – that sentence is the best to describe Newberg’s work of the past 15 years. He has looked very closely in how our data – processing works, conducting brain scans of more than 100 people who have different kinds or worshipful. What has he discovered? Hi observed that people who have meditated 15 years or more have thicker frontal lobes than nonmeditators. Also, people who describe themselves as highly spiritual have an asymmetry in the thalamus.
Another his research was connected with memory. He scanned brains of people who complained of poor recall before meditation and after. As the lobes bulked up, memory improved.
Another important and interesting thing is placebo effect. Give a patient a sugar pill but call it an analgesic, and pain may actually go away. Parkinson’s disease patients who are told to have an operation (but in fact they wouldn’t have it) have smaller symptoms of disease. Newberg did some researching with cancer patients. He gave them a pill and told that it was the new best medicine. Then, he gave them mineral water and said that it was better kind of it. And patients felt better. But when they got to know that it wasn’t a medicine, they died.
If belief in a pill can be so powerful, belief in God ought to be even more so. One way to test this is simply to study the health of regular churchgoers. Robert Hummer observed that those who never attend religious services have twice the risk of dying over the next 8 years as people who attend once a week.
Neal Krause has focused on how regular churchgoers weather economic downturns as well as the stresses and health woes that go along with them. Not surprisingly, he has found that parishioners benefit when they receive social support from their church. But he has also found that those people who give help fare even better than those who received it. He has also found that people who maintain a sense of gratitude for what's going right in their lives have a reduced incidence of depression, which is itself a predictor of health. And in another study he conducted that was just accepted for publication, he found that people who believe their lives have meaning live longer than people who don't.
Churchgoers… I found some really interesting information about them. There is something called “At the Drive-In Chuch”. It means that people go to church and sit… in their cars during all service. Reverend Larry G. Deitch run the service. He encourages churchgoers to take with them their pets. During service, churchgoers drink wine that is passed out during communion and later, church workers collect donations. What’s more, Deitch usually say “good-bye” to every car which participated the service.
Bizzare?
But let’s come back to the topic.
What is interesting, in African – American churches have been introduced the Body and Soul Project which aim was to make parishioners eat better, exercise more and generally improve their fitness. What’s more, pastors have talked about it in their sermons and there was healthier food at community events.
Many scientist and theologians who study this matters wonders about if we offer patient psychologist’s help, why don’t we offer him pastor’s help? And there have been a survey in the group of oncologists and a large proportion of them felt it was appropriate to talk about spiritual issues with patients and to offer a referral if they weren’t equipped to address the questions themselves. An also patients said that they wanted to talk about it with doctors but doctors never initiated discussion about that things.
Kristeller had participated in work exploring how physicians could help their patients quit smoking, has talked with patients and help doctors find the reason of smoking and find the better way to heal it. The success of that approach led her to develop a similar guide for doctors who want to discuss religious questions with cancer patients. An patients say that those discussions are very helpful.
To sum up, I would like to quote reporters sentence: “Doctors, patients and pastors battling disease already know that help comes in a whole lot of forms.”
And now some examples of healing by faith:
India
In some sects of Islam, the verses of the Koran are thought to have healing properties. In Srinagar, the capital of the Indian-controlled section of Kashmir, a spiritual healer treats a man suffering from temporary blindness with prayers and restorative Koranic verses.
New York, USA
Practitioners of Santeria gather in New York City. A blend of African, Native American and Roman Catholic religious practices, Santeria involves the worship of Santos, an amalgam of African gods and Christian saints. Followers believe that ebos, or imploratons, can bring luck, place and remove curses and heal sicknesses.
Ukraine
Founded 12 years ago by the Nigerian pastor Sunday Adelaja, the Embassy of God is a charismatic Protestant sect. Its followers believe that some of their members have been chosen to receive the Holy Spirit, which allows them to speak in tongues and heal with their hands. In the photo above, one such woman uses the spirit to elicit a trance and cure an ill church member.
New Mexico, USA; Lourdes, France
The dirt at Santuario de Chimayo, left, north of Santa Fe, is said to have healing powers, not unlike the water which flows from the spring near the site where Catholics believe the Virgin Mary appeared to a peasant girl in 1858.
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