Scientists Cite Better Days with Spiritual Practices

There are so many aspects of the NPR series on the brain and spirituality to discuss, I hardly know where to start. Since it is Sunday, however, I will stick with one message appropriate to the day.

If there is anything to take out of listening to the NPR series, or reading the book on which it’s based, it’s that spirituality is good for you. Being a spiritual person will make you a physically and emotionally better, happier, more complete person. This is demonstrated by the people who participated in the studies and their practices, from meditation to prayer to worship and chanting. There is no denying that we are spiritual beings as much as we are physical and intellectual ones – something that quantum physics will one day prove.

Recently my friend Norman asked me about when I “got religion.” I guess I opened myself up for that one with my last headline in which I ask, “Got God?” The process is different for everyone, but in my case it was a combination of education, experience and self-actualization.

I wish it had been an event or an epiphany that changed me overnight. Some people have those and are on the path immediately. As Bud and Betty of Bible.com often say, people in poor countries are the ones who are most open to God because they have no intellectual barriers. Some of them have absolutely nothing to lose (ego-wise) in completely committing themselves to following Jesus; hence they are capable of experiencing the miracles of God’s love immediately.

For me, it was a much more labored process. My metamorphosis was long and sometimes confused; occasionally arduous and painful. This pilgrim continued on her journey due to a combination of love and practice. It was more like learning piano than a quick conversion. I practiced through worship, prayer and reading and grew to love the results of my practice and the people who were part of it until my playing became more like music and less like noise. Also, I discovered that I was able to master myself better by following the teachings of the Bible. The spiritual “music” soothed my inner beast.

For years before that, I was subject to depressions, most often in the winter. Taking care of my son was the one thing that kept me going during those times. Antidepressants helped some, but were far from being a cure. Since I dedicated myself to God, I no longer have those periods of darkness and fatigue. Recently when I read The New York Times Magazine story on Daphne Merkin’s clinical depression, it reminded me that there are people out there who have faith in medicine and none in God and don’t even realize that they are ignoring the one thing that could be the permanent remedy to what ails them.

For all of self-help books out there to cure people's problems, few mention the spiritual cures for the sickness in people's souls. Some people find the answers through the backdoor of AA or other substance abuse programs, but many turn away from anything that requires them to take that leap of faith.

I thought it was telling that one of the comments by a listener to NPR was that because science could duplicate spiritual experience through drugs or brain stimulation that it meant that God didn't exist. Another listener responded that just because you can replicate the experience of seeing a rose in the brain, does that mean that roses don't exist?

Unwittingly, perhaps scientists some day will lead everyone to see the truth.