Prayer & Neuroplasticity - 050

SPEAKER A The following program presents principles designed to promote good health and is not intended to take the place of personalized, professional care. The opinions and ideas expressed are those of the speakers. Viewers are encouraged to draw their own conclusions about the information presented. Welcome to healthy living. I'm your host, Margot Marshall. Scientists have discovered that twelve minutes of daily focused prayer over an eight week period can change the brain to such an extent that it can be measured on a brain scan. Join us as Dr. Eddie Ramirez explores the connection between prayer and neuroplasticity. SPEAKER B Healthy Living is a production of 3ABN Australia television focusing on the health of the whole person, body, mind, and spirit. You'll learn natural lifestyle principles with practical health solutions for overall good health. SPEAKER A More than a hundred years ago, an insightful Christian writer said that when the minds of mere mortals connect with the mind of the Creator, the effect on mind and body and soul is beyond estimate. And science is now proving that to be true. You'll be fascinated by what my guest today has to share about how prayer literally reshapes the brain. Welcome, Dr. Ramirez. SPEAKER C Thank you. SPEAKER A Very pleased to have you here today to tell us about this amazing connection between prayer and neuroplasticity. SPEAKER C Yeah, this is something new, cutting edge. And what we're talking about here is not something that some strange people is saying here or there. These are things that are being published in peer review journals as this effect is being documented. In fact, a new science has been startup as a result of this that is called neurotheology. SPEAKER A Neurotheology. SPEAKER C So neurotheology seeks to understand that connection between that brain, the neuroscit of things, and theology. Things like scripture, things like prayer and so forth. What behavior, what these behaviors have at the level of the brain. SPEAKER A Incredible. It's quite incredible to think about it. And when you say it's new, it's not new. But the discovery is new. SPEAKER C That's right. Christian writers have been writing for this for a long time. Even anecdotal experiences how, for example, people that were addicted to alcohol throughout ages, how come as they started coming to church and they started to participate on those spiritual exercises, how they were able to gain the victory over their alcohol, and you can ask your grandfathers and so forth, they may know some of these stories. How can that be possible? Because the brain changes and prayer does have an effect. In fact, as we mentioned, this is called neuro theology. So you have the two parts of the equation. You have the neuro side of things, which talks about the function of the brain, the connections, the synapses and so forth. And then you have the theology side of things. Theology is that science that tries to understand religious texts, religious behaviors, prayers. And it's two different fields that are married in this neurotheology new field of science. SPEAKER A What an amazing thing. And it's great that they've actually discovered the science behind what we seemed to know. SPEAKER C Yeah, because as people were observed, just the example that I gave how the alcoholic stopped their drinking habit and became a sovereign person. Scientists were puzzled. What's happening inside his head that this is having that effect? Well, as they went ahead and investigated now we have documentation of these behaviors at the level of the brain. Now, there was an interesting scan that was done in a published paper. And what they did, they compare two behaviors. Number one, they compare what happens at the level of your brain when you are thinking about a loved one. Okay? So today we have modern scans that can see what parts of the brain actually brighten up. And we can see this on the screen. And we have in the bottom when somebody is praying. Notice if you compare the two top graphics to the two bottom graphics, the same areas of the brain that activate when you are thinking about a loved one activate when you are praying. SPEAKER A But there's more there. There's some yellow on the bottom one. SPEAKER C That's right. Well, the yellow one is the current one on that particular scan. The blue one is the original one. So you can see how they intersect each other. Now, a writer by the name of White, she writes in the book Steps to Christ that when we pray is like talking to what? SPEAKER A To God? SPEAKER C To a friend. SPEAKER A To a friend. SPEAKER C She uses the word to a friend. So as you can see, it does happen that the relationship side of the brain activates when we are praying. In other words, when you're really praying from your heart, what you are doing, you are doing a conversation. See, it's two sides of the equation. God speaks to us through many ways. For example, God speaks to us through his creation. You go outside and contemplate the beautiful things. You feel that peace and you feel those insights. God talks to you that way. God talks to you through his providence. You wanted to do this. You had planned to do this. But by some reason this cannot take place. God is saying, no, this is not the way I want this way. So through Providence, God also speaks to us. God also speaks to us through his word. When we read the scripture, which is the stories of all those godly men and prophets and their experience and so forth, we can identify some of our experiences from the experiences they're having. God speaks to us also that way. So prayer is a dialogue. In other words, God speaks and men is going to respond, meditating on his creation prayer, but most importantly, concrete actions. SPEAKER A Doing as you're told. In other words. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER A Because treating other people like you'd, like them to treat you, correct, all of that. Yes. SPEAKER C And your language and so forth. And also one thing is to say, oh, I believe this and if I do something else, it really means I don't really believe this. So by your concrete actions, you demonstrate that those belief systems are really, truly established inside of you. So you can see it is a conversation. It is a two ways type of conversation. SPEAKER A I like the way you've explained that because I think, and I guess I'm making an assumption here, but I get the impression that a lot of people, just by the way they pray, they think it's one way, they just pray to God and tell him what they want and so on. Someone said almost like human gimme pigs, gimme, gimme, gimme. Yes, but really you don't very often hear people, certainly in public prayers anyway, wait for some kind of response or. SPEAKER C Yes, so yes, christian prayer is that two way street. When we have what is called intrinsic religiosity, there's lots of benefits to that. There's been studies published, for example, regarding mental health. SPEAKER A Okay? SPEAKER C People that have intrinsic religiosity do much better than people that have extrinsic religiosity. What is that intrinsic means in the inside? You really believe it. You're not doing the behavior mechanically. When I went to Japan just two weeks ago, I was speaking there and I visited some temples there and I was able to interact with some of these people. And I was surprised, some of them were saying, yeah, I'm agnostic, I don't believe in this, but I just have to do it. Then some blessing may come to me that's extrinsic religiosity. You do the behaviors outside without necessarily being in the inside. Well, if you have intrinsic religiosity, you know in our heart that God loves you, you know in your heart that you need help and you cry to God. That type of connection, that type of religiosity, that has that beneficial effect. So there are some writers that have asked the question where actually does the word religion comes from? And some of them say that it comes from the word leguere, from the Latin leguere means read. So there could be some truth to that as you reread things that actually strengthens your belief and you're able to leave more those principles. Some people say that it comes from the word, from the Latin link that you link over and over again to that higher power and there are blessings. So yes, there may be also some truth to that. And some other scientists document that this may come from the word re. Ligari. SPEAKER A I hope I'm not expected to remember all those words. SPEAKER C It won't come in the test, the Latin word. So religuere, which comes from the Latin word to choose. So to choose over and over and as we do a repetitive behavior, neuroplasticity takes place. SPEAKER A Oh, right. SPEAKER C So as we choose the things that are correct, the light that we have and we live according to that light, then blessings can come as a result of that. SPEAKER A Yeah. Beautiful. And I think it's interesting. I heard someone say once, and I really love it there's a God shaped hole in all of us that only he can fill. And I tend to think that's in our frontal lobe, in our brain because when he created us to need other human beings, which we were very aware of, we all know that. And we also created to need Him in our life too. And it does beautiful things. SPEAKER C There's some truth to that. Yes. And there is a need of spirituality in human. You know, as I travel in many of these very secular countries, australia, New Zealand, people tell me, Doctor, but I'm not religious and I'm not spiritual. But their behavior tells me different. SPEAKER A Yes. SPEAKER C I mean, I just landed a couple of months ago when I did a series of seminars in New Zealand. I landed in Wellington. And what's the first thing that greets me there in that airport? It's a tiny little airport. They have this dragon up there with this wizard riding it. That's the first thing you see when you arrive to Wellington. And people claim they're not spiritual. Of course, that's spirituality. And that's why movies and books and these type of things is all this witchcraft and all this the power and the force and these type of topics. Because if you have a frontal lobe, you're going to worship. What are you going to worship? That's another story. SPEAKER A That's another story. That's right. But there is building into us that need to worship. SPEAKER C That's right. There's a need for us to worship. There's a need for us to give our passions and our desires and so forth. So that's why this is, I believe, such an important topic to understand how can prayer have this powerful effect in our lives? And you know, one of our examples is Jesus. And Jesus had a life of prayer. Even though he was God, he wanted to demonstrate that submission to God. And he wouldn't start his day without praying. In fact, the Bible says early in the morning, before the sun was up, he was praying. SPEAKER A That's right. But it wasn't just to demonstrate. It was just a need and a love for the Father that he just he was drawn to. SPEAKER C He put away His God power and wanted to depend on God. So he needed that prayer to strengthen and be able to help Him with the things that he was going to face. So Jesus had a life of prayer. Jesus had a place to pray. He liked to go to certain places to pray and that made him special and that actually helped him reinforce the message. And also Jesus prayed for others, which is something good to do. And not only that, we also can learn from Him that he prayed loudly sometimes. This is a good exercise to do. If you are praying and you prayed loudly, you actually make this more reality when you say it in an audible way. SPEAKER A Yes. Because it's sort of using your ears as well as your thoughts. So you're using another part of the brain. SPEAKER C That's right. And, you know, there's so many examples of the power of prayer. There is an artist by the name of Clapton. He's a famous artist worldwide. And he had a horrible habit of alcoholism. He tried to quit. And we can see on the screen how he says this is his writing. I, Eric Clapton, asked for help and getting down on my knees, I surrendered. And since that moment, he says that he has never seriously considered taking another drink. That night, Clapton was suddenly blessed with what? SPEAKER A Self control. SPEAKER C With self control. SPEAKER A So that's powerful, isn't it? There are other studies about that, too, which is quite amazing. SPEAKER C So this is something that, again, scientists were puzzled. What's happening? How come somebody can have that change of behavior? So Neuroplasticity and neuroteology is able to explain this. Somebody more powerful than Eric Clapton was able to change these neural connections inside their brains. SPEAKER A Amazing. Yeah. Just an amazing thing. And it would really be something that even an atheist that's right. Might want to be involved in, to reach out to the one who made us and who made our brains and who has the power to do things that we actually can't do in another kind of help. SPEAKER C That's right. In another study, they had these volunteers and they divided for four weeks a behavior. They asked them to pray for somebody else. And that's one group, the other group, what they did, they thought positive thoughts about the other person. SPEAKER A Okay. SPEAKER C So they're comparing prayer for a person against positive thoughts for a person. In the published research, they report the results that not only did the people praying for had some benefits, they themselves actually reported more self control on the group that was doing the praying. SPEAKER A So there was a benefit to the people who were praying and there was a benefit to the people being prayed for. Is that correct? SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER A Isn't that beautiful? Isn't that beautiful? SPEAKER C Another published paper, they had this group of people and they made the person angry. SPEAKER A Okay? SPEAKER C And what they asked them is to pray for the person that was making them angry. Okay? And after doing this for some days. SPEAKER A In a result, it took a few days. SPEAKER C It took a few days. As a result of this, they reported that they actually were able to forgive the person that offended them. But also they reported they were able to forgive other people that had done wrong things to them. SPEAKER A That's an amazing thing. Look, they say to forgive is divine, and it really is. I don't think it's in the capacity of a human being to actually do that. It really does. I can say that because I've experienced that too. I think we've all had hurts and things. And sometimes he carried them for years. And I made some decisions about dealing with that. And it does. It just gives you a peace and a release. But it has to come from God. SPEAKER C And this has not change inside of here. See, as we repeat those thoughts and we strengthen them, connections are strengthened at the level of your brain. So how can you change that? The doctor cannot change that. You need somebody smarter and powerful than the doctor. And when we pray, we have access to that power. SPEAKER A That's nice coming from a doctor. SPEAKER C It's the truth. I need to recognize that. As a famous doctor used to say, we doctors only put the Band Aid. God is the one that does the healing. SPEAKER A And that's true. That's true. SPEAKER C That's very true. So different scans have demonstrated how different prayers have an effect at the level of the brain. So let me summarize the function of the brain in the following way. You have what is called the frontal lobe, where you have your judgment, you have your will, you have spirituality and so forth. And then you have the center of the brain, where you have what we call the limbic system. That's where passions, anger, hunger, and so forth comes from. When you're upset, that part of your brain is active. So studies show that not all prayers have the same effect. This is a deep, deep topic. But let me just summarize the findings. When you do behaviors such as Eastern meditation, in which they empty the mind, it has been found, and we can see this in the screen. It has been found how the people that do these behaviors, for example, in this study with Tibetans monks, the center of the brain is what strengthened and lightened up. Fascinating, isn't it? It's not the only one. We can see the next one, Carmelite nuns, in which they are doing this type of repetitive type of prayer. When you check their brains, the part of the brain that has been activated as more of an extrinsic religiosity, just repeating the type of prayer is actually the center of the brain, not the frontal lobe. And we can see the next study also on the screen, people that speak in tongues. This behavior is called glossalalia. When you analyze their brain, it is not the frontal lobe. What is activating actually shuts down the frontal lobe, but rather the center of the brain, where the carnal nature is, is what has been strengthened. This is published in the literature, this is not my idea and so forth. You can go ahead and access the article if you're interested, but not all the prayers are the same. We can see also on the screen the next study, Buddhist meditators. They actually strengthen the insula. The center of the brain is what has been strengthened. So instead of having more self control and better judgment and so forth, you're actually becoming more prone to anger and these type of things. This is documented in a fascinating book by the name of the dead of a guru. If you're interested, get that book by Rabindranath. And he tells a story how he was meditating and he realized his self control started to go down. But we can see this next study also on the screen in which we can see that fundamental Christians fundamental Christian is not a bad word. It just means a Christian that believes in the Bible. That's what basically fundamental Christian means. And you can see that when a fundamental Christian prays and has his religious experience, it is the frontal lobe of the brain that is being strengthened and the rest of the brain is being shot. The areas of the brain in which they have addictions and these type of things is being deactivated. So that's why as you do this type of behavior, you're actually able to strengthen more your will and so forward with the help of God. SPEAKER A That's very interesting to know that not all prayer is the same and not all prayer has the same effect. So I'm sure that's news to me. I didn't understand what you've just explained. SPEAKER C Yeah, because if you ask prayer what's prayer? You're going to get 50 different types of answers. These studies that I was showing you a minute ago are showing that, no, not all prayers have that effect. SPEAKER A So the frontal lobe is where we do our thinking and conscience and all of that. And so it's a very active thing. And it is like when I'm talking to you, I'm pretty sure I'm using the frontal lobe. SPEAKER C That's right. You rushing the frontal lobe. SPEAKER A I might involve the feeling part of the brain. So it's an intelligent thing. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER A Conversation. It's not something that we're just copying that someone else wrote or it's not something we don't understand. It's a very, very intelligent and intentional discourse with our Creator. SPEAKER C And this is the thing. As you repeat these behaviors, you literally strengthened the brain. You can actually see a growth in certain areas of the brain as you are doing these type of behaviors. So in closing, I want to share a fascinating study from Alcoholic Anonymous, alcoholic Anonymous that happened to work all over the world. And it's not a perfect program, I agree with that, but they do a lot of good. And one of the things that they do, they teach prayers to the participants of Alcoholic Anonymous. And what they did, they separated three groups of Alcoholic Anonymous participants. One was reading irrelevant news, which is most of the news today, I guess, lots of fake news and so forth. The other one was just not doing anything. And they did a brain scan. And the third one, they prayed. This is what they did when they had the cravings for alcohol. And it was reported that the people that pray actually had strength in their will. So when the cravings came, they were able to say no. SPEAKER A Isn't that interesting? So very, very powerful. And I've read studies, too, where prayer does and reading the Bible does give more self control. And that's what I think we could all do a lot more of. SPEAKER C So in closing, I want to share the following Bible verse from Jesus experience. He was about to get in the cross and he was saying, father, not my will, but your will be done. Which was the same prayer that Alcoholic Anonymous was praying. And what happened? An angel appeared and strengthened him. SPEAKER A What a beautiful prayer. Yes, that's the kind of prayer we need to be courageous enough to pray God's will and not ours. Thank you so much. We trust that today's program has been life changing for you, and we look forward to having you join us next time for more secrets of healthy living. And remember, you can watch our programs on demand. Just visit 3abnaustralia.org.au and click on the watch button. And may God bless you. SPEAKER B You’ve been listening to a production of 3ABN Australia Television.