The Healing Mind: Changing Our Brain by Changing Our Mind

Modern science has proved that mind can change the brain at the DNA level. Scientific findings that our world is more than just things (like atoms) highlight the importance of the spiritual.

Meditation

There are hundreds of methods for meditation. What happens once you achieve a state of meditation? Several physiological changes occur: decreased cortisol and adrenaline levels, reduced stress, and improved immune function. Many people believe that meditative states can heal and access the spiritual.

Scientists demand evidence, however. Without evidence, meditation is considered to be yet another mumbo-jumbo paranormal phenomenon. Thus, Andrew Newberg, a medical doctor, director of clinical medicine, and assistant professor of radiology, used state-of-the-art methods of examining brain activities by charting the blood flow to specific brain areas. By comparing the scans taken before and during meditation, Newberg and his collaborators were able to show reproducible changes that occur in the brain when one meditates. The scans taken with those in a state of meditation were very different from those in a "normal" state of mind.

Newberg's study subjects included Tibetan meditators and Franciscan nuns at prayer. There was commonality of brain states with these two groups and the activity of people engaged in spiritual practices. This is graphic evidence that meditation and prayer enables the mind to access the spiritual realm.

Changing your brain by changing your mind

The dogma held by most scientists until the 1990’s was that the brain cannot be significantly changed after adolescence. Jeffrey Schwartz, a neuroscientist at UCLA, employed modern scientific instruments to test that dogma. Schwartz, in his decades of work with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), found that patients following his therapy produced changes in their neural pathways. This work is highly significant. It proves that the mind can cause healing.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder often yields devastating consequences. The unwanted urges to incessantly wash one's hands or to constantly worry if a door was left unlocked can prevent individuals from holding a job or retaining relationships. Schwartz had his patients focus their attention in a meditative state on alternative thoughts, such as going out to the garden, rather than the obsessive impulse. This strengthened the neural connections that result in the thought of going to the garden and weakened the OCD urge connections. Brain scans showed that as the patients improved, their brain wiring changed—proving that mind changes brain.

Prayer

As with meditation, there are hundreds of ways to pray. In addition to the evidence of brain changes reported by Newberg's study of Franciscan nuns at prayer, numerous studies show the healing power of prayer. Reports of over 130 controlled laboratory studies indicating that prayer or prayer-like states result in positive health changes in humans and other living organisms.

The Power of Love

One essential component in all healing is love and compassion. The results of a Gallup poll indicate that over 90 percent of patients long for care and love from their doctors.

Numerous studies have shown how love produces electrochemical action in the brain, which, in turn, produces chemicals that strengthen the immune system. Dean Ornish, a cardiologist, has reported clinical studies involving patients suffering from arteriosclerosis and angina. These studies indicate that love, or the absence of love, directly impacts the seriousness of the disease as well as the odds for survival.

Medicine over several centuries at different times by different cultures moved from shunning the patient to nurturing—reminding us that despite modern wonders of medicine, the greatest medical advancement was moving from fear to love.

The importance of love, mind, and spirit in our daily lives can’t be overemphasized. Healing the rift between science and spiritualityis happening.