It Happens to Your Brain When You Pray or Meditate, Science Says

A moment of inner silence to find calm. It’s like that pray, the act of speaking to God and focusing one’s energies on his teachings which, for many people, is liberating, comforting and can offer respite in the middle of a chaotic day.

Something similar happens during meditation: By eliminating the religious factor, those who practice this also find a sense of peace and balance, connecting the mind to the body.

But, Have you ever wondered what’s wrong with your brain while you pray or meditate? Why do we feel such a deep connection with God or with ourselves? This is explained by different neuroscience experts.

When a person prays, they usually repeat a specific prayer, such as Our father or the Ave Maria – again and again. This is what the neuroscientist measured Andres Newberg, Thomas Jefferson University using magnetic resonance imaging.

That’s how he found it During prayer, “one of the areas of the brain that is activated is the frontal lobe.” he told the BBC . This part fulfills the function of concentration, so it is not uncommon for it to be activated during prayer.

However, the expert was surprised when he found that When a “deep prayer” is prayed, when the person feels that the prayer almost takes over him, the activity of the frontal lobe decreases. This occurs when the individual reports feeling that it is not them who are generating the experience, but rather that it is a foreign experience happening to them.

That’s to say, The brain believes it is experiencing an external sensation, like feeling “the presence of God”, and a deep connection, something that many believers report when they focus on their prayers.

On the other hand, praying also reduces activity in the parietal lobe, another part of our brain, which makes us sensory perceive our body and creates a visual representation of what it looks like.

But, Does the same thing happen in prayer and meditation? According to Tessa Watt, meditation and mindfulness specialist , Yes, you can achieve this state of connection and depth. And these would be practices with very similar objectives.

“I believe that prayer and mindfulness help calm a person, so that she has more time for herself and also activates the parasympathetic nervous system,” the expert said. The latter is the system that allows, among other things, to slow down the heart, dilate blood vessels and relax muscles.

According to neuroscientist Newberg, Not only does meditation cause the same reactions that occur in the brain during prayer. This can also happen with other activities. like when musicians start improvising.

This, as explained by BBCwould show that “Creativity can be a deeply spiritual practice for many people, whether they have a religious life or not. And I think they’re related, because the brain doesn’t have an area reserved just for religion.

In other words, our brain is stimulated in the same areas when we pray, meditate or listen to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

All of these activities, and perhaps many more that have not yet been studied, cause humans to feel a deep connection to something, whether it is God, music, or ourselves.