Spirituality Connected to Specific Spot in Brain

Neuroscience has uncovered a potential area of the brain that accounts for a person’s sense of spirituality.

The right parietal lobe is the center where much self-definition takes place.  In other words, it is the spot in the brain where all the activity is “all about Me.”  It’s constantly processing information that helps the self navigate through a variety of physical and social situations, as well as the place that generates self-criticism.

A study published in the journal Zygon suggests that subjects who displayed more spiritual qualities also experienced a less-functional right parietal lobe.  This connects with the spiritual and religious understandings of  selflessness that draw people to focus less on self and more on others, a primal chord found in most of the world’s major spiritual paths.

The study suggests, among other things, that spiritual disciplines like prayer and meditation may actually alter the activity of this part of the brain.

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What I find funny about all this is the kernel of truth found in the notion that “you have to be brain-dead to be religious.”

What’s even more amusing is the notion that being partially “brain-dead” could actually be good for you, since spiritual people tend to live longer and healthier lives.