How God Changes Your Brain - Andrew Newberg, M. D_ [94]
MEDITATION AND PRAYER
The five exercises we have just described represent the core elements for remaining relaxed and alert. But we want to encourage you to go further by incorporating one or more of the following traditional meditation techniques, because they can make profound and permanent changes in your consciousness and your fundamental perceptions of the world. Our research has shown that they enhance memory, cognition, and attentiveness. Most important, they significantly lessen stress.
Three of the meditations below—Centering Prayer, Walking Meditation, and Sitting with the Demons—are variations of what are sometimes called “mindfulness-based” meditations. Mindfulness-based exercises have been widely studied and found to help people with depression, anxiety, high blood pressure, psoriasis, trauma, eating disorders, substance abuse, and a variety of psychopathological behaviors.32
In fact, most forms of meditation and intensive prayer practices have helped people with a wide variety of psychological and physiological problems, including attention deficit disorder, liver disease, HIV, and cancer. Obviously, meditation practices were not originally developed for these purposes. Instead, they were designed to create feelings of self-awareness, peacefulness, compassion, and spiritual enlightenment.
Research suggests that meditation consistently takes the practitioner into deep states of consciousness. When compared to everyday awareness, the brain, during meditation, is operating in an unusual way. And, since the underlying mechanics of meditation are theologically neutral, it can be integrated with any religious doctrine or creed, or used in schools to improve social cooperation and cognitive performance.∗6
Today, meditation comprises a huge group of practices that range from the deeply spiritual to the completely secular. Some meditation practices involve the repetitive focus on a particular object, while others involve the neutral observance of the thoughts and feelings produced by the mind. There is even a technique called “emptiness meditation,” which we will go into later.
Most meditations begin by calming the mind through relaxation, breath awareness, or maintaining one's focus on a specific object or thought. Then they progress to the more complex strategies of watching one's feelings and thoughts. In advanced stages, different meditations might focus on a variety of philosophies or esoteric goals (developing forgiveness, enhancing sensuality, dissolving the self, merging with the cosmos, expanding consciousness, becoming one with God, etc.).
In fact, there are so many meditation techniques to choose from that the trick is to find the one that resonates best with who you are and what your specific goals might be. A meditation that is spiritually based might be great for a religious person but not an atheist. Some people might like meditations that involve movement (like yoga), while others may prefer a meditation that integrates mantras and prayers. So if you try a meditation program and don't like it, don't reject the other types. Somewhere out there is the perfect one for you. Pick one that is consistent with your personal, ethical, and spiritual beliefs, and integrate those beliefs into every exercise you do. And if you choose to work with a meditation teacher, make sure that his or her underlying philosophy is consistent with your own.
EXERCISE 6: CANDLE MEDITATION
This first exercise is considered a concentration meditation, and neuro-logically, it is designed to interrupt the endless stream of chaotic thinking that normally occurs in the frontal lobe. Ideally, you should do this in a darkened room, but that isn't essential.
Begin by placing a candle that will burn for fifteen minutes in a safe holder, on a dining room table or coffee table, close to a comfortable chair. Smells can augment