How God Changes Your Brain - Andrew Newberg, M. D_ [95]
Take a few deep breaths and yawn, just focusing on the unlit candle. Then, in slow motion, light the candle, and take another deep breath. Slowly put the lighter down, and sitting up straight, begin to gaze at the candle. Blink as little as possible.
Bring your focus to the flame. Let it fill your entire consciousness as you observe how it dances and flutters. What colors does it make? Does the flame grow taller, then retreat? Keep watching all of the qualities of the flame for three or four minutes.
If interruptive thoughts come into your mind, just let them be there, acknowledge them and let them go, and bring your focus back to the candle flame.
Now close your eyes and visualize the flame in your mind. Watch how it dances and flutters in your imagination. If the image of the flame fades, open your eyes, study the flame, then close your eyes again. Keep doing this until you hold the image of the flame in your mind for five minutes with your eyes closed.
That's it! It's simple, powerful, and enjoyable. Each time you do the meditation, try to extend the time. In some practices, you use your imagination to become one with the candle. To do this, you imagine the flame coming closer and closer to your closed eyes. Then you imagine that you're inside the flame.
In another variation, you imagine the flame burning away all of your thoughts, desires, and problems: anger, stress, impatience, greed, etc. You can also use other objects—a pretty rock or a crystal, an autumn leaf, or even the food on your plate—to immerse your attention upon. Breathing meditations teach you to become aware of your inner state and body, whereas object meditations, like this candle exercise, train your mind to become more observant of the outside world.
EXERCISE 7: THE CENTERING PRAYER
When we brain-scanned a group of Franciscan nuns, they used the Centering Prayer, a contemplative method first described in the fourteenth century text The Cloud of Unknowing.33 According to Friar Thomas Keating, one of three Trappist monks who reintroduced this technique to the Christian community in the 1970s, it brings the practitioner “into the presence of God” by “reducing the obstacles caused by the hyperactivity of our minds and of our lives.”34
This meditation is very similar to various forms of Eastern contemplation, and as we discovered in our lab, the neurological effects of the Centering Prayer are nearly identical to the mindfulness practices in Buddhism. It is also similar to Benson's relaxation response, which I described before, but the goal is different: to feel connected, immersed, and unified with the conceptual object of your contemplation. The nuns’ goal was to feel closer to God, but the Buddhist practitioners wanted to experience pure consciousness—an intense state of awareness of the world.
In a Centering Prayer, like other forms of mindfulness meditation, you are not concentrating on a single object or thought, nor do you repeat an expression or a phrase. Instead, you allow your mind to reflect on all the qualities associated with a particular idea, and you allow the thoughts and feelings to freely flow through your mind, taking you where they will.
As you engage in this form of meditation, you don't try to analyze the experience. You just let it unfold. There is no specific goal other than observation. You don't try to make your mind blank, and you don't even aim for peace.
For the purposes of this book, I have slightly modified the Centering Prayer so it may be incorporated into any secular or spiritual tradition. The original version, as developed for Catholic practitioners, can be found at www.centeringprayer.com. Begin by finding a comfortable place to sit where you will not be disturbed for twenty minutes.
First, identify what your objective is (finding inner peace, experiencing compassion for others, receiving the gift of God's presence, etc.). Or, if you prefer, pick a particularly