BARRIERS IN THE MIND

A couple of years ago I learned about an area of study called neurotheology. This is the study of how the brain operates in meditative and/or religious states. There was an article in Newsweek about it that mentioned one study where the scientists did brain scans of a Buddhist monk and a Catholic nun as they entered a meditative state.

What the scientists found was that in that part of the brain where we process information about space and time and the orientation of our bodies in space, something happens when we go into a deep meditative state. Now, this part of the brain determines our sense of where the body ends and the rest of the world begins. The left orientation area creates our sensation of having a physically delimited (or defined) body. The right orientation area creates our sense of the physical spaces in which the body exists. The scientists found in their brain scans that in meditative states, the whole of the orientation association area shuts down. That means that the brain stops forming a distinction between the self and the non-self.

This intrigued me, since that is exactly the sort of language one finds in descriptions of mystical experiences. Either in the person feeling that they had become “one with the universe” or “losing all sense of oneself.” Or both. But it’s fascinating to me that there is an objectively observed condition that those phrases actually describe. For centuries, there has always been an implicit acknowledgment that a mystical experience is subjective. Now, although what a person experiences in that meditative state may be subjective and unobserved by an outsider, we can at least prove that something happened.

On one hand, this confirmation from science that “something different” happens during a meditative state doesn’t really make any difference. People never stopped praying and meditating just because science could or could not prove there was a point to the activity. A believer does something, like praying, because he does believe, not because it was necessarily proven by science (to be effective or anything else). But on the other hand, what science tells us about what goes on in the brain is very interesting, to me, at least.

I mean, think about it: there is now a very clear scientific definition of a meditative state. The phrase “let down the barriers in your mind” actually does describe what could be going on.

I suppose this is one reason why most prayer and meditation is done with closed eyes. When our eyes are opened, we cannot possibly be anything but conscious of our surroundings, of where we end and the rest of the world begins. All the distinctions are unavoidably present to our sight. But when we close our eyes, we no longer see the surfaces that separate different parts of matter. When we close our eyes, it becomes far easier to imagine ourselves floating in a vast open space, with nothing between us and God.

And what if.... what if that is where God most easily meets us? It means that there is a very real physical condition when we “open ourselves up to God”. Just as there is a very real physical state when we “keep our barriers up.”

Now, God is God, and I do believe that if He’s set on something there’s very little we can do to stop Him. But I also believe that He actually values our personal integrity and doesn’t want to intrude where He is uninvited.

So, as I think about my own approach to prayer, I have to admit that there are times when I may be saying words (either out loud or in my mind) about inviting God to enter in, or about trying to be connected to God, and yet I’ve kept my internal barriers up. Times when I’ve kept myself closed in my comfortable inner box, untouched by anything outside myself.

I actually do believe there is something great and good “out there” to be met while in prayer. All I have to do is open the gates, take down the walls, stop feeling the need to protect my boundaries and my sense of self. Because I actually do believe that, in the end, I cannot lose who I am in that vastness. If God values the uniqueness of His creatures, which I believe He does, then I’ll always come back to it.

Being at one with the universe. Letting down the barriers in the self. Being open to the experience. Phrases that have been used for ages and ages. Phrases that actually describe an objective physical process in the brain. It isn’t entirely subjective, after all.