The investigations conducted by Benson and the team of sophisticated scientists (2006) are based on the fact that intercessory prayer may influence the process of recovery in a variety of ways.
However, Benson et al. evaluate the conditions when people with CABG suffer from depressions and inabilities to control their illnesses even under being properly treated and supported by prayers and offer the idea that prayers should not be regarded as one of the main factors of human recovery.
The experiment aims at dividing people into several groups where some people are aware of receiving intercessory prayer and some people are not aware of this fact. The results were not as impressive as expected: the chosen intercessory prayer “had no effect on complication-free recovery from CAGB” (Benson et al., 2006, p. 942).
Such conclusions were made by the researchers, still, they wanted to support the idea of religion in treatment and admit that such results could be predetermined by the limitations set on the study: some constraints were placed without any kind of feedback.
This is why the result of the study should not challenge the chosen belief and make people doubt about the God’s existence. The main point was to discuss how prayers may influence treatment, and this article show the rationality of the required medical interference.
The works by Newberg et al. (2010, 2005, 2006. & 2007) aim at discussing the religious perspective in medical treatment and possibilities to improve human health and brain activation. The works have been introduced in different years and show how evident the progress of the experiments could be.
Neuroscience research is based on theological and epistemological questions (Newberg & Lee, 2005), and people should understand that spiritual pursuits may define the quality of brain and body work as such state like glossolalia (Newberg et al., 2006) and meditation (Newberg et al., 2007) which are closely connected to the field of spirituality may improve human health considerably.
Though the last investigations conducted in 2010 show that long-term meditators in comparison to non- meditators may have absolutely different activity patterns which are observed in brain, and meditation should be considered as an activity on a spiritual level that defines the way of how human brain works (Newberg et al., 2010)
The next article contains the results of the investigations conducted by Schjoedt et al. (2009) in order to prove that special formalized and improvised forms of prayers may cause different BOLD response. 20 young participants were observed; the cases of depression and stress should be analyzed to explain how praying may control human emotions and actions.
The main point of this research is that all participants believe in God, still, it turns out to be hard to prove that praying may cause different results. The results of their funding are all about praying to God as “an intersubjective experience comparable to normal interpersonal interaction” (Schjoedt et al. 2009).
Neuroscience as well as some other spiritual theological fields discovers a new ability to affect human mind and create the conditions under which humans are under the impact of their religion full of arguments and true evidences.
At the end of their investigations, Schjoedt et al. (2009) admit the fact that experimental neuroscience of such spheres like religion has to be studied further in order to find out the required realistic account of the discovered phenomenon of personal prayer.
The final portion of the articles helps to understand how cognitive and emotional processes may undergo certain challenges due to properly developed religious experience. As a result of principle component analysis and PET data evaluation, the researchers (Azari, Missimer, & Seitz, 2005) prove that religious experience not only can but also have to unite cognitive neural networks controlled by human brain.
In spite of the fact that religion does not actually consider limbic neural substrate, emotions can do such things and cooperate with certain cognitive factors to improve the quality of brain work (Azari & Birnbacher, 2004).
In comparison to the first research (Azari et al., 2001) where religious experience is regarded as preconceptual event, current ideas and perspectives seem to be more confident and properly argued under the conditions people have to live nowadays.
In general, the five types of research discussed in this paper show that religious aspect play an important role in human life and the work of human brain. There are many people who truly believe that God has certain powers and may influence people’s styles of life as well as human health.
Though not all scientists admit the influence of religion on brain, the articles considered help to realize that if a person is in need of prayer in order to improve personal condition and find the required piece, it is necessary to provide such person with a chance to pray and ask God to forgive and help. Religion is considered to be a complex phenomenon; this is why it is wrong to neglect its importance in human lives.
References
Azari, N.P. et al. (2001). Short communication: Neural correlates of religious experience. European Journal of Neuroscience, 13, 1649-1652.
Azari, N.P. & Birnbacher, D. (2004). The role of cognition and feeling in religious experience. Zygon, 39(4), 901-918.
Azari, N.P., Missimer, J., & Seitz, R.J. (2005). Religious experience and emotion: Evidence for distinctive cognitive neural patterns. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 15(4), 263-281.
Benson, H., Dusek, J.A., Sherwood, J.B., et al. (2006). Study of the therapeutic effects of intercessory prayer (STEP) in cardiac bypass patients: A multicenter randomized trial of uncertainty and certainty of receiving intercessory prayer. American Heart Journal, 151(4), 936-942.
Newberg, A.B. & Lee, B.Y. (2005). The neuroscientific study of religious and spiritual phenomena: Or why God doesn’t use biostatistics. Zygon, 40(2), 469-489.
Newberg, A.B. et al. (2007). Regional brain activation during meditation shows time and practice effects: An exploratory FMRI study. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 7(1), 121-127.
Newberg, A.B. et al. (2006). The measurement of regional cerebral blood flow during glossolalia: A preliminary SPECT study. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 148(1), 67-71.
Newberg, A.B. et al. (2010). Cerebral blood flow differences between long-term meditators and non-meditators. Consciousness and Cognition, 19(4), 899-905.
Schjoedt, U. et al. (2009). Highly religious participants recruit areas of social cognition in personal prayer. Social Cognitive & Affective Neuroscience, 4(2), 199-207.