What Does the Research Tell Us About Spirituality and Health?

One should not be surprised that any effect of ritual, meditation, prayer, or potentially any other religious or spiritual practice would express itself through physical mechanisms. Religiosity/spirituality, like all of reality, is multileveled or stratified.¹

Research may not ever fully answer all our questions in the area of spirituality and health. In fact, some argue that understanding Spirit & Soul requires the use of “other ways of knowing” such as reflection, personal experiences, intuition, ongoing personal exploration, and creating and appreciating the arts. (For more on this, check out  “How Do You Know That?  Epistemology and Health.”)

That said, research does offer some important insights about the current state of the evidence regarding spiritual and religious issues and their impact on health and well-being. As you review the research findings described below, keep in mind that some of the studies lump religion and spirituality together, as “religiosity/spirituality” (R/S), despite the distinctions between the two that were noted earlier. If they focus just on one or the other, that is noted.

1. Religiosity and spirituality affect our physiology.

In this era of mapping brain activity using devices like functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) machines, we have some insights about how spirituality and religiosity affect the brain at a physiological level. This area of study is sometimes called “Neurotheology.” There are also studies that test levels of various chemical compounds in the body to see if they shift when people are having spiritual and/or religious experiences. Examples of study findings include the following:^1-4

• Prayer and meditative states activate the prefrontal structures of the brain.
• They also increase blood flow to the other parts of the brain, including the frontal cortices, cingulate gyri, and thalami.
• They decrease flow to the superior parietal cortices. When this occurs, people describe the feeling that they lose their sense of “self”; that they no longer feel like they have physical boundaries or limits.
• With prayer and meditation, the left hemisphere overall is positively affected. There is a link with this activation and immune response.
• Higher dopamine levels in the prefrontal cortex correspond with a higher level of religiosity. Those with loss of dopamine (e.g. people with Parkinson’s disease) lose their religiosity and spirituality.
• The frontal lobes of the brain become more active when a person engages in pro-social behaviors like perspective taking, empathy, and forgiveness.