Changes in the Frontal Lobe Reveals How Spiritual Practices Affect Our Brains

By: Alexandria Addesso

When entering into a state of spiritual exercise, prayer, meditation or contemplation, individuals are known to transcend mental and even emotional planes. But how does a person’s spiritual practices, affect the brain? Is it possible to know what is going on neurologically?

Neurotheology is a field of science that focuses on the neurological studies of religious and spiritual experiences. Dr. Andrew Newberg, a pioneer in the field of neurotheology, charted the functions of the frontal lobes of various people right after they partook in spiritual exercises or practices.

The frontal lobe is one of the four major lobes in the cerebral cortex. It controls motor functions, language, impulse control, memory, problem solving skills, judgement, initiation, social, and sexual behavior.

Newberg injected radioactive dye tracer into the blood streams of participants before asking them to engage in their own personal spiritual exercises, such as prayer, meditation, contemplation of God, etc., for about 15 minutes than have the participants enter 3D scanners to take images of the brain. The amount of blood in the images taken after the spiritual practice, easily identifiable because of the dye, is compared with an image taken before hand.



Among participants in Newberg’s were Sufi mystics, Franciscan nuns, Pentecostals, Buddhist meditators and various people who identified as atheists. All the participants’ frontal lobe images after engaging in a spiritual exercise had much more blood flow and activity than their former resting images.

This was true for all participants except those who identified as atheist they had the reverse effect with less blood and activity in the frontal lobe after attempting a spiritual exercise than in their initial resting image. Even atheists that regularly practiced secular meditation shared these results.

As a result of similar findings the frontal lobe was nicknamed the “God-spot”. Yet, Missouri University’s researchers state that this is a misnomer, because the function in the brain, affected by such practices, is not confined to the frontal lobe alone.

“Spirituality is a much more dynamic concept that uses many parts of the brain,” said professor of health psychology in the School of Health Professions Dr. Brick Johnston.

“Certain parts of the brain play more predominant roles, but they all work together to facilitate individuals’ spiritual experiences.”

The pineal gland is another part of the brain sometimes associated with spiritual practices and controls melatonin production and regulates sleep patterns.



The pineal gland is referred to by some as the “third eye”. But in traditional third eye art and folklore, it is always placed on the outside of the skull area above where the frontal lobe is located, whereas the pineal gland is located deep in the center of the brain.

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Neuroscientists discover ways to change our memories

This may sound a bit like science fiction, but researchers have discovered various ways to change, delete, and deploy reports in humans. To understand how this is all made possible, it is first necessary to explain how memories are formed and how each memory is stored in our brain.

With the advances in science, scientists have discovered that every memory we retain is made ​​up of multiple connections through the brain. A memory is formed when certain proteins stimulate brain cells to grow and form new connections, almost like re-wiring circuits. When this happens, the memories are procured into our brains, and will subsequently stay there as long as the functionality in the brain is sustainable.



However, a crucial aspect that many people do not fully comprehend is that long-term memories are not stable. In fact, many times that the memory was checked upon the individual, one’s memory showed signs of malleability, reset stronger, and increased vividness than before. This process is known as re-consolidation, and can explain why our memories may sometimes change slightly over time. For example, if an individual fell of a bicycle, then he/she would recall the memory as bothersome, and consequently, strengthen your memory connections with emotions of fear and sadness. Eventually, that memory of falling off the bicycle can cause and potentially instill fear into an individual. Alternatively, one can empathize with this certain kind of situation as many individuals have certainly had a traumatice experience, but over the years, have laughed over the memory instead.

The process of re-building is an essential point towards changing one’s memories.
Richard Gray of the "Telegraph" explains in a fairly understandable way: "The memories can be manipulated because they are like glass, and when they are created, they melt before solidifying. But when you recall a memory, it melt again allowing you to alter them before they solidify."



One way to change a person’s memories is to make them feel less traumatic about the memory, and avoid associating negative emotions with what had transpired. To make this possible, the Norepinephrine must be blocked. (An organic chemical that functions in the human brain and body as a hormone and neurotransmitter.)

For example, researchers in Netherlands showed that this method could be used to eradicate arachnophobia using Propranolol. (An agent produced by neurotransmitters and blocker of Norepinephrine.) For the research conducted, the scientists gathered three groups of people with arachnophobia. Two out of the three groups were shown spiders in a jar to shoot their fears. Out of those same two groups, Group A was given Propranolol and Group B was given a placebo. Lastly, Group C was given only Propranolol without showing spiders.

A few months later, all three groups were shown spiders while the scientists were measuring each group’s level of fear and types of responses. The groups who were given Propranolol without seeing spiders and a placebo(Group C & B) showed no changes in their levels of fear. Instead, the group that was shown the spiders and given Propranolol (Group A) were able to touch the spiders in the course of days. After 3 months, many of individuals of Group A still felt comfortable holding spiders, and even after a year, the fear did not return.

The same drug (Propranolol) has been tested on more occasions. In 2007, victims of post trauma were allocated into ​​2 groups as one group was given a placebo and the other Propranolol. For 10 days, the patients were asked to describe the memories of their traumatic events. The group that was given propranolol were able to recall events with less apprehension.



A similar technique was employed on mice, which makes them forget a particular sound associated with electric shocks, leaving their memories intact.


To our knowledge, humans that have not yet attempted to completely erase a memory, various ethical, although in theory the right combination of medication and exercise to remember, this is possible.

Ultimately, the most worrying facet about the research is to implement memories in people who have proven to be fairly easy. The psychologist Julia Shaw has shown that a person may remember having committed a crime that they in fact did not commit, and even recall details of the fictional event.

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