Flex Your Moral Muscle: God Can Change Your Brain

In his newest book, "After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters," Anglican bishop and biblical scholar N. T. Wright advises his readers not to cheat on their tax returns. Because that deceitful act may very well carve a neural pathway inside the brain that makes it easier to cheat on other things or people.

Scary thought.

But the reverse is also true: that the decision to grin and bear a conversation with a boring neighbor on the train -- to try ever so painfully to remain patient -- also leaves a pathway in the brain that facilitates patience the next time you are confronted with an obnoxious, the-armrest-is-mine train mate.

Says Wright:

Neuroscience is still in comparative infancy. But already the clear indications are that significant events in your life, including significant choices you make about how you behave, create new information pathways and patterns within your brain. It isn't just that new patterns of wiring are being put down all the time, corresponding to the choices we make and the behaviors we adopt -- though behavior is, of course, massively habit-forming. Parts of the brain actually become physically enlarged when an individual's behavior regularly exercises them.

Take, for example, the simple act of smiling. According to Andrew Newberg, M.D., director of the Center of Spirituality and the Mind at the University of Pennsylvania and co-author of the book, "How God Changes Your Brain," smiling stimulates brain circuits that promote empathy. According to Newberg's research, even looking at a picture of a smiling face can enhance feelings of empathy and happiness. Frowning, conversely, stimulates brain circuits that promote anger and disgust.

Or, if you want to stay intellectually sharp in your old age, Newberg says it's important to continually stimulate the neural connections throughout your frontal lobe. You do this by using your brain: reading books, taking a class, watching educational programs on TV, playing chess, attending a lecture ... all those things that can give you a headache if you don't take a snack break every two hours.

Newberg begins the third and final part of his book with a "Universal Serenity Prayer": "May I find the serenity of mind to accept the things about myself that can't be changed, the strength to change the things that can be changed, and the wisdom to know the difference." To assist us with the second part of the prayer, he then gives us eight ways we can exercise our brains (in order of least important to most important): smiling, staying intellectually active, consciously relaxing, yawning, meditating, exercising, talking to others, and having faith.

Why is faith number one? Writes Newberg:

Faith is embedded in our neurons and in our genes, and it is one of the most important principles to honor in our lives...The psychiatrist Vicktor Frankl, who was imprisoned with a Nazi death camp until the end of World War II, said that the single most important thing that kept a survivor alive was faith. If a prisoner lost faith in the future, he was doomed, because the will to live seldom returned.

Although Wright is a bishop and Newberg a neuroscientist, the two men argue a similar thesis: that with the right brain exercises, we can become better people, with greater character and virtue. And that God can do wonderful things with our brains if we don't mind working a little for it.

 

Follow Therese Borchard on Twitter: www.twitter.com/thereseborchard

Comments

[khanti]

04:40 AM on 04/21/2010

Buddhist knew all along.
To quote the Buddha, "Mind is the forerunner of all things."

[Dottedvoile]

12:37 AM on 04/21/2010

I believe in God. I believe he exists. He has shown me many times in my life His existence and the love he has for me and all peoples, even non believers. One day all of you who currently do not believe will see his awesomeness and claim Him in your lives. You may not understand now. You may think what i'm saying is nonsense. But what they say is true. No matter what you've done in your life. No matter how unworthy you think other christians may make you feel. Or tell you God will never accept you...He is closer to you than you think, and I pray that one day you will feel His presence as I do every day.

[gclafontaine]

09:53 PM on 04/20/2010

Why would anyone connect "good deeds" and religion? There is no connection between the two, except in an ideal world. And in an ideal world, religion would be unnecessary.

[Yinka Daniel - Elebute]

01:44 PM on 04/20/2010

God and Faith are two inseparable entities according to christian beliefs and proactive notions of life itself. If the agnostics, unbelievers or atheists decide to use their 'will power' or innate moral conscience to survive amidst the turbulent nature of the worldly systems, it doesn't equate their actions as being godly or without the need for God's intervention individually or collectively. The denial of God's existence does not subtract or take away who God is; or has been; or will continue to be for those who believe in him. The issue of Faith preconcieves the fact that your belief can transport you to your destination spiritually, physically (good health), socially etc if doubts are kicked out of the mind. This is not will power because the supernatural (God) is involved in this journey. Will power on its own cannot take us through the wilderness of life without the God's support system (Faith in God) to complete the journey.

[Conk]

10:53 AM on 04/20/2010

If by God you mean the collective us, then I agree. We all have the ability to change our brains. Dr. Joe Dizpensa's book, How To Evolve Your Brain, is a good start for reading about how it's done. In fact, we have the ability to change anything about ourselves, to include our physical being. We can heal our minds, our spirit, and our body. Because we ARE God.

[HorseChowda]

05:11 PM on 04/19/2010

This article could have been written almost identically without mentioning God at all. I fail to see how a smile leading to an emotional response in another person has anything to do with "God". This is the point where people just start making stuff up, when the science behind endorphins is available to anyone willing to take the time to read it.

The author is assuming that morals come from faith and the bible. As an atheist, this is an insult.

[chemistsdp]

06:16 PM on 04/19/2010

I completely agree. As an athiest, I constantly feel compelled to defend my morality with many of my religious friends. I have always felt my struggle is a microcosm of a larger problem between different groups of peoples sharing different religious (or non-religious) beliefs. We would all be better as a society if we tolerated our religious differences with one another and not diminsh people who are morally very good but do not believe in any kind of a "God" figure.

[lticona]

10:23 PM on 04/19/2010

I don't necessarily think that the author was advocating God as much as he was advocating faith. Often the two go hand in hand, and in it's essence, faith is the belief in the transcendental. So no, I disagree. Using the word God should not be off putting because for some people it is synonimous with faith. If that doesn't happen to be you, well, you can respectfully subsitute that word for whatever word embodies the idea of faith to you. But I still don't understand why it is that people become angry at those three letters strung together. Morals come from the belief in a sense of justice, and in order to believe in justice you must have faith in it. If not, why pursue morality? We aren't we all nihilists, then?

[hotcognition]

12:46 AM on 04/20/2010

You do not need to have faith to believe in justice. They are two completely separate belief systems. Morality is a part of the teachings of religion, but you do not need to believe in god, the supernatural, or organized religion to engage in a moral system. Religion and atheism are two separate beliefs systems that have a moral component...they're both alternatives to each other. I prefer believing in doing good for the sake of doing good, not because of god, religion, or the promise of reward in the afterlife. Faith is fine if that's what you're into, but it's not necessary to be a moral person.

[huffpostreader10000]

01:57 AM on 04/20/2010

Using the word "God" when it isn't necessary brings along with it all the baggage associated with religion and faith. So no, substituting "God" with something else isn't a good idea. Leaving "God" out in the first place, however, is.

[Caru]

04:44 PM on 04/19/2010

I'm sorry if I find the idea of God carving out my neural pathways a little disturbing.

[Jan Shepherd]

03:18 PM on 04/19/2010

another example of why positive focus is so important. Thanks for this.

[macohmz]

02:31 PM on 04/19/2010

"If a prisoner lost faith in the future, he was doomed, because the will to live seldom returned". This is why politics matters so much.

[JohnFromCensornati]

01:29 PM on 04/19/2010

"The psychiatrist Vicktor Frankl, who was imprisoned with a Nazi death camp until the end of World War II, said that the single most important thing that kept a survivor alive was faith. If a prisoner lost faith in the future, he was doomed, because the will to live seldom returned."

So, in other words, “the will to live” was the single most important thing, not faith.

"smiling stimulates brain circuits that promote empathy"

So, smiling from a heaping helping of schadenfreude will promote empathy?

"God can do wonderful things with our brains if we don't mind working a little for it."

Or, in other words, we can improve brain function by using our brains, no gods required.

[TheIndependenceParty]

05:13 PM on 04/19/2010

Ahhh the joy of witnessing the triumph of the modern mind over fools such as Victor Frankl, .. who could have known nothing of the nature or causes of suffering.

Here is a link, ... even being a Cynic requires a bit of study, ... to articulate the origins of your (un)faith.

http://philosophy.lander.edu/ethics/stoicism.html

[MotherGinSling]

06:24 PM on 04/19/2010

Quoth the cynic, "$h it"