Reply To: Is belief toxic for your brain?

[Simon Paynton]

@belle – that makes sense. There’s also the Buddhist compassion meditation, which is a prayer in all but name.

There could be a lot of things going on at once.

There’s a concept in Gestalt Therapy called figure/ground formation.  The idea is that what is relevant for us stands out clearly against a background of irrelevance (since the brain perceives the world by picking and choosing that which is relevant, and ignoring the rest).  So in prayer, or for that matter meditation, we’re changing the “figure” from whatever it was before, to something else (God, morality, the long term future, or the present moment).

Also, morality, and cooperation, function partly as coping mechanisms.  A normal person derives much of their sense of strength, security and well being from being enmeshed in a mutually supportive network of people.  This is why narcissism is a tragic condition: being essentially competitive, they’re cut off from the support system that is morality and other people.  This is why they are so prone to shame and their position is precarious.  They’re always wondering when they’re going to get knocked off their perch.  Everyone else gets through life by making friends.

So, perhaps, praying to a loving God generally increases the sense of hope and that it is “worth it” to make goals.  By contrast, a competitive person is bound to be fearful and stressed.