Research Indicates the Concept of God Affects Your Brain & Health

Would you believe your very concept of God in your brain could determine your state of well-being?

Would you believe that “fearing” God is actually unhealthy, and what does this mean exactly?

Negative emotions, like fear, kill parts of your brain by releasing harmful neurochemicals according to clinical research at the University of Pennsylvania. The concept of God is fairly large for many people, but it’s how you conceptualize God — and conceptualize your thoughts (positively or negatively) — which matters.

I’m a nut when it comes to research revealing the real-life effects of positive and negative thoughts. In this video (below), Mark Robert Waldman, an associate fellow with the University of Pennsylvania, gives a stellar presentation talking about the God concept and what happens to your brain with big ideas.

If you find this sort of thing boring, don’t be afraid to yawn. Yawning is actually one of the eight most beneficial exercises for your brain. It keeps your brain alive and stimulated, Waldman says. You might expect this guy to know these types of nuances after extensive research on the things that are inherently good for you and your brain.

Not everyone has the time or patience to watch a 20-minute video, so I took some of the important points and summarized Waldman’s presentation. (The summary is the below video.)

The God Concept

“God is good for your brain, only if your image of God is positive,” said Waldman, who also said dwelling on a negative thought for more than 20 seconds does damage to your brain.

Waldman said that if your dreams, goals, and visions is are positive – it will stimulate parts of your body and brain that are enormously healthy; while possibly adding years on to your life. Contrarily, he said negative ideas create neurochemicals destroying the limbic system which controls our regulation of destructive emotions. “You kill yourself with those [negative] ideas,” he said.

“God is a big idea,” and big ideas actually grow dendrites in important parts of your brain Waldman said . “A single word changes the function and structure of your brain.” As an example, Waldman said that if you look at the word “NO” for more than one second, it starts releasing those neurochemicals that deteriorate your brain.

Waldman also mentioned a recent study on persons with adverse mental health. The study showed that by looking at a list of negative words, over a relatively small period of time, their mental condition became worse.

Meditation is the Real Deal

Meditation is actually beneficial to create positive physiological effects for your brain and body. Waldman said if you meditate for 45 or 50 minutes on an idea, you disappear in some sense of the term. He said you lose your ego and all that remains in your total consciousness is your big idea. He said this idea becomes your inner and outer reality. Waldman showed diagrams of brain activity through the presentation to demonstrate his points.

“This is why you have to meditate on your positive belief, your positive image, your optimism – for a very long time – if you want to achieve the types of neurological benefits that we’ve been able to document in the lab.”

The Game Changer

“What is my deepest, innermost value?” Waldman asked the crowd in front of him. “Find a single word or phrase that captures that deep value.”

“This is your big idea.”

“An idea so powerful, it will change your brain, it will change your life, and it may even change the world,” he said.

Surprisingly, Waldman said they found for most people that God wasn’t their biggest idea. The concept of money was an even bigger idea in most people’s brains. So what was the biggest concept for most individuals? Waldman said the biggest concept was the one thing that captures the individual’s own deepest value.

Waldman said his own deepest value is compassion, admitting he needs to meditate on this idea even more in his life.

“When you share your deepest belief with other people from other traditions, you are going to find out we are all members of the same church – the church of humanity, the church of life. If you meditate on that word, that sacred belief, that big idea, for just a few minutes a day, for eight weeks – you will begin to change the structure and neurological function of your brain. It will bring a little bit more peace into your heart,” Waldman said.

He furthered his point by adding, “If you bring this value into your speech, and into your expressions, you will change the listeners brain.” Waldman said this concept is called neural resonance, and it is the key to getting along with others.

Pretty Cool ‘stuff!’

Now my question to all of you is, knowing about this research, is it convincing enough to change you from dwelling on your own negative thoughts? Your comments…