Dr. Lisa Miller, professor at Columbia University, is a leading researcher into the new scientific field of “natural spirituality”, which she describes in her 2015 book, “The Spiritual Child”. There are now separate neurophysiological metrics for the human relationship with the transcendent, a realm that until recently was folded into psychology and sociology. Miller has popularized awareness of spirituality as a distinct developmental process, to be taken as seriously by parents and scientists as physical and psychological growth.
Miller calls for parents, regardless of their religious or non-religious orientations, to nurture actively the natural spiritual inclinations of their children. The awe and wonder of children deserve the awe and wonder of adults. An observant Jew, she is very “religion-friendly”, but she assumes that the non-religious can be just as helpful in their kids’ spiritual growth as those who follow formal faiths.
This new science opens the prospect that public education may someday include active nurture of students’ spirituality, but in a pedagogical form that makes no mention of traditional religions. The new field of developmental natural spirituality may result in secular replacements for the functions of religion. My boss and I started a big program called Mindful.USC. The classes we offer have no religious content. But mindfulness is certainly the content of a lot of religion. Our program has inspired many students to take greater interest in the contemplative traditions of the world's religions. Mindfulness is now liberated from religion. But it also has the potential to liberate religion from the confines of particular doctrines.
Meanwhile, other research is revealing the neural pathways and brain processes of healing. Research demonstrates that the “placebo effect” works even when the subjects of the research are told that the medication they are taking is indeed a placebo. Believing that the pill is real medicine, even when it is not, is not required. It appears that the “active ingredient” of the placebo effect is going to the doctor, getting attentive care, getting a prescription, and taking the pill. “This is the specific effect of the ritual of medicine,” says a researcher, Ted Kaptchuk, at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School in Boston. It is fair to extrapolate from his findings that there can be a similar positive effect from the rituals of religion.
Further research is beginning to reveal the chains of neurochemical events in the brain associated with the positive placebo response. It is deeply ironic that this might lead to the development of drugs that could mimic the effect of placebos! Apparently, people differ in their positive responses to the rituals of medicine. This suggests that certain genotypes might derive more or less benefit from the gestures of caring offered by doctors and nurses. This finding could lead to the tailoring of medical caring rituals to the genomes of particular patients.
Brain science is beginning to explain or at least describe and confirm our spiritual experiences. We’re at a point where we can isolate the neural pathways that correspond with mystical religious awakenings. Atheists may conclude that this is proof of that God is nothing more than a human construct built around our genetic propensity to create meaning out of our experiences. The discovery of a discrete developmental process of the unfolding of universal natural spirituality might suggest that religion is optional, unnecessary, and perhaps even a hindrance to this process. We may be able, finally, to explain religion away as a product of our innate spirituality. But why do we have this propensity? How was it etched it into the very structure of our brains? If we’re hard-wired for transcendence, doesn’t that suggest that the experience of union with Ultimate Reality is hard-wired into the cosmos? Holy awe appears to be a feature of our human nature. So what does that say about the nature of Nature as a whole? Through us and other sentient beings within it, is Nature in awe of itself? The science of natural spirituality is just getting started... let's look forward to further amazing revelations!
Here are my "notes and quotes" from THE SPIRITUAL CHILD. I highly recommend this book for all who care about nurturing the natural spirituality of young people:
THE SPIRITUAL CHILD -- Lisa Miller, 2015, Picador/St Martin’s Press
“The absence of support for children’s spiritual growth has contributed to alarming rates of childhood and adolescent emotional suffering and behaviors that put them at risk.’ P 3
“Spirituality is the central organizing principle of inner life in the second decade…”. P 3
“Biologically, we are hardwired for spiritual connection.” P3
“Our findings show that natural spirituality exists as a human capacity – just as EQ and IQ are commonly acknowledged human capacities – and is associated clearly with life success and satisfaction.” P 6
“Natural spirituality, in fact, appears to be the single most significant factor in children’s health and their ability to thrive.” P 6
“Transcendence… has been shown by multiple research teams to have biological markers, such as structural differences in the occipital and parietal regions of the brain, increased levels of the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin, and genetic markers in the human genome that are associated with production of these neurotransmitters and their regulation.” P 58
In research by Ralph Piedmont of Loyola University, the human propensity for experiencing spiritual transcendence was found to exist independently of the “five-factor model” of personality: “…spirituality and personality were separate entities.” P 62-63
“Adolescents are profoundly spiritual, they are experiencing spiritual stirrings as the momentous and the wondrous, and they are surprised that for the most part, nobody has talked to them about this experience. Nobody, even people they love dearly, have asked, or commented, or said something to make spiritual development part of the conversation, shared words that would make their inner life a spoken reality.” P 71
Miller describes moments of mutual recognition of awe and compassion between parents or relatives and children as “nods” – incidents of intergenerational transmission of spiritual awareness. When the child understands that the parent validates and supports these experiences, there are powerful consequences, according to Miller’s research findings: “To put the force and magnitude of the nod into perspective, in offspring of depressed mothers, a shared spirituality was between three to seven times more protective than any other sources of resilience against depression.” P 87
“The young child needs no training in mindfulness. Rather, she needs protection from the disruption of focus, from exposure to spinning or running thoughts, from rushing, and from lack of peaceful moments.” P 115
Lisa Miller's advice for parents:
Make space for awe
Slow down – don’t rush
Share your own intuitive feelings with kids
Acknowledge your bonds
Honor their deep questions
Describe things/people to kids in a way that lifts up their sacredness
Website: MINDFULCHRISTIANITY.ORG Weblog: MUSINGS Follow me on twitter: @jtburklo
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Sr Associate Dean of Religious Life, University of Southern California