Scientific researchers Andrew Newberg and the late Eugene d’Aquili, both physicians at the hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, have shed light on the origins of ritual and liturgy in the human sphere and in particular on the tensions that underlie the “liturgy wars.”
“We have observed how different types of rituals result in slightly different effects. For example, praying to God will give a different result than praying to a saint. Different holy days cause different experiences based on their liturgies," says Newberg, pictured above.
"It would be an interesting research study to determine exactly what kind of effect - and with what strength - appears to arise from liturgy that is focused on the priest versus one focused on the assembly. Perhaps such an exploration would yield important information about what people experience differently depending on the type of ritual.”
Their research on the relationship between the brain and our experiences of prayer, meditation, sacred story and liturgy is a step forward in the study of religion. Previously, religious behaviour was thought to be purely cultural. Now we know there are biological correlates for many kinds of religious activities.
"Hundreds of thousands of years ago, Neanderthals built altars and conducted funeral ceremonies. This proto-religious behaviour shows that as soon as hominid brains got big and complex enough for mind to arise, we began to wonder about the mysteries and problems of existence, and found some resolution in religious story and ritual," Newberg adds.
The brain has an inbuilt tendency to turn all thoughts into actions, according to these researchers. By mentally rehearsing actions like running, stalking or fighting, hominids probably honed those abilities and prospered accordingly.
It would be no surprise then if the brain compelled us to act out our religious and sacred stories. “The ideas these stories convey about fate, death, and the nature of the divine and human spirit … would certainly gain the mind’s attention,” Newberg and d’Aquili write in their 1999 book, The Mystical Mind: Probing the Biology of Religious Experience.
FULL STORY Our brains are wired for liturgy (NCR Online)