Summary: Researchers found that Buddhist jhāna meditation and Christian speaking in tongues, despite their differences, share a common cognitive feedback loop. This process, called the Attention, Arousal, and Release Spiral, creates a cycle where focused attention leads to joy, making concentration effortless and deepening the experience.
The study gathered firsthand accounts from meditation retreats and worship services, analyzing the micro-moments of attention and emotional shifts. Preliminary brain activity findings suggest both practices involve a cognitive shift that enhances immersion.
Understanding this shared mechanism could help more people access profound states of focus and tranquility. The next phase of research will use brain imaging to explore the physiological changes behind this phenomenon.
Key Facts:
- Shared Mechanism: Both jhāna meditation and speaking in tongues follow a self-reinforcing cycle of attention, joy, and surrender.
- Cognitive Shift: Early findings suggest both practices induce a mental shift that enhances deep focus.
- Future Research: Brain imaging will help map the physiological changes behind this experience.
Source: McGill University
Two seemingly opposite spiritual practices – Buddhist jhāna meditation and the Christian practice of speaking in tongues – have more in common than previously thought, a new study suggests.
While one is quiet and deeply focused, and the other emotionally charged and expressive, both appear to harness the same cognitive feedback loop to create profound states of joy and surrender.
The research, co-led by Michael Lifshitz, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at McGill University and Investigator at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, with collaborators from Monash University and the University of Toronto, identified a phenomenon they call the Attention, Arousal and Release Spiral – a mental cycle that deepens both meditative and energized states.
Their findings, published in American Journal of Human Biology, offers new insights into how humans can cultivate deep states of focus.
“If we can understand this process better, we may be able to help more people access deep states of tranquility and bliss for themselves,” said Lifshitz.
“In another sense, our findings may help to promote a sense of commonality and mutual respect between spiritual traditions. Despite differences in beliefs, we are all sharing a human experience.”
A common pathway to bliss
The researchers found that both jhāna meditators and those speaking in tongues enter a reinforcing cycle: they focus their attention on an object, such as the breath in meditation or God in prayer, which triggers a sense of joy.
This joy makes attention feel effortless, leading to a feeling of surrender, which deepens the experience.
“As far as we know, this spiralling dynamic leading to increasingly deep and effortless bliss is a novel idea in the psychological sciences,” said Lifshitz. “It’s fascinating that these radically different spiritual traditions seem to have discovered it and made use of it in different ways.”
To uncover this link, researchers collected firsthand accounts from Buddhist meditation retreats and evangelical Christian worship services in the U.S. They asked participants to describe the subtle micro-moments of their attention and emotional state during their practice. They also recorded the practitioners’ brain activity.
While full neurobiological results are still being analyzed, early findings suggest that both practices involve a cognitive shift that allows for a uniquely immersive experience.
The next step involves using brain imaging techniques to map the physiological changes that occur as attention, arousal and release unfold in real time.
About the study
“The Spiral of Attention, Arousal, and Release: A Comparative Phenomenology of Jhāna Meditation and Speaking in Tongues” by Josh Brahinsky, Jonas Mago, Mark Miller, Shaila Catherine and Michael Lifshitz was published in American Journal of Human Biology.
Funding: The study was supported by the US National Science Foundation and the Templeton Foundation.
About this neurotheology research news
Author: Keila DePape
Source: McGill University
Contact: Keila DePape – McGill University
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access.
“The Spiral of Attention, Arousal, and Release: A Comparative Phenomenology of Jhāna Meditation and Speaking in Tongues” by Michael Lifshitz et al. American Journal of Human Biology
Abstract
The Spiral of Attention, Arousal, and Release: A Comparative Phenomenology of Jhāna Meditation and Speaking in Tongues
Buddhist Jhāna meditation and the Christian practice of speaking in tongues appear wildly distinct.
These spiritual techniques differ in their ethical, theological, and historical frames and seem, from the outside, to produce markedly different states of consciousness—one a state of utter calm and the other of high emotional arousal.
Yet, our phenomenological interviews with experienced practitioners in the USA found significant points of convergence.
Practitioners in both traditions describe a dynamic relationship between focused attention, aroused joy, and a sense of letting go or release that they describe as crucial to their practice.
This paper highlights these shared phenomenological features and theorizes possible underlying mechanisms.
Analyzing our phenomenological data through the lens of various theories of brain function, including sensory gating and predictive processing, we propose that these practices both engage an autonomic field built through a spiral between attention, arousal, and release (AAR).
