A continuous and/or intense practice of therapies (including psychotherapy) and/or meditation and/or psychiatry may lead to better psychical conditions of people. Suitable behavior is understood by physical conditions, a greater understanding of themselves and/or own troubles, a suitable positioning before life, relief of symptoms of anxiety, distress, sleeplessness, depression, etc.
But the religious practice can also improve quality of people’s life. Praying, masses, cults, etc., compose this set of activities which may be influenced by a soul or a spirit.
“Psychotherapy is a way for treatment of disturbs and mental disorders and is made with interaction between a professional and a patient, where, by talk, patient knows better his/her troubles, and, hence, learn how to solve them. At this interaction, patient also learns how to adapt and behave better in social environment where he/she lives, improving own quality of life and emotional intelligence as a whole. With long-term effect, new skills and expertise are required in terms of personality, improvement of self-esteem, a more effective positioning before life”. These words were taken from my article “A psicoterapia como neurorreligação” [Psychotherapy as neuro-reconnection], not yet translated into English:
“In 2005, Sara Lazar, by Massachusetts General Hospital, showed by magnetic resonance images that meditation increases cerebral prefrontal cortex thickness – region associated to planning of complex cognitive behaviors. Right insula thickness – linked to body sensations and to emotions – also showed be more thickly in RR practioners related to control group. It was the first evidence that meditation is associated to changes at brain infrastructure”, as I told in my article “A meditação como neurorreligação” [Meditation as neuro-reconnection], not translated into English:
So, doesn’t religious practice also lead brain to the same path, changing structures and/or working of specific cerebral areas, or in set, affecting, part of it or as a whole, people’s behavior and/or personality?
In my opinion, I think so, but an analysis of how brain works before and after continuous and intense practice, with devices similar to CT by single-photon emission (SPECT), positron emission tomography (PET), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) or magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) is required.
I don’t know whether this type of experience has ever been performed at any moment but I propose a new term, Neuro-reconnection, which is the result, the effect of one or several metal practices (together with physics, if required), aiming a better psychic or emotional condition, and, consequently, an improvement of quality of people's life. If you notice, this name comes from neuroscience, neuron, neurotransmitters, and reconnect, adapt for a better life as a whole.
Neuro-reconnection is a term which comprehends all mental effort diversities, mixing with our rationality, emotions and feelings, to improve our behavior from structural and functional changes of cerebral areas.
Neuroscience has achieved so many advances I can tell something like this. I’m neither neuroscientist nor psychologist, I’m physicist, but I study several science branches and I wrote several articles about these subjects, related below, and others not yet translated:
The Material Basis of Feelings
The Material Basis of Feelings - II
Our Feelings. Why Do We Have Them?
Our Feelings. Why Do We Have Them? - II http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n15/opiniao/sentimentos2_i.html
- In my blog “Religious Relativism - My Thoughts On This Subject”:
General text -
Social environment for religious belief education -
