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. 2023 Nov 13;24(1):61.
doi: 10.1186/s12868-023-00828-x.

Monitoring the neural activity associated with praying in Sahaja Yoga meditation

Oscar Perez-Diaz  1 , Alfonso Barrós-Loscertales  2 , Uffe Schjoedt  3 , José L González-Mora  4 , Katya Rubia  5 , José Suero  6 , Sergio Elías Hernández  7
Affiliations

Monitoring the neural activity associated with praying in Sahaja Yoga meditation

Oscar Perez-Diaz et al. BMC Neurosci. .

Abstract

Background: Sahaja Yoga Meditation draws on many religious traditions and uses a variety of techniques including Christian prayer to reach a state known as thoughtless awareness, or mental silence. While there are many studies on the neural correlates of meditation, few studies have focused on the neural correlates of praying. Thus, the aim of our research was to study the neural activity associated with the prayer practices in Sahaja Yoga Mediation, which have not been studied before, to explore effects beyond repetitive speech or "mantra effects". Sixteen experienced Sahaja Yoga Meditation practitioners were scanned using task based functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging while performing formalised and improvised forms of praying and their equivalent secular tasks.

Results: Our results showed the deactivation of bilateral thalamus during both prayers compared to secular conditions and the activation in the medial prefrontal cortex that was reduced by religious and formalised secular speech conditions but increased during improvised secular speech; similarly, frontal regions were deactivated when comparing prayers to their secular equivalents.

Discussion: These results seem to depict two important factors related with praying in Sahaja Yoga Meditation merging inner concentration and social cognition. First, the perception of the surroundings mediated by the thalamus may be decreased during these prayers probably due to the establishment of inner concentration and, second, frontal deactivation effects could be related to reduced social judgement and 'mentalizing', particularly in the medial prefrontal cortex. Our findings suggest that praying by Sahaja Yoga Meditation practitioners is neurophenomenologically different from the social cognitive attempt of praying within Christian praying practices.

Keywords: Belief; Meditation; Prayer; Sahaja Yoga; Social cognition; Theory of mind.

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Conflict of interest statement

KR has received a grant from TAKEDA for another project and consulting fees from SUPERNUS and LUNDBECK. The other authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Main effects of secular domain (Santa&Poem > Mother&Father). A vlPFC/TP; B dlPFC, precentral gyrus; C Bilateral thalamus; D Supplementary motor area/ dACC. vlPFC ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, TP temporal pole, dlPFC dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, dACC dorsal anterior cingulate cortex
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Interaction analysis results and contrast estimates
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Main effects of improvised speech (Santa&Mother > Poem&Father) (blue), Mother > Father (red) and their overlaps (purple). A SMA; B vlPFC; C dlPFC; D Frontal eye Field/Pre-motor cortex. SMA supplementary motor area, vlPFC ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, dlPFC dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Main effects of formalised speech (Poem&Father > Santa&Mother) (blue), Father > Mother (red) and their overlaps (purple). A dlPFC; B IPC. dlPFC dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, IPC inferior parietal cortex
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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