Dr. Andrew Newberg

And that when people are engaged in these kinds of practices, as the practice goes on, this area of the brain quiets down. And so when that happens, what these practices, what these rituals are doing is we then lose that spatial sense of ourself. And we actually begin to break down the boundary between ourself and the other. And that's now leading to the answer to your question.

So if you are part of a religious group that is engaged in a ritual, it could be a ceremony, it could be a meditation practice, a prayer program, then you have a whole bunch of people whose parietal lobes are now quieting down. And as they engage this practice, that boundary between themselves and the other people that are with them begins to go away. They begin to feel

So if you are part of a religious group that is engaged in a ritual, it could be a ceremony, it could be a meditation practice, a prayer program, then you have a whole bunch of people whose parietal lobes are now quieting down. And as they engage this practice, that boundary between themselves and the other people that are with them begins to go away. They begin to feel

So if you are part of a religious group that is engaged in a ritual, it could be a ceremony, it could be a meditation practice, a prayer program, then you have a whole bunch of people whose parietal lobes are now quieting down. And as they engage this practice, that boundary between themselves and the other people that are with them begins to go away. They begin to feel

blended, connected, again, unified, different words that people use, but a sense of oneness with the other individuals that are part of this process. And this goes back to some of the very early work that I did with Dr. Eugene DeQuilly, who was one of my mentors, who was a psychiatrist and an anthropologist by training.

blended, connected, again, unified, different words that people use, but a sense of oneness with the other individuals that are part of this process. And this goes back to some of the very early work that I did with Dr. Eugene DeQuilly, who was one of my mentors, who was a psychiatrist and an anthropologist by training.

blended, connected, again, unified, different words that people use, but a sense of oneness with the other individuals that are part of this process. And this goes back to some of the very early work that I did with Dr. Eugene DeQuilly, who was one of my mentors, who was a psychiatrist and an anthropologist by training.

And we frequently talked about the value of ritual bringing people together as part of that process. And we think a lot of that does occur through what's going on in the parietal lobe, that sense of connectedness. Other imaging studies actually show that when at least two people are engaged in a very intimate kind of conversation,

And we frequently talked about the value of ritual bringing people together as part of that process. And we think a lot of that does occur through what's going on in the parietal lobe, that sense of connectedness. Other imaging studies actually show that when at least two people are engaged in a very intimate kind of conversation,

And we frequently talked about the value of ritual bringing people together as part of that process. And we think a lot of that does occur through what's going on in the parietal lobe, that sense of connectedness. Other imaging studies actually show that when at least two people are engaged in a very intimate kind of conversation,

that their brains literally resonate with each other areas of the brain become turned on and turned off together and so when that's happening your brains i don't say this too strongly but they become one you have this sense of oneness and the brains themselves are resonating with each other and so these kinds of practices become very important for facilitating that these rituals are part of that process now interestingly the other elements to this is well what do you feel connected to

that their brains literally resonate with each other areas of the brain become turned on and turned off together and so when that's happening your brains i don't say this too strongly but they become one you have this sense of oneness and the brains themselves are resonating with each other and so these kinds of practices become very important for facilitating that these rituals are part of that process now interestingly the other elements to this is well what do you feel connected to

that their brains literally resonate with each other areas of the brain become turned on and turned off together and so when that's happening your brains i don't say this too strongly but they become one you have this sense of oneness and the brains themselves are resonating with each other and so these kinds of practices become very important for facilitating that these rituals are part of that process now interestingly the other elements to this is well what do you feel connected to

So right now I'm just talking about the group and so there is certainly this connection that you have in the immediacy of that to the group around you. But there's also the other piece to the rituals are the mythic elements the stories the ideas that are behind that. that we also then feel connected to. And so you could be a very small group.

So right now I'm just talking about the group and so there is certainly this connection that you have in the immediacy of that to the group around you. But there's also the other piece to the rituals are the mythic elements the stories the ideas that are behind that. that we also then feel connected to. And so you could be a very small group.

So right now I'm just talking about the group and so there is certainly this connection that you have in the immediacy of that to the group around you. But there's also the other piece to the rituals are the mythic elements the stories the ideas that are behind that. that we also then feel connected to. And so you could be a very small group.

You could be a group of five people, for example, doing some kind of meditation practice. And if in your story, if in your mythos, you feel connected to all of humanity, then you create this sense of oneness with every human being, with all humanity.

You could be a group of five people, for example, doing some kind of meditation practice. And if in your story, if in your mythos, you feel connected to all of humanity, then you create this sense of oneness with every human being, with all humanity.

You could be a group of five people, for example, doing some kind of meditation practice. And if in your story, if in your mythos, you feel connected to all of humanity, then you create this sense of oneness with every human being, with all humanity.

as a whole on the other hand and this is sometimes the downside of rituals is that you could have a small group of 20 people where they feel connected to themselves but within their ideology it is all about their own personal story and their personal connection to the world and so now if you're not part of that myth if you're part of a different tradition or a different perspective now you are viewed as external you're viewed as not real as some of the things that we talked about earlier