Dr. David DeSteno

What you find is an increase, a greater magnitude of the effect of the motor synchrony when those

meaningful parts of prayer are included.

Why is that?

As I said before, it's a mind-body practice.

So the moving in time, the motor synchrony, is putting your body in a state where it's more receptive to messages about community or coming together, as opposed to feeling tense, where your body is saying, no, no, no, there's a threat here, but your mind is saying, no, Dave, be good and reach out to these people.

And so in that sense...

combining the creedal elements, the belief elements with the practice leads to a greater effect than the practice on its own.

You see the same thing with meditation, right?

Meditation, we're all sitting at home with our apps, right, by ourselves.

Meditation is supposed to be done.

Traditionally, it was done in a sangha, in a community.

And as you said before, why is that important?

Because as we're breathing together, our respirations are entraining upon one another.

And it's creating that sense of synchrony to build community.

So I think adding...

the message elements of what religions value to the mind-body practice puts you in a situation where you get a synergism.

And this is what worries me when we try to extract certain elements.

So psychedelics is one great example.

Psychedelics traditionally, whether it was ayahuasca or psilocybin, were taken in the context of a ceremony where you had a shaman

who through chanting or drum beats or whatever it might be, created a situation where the body was very relaxed and felt safe.