Faith is a Physiological Process
What does faith have to do with the science of mental health? Why is faith a key component of healing? And how do we begin to access the transformative technology of faith?
In our current world, the word faith has become almost exclusively associated with religion or spirituality. What people often miss is that faith is a word that describes a natural human process involving thought and emotion. In the same sense that all people have emotions and engage in thought, investing our faith in a future prediction is something that everyone experiences throughout their life.
The human mind is built to do many things. One major activity of the mind is to gather information about our circumstances and predict where we will be at some point in the future. Based on these predictions about the future, we have the creative capacity to make different decisions in the hopes of creating a different, more preferred outcome. As this process is repeated throughout our lives, it creates an ongoing feedback loop of predictions and outcomes that actually shapes our thinking, our way of seeing the world, and the physical structure of our mind itself.
The current buzzword in healthcare is neuroplasticity. It describes the idea that the brain is capable of shaping itself according to the demands put on it. The concept originated in the 1890s with Psychologist William James, who used the term plasticity to describe the malleability of the brain and nervous system. The actual term neuroplasticity came into use in the late 1960s through the 1970s as research into the brain expanded. In its modern context, neuroplasticity has been emphasized in recent fMRI studies that demonstrate how neuronal connections thicken and signaling becomes stronger as a result of repetition and training.
In the area of pain research, fMRI studies have shown how chronic pain engages more of the prefrontal cortex than acute pain. The prefrontal cortex regions involved are associated with conscious thought and meaning-making, suggesting that pain that is experienced over time becomes part of a broader narrative involving what that pain means to the individual who is suffering. Similarly, brain studies of people exposed to trauma suggest that signaling in the brain and the structures that support it are changed in response to the traumatic exposure.
Even before the recent and exciting advances that allow us to see the brain reshaping itself, a major component of psychological treatment—not just for pain and trauma but for most mental disorders—has always involved addressing the way people think in order to empower them to reshape, refocus, and reframe these persistent patterns of cognition.
Even more fundamentally, it has been an observation throughout human history that our consistent thought patterns shape our character and our functioning in the world. One of the earliest references to this concept we call neuroplasticity is believed to have been written sometime between 1000 to 900 BC by King Solomon, “…for as he thinketh in his heart, so is he…” (Proverbs 23:7, KJV).
Neuroplasticity describes how our habitual thinking and feeling about the future—our faith—shapes the function of our mind. The problem with this concept is that it can sometimes cause pain and confusion in the person who is suffering in some way. Over and over, patients have shared their sense of shame that they are afflicted with symptoms of mental or physical disorders. Their feelings of guilt are sometimes inadvertently reinforced by family, friends, and even healthcare providers who are skeptical of anyone who claims to have a pain that cannot be easily diagnosed or a mental disorder that cannot be easily attributed to a singular event in their lives.
As I have addressed consistently on my podcast, when it comes to trauma, chronic pain, depression, and other conditions that cause mental distress, there are many different factors that come into play and become part of the healing process. We have to be careful not to blame the person who is suffering as if they are somehow causing their own predicament. Compassion guides us instead to come alongside and support the person who is suffering as they make their way through their healing journey on their own timing.
At the same time, I have seen it personally over years of working with people that lasting healing starts with understanding how our view of ourselves and our predictions about the future shape the way we experience life. When someone begins to examine and rewrite their core thoughts, it changes the way they feel about themselves and opens the door to transformative, and sometimes miraculous, healing.
Let us know what you think in the comments!