When word meets flesh: a neuroscience perspective on embodied spiritual formation.

Edwards, Keith J.

The Word became flesh, and made his dwelling among us. John 1: 14

A problem emerges when the spiritual is seen as something separate from our baser instincts. We imagine that somehow we can be free of our creatureliness, and that there is a clear distinction between the sacred and the profane. (Safran, 2003, p. 27)

Spiritual formation is a popular term in evangelical Protestant circles these days. A Google search of this term reveals that many Protestant seminaries in the country have a program for spiritual formation. Spiritual formation refers to the process of growth toward maturity of the Christian believer. As such, it has replaced the term "sanctification" which is the more traditional concept used to designate spiritual transformation. The current emphasis on spiritual formation may reflect dissatisfaction with traditional evangelical approaches to promoting growth toward Christ-likeness in the believer. It may also reflect dissatisfaction with the overly passive and cognitive character of contemporary practical theology and the desire of many Christians to experience God personally, relationally, and subjectively.

Spiritual formation practices are structured activities that guide the individual in patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving intended to enhance spiritual consciousness and promote spiritual growth of the embodied self-soul (Benner & Moon, 2004; Moon, 2002). Spiritual transformation practices result in changes in the structure and functioning of the body-brain system (Davidson et al., 2003; Lazar et al., 2005; Tang, Lu, Fan, Yang, & Posner, 2012). Developmental, social, cognitive, affective neuroscience (DevSCAN) providcs detailed knowledge regarding the functioning of the body-brain. It is suggested here that this knowledge can enhance our understanding of the mental processes that mediate the impact of spiritual formation practices. There have been a number of books published in recent years exploring the connection between neuroscience and spiritual practices (Brown & Strawn, 2012; Newberg, 2010; Newberg & Waldman, 2010; Thompson, 2010). These resources provide a broad framework for considering spirituality in light of neuroscience knowledge. Specifically, this paper focuses on implications from neuroscience research for spiritual formation practices. The first section of the paper defines Christian spiritual formation. The second section describes the three main subsystems of the body-brain complex. The final section presents the argument that, from a neuroscience perspective, the mental processes facilitated by mindfulness practices are compatible with the goals of spiritual formation. Before looking at each section, however, it is important to note that some elements of spiritual formation are not universally agreed upon within the evangelical community.

Critics of Spiritual Formation Practices

The popular ascendance of spiritual formation has not been without controversy. Meditation practices, afforded a central role in spiritual formation by such proponents as Dallas Willard (1999, 2012) and Richard Foster (1988, 1992), have been a particular target of some Evangelical Protestant critics (e.g., Gilley, 2014; Yungen, 2002). Two primary objections have been raised. First, is the concern that proponents of contemporary spiritual formation have embraced spiritual practices of ancient and contemporary mystics within the Catholic tradition. Historical antipathy between Catholic mysticism and Evangelical Protestants rooted in the Reformation make such integration suspect to the critics. The emphasis in Catholic mysticism of personal subjectivity and the promise of a direct experience of God is considered an experiential stretch beyond the Reformation principle of "Sola Scriptura" (Gilley, 2014).

The critics also voice a related and more specific objection focused on the various meditative practices advocated by proponents of spiritual formation. Such practices are central in Catholic mystics, Eastern spiritual traditions and contemporary New Age approaches to spirituality. Thus, advocating meditative practices suffer, in the eyes of detractors, from guilt by association. A particular focus of Protestant critics has been the meditative practice derived from Buddhism called "mindfulness" (see Yungen, 2002). Widely embraced by clinical psychologists and medical practitioners throughout the world, mindfulness refers to a specific meditative process of self-focused attention as well as to a collection of thoughtful practices designed to facilitate compassion and well-being. One of the reasons mindfulness has been so widely adopted is that the practices have been shown, in rigorous clinical trials, to be effective in promoting a variety of psychological and physical health benefits (Condon, Desborders, Miller, & DeSteno, 2013; Davidson et al., 2003; Moyer et al., 2011; Seppala et al., 2014)). Secular proponents of mindfulness suggest that the psychological processes mindfulness facilitates can be effectively applied in clinical settings without the metaphysical baggage of Eastern philosophy (see Segal, Williams, & Teasdale, 2013). Neuroscience (DevSCAN) knowledge provides an understanding of the embodied mental processes that are activated by various types of meditation. It is proposed here that the processes of consciousness that mindfulness activates are consistent with the goals of Christian spiritual formation.

Spirituality

It is widely recognized that spirituality requires the capacity for self-consciousness and the use of abstract symbols (language, Damasio, 2010). Spiritual consciousness and consciousness of God as a spiritual being are developmental accomplishments. Embodied spiritual consciousness depends on the maturation and health of the material body-brain system. Spiritual consciousness consists of moment-to moment subjective experience and the symbols used by the self-soul to give this subjective experience spiritual meaning. While the context of spiritual formation for the present paper is evangelical Christianity, the embodied mental processes are the same across all spiritual systems. From an embodiment perspective, the mental processes of mindfulness meditation are universal.

Common to dictionary definitions of spirituality is reference to an immaterial and transcendent reality. A transcendent, spiritual experience is often described as deeply meaningful and accompanied by intense feelings (Wildman, 2012). Such deeply felt, sublime, and intense subjective experiences become Christian spirituality when they are symbolized using the language of Biblical revelation. For Christians, it is our ability to use symbols that makes us spiritual beings; that is, it is something more than just subjective or mystical non-verbal experience. Spiritual experience arises from the integration of symbols and experience, word and flesh (Wildman, 2012). Spiritual formation is the process of facilitating embodied, subjective experience (flesh) and giving transcendent meaning to such experience using words or other symbols that represent spiritual reality (word). Christian spirituality is both embodied and transcendent. For the Christian, biblical theology matters.

Embodied Spiritual Consciousness

A fundamental assumption of this paper is that any approach to spiritual formation must take the material embodiment of our spiritual nature, the self-soul, seriously. That is, embodiment as a bio-psycho-social functioning of the human-brain system is relevant for understanding and facilitating spiritual maturity. We know, for example, that Jesus experienced the spiritual consequences of material embodiment in his growth as a child (Luke 2), in his experience of temptations (Hebrews 4), and in his experience of physical suffering (Hebrews 5). Understanding the observational knowledge obtained by DevSCAN scientists can make a contribution to developing a biblically sound and materially intelligent approach to spiritual formation.

Conscious self-awareness is a state of mind that emerges over time as the newborn infant's body-brain is shaped by life outside the womb, especially within attachment relationships with caretakers (Fonagy & Target, 1997; Damasio, 2010). Human development toward personal-relational maturity begins primarily as a sensory-behavioral-emotional-relational attachment experience and progresses into adulthood as language and reason are integrated with perceptual-emotional-behavioral-relational memories. Over time biological and social processes jointly support the emergence of a self that is more or less capable of conscious awareness, self-management, relationship effectiveness, and virtuous action (Damasio, 2010). At any given moment, individual consciousness is a joint function of the physical integrity of the body-brain system and the individual's mental organization created by memories of past experience. Embodied spiritual consciousness is dependent upon embodied mental consciousness such that brain damage of various kinds can alter one's capacity for embodied spiritual consciousness. At death, embodied spiritual consciousness ceases. For embodied spiritual consciousness and embodied spiritual formation, the body-brain matters.

Spiritual Formation

Christian spiritual formation is the transformation of the embodied person toward Christ-likeness (Rom. 12:1-2).

You abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. (John 15:7-12)

These verses (and many others in the New Testament) provide three clues why relationships are the foundation for and the context of spiritual formation. First, our spiritual lives begin with our experience of being the object of another's love. Being the object of God's love empowers us to love others (see also I John 4:19). In Scripture, love is clearly a "pay it forward" process. Second, abiding in Christ involves relational and symbolic processes. Christ spoke (words) to his disciples in the context of their ongoing relationship (subjective experience) and his focus was their well-being (joy). Third, abiding in Christ involves becoming agents of virtuous action--loving one another.

Embodied spiritual formation toward Christ-likeness can be defined as a person growing in one's capacity to embody spiritual virtues (Benner & Moon, 2004; McNamara, 2014). The foundational virtue in our Christian faith is Love (1 Cor. 13) of God, of others, and of self (Mark 12:30-31) (Oord, 2006, 2008, 2010; Post, 2003). In the Bible, spiritually important virtues related to love are faith, hope, compassion, kindness, humility, patience and a forgiving spirit (1 Cor. 13; Col. 3:12; Eph. 4:2). Related virtues are summarized as the fruit of the spirit in Galatians 5:22, where Paul also includes joy, peace, goodness, gentleness, and self-control. Biblical spiritual virtues include connection with God (abiding), subjective well-being (peace, joy), self-agency (self-control), and interpersonal behavior (compassion).

The embodiment of a virtue develops when there is growth in one's capacity to embody the sensations, perceptions, feelings, thoughts, and actions that constitute that virtue. These are the components of embodied consciousness. They are interrelated such that the activation of any one can impact the others. We more fully embody a virtue when the components of consciousness that constitute the virtue are integrated and differentiated (Siegel, 2010). We are hindered in our capacity for embodied virtue when the components of consciousness are in conflict (e.g., we have loving thoughts/intention but not loving feelings; we have loving intentions and feelings but neglect to act in loving ways). Oord (2006) says, "To love is to act intentionally, in sympathetic response to others (including God), to promote well-being" (p.2). It is suggested here that the process of "spiritual formation" is the development of one's capacity for integrated and differentiated embodied virtuous (loving) consciousness.

Willard (1999) has made the central point that formation of the human spirit intimately involves transformation in our bodies. He criticizes the narrow formulation of spiritual formation as involving cognitive processes such as preaching and teaching of truths in Scripture with minimal emphasis on embodied experience and action. In an article on spiritual formation on his website he stated,

The one reason why the idea of spiritual transformation through being merely preached at and taught doesn't work is because it does not involve the body in the process of transformation. One of the ironies of spiritual formation is that every "spiritual" discipline is a bodily behavior. We have to involve the body in spiritual formation because that's where we live and what we live from. So now, spiritual formation is formation of the inner being of the human being, resulting in transformation of the whole person, including the body in its social context. Spiritual formation is never merely inward. (Willard, D., n.d., para 65)

It is important to remember that while the developmental functioning of the physical body is the primary focus here, Christian spiritual formation is based on a biblical understanding of God's saving work in our lives through Christ and the continuing work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. As Willard further pointed out on his website:

Sometimes we think of spiritual formation as formation by the Holy Spirit. Once again: That's essential. We can't evade it--formation by the Holy Spirit. But now I have to say something that may be challenging for you to think about: Spiritual formation is not all by the Holy Spirit. None without the Holy Spirit. But there's always more involved. And here again we run into the problems of passivity over against activity. Here lies the deepest challenge to the very idea of obedience to Christ in our times. We have to recognize that spiritual formation in us is something that is also done to us by those around us, by ourselves, and by activities which we voluntarily undertake. (Willard, D., n.d., para 69)

Embodied spiritual formation is both a result of Divine agency and conscious participation by the individual in practices that involve the body and the mind.

Consciousness, Attention, and Awareness

Human consciousness is the mental process that mediates embodied spiritual formation. Without consciousness embodied spiritual formation is not possible. While neuroscientists have not been able to explain consciousness as a subjective phenomenon, they are able to describe many neurophysiological processes of the physical body-brain system that gives rise to consciousness. There are several features of consciousness that are quite relevant to spiritual formation, two of which will be mentioned here.

The Limits of Conscious Self-Awareness

The first feature with important implications for spiritual formation is that our conscious self-awareness, the subjective space within which we experience our self as an intentional, volitional, agent of choice and action, is phenomenologically quite limited. Most of the processes of our body-brain systems that give rise to our sensations, perceptions, emotions, images, thoughts, and even behavior are outside of conscious, volitional control and operate outside of explicit self-awareness (Bargh & Chartrand, 1999; Baumeister & Sommer, 1997). However, though our conscious selves have a "narrow window" of awareness, we can be intentional within that window to participate effectively in our spiritual formation (Damasio, 2010). There are important self-processes over which we do have conscious control that allow us to learn adaptive patterns, enact adaptive patterns, inhibit undesirable patterns, and transform maladaptive patterns.

The existence of out-of-awareness implicit mental processes presents a major challenge to the development of one's ability to embody spiritual virtues. Bodily sensations, impulses, emotions, and automatic thoughts are activated by unconscious, implicit processes. At times, the intensity of sensations, impulses, feelings, and thoughts can be so great that they threaten to overwhelm our capacity to reason effectively, inhibit unwanted actions, and enact desired ones. Growth toward spiritual maturity is made even more challenging because sensations, feelings, and thoughts that could be available to awareness are avoided through defensive psychological processes. Interpersonal environments that are emotionally and physically safe can reduce the need for defenses, help us increase our self-understanding by making implicit knowledge explicit, and teach us effective ways to cope with threats, challenges, and opportunities (Porges, 2003).

The most important self-process for present-moment awareness and subjective experience is our ability to direct and control our focus of attention. Awareness, Thompson (2010) claims, is the "ignition of the mind." I would extend this metaphor to say that focusing attention is the steering wheel. Brown and Ryan (2003) also define consciousness in terms of awareness and attention:

   Consciousness encompasses both
   awareness and attention. Awareness
   is the background "radar" of consciousness,
   continually monitoring
   the inner and outer environment.
   One may be aware of stimuli without
   them being at the center of
   attention. Attention is a process of
   focusing conscious awareness, providing
   heightened sensitivity to a
   limited range of experience (Westen,
   1999). In actuality, awareness and
   attention are intertwined, such that
   attention continually pulls "figures"
   out of the "ground" of awareness,
   holding them focally for varying
   lengths of time. (p. 822)

It is in moments of conscious awareness that we can become intentional participants in our own spiritual formation. Throughout life, many things compete for our focus of attention. An inability to focus one's attention greatly disrupts learning. William James (1890) maintained that "the faculty of voluntarily bringing back a wandering attention over and over again is the very root of judgment, character, and will.... An education which should improve this faculty would be the education par excellence' (p. 424). Meditation is the process of learning to focus one's attention to become aware of present-moment, subjective, experience without conceptual elaboration. Present-moment awareness is the mental space within which we exercise self-agency and volitional choice.

Language and Symbols

The second capacity of the self that is essential to spiritual formation is our ability to use language and other symbols to represent material and immaterial objects and conscious agents (e.g., God), as well as past and future experience. Language vastly increases our capacity to learn about and interact with the physical, social, and spiritual world. Language allows us to transcend our current context through time and space travel. That is, we can reflect on past actions taken, consider alternatives to such actions, and explore the consequences of actions not yet taken (mental simulations). Using language to symbolize our sensations, perceptions, and feelings increases our capacity to regulate and manage them (Lieberman et al., 2007). While "the heavens declare the glory of God" (Psalms 19:1), language allows us to comprehend the mind and character of God (Romans 10:17).

The Material Self

Does knowing about how the brain works matter at all for how we live our lives? I believe it matters very much, all the more so if, besides knowing who we presently are, we care at all for what we may become. (Damasio, 2010, Chapter 1, Sec. VII, Last Paragraph, Kindle Edition)

The fundamental elements of consciousness are sensations, bodily impulses, emotions, images, thoughts, and actions. Siegel (2010) has argued that growth toward maturity involves the differentiation and integration of these aspects of consciousness. He argues that mindfulness meditation promotes such differentiation and integration. It is helpful to consider the structure and functioning of the body-brain system that gives rise to human consciousness.

The Triune Brain

While the body-brain system functions as a highly interconnected, interdependent structure, neuroscientists have found it useful to identify three distinct, overlapping subsystems of the body-brain that give rise to various sensations, images, emotions, behavior, and thoughts. This is the Triune Brain first identified by neuroscientist Paul McLean (1974, 1980). Each subsystem makes a unique and important contribution to human consciousness. Understanding these three subsystems can inform our approach to spiritual formation practices.

The first sub-system, herein referred to as the somatic/emotion/survival brain, includes the body and structures surrounding the brainstem. The second, the perceiving/feeling/relational brain includes the limbic system and circuits between the limbic system and the brainstem. The third, the symbolizing/reasoning/transcending brain, includes the extensive, multi-functional outer shell of the brain collectively referred to as the neocortex. While various areas of the brain have been shown to have specialized functions (Siegel, 2012), consciousness and self-consciousness are products of reciprocal influences among the various structures throughout the body-brain system (Damasio, 2010). Damage caused by physical or emotional trauma can result in the impairment of specific mental functions and can significantly degrade one's capacity for self-functioning (Damasio, 2010; Siegel, 2010).

The Somatic/Emotion/Survival Brain. The body and the primary physical structures around the brainstem sub-serve four processes: physiological regulation, bodily arousal, innate basic (primitive) emotions and action impulses. The arousal system activates the well-known fight-fight-freeze responses to danger. It also down-regulates such arousal to facilitate social engagement in the context of safety (Porges, 2003). This largely innate system is operational at birth and functions throughout life. The system is very sensitive to conditions of safety versus danger as well as experiences of pleasure versus pain. The body's somatasensory systems process signals from internal organs (interception), the skeletal-muscle system (proprioception), and the external world (exteroception).

Panksepp (2012) has shown that there are also innate emotion-action circuits in the lower portion of the mammalian brain that activates the body-brain for exploration, bonding, and protection. The bonding emotion-action instincts include panic (attachment-care-seeking), caregiving, play, and lust. The protection emotion-action instincts include fear and anger/rage which are part of the fight-flight-freeze patterns. These innate emotion-action systems activate subjective experience and primitive expressive-behavior patterns that serve informational, motivational, and communicative functions. These systems have been extensively described and investigated by Panksepp. Both Panksepp and Damasio (2010) place innate, primative emotions deep in the core of the embodied self.

The somatic emotion-action system has highly instinctual response patterns that are online at birth in a primitive form. These patterns get connected to the external world and are refined by relational experience and implicit memory. Traumatic experiences have particularly detrimental impacts on somatic memory. Traumatic memories cannot be modified by words. Somatic trauma memories represent substantial blocks to spiritual formation. Somatic therapies (e.g., Levine, 2010; Ogden & Fisher, 2015) have shown that body movement is an important component of recovery from trauma. Recovery from somatic traumas creates resilience and can have a deep impact on one's spiritual consciousness (Fogel, 2013).

The Perceiving/Feeling/Relational Brain. As noted above, basic, primitive emotion-action circuits exist deep within the brain and are directly connected to the body. This explains why emotions have such a strong bodily felt component. Basic, primitive emotions are elaborated into more complex social emotions through experiences in the world, especially in close attachment relationships. The memory system that links internal subjective experience with the external world resides in the limbic region of the brain. It is in this region that social, relational experiences are recorded automatically in episodic memories linking the internal and external world. It is these experiential episodic memories that form the core of the social relational self. One of the most important experiential memories formed during the first 12 to 18 months of life involves attachment experiences. DevSCAN scientists have shown that infants construct an internal working model of typical interaction patterns they experience with caretakers, especially during emotionally intense episodes (Cozolino, 2006; Tronick, 2007). Early attachment experiences and the resulting internal working model (IWM) have life-long consequences for the individual's emotional, relational and spiritual functioning (Sroufe, 2005). The continuing impact of the infant's early life attachment experience is one of the most well established facts of developmental psychology (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2007).

What is important for the present discussion is that perceptual-experiential memory is the mental model through which one appraises current experience and anticipates the outcome of relational episodes. Perceptual-experiential memories are relational, emotional, nonverbal and very responsive to somatic, visual, and auditory signals from close others. Perceptual-experiential memories automatically and rapidly activate subjective experience. The activation of these experiences are beyond volitional control and often difficult to inhibit or regulate (Damasio, 2010). As such, past dysfunctional emotional experiences represent a significant hindrance to spiritual maturity and virtuous action.

Regulating and modifying dysfunctional perceptual-emotional memories, especially insecure attachment IWMs, requires an experiential learning process (Greenberg, 2002; Tronick, 2007). Establishing functional, virtuous perceptual-emotional patterns also requires experiential learning. Developmental attachment researchers have identified the crucial interpersonal experiences necessary to change perceptual-emotional IWMs. Relational experiences with emotionally competent, caring, safe, attuned others can transform dysfunctional IWMs and establish functional IWMs (Tronick, 2007). Perceptual-emotional transformation is an experiential, relational process (Cozolino, 2002).

The Symbolizing/Reasoning/Transcending Brain. The importance of symbols and language for spirituality has already been discussed in the previous section. The capacity for using symbols to represent objects in the external world, to label our internal subjective experience, and to describe the relationship between our internal experience and the external world are all unique characteristics of the human brain (Damasio, 2010) Symbolic representation of past and future give humans a great advantage in problem-solving abilities. Symbolic mental models allow us to transcend the contingencies in a given situation. They also make us prone to inaccurate or dysfunctional interpretations of current situations, distortions of past situations, or inaccurate predictions of future situations (Williams, 2010; Greenspan & Benderly, 1998).

Our symbolizing capability also allows for two distinct modes of consciousness or states of mind which Williams (2008) calls the "doing" mode and the "being' mode. The doing state of mind is most evident when we are engaged in problem-solving. We use our symbolizing capability to represent the problem and simulate potential solutions (Williams, 2010). The being state of mind is when we focus our attention on our present-moment experience to notice what sensations, images, feelings, and thoughts enter our awareness. The being state of mind is also referred to as meta-consciousness or awareness-of-awareness. The being state of mind is a dual mode of consciousness in which we are simultaneously the person having the experience (me) and the person observing the person having the experience (I) (Guidano, 1991; Farb et al., 2007).

It appears to be the case that doing is the default state of mind. In everyday life, we become absorbed by and preoccupied with projects and problems in our world. In this state of mind, higher order processing and symbolic representations dominate consciousness. We tend not to focus any special attention on our moment-to-moment experiential life. The second interesting aspect is that a reliance on narrative, extended consciousness (doing state) can potentially obscure moment-to-moment awareness of present experience (being). McGilchrist (2012) makes a similar distinction between two states of mind on the basis of distinctive functioning of the left and right hemispheres of the brain.

Bottom-Up and Top-Down Processing. One of the most important implications of the structure and functioning of the triune brain is that significant components of our phenomenological experience, especially bodily sensations and emotions are the product of out-of-awareness mental processes. Distributed and interconnected neural circuits of the brain process stimuli and activate sensations, emotions, images, and thoughts. Neuroscientists have determined that information is processed in the triune brain in two distinct directions. The first is referred to as "bottom-up" processing in which stimuli are process by the lower portions of the brain and automatically generate subjective experience that is then projected to the neocortex. The second direction is referred to as "top-down" processing in which we use memory, attention, language and imagination to inhibit or activate subjective experiences, redeployment attention, and engage in reasoning to reformulate beliefs, formulate intentions and carry out specific actions. LeDoux (1998) refers to these two forms as the "low road" and the "high road" consciousness (p. 161). The being state of mind is a bottom-up process and the doing state of mind is top-down.

It is important to note that while we have a triune brain, the distinctions in consciousness described in the previous paragraph constitute two levels of information processing (low road and high road; top down and bottom up). The reason is that the somatic and experiential subsystems are deeply interconnected and immediately start to be integrated as a newborn baby experiences life outside the womb. The somatic system with its life regulating, homeostatic processes and basic (primitive) emotion-action circuits operates on bottom-up processing. The most psychologically important component of the somatic system is the fight-flight-freeze instinctual response to threat or danger. Life-threatening experiences can traumatize the somatic system. The somatic therapies developed by Levine (2010) and Ogden and Fisher (2015) emphasize orchestrated body movements in accordance with adaptive instinctual behaviors as the primary way to resolve such embodied trauma.

The primitive nature of innate emotion-action circuits is evident in the intense reaction of a newborn to abrupt changes in its internal or external stimuli. The infant's uninhibited cry of anguish or distress, accompanied by a flailing of arms, cycling the feet and writhing of the body, persists until the source of distress is discovered and relieved. Physical holding and soothing help the child regulate their emotional responses as the resolution of their distress proceeds. The quality of the soothing and the effectiveness of the relief efforts contribute to the child's growing competence to regulate his/her emotional experience. As the young child grows and is socialized by his/her caretakers, the emotional responses become more and more regulated, more directed, and less intense. However, moments of intense distress or frustration can trigger these more primitive responses (e.g., a temper tantrum.) If the child experiences a secure attachment relationship with an emotionally competent caretaker, these primitive emotion-action systems become more socially complex, subjectively regulated, and behaviorally adaptive. In the context of caring relationships, the child develops emotional intelligence (Goleman, 2005). Emotional-relational traumas can seriously disrupt the child's developing emotional competence. Emotional-relational traumas are resolved by therapeutic relational and action experiences. Emotionally competent experiential therapies provide techniques for resolving interpersonal emotional trauma (e.g., Greenberg, 2002; Greenberg, Watson, & Lietaer, 1998).

The conceptual subsystem is the most self-evident feature of the body-brain since it supports our experience of subjective consciousness. Individuals undergoing brain surgery can have their verbal left hemisphere put to sleep while their experiential, non-verbal left hemisphere remains conscious. No language, no self-consciousness. Words, symbols, thoughts, and beliefs have meaning because they are connected to experience within a culture. They become symbolic representations of experience. Once an experience is symbolized, we can more consciously, intentionally regulate and integrate it into emotion-cognitive memories (Lieberman et al., 2007). Cognitive-behavioral therapies provide effective ways to activate and modify emotional-conceptual memory--cognitive restructuring (e.g., Leahy & Holland, 2000)

Spiritual Formation and the Triune Brain

Generally speaking, consciousness, that is, consciousness of self, is the decisive criterion of the self. The more consciousness, the more self; the more consciousness, the more will, and the more will, the more self. (Soren Kierkegaard, Quoted in Fogel, 2013, p. 257).

The purpose of this paper is to lay a foundation for a discussion of spiritual formation in light of modern neuroscience. As indicated, the discussion has been situated within the context of orthodox Christian theology. The controversies within the Christian tradition regarding spiritual formation have focused on the use of experiential techniques such as meditation, especially mindfulness techniques, derived from non-Christian spiritual traditions such as Buddhism. Christian critics of experiential techniques have emphasized the incompatibility between the worldviews of other traditions and Christian theology. They focus on the conceptual content of theology--the Word. Christian advocates of experiential techniques have emphasized the wisdom of ancient spiritual practices and have borrowed freely from many sources (Benner & Moon, 2004; Finley, 2000). Their focus on experience emphasizes the embodied, subjective soul--the Flesh. On the basis of the neuroscience principles presented here, the critics tend to underestimate the importance of the embodied self-soul for virtue development. In contrast, spiritual formation advocates tend to overemphasize the power of subjective experience to provide direct contact with God. The critics tend toward an overly intellectualized, emotionally impoverished form of spirituality. The experiential advocates tend toward an endorsement of subjective experience that may promote superstitious thinking (attributing subjective experience to God or the Holy Spirit.) It is contended here that an understanding of the complexities and functioning of the triune brain provided by neuroscience can support an integration of the propositional truth of a biblical theology and the experiential wisdom of spiritual formation practices.

Mindfulness Meditation as Embodied Self-Awareness

Mindfulness meditation is a specific form of self-focused attention to one's present-moment experience. The person is instructed to simply direct one's attention to experience as it unfolds, moment-by-moment without conceptual elaboration and without judgment. The person assumes the mental posture of the observing "I" noticing mental events that constitute the experiencing "me." Attention is paid not only to the mental events themselves but also reactions to these mental events. While the process is relatively easy to describe, it is difficult to sustain for an extended period of time. Those beginning consciousness meditation usually start with five-minute sessions and build up to 20 to 30 minute sessions for most regular meditators. Inevitably, as the novice initiates the observing-I state of mind, attention wanders and he or she becomes absorbed in conceptual thought, losing the observing-I state. The meditator is instructed to simply bring his/her focus of attention back to the meditative state of mind. The only objective of mindfulness meditation is to sustain present-moment awareness. If the meditator has difficulty sustaining a present-moment focus, he/she is encouraged to focus on the breath. In this simple form, mindfulness meditation is a process of embodied consciousness. It is not given any special metaphysical meaning or transcendent objective. It is a heightened state of self-awareness.

The primary benefit of mindfulness meditation is an increase in one's capacity for experiencing sensations, images, feelings, and thoughts with acceptance and without reactivity. Over time, meditators develop a greater awareness and accurate interpretation of bottom-up body-based signals of sensations and feelings. Meditation increases two fundamental components of emotional intelligence--self-awareness and self-regulation. Mindfulness meditation supports the development of competent self-consciousness (Lutz, Dunne, & Davidson, 2007).

It is common for advocates of meditation to cite the scriptural passage "Be still and know that I am God" (Psalms 46:10). Meditation simply develops one's capacity to "be"--a "being" state of mind. Over time the meditator develops the capacity to "be still"--non-reactive equanimity. Such a state of mind prepares the believer to enter into the relational process of knowing God. It can be argued that mindfulness meditation develops one's capacity to be a conscious, aware, effective self-soul. It is important to know that no metaphysical beliefs are invoked in the instructions for mindfulness meditation. It is simply a process of regulating the attention of the conscious mind.

Another form of mindfulness that focuses more directly on the body is referred to as the Body Scan. This meditation practice is described by Williams (2010) as follows:

   The Body Scan is structured to (a)
   increase sustained attentional focus,
   (b) teach the difference between
   thinking about sensations versus
   experiencing them directly, and (c)
   teach participants to see clearly and
   relate differently to mental states
   such as boredom and restlessness.
   ... And to notice mind-wandering
   and return attention to the intended
   focus [the body], and to explore sensations--and
   acknowledge mind-wondering--with
   an attitude of
   friendly curiosity and compassion
   rather than comparison, analysis or
   judgment. (p. 2-3)

Like simple mindfulness meditation, the mindful Body Scan practice does not invoke any metaphysical beliefs. It is a process of consciousness intended to facilitate competent self-awareness and an increasing capacity to regulate one's focus of attention.

The third type of mindfulness practice is referred to as the Loving Kindness Meditation (LKM). The LKM involves quietly entering a state of consciousness in which the meditator follows a specific script to guide the focus of their thoughts. The script begins with a focus on the individual to enter into a compassionate state of mind toward the self. The meditator silently repeats the following four phrases: "May I be safe; May I be happy; May I be healthy; May I live with ease." The script then guides the meditator to focus the same four phrases on someone they like, then on someone they do not like, and so on. The LKM does not have extensive conceptual content and merely invokes the metaphysical belief that self and others should be the recipient of unmerited compassion. While the script does not invoke any biblical content, it is obviously consistent with the virtue of compassionate love advocated in Scripture. Fredrickson and colleagues (Fredrickson, Cohn, Coffey, Pek, & Finkel, 2008) demonstrated that systematic practice of LKM led to an increase in positive emotions and altruistic behavior of the meditators in comparison to a control group (see also, Davidson et al., 2003).

Toward a Neuroscience of Embodied Spiritual Formation

A description of these three forms of mindfulness meditation has been included because they focus on the three subsystems of the triune brain. The Body Scan focuses the meditator's consciousness on bodily sensation. The focus of attention on the body increases embodied awareness and the regulation of physiological arousal. The Mindful Meditation focuses the meditators consciousness on subjective awareness and facilitates emotional regulation. The Loving Kindness Meditation uses the symbolic capacities of our conceptual mind to develop compassion toward others in one's imagination. They are all mental processes. They become part of spiritual formation practices when they are used in the context of metaphysical beliefs that provide conceptual meaning for the self-in-the-world.

Meditation practitioners develop a foundation of accurate self-awareness and competent self-regulation upon which more conceptually elaborated, biblical- sound practices of spiritual formation can be built. As mentioned earlier, the primary goal of spiritual formation practices is to promote an increasing capacity for the believer to engage in loving relationships with God, with one's self, and with others. These mindfulness practices complement this purpose.

It could be productive to look at the range of spiritual formation practices advocated by practitioners such as Willard (1999) and Foster (1992) in terms of embodied mental processes they activate. Newberg (2010) with his efforts to develop a contemplative theology is moving in this direction. Brown and Strawn (2012) provide an extended discussion of individuals and the church in terms of social cognitive neuroscience. Hopefully, this paper provides another example of how to pursue this goal.

Keith J. Edwards

Biola University

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Correspondence regarding this article should be addressed to Keith J. Edwards, Ph.D., Ph.D., Rosemead School of Psychology, Biola University, 13800 Biola Ave., La Mirada, CA 90639; [email protected]

Keith J. Edwards (Ph.D. in Quantitative Methods, New Mexico State University; Ph.D. in Social & Clinical Psychology, University of Southern California) is Professor of Psychology at the Rosemead School of Psychology, Biola University (CA). Dr. Edwards's interests include psychometrics, measurement, interpersonal neurobiology/attachment perspectives on intimate relationships, emotion focused experiential therapies, and the integration of psychology and religion.