The Awakened Brain is: “A groundbreaking exploration of the neuroscience of spirituality and a bold new paradigm for health, healing, and resilience.”—from a New York Times bestselling author and award-winning researcher
“Dr. Miller is a consummate scientist who refuses to accept one of our culture’s most pervasive and damaging assumptions: that science and spirituality are at odds. She unequivocally shows that spirituality heals.”—Larry Dossey, MD, New York Times bestselling author of Healing Words
The Awakened Brain
Dr. Miller’s newest book (2021) is exciting because it is rigorous in reference to science and simultaneously of the heart. It gives the underpinnings of neuroanatomical images that show that prioritizing spirituality and doing spiritual practices clearly defends us against depression and changes structures in the brain for the better.
One study she did with her team revealed that spiritual experiences are visible in the brain in 3 significant ways:
- an involuntary reorientation of attention
- a sense of love or embrace consistent with intimate attachment or bonding
- a sense of self that is both distinct and part of the greater oneness
From Amazon.com’s Description:
Weaving her own deeply personal journey of awakening with her groundbreaking research, Dr. Miller’s book reveals that humans are universally equipped with a capacity for spirituality, and that our brains become more resilient and robust as a result of it. For leaders in business and government, truth-seekers, parents, healers, educators, and any person confronting life’s biggest questions, The Awakened Brain combines cutting-edge science (from MRI studies to genetic research, epidemiology, and more) with on-the-ground application for people of all ages and from all walks of life, illuminating the surprising science of spirituality and how to engage it in our lives:
• The awakened decision is the better decision. With an awakened perception, we are more creative, collaborative, ethical, and innovative.
• The awakened brain is the healthier brain. An engaged spiritual life enhances grit, optimism, and resilience while providing insulation against addiction, trauma, and depression.
• The awakened life is the inspired life. Loss, uncertainty, and even trauma are the gateways by which we are invited to move beyond merely coping with hardship to transcend into a life of renewal, healing, joy, and fulfillment.
Absorbing, uplifting, and ultimately enlightening, The Awakened Brain is a conversation-starting saga of scientific discovery packed with counterintuitive findings and practical advice on concrete ways to access your innate spirituality and build a life of meaning and contribution.
Read this and be inspired and glad we have people like Dr. Miller forwarding the fact that spirituality is the stuff of optimal functioning when integrated in a balanced way with the ability to focus towards achieving a goal.
LISA MILLER, Ph.D., is Professor in the Clinical Psychology Program at Columbia University, Teachers College, where she founded the Spirituality Mind Body Institute, the first Ivy League graduate program in spirituality and psychology. Dr. Miller’s research has been published in journals including JAMA-Psychiatry, American Journal of Psychiatry, and the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.
Dr. Miller is the Editor of the Oxford Handbook of Psychology and Spirituality and Founder and Former Co-Editor of the APA journal, Spirituality in Clinical Practice. She has been elected as Fellow by the American Psychological Association, as well as for the Virginia Sexton Mentoring Award of graduate students. A graduate of Yale, she received her doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania from Martin Seligman. She has appeared on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and Weekend Today as an expert. She lives in Connecticut with her husband and three children.
IMHU.org celebrates the publication and dissemination of this book. We hope to do an interview with the author.