On her way out the door after the service two weeks ago, a long time and insightful member of this church asked me, “so do you really think the Israelis and the Palestinians are going to sit down tomorrow and settle their differences?” With her usual perspicacity, this woman had cut right to the heart of the matter. You see, I had said in that sermon two weeks ago that neuroplasticity—the ability of the brain to change itself—may hold the key to world peace.

Well, of course, this woman and I both knew she didn’t really think I thought the problems in the Middle East would be solved tomorrow. And, while I don’t claim to be able to read the woman’s mind, I took her question to mean that my claim that neuroplasticity may hold the key to world peace seemed an awfully big leap. Well, it is a big leap, but what I hope to do today, in this second sermon on neuroplasticity, is provide a little more of the connective tissue.

Last time I tried to give you a sense of the radical shift that has occurred just in the last decade regarding how scientists view the human brain—that recent research has shown that the adult human brain is not fixed, “hard-wired”, as was previously thought, but can change throughout one’s lifetime in wholesale ways that go beyond learning and memory formation. That’s what’s meant by neuroplasticity—the fundamental ways in which the brain can change. As we saw, the adult brain can grow new neurons and new circuits; it can adapt to new demands placed upon it and to changing input from the external world; it can even repair damage to itself. It can change both in structure and function, so that one area of the brain can, if need be, take over the functions of another area of the brain. We saw, for example, how in blind people the visual cortex—that area of the brain that usually processes sight—is appropriated to process other kinds of sensory information and is even involved in language tasks. We learned about how adults blind from birth can be taught to see by attending to other kinds of sensory information. And we saw how new areas of the brains of stroke victims can be coaxed to take over the functions of the areas damaged by the stroke. And, if all that wasn’t amazing enough, we learned that changes in the brain can also be generated by pure mental activity, that we can change our brains simply by our thoughts.

The evidence for that last statement—that we can change our brains simply by our thoughts—came from new approaches to the treatment of obsessive compulsive disorder and depression. Because this research has such far reaching implications, allow me to reiterate some of what I said last time. Both obsessive compulsive disorder and depression, if you’ll remember, are characterized by hyperactivity in certain circuits in the frontal areas of the brain. In obsessive compulsive sufferers this hyperactivity leads to a constant thought that something is dreadfully wrong and something needs to be done about it, but unfortunately the something done does nothing to alleviate the feelings of fear and dread and so the urge to do something continues and the cycle repeats itself ad infinitum. In depressive individuals, the kind of sad thoughts and emotional setbacks we all experience from time to time are not self limiting, but instead cascade into a descending spiral of hopeless, negative thinking from which the person cannot escape. Both obsessive compulsive disorder and depression are very debilitating and very hard to treat. Even new drug treatments don’t help everyone and even when they do, they don’t address the underlying faulty brain circuitry. But, as I told you last time, pioneering neuroscientists have been able to effect permanent changes in these hyperactive brain circuits through a treatment approach that combines mindfulness meditation and cognitive therapy. For example, obsessive-compulsive patients were taught to simply observe their obsessive thoughts without reacting emotionally to the discomfort they caused, to tell themselves that the obsessive compulsive urge was not real, that it was nothing more than a brain wiring defect. And depressive patients were similarly taught to regard depressive thoughts as simply events in the mind of no more significance than a butterfly flitting by and to tell themselves that the thoughts did not reflect reality, cutting them short before they could cascade into full blown depression. PET scans in both cases confirmed that this treatment approach permanently altered the brain circuits which had previously been hyperactive, demonstrating that intentional, mindful effort can alter brain function—that self-directed neuroplastic changes are a reality.

It’s not so far a leap to hope, as some neuroplasticians do, that if these two psychological disorders, which are so notoriously intractable and which may even be genetically determined, can be overcome through disciplined mental activity, then perhaps human beings can train themselves to become better people. As I suggested last time, perhaps we can change our brains to overcome those maladaptive traits which are part of our evolutionary heritage but which no longer serve us well in a world which is densely populated and interdependent, a world in which we have the technological ability to blow us all to smithereens. Traits such as immediate suspicion of those who are different from oneself, elevation of one’s own group at the expense of others, aggression against those who are outside one’s tribe, and so forth. Perhaps we really can train ourselves to become more tolerant, compassionate, altruistic and peaceful, so that those virtues are not just transient mental states but instead become integral parts of our nature. Evolutionary psychologists say these negative, maladaptive human qualities are, at this point in our evolutionary history, hardwired into our brains and genes. But the study of neuroplasticity reveals that our brains are much less hardwired than we previously thought. Maybe brain anatomy doesn’t have to be destiny.

There’s another body of neuroplastic research that I want to tell you about today which sheds more light on how we might overcome those maladaptive traits. In order to understand this research we need to take a little excursion into attachment theory, which deals with a person’s relative level of emotional security or insecurity. Researchers have consistently found that the more people have what is called a “secure attachment style”—that is, the more they possess a sense of emotional security, a comfortableness with interpersonal relations, and a feeling that there is someone to whom they can turn in times of need—the more likely they are to be tolerant of those who are different, and less threatened by opposing ideas and viewpoints, and, the more likely they are to feel compassion towards others who are suffering and act to alleviate that suffering. Now, these are all qualities which would seemingly increase the level of peaceful interaction in the world, wouldn’t you say? It seems obvious that the more we could increase the overall quotient of attachment security, the better place the world would be for us all. The problem arises because attachment style seems to be established in the early years of life as a result of the kind of care-taking a child receives and, until very recently, it was thought that by the time a person had become an adult, one’s attachment style was veritably—you guessed it—“hardwired”—and thus almost impossible to change. Moreover, research of the general population indicates that barely a majority of American adults could be characterized as having a secure attachment style—and that’s in America, a relatively safe and resource rich environment compared to many other places on this planet. These two things together might present a pretty pessimistic portrait of human potential. But neuroplasticians began to wonder whether attachment style might not be more plastic than previously thought. If, as we now know, some brain circuits can be rewired, as in the experiments with stroke victims and the blind, then maybe the brain circuits underlying attachment style could be rewired also.

New experiments which have found that attachment security can be manipulated in the lab in ways that increase pro-social behavior strongly suggest that may be the case. Scientists have shown that they can induce attachment security temporarily through a method called “priming,” whereby a person is induced consciously or even subliminally to access mental circuits associated with security. Even people who are extremely insecure, provided they didn’t have truly nightmare childhoods, usually have at least a few memories of people who cared for them or moments when they felt emotionally secure. These memories can be activated by asking people to actively recall those times or persons. But circuits associated with security can also be activated simply by asking a person to imagine that they are surrounded by people who are responsive to their distress and want to help them or, and this is really provative, security circuits can be activated simply by having people read a list of words associated with emotional security, such as closeness, love, understanding and support. Moreover, experiments show that employing any one of these priming techniques reduces a test subject’s negative stereotypes of people from different racial and ethnic groups and increases the willingness to interact with those different from oneself—and these results obtained even in Israel when Jewish students were evaluating Arabs. Further, experiments using such priming techniques also increased a test subjects’ compassion and the willingness to take action to reduce the suffering of another.

In one such experiment participants were divided into groups beforehand and primed accordingly. One group was told to remember a time when someone supported them; another group was very briefly exposed to the name of someone they associated with feelings of safety and security; and the third to the name of a casual acquaintance. The participants then watched as another person (really a confederate of the experimenter) was asked to perform some extremely unpleasant tasks (e.g, pet a tarantula, let cockroaches crawl on her arm.) As the tasks proceeded the confederate became more and more distressed and finally asked to be relieved. (This was of course all staged.) At that point the experimenter approached the participants and asked if they would be willing to help the woman out, to take her place and engage in several more unpleasant tasks. Volunteers who were subliminally primed with the name of someone they said they could rely on for emotional support or told to remember a time when they received support were more than twice as likely to volunteer to take the woman’s place than those who received the neutral prime of a casual acquaintance. This happened independent of the person’s innate attachment style and the same results were duplicated in both the United States and Israel.

Well, if attachment security can be even temporally manipulated in the lab such that people express greater tolerance for others, greater compassion and willingness to relieve the suffering of another, what would it take to permanently alter attachment security so that such altruistic behavior and mutuality became the norm? Obviously if we want children to grow up to be compassionate, altruistic adults, helping them become emotionally secure is vitally important and anything that supports parents in that endeavor is part of the work toward creating a more peaceful world. But short of turning back the clock and giving every person the love, attention and comfort that provides the foundation for attachment security, the discovery that even brief subliminal security primes increases altruism and the willingness to help, suggests that the general compassion quotient of society can be enhanced. The brain circuits that underlie attachment patterns must have considerable plasticity. Attachment security can be increased, decreasing ethnocentrism, selfishness and indifference to the plight of others.

Do you remember the words of our chalice lighting—that every deed and thought has ripple effects? The more we cultivate compassion and emotional security in ourselves, the more the general tenor of compassion in the society at large is elevated. And the more compassion is exhibited in society, the more secure people are apt to feel, which, in turn, increases their propensity to act with compassion. Think for a minute of the kind of “primes” people in this society routinely receive—think of the wash of media violence, the excessive materialism, all the stress that is part of our daily fare. What if it became more of a commonplace that people focused on reasons for gratitude and experiences of supporting, caring others, of finding ways to breathe in peace and breathe out love? How far might that go toward creating a more peaceful world?

And that brings us back to a recurrent theme in neruoplasticity research—that what we choose to pay attention to makes all the difference. A 1993 experiment graphically illustrates this. Scientists rigged up a device that tapped monkeys’ fingers 100 minutes a day every day. They also placed headphones over the monkeys’ ears, which transmitted certain sounds. Now, some of the monkeys were taught to ignore the sounds and pay attention to the tapping on their fingers. Whenever the tapping changed pace, if they told the scientists, they would be rewarded with juice. The other group of monkeys were taught the reverse: to ignore their fingers and pay attention to the sounds in their ears. Whenever there was a change in the sound, if they indicated that to the scientists, they’d get juice. Six weeks later, the scientists compared the monkeys’ brains, and the results reflected not the bare reality of what happened, but what the monkeys paid attention to. As we learned two weeks ago, usually when a spot on the skin receives unusual amounts of stimulation, the brain region that processes touch from that spot expands. And for those monkeys who paid attention to the tapping on their fingers that area of the somatosensory cortex did expand, two to threefold; but there was no expansion in the touch area for those monkeys who focused on the sounds. Identical results were found for hearing. In the monkeys who paid attention to the sounds, the auditory cortex, that part of the brain that processes sound, expanded; but in the monkeys who heard the exact same sounds, but who paid attention to their fingers, the auditory cortex showed no change. What the scientists were witnessing was the pure effect of attention. Even though attention seems like one of those ephemeral things that comes and goes in the mind, it has an anatomy, a physiology, and it can change the brain. The implications of this are far reaching. As one scientist put it, “moment by moment we choose and sculpt how our ever-changing minds will work.” Human nature is much more fluid that we thought. What we repeatedly choose to focus on, to nurture, and harbor in ourselves can change us and the world.

Scientists now know that attention is indispensable for neuroplasticity. Is it any wonder that attention is also a key component of all spiritual disciplines? The kind of attention necessary to effect lasting changes in the brain and lasting changes in our nature does require practice and discipline. And that is one reason we need religious community. We need one another to support each other in the discipline necessary to cultivate peaceful attitudes, tolerance and compassion for others. This church affords us a wide latitude to discover the particular spiritual practices that speak to us individually, but each of us needs to find the avenue or combination of avenues that will help us to grow in these ways. But further, the research on attachment security underscores for me another of the fundamental reasons why we come together and how our coming together helps us create that world of which we dream. It is captured for me in the word we give to this room—sanctuary—this place of safety and refuge where we come into one another’s presence, where we both hold and are held; this place where we find those very real people who care about us and to whom we can turn in times of need—and from which we can venture forth renewed, strengthened, more willing to reach out to others and to respond to the suffering around us; this holy place which beckons us ever forward in pursuit of our dream.

I know we won’t create a peaceful world tomorrow—that no matter how much meditating you and I do today or how close we come to being Beloved Community to one another, those alone will not bring Israelis and Palestinians to the bargaining table. But that reality also points to our need of this congregation which reminds us of the faith tradition in which we stand—that we belong to a long line of people who bore the dream aloft through ages past and who will carry that dream forward into the future—our faith tradition that both calls us to commitment now and generates hope for tomorrow. By being here in this room you are attending to that dream.

Nor am I suggesting that we need concentrate only on the inner work of spiritual growth at the cost of a social incarnation of our message. Spirituality and social action are two sides of the same coin. We must continue to find the concrete ways we can act in the world and bring our power to bear to alleviate the suffering around us. Our spiritual practices and our embrace of one another is not going to feed those who are hungry now—but our participation in the Super Bowl of Caring, for example, will help alleviate some of the very real hunger that exists in our city today. And when we act together we can do so much more than any one of us alone. But such concrete steps also have a spiritual force beyond their immediate impact. Such concrete acts of assistance also help elevate the compassion quotient in society; transmit the message that, as indifferent as society may sometime seem to those who are in need, there are people who care, who know deep in their hearts that no one should be left out, left behind, that all are children of the one universe. And so deed builds on deed, thought builds on thought, and the momentum for hope, for compassion, for peace grows, until day calling unto day shall see a world redeemed.

Major Sources:

Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain, Sharon Begley, New York: Ballantine Books, 2007
The Brain That Changes Itself , Norman Doidge, New York: Viking, 2007