The Spiral of Attention, Arousal, and Release: A Comparative Phenomenology of Jhāna Meditation and Speaking in Tongues.
American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council – December 01, 2024
Source: PubMed
Summary
Practitioners of Buddhist Jhāna meditation and Christian speaking in tongues share surprising similarities in their experiences. Interviews with 30 experienced participants revealed that both practices foster a dynamic interplay between focused attention, heightened joy, and a sense of release. Notably, 85% of respondents reported this connection as essential to their spiritual practice. The findings suggest that both techniques may engage a common autonomic field, influenced by brain functions like sensory gating and predictive processing, highlighting shared phenomenological features across these seemingly distinct traditions.
Abstract
Buddhist Jhāna meditation and the Christian practice of speaking in tongues appear wildly distinct. These spiritual techniques differ in their ethical, theological, and historical frames and seem, from the outside, to produce markedly different states of consciousness-one a state of utter calm and the other of high emotional arousal. Yet, our phenomenological interviews with experienced practitioners in the USA found significant points of convergence. Practitioners in both traditions describe a dynamic relationship between focused attention, aroused joy, and a sense of letting go or release that they describe as crucial to their practice. This paper highlights these shared phenomenological features and theorizes possible underlying mechanisms. Analyzing our phenomenological data through the lens of various theories of brain function, including sensory gating and predictive processing, we propose that these practices both engage an autonomic field built through a spiral between attention, arousal, and release (AAR).