Written by Dr. Caroline Leaf

Prayer ‘..keeps our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus’ (Philippians 4:7). We will briefly explore what this means for the brain.

It has been found that 12 minutes of daily focused prayer over an 8 week period can change the brain to such an extent that it can be measured on a brain scan [1]. This type of prayer seems to increase activity in brain areas associated with social interaction compassion and sensitivity to others. It also increases frontal lobe activity as focus and intentionality increase. As well as changing the brain, another study implies that intentional prayer can even change physical matter. Researchers found that intentional thought for 30 seconds affected laser light [2].

Therefore, even though toxic thought can cause brain damage, prayer can reverse that damage and cause the brain and body to thrive. There is growing interest in the power of prayer to change our brain and even matter itself. Even though as Christians we are cognizant of this by reading the Bible and from experience, it is nice to know science is now bearing this out.

For References 1 and 2 see DR Leaf’s SCIENTIFIC PHILOSOPHY

Recently Dr Leaf spoke at a Prayer Conference on ‘Prayer as the antidote to Mental-ill Health. See this VIDEO LINK (1hr 35min) as Dr Leaf addresses issues related to the history and current treatments of labels.

She defines Mental Health and talks about many aspects of Mental -ill health that Churches are not addressing.  She discusses medications, and distinguishes between the disease and disorder models.