Hesychastic Prayer as Healing: Neurospirituality Employs Prayer of the Heart as Medicine Reimagined
Constantine Psimopoulos, MD, MBE, Initiative on Health, Spirituality and Religion at Harvard University, Program on Medicine and Religion at The University of Chicago
Religious traditions have always sought to engage in the pursuit of meaning, purpose, virtue and character, a pursuit and practice which is connected with the notion of presence and healing through the ascesis of deep prayer and meditation. One of those religious traditions that is deeply associated with serenity through meditation, concentrated on repeating the Lord’s name, while emptying our hearts and minds in a kenotic fashion, and at the same time lowering the heart rate is the one known in Eastern Christianity as hesychastic prayer (aka “the Jesus Prayer” or “Prayer of the Heart”). This presentation will introduce the first-ever randomized-controlled trial of the effects of hesychastic prayer on the flourishing of Christians. This is an ancient prayer practice that’s particularly associated with the Orthodox East, and which is centered on the mindful repetition of the simple prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of God, have mercy one me,” with the aim of achieving both stillness of mind (hesychia) and union with God.
The project, which is funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation, involves having self-identified Christians either engage in a six-part instructional course on hesychastic prayer, or a similar six-part course on vipassana meditation (in the control group). In addition to the data from our experimental group, which is recruited online through Amazon Web Services, a neurologist from Mass General Hospital at Harvard Medical SChool, and our group at the Initiative on Health, Spirituality and Religion and the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard, have embarked on this project, whose pilot and first phase (6 week study) have recently been concluded. The preliminary results of this trial as well as the methodology and intervention (treatment) will be presented.
The project, which is funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation, involves having self-identified Christians either engage in a six-part instructional course on hesychastic prayer, or a similar six-part course on vipassana meditation (in the control group). In addition to the data from our experimental group, which is recruited online through Amazon Web Services, a neurologist from Mass General Hospital at Harvard Medical SChool, and our group at the Initiative on Health, Spirituality and Religion and the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard, have embarked on this project, whose pilot and first phase (6 week study) have recently been concluded. The preliminary results of this trial as well as the methodology and intervention (treatment) will be presented.