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mystically wired: love the Lord with your whole brain
The thesis of Mystically Wired: Exploring New Realms in Prayer is simple: Most of us only use a small portion of our brains when praying and there’s more to pray with than that. Mainly we use the parts of our brain used for study, for conversation, perhaps for problems solving, analysis, and argument. We use the rational parts of our brain. Sometimes we add the parts of our brain that sing, perhaps even the parts of the brain engaged in tongues speaking.
This is a function of our love affair with rationalism that goes all the way back to Descartes, the father of the modern era whose first principle was “I think, therefore I am.” Whatever that great philosopher meant by that, it came to mean what we moderns tend to assume: that our thinking self is our deepest-truest self.
But the Spirit has been leading us out of that for the past hundred years or so (and long before that) when the winds of Pentecost began to blow again.
The mystics of old engaged different capacities of the brain for prayer. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits (the Jesus freaks of the Catholic Church), taught his followers to engage Scripture with the imagination: to place one’s self in the unfolding scene of a text to see what happens.
The author of The Cloud of Unknowing urged a wordless praying through the discipline of not paying attention to the normal mental chatter that runs like a gaggle of four year olds at a birthday party through Chucky Cheese. Over time this practice quiets the part of the brain that enhances our perception of separteness from others and the world in which we are immersed, the world of which we are patently a part, but sometimes forget. This wordless prayer leads to a sense of deep calm and connection.
Any new-to-us ways, of course, we distrust–the default setting of the brain set on survival mode. It’s the reason we distrust strangers. It’s also the reason the Bible reminds that when we provide hospitality to strangers we may be entertaining angels unaware.
A blogger from Texas was put off by my use of the term “mystic” in the title of the book. I know exactly why, and I’m sympathetic. But he came up with a good solution: place a piece of tape over the word if it bothers you, but try some of the practices taught in the book, if you’re praying brain isn’t satisfied with it’s current praying.
There are new-to-you realms of prayer that engage capacities of your praying brain with which you’ve not yet learned to love the Lord.
It’s taken the whole church, not just your little familiar wing of the church, over the whole lifetime of the church, to explore these realms.
The wisdom is buried in plain sight in the Bible, covered over by our limited experience, which serves as a set of blinders.
And it’s buried deep in the history and experience of the church, about which most of us, myself included, know previous little.
The same might be said of our knowing God. We know so little of Him, like the disciples on the road to Emmaus knew so little of their fellow traveler because “their eyes were holden.”
But isn’t that exciting? Whatever it is you know of God, it is such a small sliver. There’s so much more to be known. And so much more of you to be engaged in the knowing.
Tags: ignatius of loyola, jesuits, mystical, prayer, Renee Descartes, the cloud of unknowing
May 27th, 2010 at 11:57 am
Thank you for saying this – it is such a blessing to be re-anchored in this way and perhaps this is something we could offer and model to the culture as part of what is authentic about us a community; that we are grounded and rooted and know where we come from, in this crazy high speed world. I feel my spiritual life is a bit one dimensional lately and probably God is not enjoying it much!
I have been very poor at understanding this in the past and am now praying God will re-awaken the dormant parts of me and my senses. Bless you Ken.
May 27th, 2010 at 2:22 pm
Sounds exciting to me and your statement:
“There are new-to-you realms of prayer that engage capacities of your praying brain with which you’ve not yet learned to love the Lord.”
Reminded me of the call to ‘love the Lord with all your mind and heart.’
In my 24 years if following Jesus, I have never been able to regularly and enjoyably connect with God thru traditional means taught by evangelicals, such as the typical bible study books and standard prayer forms. Just felt like homework and I have never enjoyed school.
Maybe these ‘new’ methods will click with me.
Now if I could only find a way to rebuild an engine and connect with Jesus like a normal person does when they go out walking in the woods…
May 28th, 2010 at 3:52 am
I still remember the first time I read Brother Lawrence’s “Practice of the Presence of God”. I knew that he knew something I didn’t know. So began my quest for quiet or centering prayer. I’ve discovered some incredible riches since that day. Madam Jean Guyon’s priceless work “Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ” is one of my favorites. So simple, yet so very hard to grasp. Another of my favorites is Henri Nouwen’s “The Way of the Heart: Desert Spirituality and Contemporary Ministry”. It makes me want to find a cave and move in for a season.
I’m still learning. So I’ll have to pick up a copy of your new book and keep learning.
May 28th, 2010 at 12:43 pm
the cloud of unknowing and others like jean nicolas grou have been tremendously helpful in introducing me to prayer that is beyond chatting with God…in fact, the discipline of entering silent prayer has opened new avenues and contexts for what i believe to be a deeper interaction with God…a relationship beyond mere words…
June 1st, 2010 at 8:32 am
Ken, speaking of brains, here’s a link to an article you might enjoy:
http://www.theness.com/neurologicablog/?p=1915
A few quotes:
“A recent study, looking at fMRI scans of Christians and non-Christians in response to the speech of a faith healer, is just the latest in a series of studies which sheds an interesting light on how our monkey brains work…”
“The study looked at individuals identified as Christian and very religious (confirmed with a questionnaire) and non-religious controls. They were then exposed to speeches by a non-Christian, a Christian, and a Christian faith healer, while being examined by fMRI (functional MRI scanning looks at brain function by measuring blood flow to the various brain regions).”
And the results were intriguing, to say the least.
July 7th, 2010 at 7:20 am
I have read you book and found it refreshing. I have always found that the contemplative stream of christianity has been sidelined. I am workin at practicing the ideas in the book.
What really got my attention was that in prayer we go to a place. I remember the best time I had in prayer was when I “met up’ with Christ at some “place.”
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