This Is Your Brain on Prayer

When we pray, our brains not only undergo change, but our lives are changed as well.

Years ago, the Partnership for a Drug-Free America launched an anti-narcotics campaign with a simple, but compelling, television ad. A man holds up an egg and says, "This is your brain." Then he motions to a frying pan and says, "This is drugs."

He cracks open the egg, fries the contents, and says, "This is your brain on drugs."

Finally, he looks at the camera and asks, "Any questions?"

More recently, researchers have found that THC -- the psychoactive compound in marijuana -- can disrupt focus, memory, decision-making and motivation for about 24 hours. An instructor in psychology at Harvard's medical school tells The New York Times (October 29, 2014) that "we can see these structural effects in the brain," and the effects may be longer lasting than previously thought.

When this instructor looked at the brain scans of 20 pot smokers, ages 18 to 25, she didn't see a fried egg on her computer screen. But she did see evidence of structural differences in two regions of the brain. Not a good ...