Cultivating the Inner Senses through Ignatian Prayer: a Neuro-anthropological Research Proposal

Michael Lifshitz, Graduate Student, McGill University
This poster will present a proposal for a mixed-methods research project that I will soon be undertaking. We will investigate a set of systematic contemplative practices from the Christian tradition—the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises—which focus on cultivating mental imagery as a means of deepening spiritual connection. Our project will include an active-controlled, randomized trial examining the impact of one month of imagery-based prayer on visualization ability and associated brain markers. In parallel, we will conduct short-term ethnographic fieldwork tracking newcomers in a local church as they learn to pray in the Ignatian style. This mixed-methods approach will allow us to integrate our knowledge of neurocognitive mechanisms with the rich phenomenology afforded by socially-embedded ethnographic engagement. The aims of this poster will be (1) to inform the Buddhism/Science dialogue by offering an illustration of what interdisciplinary contemplative science might look like, and (2) to refine the proposed project through constructive criticism.