Spiritual Resilience, Meaning, and the Brain:Reflections from De ziel van het brein
- Veronica
- May 24
- 5 min read
What can neuroscience tell us about the human search for God, meaning, and hope in times of suffering?
As part of my ongoing research into spiritual resilience in illness and weakness, I recently read De ziel van het brein (The Soul of the Brain) by Dutch neuroscientist André Aleman. The book explores a fascinating question: why are human beings spiritual creatures, and what can neuroscience tell us about religious and spiritual experience?
Aleman approaches spirituality neither as an illusion nor as something neuroscience can fully explain away. Instead, he investigates how spiritual experiences are reflected in the brain while remaining open to deeper questions of meaning, transcendence, and the possibility of the soul.
For those interested in suffering, chronic illness, disability, and spiritual resilience, his insights are particularly relevant.
Human Beings Are Meaning-Seeking Creatures
One of the strongest impressions I took from the book is that modern neuroscience increasingly confirms what Viktor Frankl argued decades ago in Man's Search for Meaning: human beings are naturally oriented toward finding meaning -especially in suffering.
Aleman repeatedly returns to the observation that people are not merely rational information-processing machines. Rather:
“De mens is geen neutraal, rationeel wezen. Wij zijn spirituele wezens, op zoek naar iets wat ons overstijgt.”
“Human beings are not neutral, rational creatures. We are spiritual beings, searching for something that transcends us.”
This insight has profound implications for healthcare. Serious illness often threatens a person's sense of identity, purpose, independence, and future. Medical treatment may address physical symptoms, but resilience often depends on whether a person can still find meaning amid weakness and uncertainty.
Spirituality and Successful Ageing
Aleman discusses research on successful ageing in the United States showing that older adults who age particularly well are more likely than average to engage in spiritual or religious practices.
This finding resonates with a growing body of research suggesting that spirituality can contribute to resilience, social connectedness, hope, psychological wellbeing, and even stronger immune system throughout the lifespan.
The significance of this observation extends beyond ageing. Chronic illness frequently confronts people with many of the same challenges associated with later life: physical limitation, dependency, loss, uncertainty, and changing identity. Spiritual resources may therefore play an important role in helping individuals adapt constructively to these realities.
Positive and Negative Religious Coping
One of the most interesting distinctions discussed in the book concerns religious coping.
Researchers commonly distinguish between positive religious coping (such as seeking closeness to God, trusting divine guidance) and negative religious coping (such as having unresolved spiritual conflict, having resentment toward God).
Religion is not automatically beneficial simply because it is present. What matters is how faith is experienced and lived. Faith characterised by trust, relationship, meaning, and hope tends to support resilience, while unresolved spiritual conflict may intensify suffering.
This observation also echoes themes found in spiritual direction and Ignatian spirituality, where discernment involves recognising inner movements that draw a person toward greater trust, hope, and love rather than toward despair and isolation.
Gratitude and Human Flourishing
Aleman notes that gratitude is more than a pleasant feeling.
“Dankbaarheid versterkt sociale verbondenheid en kan via prosociale en neurobiologische routes bijdragen aan een betere mentale en lichamelijke gezondheid.” “
Gratitude strengthens social connectedness and can contribute to better mental and physical health through prosocial and neurobiological pathways.”
For people living with chronic illness, gratitude can sometimes seem unrealistic or even insensitive. Yet authentic gratitude does not require denying suffering. Instead, gratitude helps individuals remain connected to sources of meaning, relationship, beauty, and grace that continue to exist even amid pain. In this sense, gratitude functions not as denial but as a form of resilience.
Religious Practices and the Healing Brain
Another intriguing section concerns religious singing. Research suggests that forms of repetitive sacred singing may produce effects similar to chanting, meditation, and states associated with deep relaxation. Such practices have been linked to increased delta-wave activity, which is - according to my findings - associated with cell regeneration, recovery, and physiological regulation.
Throughout history Christian believers have intuitively turned to psalms, hymns, Gregorian chant, Taizé prayer, and repetitive devotional practices during periods of suffering.
Neuroscience may help explain why these practices often foster calm, emotional regulation, and a sense of peace. Yet neuroscience alone cannot explain their deepest significance. For believers, singing is not merely a neurological intervention; it is also an act of worship and relationship with God. Therefore, the full explaination remains as a mystery.
Meditation, Embodiment, and Health
Aleman also discusses studies of monks who practised deep meditation for at least two hours daily over many years. Researchers found differences in gut microbiota compared with non-meditators living in similar environments and consuming comparable diets.
While such findings require cautious interpretation, they illustrate an increasingly recognised reality: spiritual practices are embodied practices. They do not affect only thoughts and emotions; they can influence broader physiological systems throughout the body.
Can Neuroscience Explain Spiritual Experience?
Brain imaging may reveal changes in neural networks during prayer, worship, or meditation. Neuroscience may identify alterations in self-referential processing when a person experiences surrender, trust, or transcendence. Yet none of these findings can determine whether God is truly present, whether transcendence is real, or whether the soul exists.
Aleman suggests, the soul - obviously for those who believe - may function as a bridge between our experience of inner life and our hope for ultimate renewal in God.
Implications for Spiritual Resilience Research
For researchers exploring spiritual resilience in illness and weakness, neuroscience offers a valuable conversation partner.
It helps us understand:
how meaning-making supports coping;
why gratitude and hope influence wellbeing;
how prayer and worship affect emotional regulation;
how spiritual practices engage embodied neurobiological processes.
At the same time, neuroscience reminds us of its own limits. The deepest questions raised by suffering -questions about purpose, hope, identity, transcendence, and God- cannot be answered by neural imaging alone. They remain theological, philosophical, and existential questions.
Perhaps this is why spirituality remains so persistent throughout history. Human beings do not merely seek explanations. We seek meaning. And for many who face illness, weakness, or loss, that search for meaning becomes one of the most important sources of resilience.
From Neuroscience to Practice
When illness, disability, grief, or unanswered questions become personal realities, we need practices that help us live these truths rather than merely understand them. We need ways of nurturing hope, trust, and perseverance day by day.
One useful accompany book for your journey is 30 Days of Asking for Miracles from the Infant Jesus of Prague. The book is not primarily about extraordinary miracles. Rather, it is an invitation to develop a deeper trust in Christ amid life's ordinary struggles and uncertainties.
Through daily reflections, Scripture, prayer, and practical spiritual exercises, readers are encouraged to cultivate the kind of hopeful relationship with God that researchers describe as positive religious coping.
You can find 30 Days of Asking for Miracles from the Infant Jesus of Prague and my other resources for discernment, prayer, and spiritual growth on the Discernment Edge Resources page.
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