Parishioners at an apostolic pentecostal church service raise their hands in worship as their pastor preaches in tongues. (Photo by Maleah Roudeski on Shutterstock)
In a nutshell
Despite appearing entirely different, Buddhist Jhāna meditation and Christian speaking in tongues both involve the same cycle of attention, arousal, and release (AAR)
Researchers found that both practices create states combining high emotional energy with deep calm—using opposite approaches to reach similar mental states
This discovery suggests many spiritual traditions may tap into universal human psychological patterns, regardless of their cultural or theological differences
MONTREAL — Buddhist Jhāna meditation and Christian speaking in tongues appear to be spiritual practices from completely opposite worlds. One involves sitting motionless in deep concentration; the other features emotional outbursts with participants crying out in unknown languages. Yet a fascinating new study shows how these seemingly contradictory practices might share more in common than anyone realized.
The research team, led by McGill University’s Josh Brahinsky and Jonas Mago, discovered both practices involve what they’ve named the “Spiral of Attention, Arousal, and Release” (AAR). This connection was hidden beneath obvious differences in appearance, history, and theology.
“Our interviews with experienced practitioners in the USA found significant points of convergence,” the researchers note. Both groups describe cycling through similar states—focused attention, emotional joy, and letting go—even though they express these states in dramatically different ways.
Jhāna meditation follows ancient Buddhist texts that instruct practitioners to focus intently on their breath or on a “nimitta” (a mental perception that often appears as light). Speaking in tongues involves Christians surrendering vocal control to divine inspiration, often resulting in spontaneous speech in unfamiliar sounds or languages.
The researchers interviewed Buddhist meditators who had completed a 10-day retreat and charismatic Christians from two separate studies. What they heard from both groups challenged conventional wisdom about these practices.
Arnold, a Jhāna practitioner, described his experience: “It feels like your body becomes a power plant. Like that same subtle joy that I explained to you…magnify that by like 1000. And that’s what it feels like in Jhāna for me. That’s pīti, that’s the thing that arises. It feels like I could power a whole city, is what it feels like….it feels like my bones are breaking, they are shattered by intense joy.”
Walter, another meditator, called it “rapture,” saying, “You’re just giddy. I mean, it’s like, oh, wow. My spine tingles, and sometimes my whole body tingles.”
The practice of Jhāna meditation yields a level of inward attentiveness and joy that also occurs during the speaking of tongue practiced by Christians. (© microdot – stock.adobe.com)
These high-energy experiences seem at odds with the calm, still outward appearance of meditation. But participants explained these sensations are followed by a crucial next step: release. They must let go of control, surrendering effort to fully enter absorption states.
Jory explained: “I just set this intention. ‘May I enter the first Jhāna? A happiness born of seclusion,’ that’s my mind trigger. And then I just let go of everything. I let go of the intention, I let go of everything. And the mind goes into Jhāna from there. It feels like you’re falling. The first few times that happened to me, it was terrifying. I like to call it ‘slipping upward’ because it feels like a lifting to me, upward into Jhāna.”
Meanwhile, Christians who speak in tongues described a similar cycle. They start with focused attention on God. Sam called this “pressing in,” which he described as “taking my heart and saying, ‘God, no matter how I feel right now, or what things look like right now, I love you and I’m going to worship you‘.”
This focus typically leads to bodily and emotional arousal. Rhea described feeling “fire in my hands,” while another participant said, “It feels like my veins are filled with metal.”
Then comes release—letting go of control over speech and thought. One practitioner described it as “a constant invitation to let go of more control, and the more control I let go the more powerful an experience it is. I’m shaking. I’m trembling… And the more I let go, the lighter I feel.”
Perhaps most surprising was the discovery that speaking in tongues—often seen as pure emotional expression—includes moments of profound stillness. After years studying charismatic worship services, the researchers were surprised when participants described feeling “utter calm” and hearing the “small quiet voice of God” during intense prayer sessions.
The level of joy and stillness felt in both practices show how despite the activities being vastly different, they seem to share similar brain states. (© Татьяна Макарова – stock.adobe.com)
Similarly, despite meditation’s reputation for tranquility, practitioners reported intense joy and energy. Both traditions cycle through focus, joy, arousal, and release—though with different emphasis and sequence.
Based on these findings, the researchers developed their AAR framework to explain how these practices work. When someone focuses intently on an object (breath, mental light, or God), that object becomes clearer in their perception. This clarity creates positive feelings, which make attention easier, creating a self-reinforcing cycle.
Throughout this process, practitioners let go of thoughts, desires, and control—a surrender made easier by the growing sense of effortlessness. This spiral of attention, arousal and release leads to deeper states of absorption.
The researchers believe this pattern might involve unusual simultaneous activation of both “fight or flight” and “rest and digest” nervous systems, which typically work in opposition. This could explain how practitioners experience both high arousal and deep calm together. Future work will involve brain imaging during the practices so that scientists can see if neurological activity during each are identical.
This research opens new doors for understanding diverse spiritual practices. By looking past surface-level differences, we can spot shared patterns in how humans access altered states of consciousness.
Whether through silent meditation or expressive prayer, humans across cultures have found ways to engage attention, arousal, and release to reach transcendent states—showing that different paths might lead to surprisingly similar destinations.
Paper Summary
Methodology
The researchers used what they call a “neurophenomenological method” to connect subjective experiences with brain science. They interviewed 10 Buddhist Jhāna practitioners who had attended a 10-day retreat taught by co-author Shaila Catherine. They also studied charismatic Christians through the Mind and Spirit Project (40 participants) and a prayer study (66 participants). The interviews asked open-ended questions to gather rich descriptions without leading the participants. The team then analyzed these accounts to find common patterns between the traditions, focusing on how attention, arousal, and release interact in both practices.
Results
The study found that Jhāna meditation and speaking in tongues both involve attention, arousal, and release—though they appear quite different outwardly. Jhāna practitioners focus on breath or mental light, experience joy and energy (pīti), then let go to enter deep absorption. Those speaking in tongues focus on God, feel physical arousal (heat, electricity, energy), and release control of speech and thought. Both groups reported experiencing high arousal and deep calm during different phases of their practice. The researchers found these elements work in a cycle, with attention creating arousal, arousal making attention easier, and release helping both while being supported by them.
Limitations
The study had several limitations. It included only 10 Jhāna practitioners and about 100 charismatic Christians, all from the United States, which limits how widely the findings apply. It relied on self-reported experiences, which can be colored by personal beliefs and the difficulty of putting unusual experiences into words. The biological mechanisms proposed remain theoretical rather than directly measured. The study also focused only on experienced practitioners, so it doesn’t show how beginners might experience these states or how experiences change as someone develops their practice.
Discussion and Takeaways
The AAR framework offers a fresh perspective on spiritual practices across traditions. It helps explain how Jhāna meditation and speaking in tongues can produce states that seem contradictory—combining high arousal with deep peace. The researchers link their findings to theories about how the brain processes sensory information and makes predictions about the world. They suggest that both “fight or flight” and “rest and digest” nervous systems might activate at once during these practices, unlike in typical relaxation where these systems oppose each other. Future studies could use brain imaging and measure bodily responses to test these ideas. The research shows the value of studying subjective experiences to better understand spiritual practices and connect traditional frameworks with modern science.
Funding and Disclosures
The research received support from Fundação Bial, Mind and Life Institute, US National Science Foundation–Anthropology, John Templeton Foundation, and The Monash Centre for Consciousness and Contemplative Studies. Co-author Mark Miller received additional funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Mathematical Metaphysics Institute. Shaila Catherine, listed as a meditation teacher from San Jose, taught the retreat attended by the Buddhist practitioners in the study. No conflicts of interest were reported.
Publication Information
The study, “The Spiral of Attention, Arousal, and Release: A Comparative Phenomenology of Jhāna Meditation and Speaking in Tongues,” appeared in the American Journal of Human Biology in November 2024 (Volume 36, Article e24189). Authors included Josh Brahinsky and Jonas Mago (sharing first author credit) from McGill University, Mark Miller from Monash University and the University of Toronto, Shaila Catherine (meditation teacher), and Michael Lifshitz from McGill University and the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research. The article is available as open access under the Creative Commons Attribution License.