Dr. Lisa Miller, a leading expert in spirituality and neuroscience, spoke to students on how spiritual awareness can transform our health and behavior last Thursday. Her presentation was titled “Your Brain on Spirituality” and was part of Andover’s celebration of United Nations World Interfaith Harmony Week.
In her presentation, Miller explained that spirituality is not only innate but crucial to overall well-being, elaborating on the benefits of integrating spirituality into daily life. Miller highlighted the spiritual aspect of the four pillars of health: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.
“Whether one is in good spiritual health if you will, connected to your deep seat of spiritual awareness, strengthening your spiritual awareness, it goes hand and hand with the other three pillars of health… Every person on earth is born with the capacity for spiritual awareness, it is a capacity for a transcendent relationship and to feel that love and kindness towards one another, both are forms of relationally spirituality,” said Miller.
Dr. Mary Kantor, Roman Catholic Chaplain and host of the event, commented on the importance of spirituality at Andover, which can be ignored due to academics. She explained that Dr. Miller was chosen as a speaker to facilitate more conversations about spirituality.
“Dr. Miller emphasized the four pillars of health. I hope faculty and students recognize the importance of the spiritual pillar and its integration with the other three. Andover does a great job with intellectual, emotional, and social development but could do more in programming the spiritual aspect, especially as many students are seeking spiritual connection even if they’re not religious,” said Kantor.
Reflecting on her talk, Miller was moved by students’ questions. Drawing from her work at Columbia University’s Spirituality Mind Body Institute, she emphasized that she was impressed with the spirituality at Andover.
“It was very profound and I felt like a number of the Andover students were on that quest to have an awakened, loving, spiritual connection with one another, with their higher power… [and] that everyone has their own world, universe, Jesus, Hashem, Allah, Source, etc,” said Miller.
Miller continued, “The spiritual quest is alive and well at Andover. I was absolutely touched by the depth and profundity of the deep, heartfelt inquiry. It wasn’t a turning of the head, it was a linking of head and heart.”
Miller’s presentation included a call to action to be intentional in daily spiritual practices, including meditating with a breathing exercise for 90 seconds. Philip Molina ’28, an attendee, explained that the presentation motivated him to be more spiritual and take time to incorporate Miller’s exercises.
“I’d say spirituality [has] more of a purpose in our life but less than religion so they can connect but they’re not the exact same. I would definitely like to start journaling, I’d like to take control of my own mind if that makes sense but also I would just like to take more time to reflect on things and the two exercises that she gave us when we had to close eyes were actually really moving for me,” said Molina.
Christian Robinson ’28, an attendee and member of the Interfaith Board reflected on the presentation. He explained that the presentation allowed him to feel supported spiritually and admired how Miller was able to create a comforting environment during her talk.
“We were told to close our eyes, imagine a table, and bring three people related to us to that table, and two figures or someone we put above us, like God. The biggest part was realizing that nothing’s really out of reach. It gave me time to focus, relax, and realize I’m wanted and supported… I appreciate how she was vulnerable and shared things that wouldn’t normally be expressed in that setting. I admire her courage and devotion in showing us everything she studied and recovered from,” said Robinson.
