Suffering and Spiritual Awakening: How Humans Are Designed for Spiritual Growth

Please note that this program will not be recorded

The Forum for Life and Meaning, HIU, and the Spiritual Life Center invite you to join us for a presentation by Dr Lisa Miller, renowned neuroscience researcher, clinical psychologist, and professor of psychology at Columbia University, where she founded the Spirituality Mind-Body Institute. The evening will include a Question and Answer period with Dr. Miller and time spent in small group processing.

Dr. Miller will show that there are circuits in the brain which support spiritual life. Everyone has such circuits by birth, and thus everyone has potential for spiritual development. Engagement of these circuits by people from all cultures and spiritual traditions, as well as those with no religious background, is a sign of unity among all people.

Spiritual practices, such as meditation, time in nature, creative expression, and membership in a community of faith, strengthen these neural pathways, producing resilience against depression and suffering. Difficult times of loss, struggle, and suffering potentiate spiritual growth, which in turn can foster neural protection.

In Dr. Miller’s view, healing for our challenges and suffering isn’t just about symptom relief; it’s about tuning into a broader consciousness and discovering meaning that transforms how we see ourselves and the world.

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About the Speaker

Lisa Miller, Ph.D., is the New York Times bestselling author of The Spiritual Child and The Awakened Brain, and a professor in The Clinical Psychology Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. She is the Founder and Director of the Spirituality Mind Body Institute and has held  over a decade of joint appointments in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University Medical School. Dr. Miller has served as Principal Investigator on multiple grant-funded research studies and her innovative research has been published in more than one hundred peer-reviewed articles in leading journals. She is Editor of the Oxford University Press Handbook of Psychology and Spirituality and the two-time President of the APA Society for Psychology and Spirituality.