I have no objections to neuroscience. Within my belief system–which I would like converted through science to a more comprehensively evidence based belief–our minds manifest through our brains, and this process does in fact leave measurable phenomena.
With respect to this article, ponder how churches are built. Can you not feel, imaginatively, how a space with a 50′ ceiling differs from one with an 8′ ceiling? What is the effect of walking from a low ceiling to a high ceiling? From a high ceiling to a low ceiling?
And what about light? What about walking from light to darkness, and darkness to light? And do not the colors themselves in a church have a psychological effect?
Here is an article dealing with color in marketing: http://www.helpscout.net/blog/psychology-of-color/
I am told by an advertising guy that the blue of Lowe’s and the orange of Home Depot are very intentional. Lowe’s attempts to appeal to women, and Home Depot to men. The aisles are or tend to be different widths, and they merchandise differently. They use space differently.
Candles and torches are different from electric lights.
And is there not a difference walking in procession between walking single file and two or four abreast?
Do not the clothes we wear make a difference?
We are pattern forming animals, and much of the work of the sacred is to create an habituated distinction between normal and sacred space (and even normal and sacred time). You can create a situation where every time you walk into a certain sort of space wearing a certain set of clothing, a range of conditioned reactions appear.
Scents have all sorts of effects the Aromatherapy people have described, but which I don’t think has been subjected to formal scientific analysis.
Music: can we really say what effect various cadences, and frequencies, and melodies have on people? Group prayer, or group chanting: I suspect there would be a beneficial effect if a group recited the list of ingredients for Fig Newtons out loud and in unison.
Hypnosis tells us a lot about how key words can activate or pacify people.
What would be the psychological effect of allowing animals in what we call churches? Dogs. Cats. I have never seen one in a church.
All of these things–and much more–can be put together by men and women of genius to create healing and elevating places and rituals.
And I would add on that last point that the word “healing” is overused. Once scarred, you are never the same, so it is useless to speak of a baseline, having crossed which, you have completed the “healing process”. What a wound does is force us to open up to the idea of growth, and growth never ends. No matter how happy you are today, more is possible. This should be a source of comfort.
And if you are miserable, well then: healing. Nobody is supposed to be miserable. There are always paths forward.
I suspect much of the most relevant CURRENT research exists in the applied persuasion/marketing world. Their field is understanding and redirecting human behavior, and they measure success carefully. The techniques of merchandising likely would be relevant.
Why not dream big?