E169 - Lisa Miller: The Science of Spiritual Awakening: How to Reconnect with Your Soul
Know Thyself
André Duqum
4.8 • 658 Ratings
🗓️ 28 October 2025
⏱️ 107 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Clinical psychologist and bestselling author Dr. Lisa Miller joins us to reveal the groundbreaking neuroscience that connects spirituality with mental health, purpose, and human flourishing. Drawing from decades of research at Columbia University, she shares how spiritual awareness literally changes the brain — rewiring us for resilience, compassion, and meaning. From the awakened brain to the power of awe, Lisa bridges empirical science with lived spirituality, showing how we are biologically built for connection with something greater than ourselves.
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00:00 Intro03:40 What Is the Awakened Brain?07:10 How Spirituality Changes the Brain10:50 Depression as a Doorway to Awakening14:25 The Biology of Faith and Meaning18:05 The Parietal Lobe and the Sense of Oneness22:00 From Egoic Mind to Spiritual Awareness26:15 Dorsal vs. Ventral Attention Networks Explained30:10 How Prayer and Meditation Rewire the Brain34:00 The Neuroscience of Love and Connection38:25 What Happens in the Brain During Awe42:10 Synchronicity and the Science of Guidance46:00 Raising Spiritually Connected Children50:20 Addiction, Recovery, and the Search for Spirit54:35 The Brain as an Antenna for Consciousness59:15 Science Meets Mysticism: Where They Overlap1:03:30 The Future of Mental Health and Spirituality1:07:40 Reawakening the Innate Spiritual Brain1:12:00 Living with Awe, Service, and Gratitude1:16:10 Closing Reflections
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Episode Resources:
https://www.lisamillerphd.com/
https://www.instagram.com/dr.lisamiller/
https://www.instagram.com/andreduqum/
https://www.instagram.com/knowthyself/
https://www.youtube.com/@knowthyselfpodcast
https://www.knowthyselfpodcast.com
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | How did you make the most important decision of your life? |
| 0:02.5 | Nine times out of ten, it's through some form of awakened awareness, |
| 0:06.2 | a mystical experience, a deep gut instinct. |
| 0:09.0 | We know the truth. |
| 0:10.2 | This is who we are. |
| 0:11.9 | We looked all around the world. |
| 0:13.4 | We looked in India. |
| 0:14.4 | We looked in China. |
| 0:15.4 | We looked in the US and said, okay, every child on earth is born a naturally spiritual child. |
| 0:21.6 | And yet our mainstream education is foreclosing of natural spirituality. |
| 0:27.6 | It is making our young people sick. |
| 0:30.6 | That's a travesty. |
| 0:32.6 | We looked at people over 40 years, and what we found was quite remarkable. We are on the cusp of a mass |
| 0:39.9 | awakening. This is our collective developmental depression before a mass illumination. On the top of the |
| 0:46.8 | Sistine Chapel, God reaches out to man, and God's hand is very firm and strong with a fully extended |
| 0:53.4 | finger. And that of man is a little |
| 0:55.7 | limp and disaffected. |
| 0:57.2 | All we have to do is straighten our finger to reach the divine. |
| 1:07.1 | Hey, everyone. |
| 1:08.2 | Welcome back to the podcast. |
| 1:09.7 | Our guest today is a clinical psychologist and Columbia |
| 1:12.2 | professor whose research maps spiritual life to measurable mental health benefits. She is a returning |
... |
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