This was a very interesting read and one that struck a cord. For one I talk to myself, a lot. Probably to the point where some of my friends find me slightly crazy, but it's fine. It is an organizational tool, I use it to study, plan my day, and for a whole host of other reasons. In fact my thinking to myself is really the norm for me. I find it interesting the way the reading put an emphasis on fleeting thoughts and pointed out how congregants dissassociated these thoughts from themselves, connecting it instead to an outside force.
Also being a Neuroscience major I found the mind, body talks very interesting. This reading made me bring to question if these thoughts still hold for those with mental disorders. What about schizophrenia and other disorders that produce intense hallucinations (auditory and visual). Does this participation with God get lost? Enhanced? For these communication to happen do congregants believe the brain must function normally, and that somehow the brain is the direct connection to the Lord? Although the paper explicitly stated Prayer as the form of communication, the implications it brought up made me really think about the brain's/minds role in all this.
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