Is praying bad for our brains?

He who prays fervently courts danger - neurological danger.

This stark fact has only recently been reported to the public, in a study published by five neurologists at Christian-Albrechts University in Kiel in Germany. But fear not - the risk for any particular individual is low. In the recorded history of the world, the physicians try to assure us, this is probably the very first case.

This general kind of problem is called "focal dystonia". It's the involuntary fluttering of muscles that one ordinarily controls masterfully. It arises, somewhat mysteriously, in a few extraordinarily unlucky people who perform "a highly stereotyped and frequently repeated motor task". It's what happens in writer's cramp, and in the eyelid twitching known as blepharospasm, and very occasionally in certain specialised professions. Doctors have seen it in pianists, tailors and assembly-line workers. But never before in someone whose repetitive action consisted only of saying prayers.

The doctors, Tihomir Ilic, Monika Pötter, Iris Holler, Günther Deuschl, and Jens Volkmann, appear to have been surprised - and possibly a bit delighted. They bestowed upon this condition the name "praying-induced oromandibular dystonia".

You have to wonder if praying about it will make this go away. Oooh that was mean.

I just had a long discussion with my daughter about religions and religious belief. Early indoctrination into religious beliefs can be very powerful. However she is in possession of a pretty powerful intellect.

Which of course stands to reason.