Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe—a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble.
—ALBERT EINSTEIN
Is purpose spiritual? Yes! In what ways do both science and faith agree on the necessity and value of purpose? There is more to understanding the human condition than science is able to tell us; even the most skeptical of scientists and philosophers will admit this. From birth on, we are all getting older. But are we also growing older or maturing spiritually? Aging belongs to the body, and maturing belongs to the spirit. Aging requires nothing special from us; maturing requires a spiritual path. Purpose is spiritual wisdom embodied.
But unless we make conscious choices to do so, we may simply age while not maturing spiritually. Even the term “spiritual” is loaded with cultural baggage. The term is immediately suspect for many, scientist or not. Much debate between science and spirit comes from the baggage that weighs on the mind-set of both camps. Science and spirituality each validate the necessity of the other camp, a notion that is often frustrating for proponents in both groups. The struggle to blend the spiritual and the scientific has been addressed with varying degrees of sensitivity by some of history’s greatest minds. Exploring the natural links between the spirituality and the science of purpose is another way to connect more deeply with purpose in our own lives. If we live as victims, without intention, we simply get old. But when we age with purpose, we can we grow old and become more whole, mature, and wise.
What stands in the way of choosing a spiritual path to purpose? Time. The number-one pressure on many people today is lack of time. Technology encourages us to be “on” 24/7 via computers, smartphones, and other devices. Electronic gadgets have done away with boundaries to work, making us available outside normal work hours, even on weekends and holidays and during vacations. For more and more of us, the workday never ends. We have always had trouble with time. What’s different today is that pervasive technology and a mind-set that we must respond instantly have accelerated life while making it more superficial. We find it ever harder to be present with ourselves and with others or to connect with a larger timeless, eternal presence. As a result, our spirit—in particular, our purpose—suffers. Many of us have become emotionally stuck, our meaningful lives falling by the wayside, victims of the culture’s hurry sickness.
In their book War of the Worldviews: Where Science and Spirituality Meet—and Do Not, coauthors Deepak Chopra and Leonard Mlodinow argue that there is a war between science and spirituality. Science says spirituality is biased and unscientific. And spirituality says that science is myopic, exclusive, and unbending. We, the readers, are left to decide how to meld the two worldviews. In contrast, the late great paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould contends in Rock of Ages: Science and Religion in the Fullness of Life that science and religion operate in two different realms of knowing, two “non-overlapping magisteria.” There is not a war between science and religion, just so long as we recognize that they are addressing different questions: science answering the how questions, religion answering the why.
So how are we to understand and make sense of these different perspectives on the apparent clash between these two realms of human inquiry? One approach is to recognize that spirituality and religion are not the same. People often use the words “spirituality” and “religion” interchangeably, but they’re not the same. Religion has more to do with following the practices and dictates of a tradition, institution, or community, whereas spirituality is more individual—encompassing our personal experience with what we might call a higher power. This sentiment is one shared by a quarter of the US population who describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious.” This distinction captures part of the debate.
The Spirituality in Healthcare Committee at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota offers the following definition: “Spirituality is a dynamic process by which one discovers inner wisdom and vitality that give meaning and purpose to all life events and relationships.” The committee’s report says that “spirituality as a dynamic process helps individuals discover meaning and purpose in their lives, even in the midst of personal tragedy, crisis, stress, illness, pain, and suffering. This process is an inner quest. This quest involves openness to the promptings of one’s soul or spirit, silence, contemplation, meditation, prayer, inner dialogue and/or discernment. Spirituality empowers a person to be fully engaged in life experiences from birth to death.” To unlock our purpose, we must experience that inner wisdom, through spirituality or religious practices, which give meaning and “Big P” purpose to life.
As we’ve said before, purpose is age-agnostic in that it has little to do with genius or gender, ethnicity or background. It is about discovering what we truly care about. It is uncovering the natural gifts within us and giving them to others. It is being thoroughly used up when we die because we gave it all away while we were living.
A young man who was searching for his life’s purpose wrote to Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. He said he had discussed the purpose question with every wise person he had ever come across, had read every book on purpose he could find, and had traveled to faraway places to seek the guidance of some of the greatest spiritual teachers. However, no one had ever been able to tell this young man what his purpose was. So he asked the rabbi, “Can you tell me what my purpose in life is?” Rabbi Schneerson responded, “By the time you figure out what your mission is, you will have no time to fulfill it. So just get on with it.” In other words, do more acts of goodness, and your life’s purpose will unfold before you, one day at a time. We can spend a lifetime philosophizing about the meaning of life, pondering our place in the universe, and miss out on just getting on with it!
The power of purpose comes from recognizing that we were given another day to live—today—and we were given the choice to make a positive difference in at least one other person’s life. A life of purpose is not self-absorbed navel-gazing. It is simply focusing on caring and compassion. Who around us needs a hand? How can we improve our little corner of the planet? What can we do, this very moment, to make a small difference in one person’s life?
Unlocking our purpose is ultimately a spiritual path. As we mature, our purpose becomes deeper, richer, and wiser. Purpose begins with the genuine desire to connect with the greatest good within ourselves and others. Irish philosopher Charles Handy observed in The Age of Paradox that true fulfillment is vicarious. His key point was that we receive our deepest satisfaction from the fulfillment, growth, and happiness of others. It can take a lifetime to realize this, but parents know it well, as do teachers, great managers, and all who care for the downtrodden and unfortunate. If we are to have livable, fulfilling lives in the twenty-first century, purpose and compassion must become our moral imperatives. We each need to strengthen our core capacity to grow and to give, not only to help sustain the world but to foster our own well-being.
Purpose enhances physical and emotional well-being. A study by psychologist David McClelland found that people who simply watched a film of Mother Teresa providing compassion for the poor in India enjoyed significant positive changes in their immune function. We can speculate, then, that ignoring the needs of others and focusing entirely on ourselves is likely to have the opposite effect on our immune systems. Whether our purpose, like Mother Teresa’s, is to serve God, raise healthy children, create a healthier community, or play beautiful music, we are empowered by our purpose. We may not always see the results our lives have on others, but we can know deep down that we are making some contribution, large or small, to the larger pattern of life. We can know that we make a difference, that our life matters.
As we work our way toward purpose, we find that helping others is more fulfilling than indulging our own wants. We begin to understand that compassion is at the very center of a life lived on purpose. Compassion is the soul of purpose. All major religions and spiritual traditions have understood this and have taught the principle that we are to love and care for our neighbors, rather than exclusively focusing on our own needs and wants. Consider what some of the great wisdom keepers through the ages have taught:
We find this same sentiment in the more secular world of philosophy through the ages as well. For example, in the Categorical Imperative of the seventeenth-century philosopher Immanuel Kant, whose litmus test for a moral act was one that we’d be able to take as a rule for all humanity. Or in the nineteenth century in the Utilitarian moral philosophy of British philosopher John Stuart Mill, who grounded right acts in those that created the “greatest good for the greatest number.” Similarly, in the more contemporary perspective on morality known as an “ethic of care” championed by such philosophers as Nel Noddings, who situate right and wrong within the context of the personal relationships, we consider what sort of actions would best sustain and nurture those connections. Once again, compassion is key.
A life centered on compassion is lived for the sake of others. It may be difficult or take what seems like a long time to name our “Big P” purpose, but compassion will keep us on the purpose path. As our purpose evolves over our lifetime—as it is unlocked—it gives our lives dignity and meaning. We are no longer burdened by compassion and purpose as a sense of duty or moral obligation. We care because it is the point of our being here. The power of purpose is the power of compassion. It alone is the greatest of all the gifts we have to offer.
The Dalai Lama wisely said, “If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” Now, neuroscience research confirms that practicing compassion supports not just happiness but brain health and well-being. The Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University is researching how compassion—“a natural desire to soothe others’ suffering”—shows up in the brain and how it affects our health. Researchers discovered that compassion ignites a powerful biological response. When practicing compassion, we’re relaxed, our heart rate and blood pressure decrease, and we’re much more open to new ideas. We see the world differently. And the beneficial effect is that we’re happier and healthier.
Neurophysician Majid Fotuhi, author of Boost Your Brain, reports that having a purpose in life is one of the most important factors for protecting your brain against cognitive aging. This is because people with a high purpose-in-life score are 2.5 times more likely to stay sharp in their seventies and eighties, as compared to those with a low purpose-in-life score. In fact, according to researchers at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, the high score individuals cut their risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease by half.
But how could this be possible? Dr. Fotuhi reports that one likely reason is that high-score individuals have half as many strokes as the low-score group. They also have lower levels of stress hormone, higher levels of good HDL cholesterol, less inflammation, better sleep, happier mood, and an overall sense of well-being. A recent study from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, showed that elderly folks who engaged in a purposeful activity of helping students in public schools for two years improved their cognitive performance and experienced an amazing increase in the volume of brain areas that are critical for memory and learning. This thumb-sized brain area, called the hippocampus, shrinks by about 0.5 percent per year after age fifty. The brain shrinkage was halted in the active group; some were even able to totally reverse the effects of aging in their brain and grow the size of their hippocampus by as much as 1.6 percent.
The powerful scientific evidence for the biological effects of having a purpose in life has important public health implications. “We need to educate people,” Dr. Fotuhi says, “about the fact that having a purpose in life can be as effective as any medication they can take to improve their memory and cognitive health. Imagine if there was a drug with evidence for reducing the number of strokes in the brain, lowering your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, and reversing the effects of aging in your hippocampus. How much would you pay for such a pill? Clearly, there is compelling scientific evidence for the necessity of purpose in our society—now more than ever before!”
Here’s another example of scientific research that shows solid implications for the benefits of “getting a purpose in life” to health, healing, happiness, and longevity. Patrick Hill and his research colleagues at Carleton University in Canada surveyed more than six thousand people, ages twenty to seventy, to assess whether they had a sense of purpose in their lives. He followed them for the next fourteen years, during which 569 participants (about 9 percent) died. Those who died had reported lower purpose in life and fewer positive relations than did the others. Not too surprising.
Surprising, however, was that greater purpose in life predicted lower mortality risk across the entire lifespan, showing the same benefit for younger, midlife, and older participants across the follow-up period. This came as a surprise to researchers. “To show that purpose predicts longer lives for younger and older adults alike is pretty interesting,” Hill reported, “and underscores the power of the construct.” He speculated that “our findings point to the fact that finding a direction for life and setting overarching goals for what you want to achieve can help you actually live longer, regardless of when you find your purpose.”
Hill surmised that “the earlier someone comes to a direction for life, the earlier these protective effects may be able to occur.”
Previous studies have suggested that finding a purpose in life lowers risk of mortality, above and beyond other factors that are known to predict longevity. But Hill discovered that almost no research examined whether the benefits of purpose vary over time or after important life transitions. The researchers are currently exploring whether having a purpose might lead people to adopt healthier lifestyles, thereby extending longevity.
Could a prescription to develop a core purpose such as “to grow and to give” slow aging and protect against Alzheimer’s or dementia? Hard to say. But having a purpose in life has been shown in a recent study to help protect the brain against the ravages of Alzheimer’s. The findings come from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, where researchers have studied more than fifteen hundred older adults. All were free of dementia before the study.
The research participants underwent yearly checkups to determine their physical, psychological, and brain health. To measure their sense of purpose, they offered responses to statements like, “Some people wander aimlessly through life, but I am not one of them.” High scores on the sense-of-purpose profile were defined as those who had goals in life and a sense of directedness; felt there is meaning to their present and past life; held beliefs that give life purpose; and had aims and objectives for living. Low scores lacked a sense of meaning in life; had few goals or aims; lacked a sense of direction; did not see the purpose of their past life; and had no outlook on beliefs that gave life meaning.
During the study 246 people died, after which their brains were studied for signs of plaque and tangles, which build up in the brains of those with Alzheimer’s. The researchers sought to find whether having a strong purpose might bolster the brain, perhaps by strengthening “cognitive reserve”—an enhanced network of interconnections between brain cells that protects against cognitive decline. Researchers discovered that those who scored high on the sense-of-purpose survey were just as likely to have plaque and tangles in their brains as those who did not have a strong sense of purpose. But they did tend to score higher on tests of memory and thinking, suggesting the possibility of a strong cognitive reserve.
“These findings suggest that purpose in life protects against harmful effects of plaque and tangles on memory and other thinking abilities,” said Patricia A. Boyle, PhD, the lead author of the study, which appeared in the Archives of General Psychiatry. “This is encouraging and suggests that engaging in meaningful and purposeful activities promotes cognitive health in old age.” While developing a strong sense of purpose is no guarantee that someone will not get Alzheimer’s, it may help. The idea of cultivating purpose as a means of improving people’s brain health is not implanted in medical practice, but it could be. Still, doctors are not trained (or reimbursed) to coach patients on their purpose in life. But perhaps its time has come.
Scientific breakthroughs and healthier lifestyles keep pushing life expectancy steadily upward. And philosophers and scientists continue debating what ultimately makes life worth living. Is it a life filled with happiness or a life filled with purpose? And is there really a difference between the two? One luminary weighing in on the question is the late Nobel Prize–winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman. His claim is that toward the end of life, memories are all you keep—that is, what’s in your mind matters more than what you own.
Other researchers, inspired by Kahneman, continue to explore the happiness-versus-meaning questions in depth, trying to distinguish the differences between a meaningful life and a happy one. Their research suggests there’s more to life than happiness. Of course, the debate raises the question, What does happiness actually mean? Is it even a question worth debating?
If we aim strictly for a life of pleasure, we may be on the wrong path to finding happiness. Philosophers from Aristotle on have reminded us that simply seeking pleasure for its own sake doesn’t lead to true happiness in the long run. To live longer, better, and happier, we draw meaning from a larger context. So we need to look beyond ourselves to find the meaning in what we’re doing.
Which brings us back to the wisdom of Viktor Frankl and specifically his views on happiness. After experiencing unimaginable human suffering in the Nazi concentration camps, Frankl wrote: “Being human always points, and is directed, to something or someone, other than oneself—be it a meaning to fulfill or another human being to encounter. The more one forgets himself—by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love—the more human he is.” Countless numbers of people, including both of us, have been profoundly moved by Frankl’s wisdom. We agree that the pursuit of meaning is what makes human beings uniquely human. As Frankl claimed: “Happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue. One must have a reason to be happy.”
With a sense of purpose, we are actively growing and giving, leaning toward compassion, and rising in the morning to offer our gifts to others. Engaging purposefully with the world like this isn’t always easy, but we’ve never heard anyone say the effort isn’t worth it. People living with purpose tell us how their lives (and their well-being) have been enriched. They tell us about things they have now that they wouldn’t have had, and ways they feel now that they wouldn’t have felt. Did the power of purpose solve all their worries and troubles? No. But they know that they have a different life because of purpose—a richer, more fulfilling one. And that they are more alive, vital, and open because of it. The power of purpose paves the way for many of us to connect with something greater than ourselves—God, nature, a higher power—and to find meaning in our own lives. That sense of connection is one of the most powerful forces in health, happiness, and longevity.
As you unlock purpose in life, you will likely live longer, better, and more meaningfully. You will continue to grow and to give. For life. This, in the end—and in the beginning and middle as well—is the power of the power of purpose. May it guide your life and the lives of those you care for with purpose.