EMPIRICAL MINDFULNESS: TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE AND MENTAL HEALTH IN THE SCIENCE AND RELIGION DIALOGUE ; with Gillian K. Straine and Mark Harris, “Mental Well‐Being, Neuroscience, and Religion: Contributions from the Science and Religion Forum”; Fraser Watts, “Theology and Science of Mental Health and Well‐Being”; Lindsay Bruce and Sarah Lane Ritchie, “The Physicalized Mind and the Gut‐Brain Axis: Taking Mental Health Out of Our Heads”; Jaime Wright, “In the Beginning: The Role of Myth in Relating Religion, Brain Science, and Mental Well‐Being”; William L. Atkins, “Empirical Mindfulness: Traditional Chinese Medicine and Mental Health in the Science and Religion Dialogue”; and Ben Ryan, “The Church and Mental Health: Theological and Practical Responses.”

As science and religion researchers begin to engage questions of mental health, mindfulness may prove to be a fruitful area of investigation. However, quantifying the physical effects of mindfulness on the brain is difficult because mindfulness deals with the problem of mental and physical interaction or, the mind/body problem. One system of understanding which may aid science and religion scholars in the pursuit of mindfulness is traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Within TCM, heart Qi manages the body's present connection to time and space. If the “being in the moment” is disrupted, then the heart Qi is blocked and mental illness or various neurological disorders occur. Succinctly, within TCM, mindfulness is understood as a nonphysical phenomenon ( Qi ) which directly affects physical systems, resulting in empirical data. This is tracked and treated through the TCM understanding of Qi . The TCM view of Qi in mental health may therefore provide a helpful new paradigm to investigations concerning mindfulness and the human brain.