TVC Top 3: Gen Z, Neuro Science, & Spirituality

The Voyage Cast | Top 3 Mental Health News

For decades, we’ve been told that psychology and self-improvement alone are enough. But what if resilience — real healing, real flourishing — requires something more?

In this episode of The Voyage Cast, Ed breaks down the top three stories in mental health and why they matter for your life:

🧠 The Neuroscience of Spirituality

Research from Lisa Miller (Columbia University) and Andrew Newberg (Thomas Jefferson University) shows that practices like prayer, meditation, awe, and worship don’t just make us feel better — they literally rewire the brain, protect against depression, and foster recovery from trauma.

📱 Gen Z’s Surprising Shift

Often called the most anxious, screen-addicted generation, some young people are quietly pushing back. Studies from Barna and Springtide reveal that many are logging off social media and rediscovering faith, family, journaling, nature, and community. And with it? Greater happiness, stability, and belonging.

🔺 Maslow’s Missing Piece

Most of us learned Maslow’s hierarchy of needs ends with self-actualization. But late in life, Maslow changed his mind. His final insight — confirmed by later scholarship — was that the true pinnacle is transcendence. Without it, self-actualization collapses into self-absorption. With it, suffering becomes meaningful, and joy becomes stable.

✨ Key Theme: Resilience doesn’t come from turning further inward. It comes when we lift our eyes beyond ourselves.

Why Listen?

Whether you’re a therapist, parent, leader, or someone wrestling with your own mental health journey, these stories reveal how science, culture, and psychology all point to the same truth: we are wired for transcendence.

🎧 Tune in for clarity, encouragement, and challenge — and leave with new insight into how healing really happens.

Join the Conversation

What stood out to you in these stories? Have you seen spirituality or transcendence shape resilience in your own life? Do you notice Gen Z reaching for more rooted practices where you live?

👉 Share your thoughts and feedback using this Link, and use the link for "sharing your questions" at the top of the page. Your voice may even be featured in a future episode. 

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Transcript

The Voyage Cast (00:00)
This is Ed with the Voyagecast and this is your top three in mental health news. What you need to know and why it matters for your life. Today we're covering the neuroscience of spirituality and how it rewires the brain for resilience. Why Gen Z might be quietly pushing back against screens with faith, family and rooted rhythms. And why Maslow's famous hierarchy of needs wasn't actually complete until he placed transcendence at the top.

three stories one thread resilience doesn't come from turning further inward it comes when we reach beyond ourselves let's dive in

the neuroscience of spirituality and resilience. In a recent Times Magazine article research from a psychologist Lisa Miller at Columbia University and neuroscientist Andrew Newberg at Thomas Jefferson University. And what they're showing us is this, spirituality doesn't just make people feel better. It literally rewires the brain. We're talking about prayer, meditation,

finding a sense of awe in nature, communal worship, all of these practices are linked to lower stress, stronger brain plasticity, and even a quicker recovery after things like trauma. Miller's research shows that people with what she calls a spiritual brain orientation are much less likely to relapse into depression, kind of like how exercise protects the heart.

Spirituality seems to protect the mind. now here's where this connects to real life. Therapy gives us skills, how to manage emotions, how to challenge distorted thoughts, how even to build healthier relational patterns. And those skills are, of course, valuable. But let me be honest, they only take us so far

because at some point people hit a wall. You can manage your thoughts. You can regulate your breathing. But you still wake up in the middle of the night asking what's the point to all of this. That's where spirituality steps in not as like a bandaid or something like that but as an anchor. It puts suffering inside of a bigger story. It says this pain isn't the whole picture and the brain reflects that shift.

Now I've watched clients who were drowning in grief finally catch their breath the moment they said, I don't have to carry this alone. Something bigger is holding me. And you can see it. Their nervous system calms down. Their face softens. It's not magic. That's neurological wiring happening in real time. Neuroscience is simply proving what our souls already know. We were built to seek something beyond ourselves. When we lose that, life starts to crack.

When we recover it, healing becomes possible again.

that's what the labs and brain scans are telling us. But what does it look like out in the real world, especially for the youngest generation? That's where our next story takes us. Gen Z is now finding fulfillment in faith and family, not screens. Gen Z has this reputation, the loneliness, most anxious, most screen addicted generation in history. And honestly, the numbers do back that up.

But there's another story bubbling under the surface, which is really encouraging. According to some new from Springtide and Barna, some young people are making a sharp turn. They're closing the apps, logging off, and rediscovering things that were supposedly outdated, like prayer, dinners with family, handwriting in journals, time outdoors, even sitting in a church pew again. And you know what?

They're reporting more happiness, more stability, and more belonging. This matters because it shows us the difference between simulation and connection. You do stimulate us. They hit the dopamine button, but belonging takes time and repetition.

I see it all the time in my office. Young people who are constantly connected but feel completely unanchored or unloved or unknown or uninvolved or disconnected really. Because belonging isn't built through likes and followers. It's built around tables, traditions, and rituals. sitting down with family, praying daily,

going on long hikes, journaling by hand, something starts to shift in their brains. Their anxiety doesn't just dip a little. Their sense of self actually strengthens. Because finally, they're not trying to invent who they are every single day. They're rooted in something bigger, something more than them, something older than them, something timeless. And here's the thing, this isn't nostalgia speaking.

It's not just some romanticized return to the good old days. It's really a kind of recovery. They're rediscovering what humans have always needed and always really known, but some kind of continuity within a community to be a part of a bigger story.

And that brings us to our last story, one that rewrites the very framework of our human flourishing. Why transcendence belongs at the top of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Most of us learned about Maslow and his hierarchy of needs back when we were in school. Food and shelter at the bottom, safety and belonging above that, then self-esteem and finally self-actualization at the peak.

Well, that was from his work in 1943, a theory of human motivation. But here's what you probably didn't learn. Maslow actually changed his mind. By the late 1960s, he started to realize the pyramid wasn't complete. In 1969, he published an essay called The Farther Reaches of Human Nature. And in it, he said that self-actualization, being your best self, still wasn't enough.

It was too inwardly focused. The real pinnacle was transcendence going beyond the self towards something like God, service, awe, or meaning. Maslow died of a heart attack in 1970, but his unfinished manuscript was published in 1971 under the same title. And in 2006, psychologist Michael Koltko Rivera

wrote a landmark article in review of general psychology that documented all of this showing that transcendence Maslow's final insight. This changes the game. For decades, psychology told us the highest goal was self-actualization. Reach your potential. Become your best self. But even Maslow himself admitted that this is not the finish line. This isn't enough. Because if life only revolves around the self,

It eventually caves in or as we see culturally, we develop a culture of narcissism. Transcendence is what makes suffering bearable. It's what turns trauma into growth. It's what turns fleeting happiness into joy that's actually stable. I've seen people do all of the self work in the world, therapy, journaling, mindfulness, and still feel hollow. But when they start orienting their lives towards something bigger, God, service, beauty, community,

The hollowness begins to lift because here's the truth. Without transcendence, self-actualization becomes self-absorption. But with it, healing has space to breathe. Pain doesn't define the story anymore. It gets woven into the fabric of who we are. It's something that gives life meaning.

Alright, well thank you so much for joining me today for another episode of The Voyage Cast. If this stirred something in you, challenged you, or encouraged you, or maybe even made you pause to think for a moment, give us five stars and share it with a friend. Share it with someone you love, share it with someone you hate, maybe someone you're mad at. Share it with anybody in between because everybody needs to know and everybody needs to be informed on what they can do to help their lives. Also, if this does mean something to you, if you think we've earned it, subscribe.

because subscribing is free. It's like a free gift to me because I put a lot of work into this and it's a worthy trade off, think. All right. I'd love to hear your thoughts. If you've got anything to share on these stories, if you have other news that I've missed, if you want to just give me your feedback, share it. Check the show notes for more details on where you can share that. And maybe we'll share what your questions or thoughts are in the next episode. So thanks again for being here. I am Ed, your host.

And this is the voyage cast bringing you help beyond the office until next time.