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I was at a gala evening not long ago, seated next to a prominent scientist, a lovely woman who is working on a breakthrough treatment. She’d heard my talk earlier that day about my Power of Eight® work, and was very accepting and open-minded, but admitted, in her own words, that she was ‘spiritually autistic.’

Try as she might, she just couldn’t embrace a belief in a higher power.

That admission saddened me no end, not only because I believe that spirituality gives meaning to people’s lives, but also that it appears to be a necessary ingredient for a long, healthy and happy life.

In the largest and most rigorous study to date examining the role of spirituality in health, Harvard researchers examined 371 studies representing the highest quality evidence on spirituality and health, and concluded that spirituality was one of the major keys to rude good health.

They strongly recommended that attention to spiritual beliefs and practice should be a ‘vital part of whole-person care.’

By spirituality, they were referring to participating in a spiritual community, such as attendance in a religious service. Those who did lived longer and healthier lives, with less depression and suicide or substance abuse.

The researchers even discovered that spiritual practice influenced a patient’s quality of life.

Most interesting was the body of researchers themselves, a 27-member panel of experts in medicine, public health care and spirituality, including people of a variety of faiths, those who were spiritual but not strictly religious, and a few outright atheists thrown in for good measure.

The Harvard research bolsters earlier research showing that those who regularly assemble in churches to pray together have been shown to have lower blood pressure, enjoy far stronger immune systems, spend far fewer days in the hospital, and are a third less likely to die, even when all other factors are controlled for.

Scientists now believe that those who are now age 20 who never go to...