Missing the Mind's Eye

This article goes discusses a new discovery: that not everyone has a "mind's eye" that can visualize objects or events, and that other people have a hyper-active mind's eye that lets them visualize with great clarity. https://news.yahoo.com/many-people-vivid-minds-eye-182748867.html

But the article doesn't mention the implications on world religion. Many religions stress "inner quiet" or "emptying the mind" as a way to get closer to the divine. When you quiet yourself, you give room for the divine to enter. Christians require stopping thoughts--especially sinful ones--so that practitioners can "listen to god." Skill at meditation is one of the required steps on the Eightfold Path in Buddhism. And so on.

If it turns out that people are actually hard-wired to have an "empty" or a "full" mind, what are the implications on religious belief? Does this mean the meditation/prayer requirement was created and fomented by people whose neural pathways =couldn't= visualize? ("You must empty your mind, as I do." "I'm trying, Teacher, but my mind remains crowded." "You must try harder, Student. I can do it. Therefore you can, too." Except maybe the student literally couldn't, and the teacher was simply the beneficiary of a system created by other literally like-minded people. The Teacher isn't truly wise or more divine--he just appears to be because he was born with a particular kind of brain.

If this discovery about the human brain is true, it means that meditation and other mind-emptying techniques can't possibly be useful in getting closer to the divine. It would be like saying, "You must run ten miles to get into heaven" to someone in a wheelchair. Would the divine exclude people who are physically unable to meet a particular requirement? Not in any spirituality that preaches mercy--and all of them do.

In one stroke, this discovery wipes out a big section of human spirituality. I just don't think anyone's noticed yet.