The Neuroscience of Mystical Experience

The brain is a biological organ comparable to the other organs of the body. It evolved to do a job, to carry out specific functions centering around the control and regulation of survival. Its efficient operation can be undermined by injury, degeneration or inappropriate development. These insults may result in inaccurately or poorly processed data which generates abnormal perceptions, distorted subjective reality and bizarre behaviour. Factors underlying these abnormalities may include reduced blood flow, (the cortical area adjacent the temporal-parietal area is at the limit of a blood supply pathway and disruption here may generate out-of-body experiences), anoxia, (odd that many religious visions take place in High Places and even mountaineers report the strange effects of low oxygen levels associated with altitude sickness), increase in carbon dioxide levels, (free divers, amateurs and even experienced professionals have reported visions and sudden blackouts, some events leading to death), endorphin release, temporal lobe seizures, (candidates from Mosses, Saul/Paul to Vincent van Gogh are all suspected of being influenced by such events), the effects of drugs such as Ketamine and Phencyclidine, (which may inactive NMDA receptors this may have a neuroprotective effect under some conditions), hallucigens like LSD may disrupt serotonin receptor binding; the list is extensive. The synchronized chemical and electrical activity in a neurone represents the fundamental unit of information processing in the brain. All our cognitive states, emotions, thoughts, expectations, and beliefs are mediated by the connections between neurons, brain nuclei and cortical areas. Neural connections are plastic, they can change and develop in response to stimuli and specific areas can become more complex if appropriate mental/emotional sates are used and developed. The richness of our experiences helps to determine the extensivity of these connections and the neural network that they support. Conscious experience emerges when a threshold level of activity is reached. This emergence arises as a novel property of the computational complexity among and between brain cells. The physical substrate of the mind is a process occurring at the synaptic level. The synapses can be seen to reflect experience through the strength and extension of their connections. Thus the mind can be considered to be an epi-phenomenon of brain activity. Consciousness, as experienced by our sense of self, arises from the interaction of large assemblies of neurons. At any one time many neuronal assemblies will be active; the largest ones will be dominate and will determine the moment of consciousness. The stage of consciousness becomes lit-up when enough neuronal processing units have come on-line and triggered a threshold.

Processing is widely distributed and conscious states are mediated by many areas operating in parallel. The degree of neuronal recruitment will be determined by the level of sensory input, pre-existing connections and the degree of competition from other assemblies. Activity within neurons may influence or be influenced by changes in hormones, neurotransmitters and neuromodulators, or immunological factors. Influences both inside and outside the brain modulate consciousness at the synaptic level. The competitive, co-operative and co-lateral activities taking place between neuronal assemblies produce different moments of consciousness. The binding of the separate elements of consciousness, as represented by activity in different areas, may be mediated by the thalamus. The synchronized firing of thalamic nuclei and cortical areas perhaps moderated by the 40 Hz oscillation from the limbic hippocampal/amygdala region may underlie what we subjectively experience as a conscious state. All human creation, in art, science or religion, all our emotions, endeavours and experiences are a function of neuronal activity. All are the results of the manipulation of sensory data, memory, expectation and anticipation. All are ultimately ephemeral are our individual attempts to come to terms with the who, what, why and where we appear to be. The end of all knowledge and the end of searching for knowledge, explanation and understanding, the pinnacle of all intellectual activity is attained when we have a clear inseeing into this. Throughout history this achievement has been the preserve of philosophers, saints and mystics who have described their experience in terms of trans-personal and supernatural forces. However a neuroscientific explanation may now be possible. The peak my be attempted by the traditional route to a non-dual state, but a scientific methodology might suggest the following route: 1. First is the requirement for physical and mental stillness, aiming at reducing to a minimum the activity in the somatosensory and motor cortices and association areas. 2. A reduction of sensory input to occipital, parietal and temporal areas especially important might be a reduction of blood flow to the posterior portion of the superior parietal lobe; an area associated with our sense of orientation and mapping of the boundaries of the self. 3. A lowering of the activity in the hypothalamic nuclei physiological demands which may reduce cortisol levels. - reducing

4. A reduction of sympathetic activity and a co-responding increase in the level of para-sympathetic activity there may also be an increase in serotonin and/or melatonin levels. 5. These changes will encourage an equalization of activity between the two hemispheres, ie. A more equal cerebral coherence will be established. There will be disconnect between the primary processing areas and the higher frontal areas. 6. A ramping-up of frontal and pre-frontal activity, perhaps as much as 20%, (especially in the right hemisphere), as they are freed from the usual activity. 7. An extension of the orienting response, ie. prolonged focus on a specific target, brought about by a disciplined effort of focused awareness. This may be supported by the release of norepinepherine from the locus coreleous, which may in-turn inhibit the activity of frontal lobe neurotransmitters. 8. Eventually the supply of norepinephrine will be exhausted and habituation will occur. The brain will be in an unusual state, a high degree of focus and concentration, (engagement of anterior and posterior attentional systems, supported by the anterior cingulate cortex), but with a target, an object to be concentrated on: a sort of perceptual vacuum will develop. The continuation of this condition will bring about a pure consciousness, a consciousness focused only on consciousness, mind looking at mind. 9. This emptying of consciousness will encourage a release of endorphin in the dorso-lateral pre-frontal regions, Brodmans area 46, encouraging feelings of elation and freedom from restriction. Acetlycohline release from basal forebrain areas, nucleus of Meynert and the nucleus of the Diagonal Band projecting to the neocortex, may inhibit the short interneurons and activate the large output neurons, projection to the Habenular may stimulate relays to the midbrain. The medial Septal Nucleus releases to the hippocampus via fibres in the Fornix. There may be release of endocanabinoids, (Anandamide), 2AG, Endorphin beta, meta- and leu- enkephalin, and stimulation of sigma and mu opioid receptors. 10. The rostral area of the cingulate cortex may trigger a release of dopamine into the nucleus accumbans by stimulating activity in the ventral tegmental area and signalling via the multisynaptic medial forebrain bundle.

11. Inhibition of the left amygdale or hyperactivity in the right hippocampus may induce neuronal drop-out resulting in a removal of fear and an intensification of pleasurable feelings. 12. Minimal parietal activity will reduce body mapping and the boundaries of the self may merge into the greater whole experienced as a sense of oneness. This experience may trigger further endorphin release. 13. The silent hemisphere may be more easily recognized and perceived as a benign other ie. a god-like figure. An inter-hemispheric intrusion may reduce the critical faculties of the left hemisphere resulting in a hearing of the unconscious awarenss of the right hemisphere. 14. Disruption/deactivation of the frontal-lobe executive functions may stimulate a glutamate release. Endopsychosines may attempt to ameliorate this by blockage of the PCP binding site on post-synaptic NMDA glutaminergic neurons, resulting in further disruption of normal functions, perhaps producing distorted perceptions, memory stimulation and visions. The experience resulting from this neural disruption; calm, a sense of peace, euphoria, bliss, fearlessness, an at-oneness with the universe, a sense of presence, (of a supreme being - a Father like figure), are those reported by mystics of all religions and at all times. Their interpretation of these events has led to the creation of faiths followed tens and thousands of millions of people, (ie. sheep not goats). Those experiencing these epiphanies have reported a transformation of their lives Essential features of this experience include the profound transfiguration of the pillars of self, and the experience of time and space. They may be briefly summarized as : The separation between self and not-self is no longer recognized. What you previously thought of as you becomes one with all of existence. There is no personal identity left as you come to recognize the unity and interdependence which underlies all of existence. Past, present and future melt and merge together into the time-less moment of Now, of eternity. Now and then, before and after combine together into this exact moment. Times arrow no longer flies from past to future. Existence is no longer dependent upon time. As the boundaries and limitations of the self and time fade and disappear, space becomes vast. Space is limitless, it is everywhere and everywhen, without edges. Here and there are all the same it is all Here.

 Here all paradoxes and contradictions are absorbed, accepted, resolved. We are convinced of our divine nature and can rest in the comfort of knowing that the soul is eternal. We recognize that God is in every cell of our bodies and everything is in God and is God. We know that consciousness is endless, that it continues after this particular body dies, that it existed long before this particular form came into being. We see eternity in a blade of grass and the universe in a wild flower, and we recognize our original face, the one we had before our mother and father were born. Beneath the ecstasy and bliss is an underlying deep peace, a stillness, serenity. We are enfolded in calm, silence and tranquillity, which only comes when we make contact with the ground of existence, the source of all being, the un-born, un-dying, the uncreated. We recognize behind the impersonal void an ineffable source, an immanence which emanates wisdom, power, love at an unimaginable level. We are transformed by this experience. All doubts, insecurities and uncertainties are removed and an unshakable certainty fills our life. We call this experience enlightenment, because we enter into the light of creations majesty, and eternity is recognised as our very being. The white light is all there is and this world is seen to be nothing more than shadows and the play of light.

These experiences may have something in common with temporal lobe epilepsy, eg. Blakes visions of angels. The condition may be exacerbated by the effectsof anoxia, exhaustion, stress etc experienced by being in a high place, eg. climbers/mountaineers, Jesus, Moses, Mohammed, Fox, indeed in all the major religions, mountains are places of divinity and revelation. Other explanations for the subjective experience of consciousness have been suggested. Matter consisting of fundamental particles, quarks, leptons and the force carriers, gluons, photons and gravitons, may not be fundamental. Envisioned as points, they may actually be the expressions of strings and loops. Our brain cells, and the consciousness that they generate, must be structured from this matter. However the phenomenon of quantum non-locality might support the idea that our thoughts/consciousness are not the product of neuronal activity, but are produced by an as yet unknown mechanism or subtle type of matter as yet undiscovered. Penrose and Hameroff have proposed that consciousness may arise from subatomic quantum processes occurring in micro-tubules. The action of weak chemical attraction forces acting over nanoseconds might induce micro-tubule conformational change and support information processing, transmission and learning within neurons. It is the collapse of the quantum state which produces consciousness according to this Orchestral Objective Reduction theory, (OrchOR). However micro-tubules exist in almost all cells!

Eccles argued for the brain as a instrument providing data processing and lines of communication to and from the external world, and that this data read out was selectively acted upon and moulded into a unified whole by a separate and independent mind; one that was not part of the neural machinery! We must not forget that the brains functions are limited by its evolved structures, its neurochemistry and its sensory apparatus. Reality is determined by what is perceived. The reality we perceive is based upon what we can detect: if we are the explicate manifestation of an enfolded, implicate order, our senses would not be designed to observe the deeper self. If a neuroscientific explanation for our human condition is testable then we will finally come understand and explain that which underlies all our human goals and achievements. We might finally come to accept that the reason we seek magic in science, religion, art poetry and literature is because the human forces for good are all there are, and in a brain and with a psychology that as evolved to seek patterns and tell stories, these bald facts may, for the vast majority, just not be enough, just not acceptable.