Interesting article

[Guest guest]

Article that has appeared in todays Times of India.

The attempts of science to explain the mystery -of

course..debatable.

 

Piece of mind: Cerebral clues to spiritual bliss

=================================================

 

New Delhi: Modern science tells us that love is

essentially a chemical phenomenon. All the things you

feel when you’re in love can be explained by the

presence of certain chemicals—-say, phenyl ethylamine

which is associated with a feeling of bliss or

oxytocin that’s found to be high in breast-feeding

mothers.

While research on the subject is still not

conclusive, there are suggestions that religious and

spiritual experiences, too, might be built into the

complex circuitry of our brains. At least that’s what

research in two American universities appear to

indicate.

Research at the University of Wisconsin at Madison

and the University of California, San Francisco, on

Buddhist monks showed that parts of the brain dealing

with positive emotions and self-control were more

active, while those associated with memory of fear

were relatively calmer, leading researchers to believe

that Buddhist monks who appear happy and calm were are

genuinely so.

To take the research on spiritual experience

further, Andrew Newburg, a radiologist at the

University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, scanned

the brains of Buddhist monks and Franciscan nuns in

meditation or prayer and the results were fascinating.

 

First, the prefrontal cortex -or the part of the

brain dealing with positive emotions -was seething

with activity. More interestingly, the parietal lobes

showed very little activity. What are parietal lobes?

These lobes are part of the cerebrum and are

associated with two functions, the orientation of the

body in space and the perception of space and time.

To be more precise, the left superior parietal lobe

creates the perception of the body’s physical

boundaries and the right superior parietal lobe

creates the perception of physical space outside of

the body. Since, during meditation, the parietal lobes

are unable to create the perception of space and

linear time that are an essential part of our

consciousness, it gives rise to a sensation of

infinity and timelessness.

That’s one take. Here’s another. Dr Michael

Persinger at Laurentian University studied the brain

scans of temporal lobe of epileptic patients who

reported having mystical experiences. He then

artificially induced temporal lobe seizures on

volunteers and their reactions were the same as the

epileptics —-religious dream-like hallucinations and

the volunteers sensing ‘spectral presence’ in the room

with them.

Dr Persinger suggests this could be because of the

presence of the temporal cortex inside the temporal

lobes. The left hemisphere of the temporal cortex is

responsible for one’s awareness of self. When the

activity in this cortex gets out of sync, as happens

in a seizure, the left hemisphere perceives the right

hemisphere as a ‘sensed presence’ separate from

itself, which could be interpreted as God.

Another part of the brain that could be playing a

role in religious experiences is the limbic system.

Limbic stimulation is known to bring richness to

experience. Jeffery Saver, a researcher at UCLA, says

that during a religious experience the limbic system

becomes unusually active, which makes everything that

happens during an experience especially significant.

In fact, even elaborate religious ceremonies,

involving things like chanting and rituals, make the

brain tag the rituals as different from everyday

activities. This, in turn, triggers activity in the

limbic system leading to a feeling of bliss.

Skeptics will interpret the scientific findings as

proof that God does not exist, because we can

scientifically replicate mystical religious

experiences. However, Newberg himself says that while

he has a sense of his own spirituality, his agenda for

research doesn’t include determining whether god

exists or not. That, according to him, is a different

question from trying to determine the neurology of

spiritual and religious experiences.

 

 

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

Ha! Thanx for posting the article.

 

> ...To be more precise, the left superior parietal lobe

> creates the perception of the body's physical

> boundaries and the right superior parietal lobe

> creates the perception of physical space outside of

> the body.

 

This reminded me on Suzanne Segal and Nathan Gill, who both have

described the experience of completely losing the sense for any " me "

for a long period of time, which mistakenly has been taken as a sign

for enlightenment. But it was just some lobical problem... lol...

 

Boy, this is all a jungle, we for sure have to be strong, simple and

intuitive to go our way without too much distraction...

 

I copy and paste a question/answer of Maharshi:

 

Questioner: " When I am engaged in inquiry as to the source from

which the 'I' springs, I arrive at a stage of stillness of mind beyond

which I find myself unable to proceed further. I have no thought of

any kind and there is an emptiness, a blankness. A mild light pervades

and I feel that it is myself bodiless. I have neither cognition nor

vision of body and form. The experience lasts nearly half an hour and

is pleasing. Would I be correct in concluding that all that was

necessary to secure eternal happiness, that is freedom or salvation or

whatever one calls it, was to continue the practice till this

experience could be maintained for hours, days and months

together? "

 

Maharshi: " This does not mean salvation. Such a condition is

termed manolaya or temporary stillness of thought. Manolaya means

concentration, temporarily arresting the movement of thoughts. As soon

as this concentration ceases, thoughts, old and new, rush in as usual;

and even if this temporary lulling of mind should last a thousand

years, it will never lead to total destruction of thought, which is

what is called liberation from birth and death. The practitioner must

therefore be ever on the alert and inquire within as to who has this

experience, who realizes its pleasantness. Without this inquiry he

will go into a long trance or deep sleep (yoga nidra). Due to the

absence of a proper guide at this stage of spiritual practice, many

have been deluded and fallen a prey to a false sense of liberation and

only a few have managed to reach the goal safely. "

 

Greetings

S.

[Guest guest]

approriate response,,,ramana's answer settles the issue .

very easy to get lost without these lighthouses.

rgds,

devendra

 

 

 

> Questioner: " When I am engaged in inquiry as to the source from

> which the 'I' springs, I arrive at a stage of stillness of mind

beyond

> which I find myself unable to proceed further. I have no thought of

> any kind and there is an emptiness, a blankness. A mild light

pervades

> and I feel that it is myself bodiless. I have neither cognition nor

> vision of body and form. The experience lasts nearly half an hour

and

> is pleasing. Would I be correct in concluding that all that was

> necessary to secure eternal happiness, that is freedom or salvation

or

> whatever one calls it, was to continue the practice till this

> experience could be maintained for hours, days and months

> together? "

>

> Maharshi: " This does not mean salvation. Such a condition is

> termed manolaya or temporary stillness of thought. Manolaya means

> concentration, temporarily arresting the movement of thoughts. As

soon

> as this concentration ceases, thoughts, old and new, rush in as

usual;

> and even if this temporary lulling of mind should last a thousand

> years, it will never lead to total destruction of thought, which is

> what is called liberation from birth and death. The practitioner

must

> therefore be ever on the alert and inquire within as to who has this

> experience, who realizes its pleasantness. Without this inquiry he

> will go into a long trance or deep sleep (yoga nidra). Due to the

> absence of a proper guide at this stage of spiritual practice, many

> have been deluded and fallen a prey to a false sense of liberation

and

> only a few have managed to reach the goal safely. "

>

> Greetings

> S.

[Guest guest]

this 'splains everytin lucee!!

 

 

> http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/000932.html

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

LOL!!! Funny cartoons. :-D

 

fuzzie

 

 

Nisargadatta , " Anna Ruiz " <nli10u@c...> wrote:

> this 'splains everytin lucee!!

>

>

> > http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/000932.html

> >

> >

> >

[Guest guest]

GuruRatings , " Durga " <durgaji108 wrote:

 

Very interesting article, but not for the faint hearted.

 

http://www.shiningworld.com/Books%20Pages/HTML%20Books/Ramana%27s%

20Teachings.htm

 

--- End forwarded message ---

[Guest guest]

GuruRatings , " Tony OClery " <aoclery

wrote:

 

GuruRatings , " Durga " <durgaji108@> wrote:

>

> Very interesting article, but not for the faint hearted.

>

> http://www.shiningworld.com/Books%20Pages/HTML%20Books/Ramana%27s%

20Teachings.htm

>

Namaste,

 

That is an interesting article, I need to study it later.

 

I already have some differences of opinion--surprise surprise. The

following seems to indicate that Ram thinks there is some volition

of ego after 'enlightenment'. In my opinion there is no volition or

continuing with sadhana wilfully--it just prarabda that is doing the

work, as always. I also beg to differ that there are great amounts

of enlightened people, if that means the same thing as Moksha.

People may be enlightened without being true Muktas.

 

My opinion so far is that there are some basic intuitives he is

missing in his talk...........ONS...Tony. More pearls later haha

 

 

 

 

JOHN: But Ramana didn't do sadhana to get enlightenment.

 

 

 

Ram: That's true…but he certainly did sadhana after it. Knowing

who he was, he need not have sat in meditation in caves for many

years, he could have gone home and eaten his mom's iddlys and played

cricket. It was all the same to him. But he didn't. He decided

to purify his mind. The glory of Ramana is not his enlightenment.

It was just the same as every other enlightenment that's ever been.

His glory was his pure mind. He polished his mind to such a degree

that it was particularly radiant… a great blessing to himself and

everyone whom he contacted. That kind of mind you only get through

serious sadhana, or yoga, if you will. These modern gurus,

particularly the so-called `crazy wisdom' gurus who seem to revel in

gross mind, refuse to encourage people to develop themselves because

they do not understand the tremendous pleasure that comes from a

pure mind.

 

--- End forwarded message ---