Guest guest Posted April 6, 2005 Report Share Posted April 6, 2005 Sudden enlightenment is quite another story. There, only one neural mechanism is really implicated: the interhemispheric intrusion. ..... The idea behind the " interhemispheric intrusion " is that when the activity in one brain structure becomes so elevated that it goes past a certain threshold, it needs to escape or vent into another. .... An interhemispheric intrusion can precipitate an event called 'synaptic dropout'. This is when synapses (connections between nerve cells) actually drop out of service after excess input. " Burn out " might be a better term, except that the event, and the following dropout do not happen at random. ..... A chain is only as strong as it's weakest link. And an overloaded limbic system may well 'dump' it's load of electrical activity when it's most unstable nucleus reaches it's limit. The specific nucleus that's most unstable may well reflect an individual's history. When we look for interhemispheric intrusions in other people's tales of spiritual transformation, we're looking for epiphanies of any sort that follow VERY negative episodes. In many cases, we find them. The Buddha was tortured by the demons of Mara the night before his enlightenment. Jesus emerged from the desert after a meeting with Satan. Ramakrishna's moment happened following an episode of extreme dysphoria that left him convinced he was about to die. For the limbic system, there are extensive connections available for shunting the activity to the opposite side if the brain. The most important of these is the anterior commissure, which connects the amygdalas on each side of the brain. When the phenomena of the dysphoria are cognitive, then the dropout seems most likely to be cognitive, as the specific signals embedded in the blast of activity may well be 'coded', so to speak, to cognitive functions. If the dark night of the soul is made of emotions, then the enlightenment that follows should find itself with an emotional quality. This seems to predict something we see in the Hindu and Buddhist traditions. Some teachers (like H.H. The Dalai Lama and the Teacher Ammachi ) emphasize compassion and a state called " lovingkindness " . An emotional orientation. Others, (like the Zen masters and the Vedanta teachers) emphasize awareness of the present moment. A 'cognitive' orientation. ...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 6, 2005 Report Share Posted April 6, 2005 Nisargadatta , " adithya_comming " <adithya_comming> wrote: > > Sudden enlightenment is quite another story. There, only one neural > mechanism is really implicated: the interhemispheric intrusion. > > .... > > The idea behind the " interhemispheric intrusion " is that when the > activity in one brain structure becomes so elevated that it goes past > a certain threshold, it needs to escape or vent into another. > > ... > > An interhemispheric intrusion can precipitate an event > called 'synaptic dropout'. > > This is when synapses (connections between nerve cells) actually drop > out of service after excess input. " Burn out " might be a better term, > except that the event, and the following dropout do not happen at > random. > .... > > A chain is only as strong as it's weakest link. > > And an overloaded limbic system may well 'dump' it's load of > electrical activity when it's most unstable nucleus reaches it's > limit. The specific nucleus that's most unstable may well reflect an > individual's history. > > When we look for interhemispheric intrusions in other people's tales > of spiritual transformation, we're looking for epiphanies of any sort > that follow VERY negative episodes. > > In many cases, we find them. > > The Buddha was tortured by the demons of Mara the night before his > enlightenment. > > Jesus emerged from the desert after a meeting with Satan. > > Ramakrishna's moment happened following an episode of extreme > dysphoria that left him convinced he was about to die. > > For the limbic system, there are extensive connections available for > shunting the activity to the opposite side if the brain. The most > important of these is the anterior commissure, which connects the > amygdalas on each side of the brain. > > > When the phenomena of the dysphoria are cognitive, then the dropout > seems most likely to be cognitive, as the specific signals embedded > in the blast of activity may well be 'coded', so to speak, to > cognitive functions. > > If the dark night of the soul is made of emotions, then the > enlightenment that follows should find itself with an emotional > quality. > > This seems to predict something we see in the Hindu and Buddhist > traditions. Some teachers (like H.H. The Dalai Lama and the Teacher > Ammachi ) emphasize compassion and a state called " lovingkindness " . > An emotional orientation. > > Others, (like the Zen masters and the Vedanta teachers) emphasize > awareness of the present moment. A 'cognitive' orientation. > > ..... I believe looking at the brain in order to see how consciousness operates is like looking at a flower's shadow in order to understand how the flower functions. The universe is _one_ quantum wave function, and the human brain is a holographic structure within that wave function. This means that the entire Kosmos exists 'within', is reflected, in the human brain. The idea that the universe consists of separate particles and objects, such as the brain, will soon become a flat-earth theory I suspect. Is the shadow from a flower a separate object? al. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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