The description below, and the link to the paper, a really cool experience. This capacity for such experience is built into us, and as long as we can access it, it does not seem to matter much how.
--- In [email protected], "authfriend" <jstein@...> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], "authfriend" <jstein@> wrote: > > > > --- In [email protected], "Xenophaneros Anartaxius" > > <anartaxius@> wrote: > > <snip> > > > It is OK if a scientist says something like TM, or some other > > > form of meditation, like mindfulness, seems to result in more > > > of a 'good' neurotransmitter in the brain. But if a scientist > > > says that certain specific functions in the brain produce well > > > known spiritual experiences and that these experiences can be > > > thus manipulated experimentally, this is anathema because it > > > looks as if spiritual experience is just materialistic, > > > mechanistic - the glory on high of the majesty of the gods and > > > the ultimate reality is suddenly reduced to hardware and > > > software, of a meat factory producing the crowning and supreme > > > sublimity. > > > > I'm too busy to respond fully to your meaty post at the > > moment; hopefully I can get back to it in a day or two. > > But I wanted to make one point about the above (not related > > to the Sacks piece, really): > > > > We do tend to think that meditation, or psilocybin or other > > methodologies, "produce" spiritual experiences. But another > > possibility is that all they do is damp down what gets in > > the way of those experiences, that we would be experiencing > > a more complete reality 24/7 if our brains didn't normally > > filter most of it out in the interests of allowing us to > > focus on our immediate survival. > > > > This ties in with some things MMY has said about higher > > consciousness being "normal," and also with what Jay > > Latham quotes him as saying about the dawning of Brahman > > Consciousness, that one isn't capable at first of doing > > anything more than lying in bed, until one begins to get > > used to the state. > > > > I could run on about this for quite awhile, but I have to > > get back to work! > > Synchronicity--the manuscript I'm editing refers to a story > of one person's prolonged unsupervised experience in an > alpha-wave biofeedback lab: > > http://www.biocybernaut.com/about/discovery/part1.htm#nav1top > > After an hour or so, as he learns to produce strong alpha (in > part by breathing deeply, then not breathing), he begins to > have mystical experiences: > > > "I was able to exist outside of time, which flowed past almost unrippled by > my presence. The only time-like phenomenon was the alternation between willed > breathing periods (which I entered only reluctantly) and the detached states > of pure being I entered so joyously and eagerly each time as soon as I was > oxygenated enough to cease from breathing. Even the briefest and subtlest > conceptual thought which intruded into my mind during those periods resulted > in a faltering of the feedback tone. With this infallible indicator of egoic > thoughts, I was more and more able to non-think. But non thinking did not > mean non-awareness, contrary to everything my education and experience had > lead me to believe. I discovered thoughts to be multi-layered constructions. > - artifices of a certain egoic relationship to the world, ...to myself. > > "A sheep is still a sheep after the wool is shorn. In many ways its > perception may even be enhanced by the removal of the insulating wool. The > warming sun and cooling breezes are probably felt more readily after > shearing. With thinking gone, the wool was removed from over my eyes, and the > new awareness seemed vast." > > > The sheared sheep is a great metaphor for what I was trying > clumsily to get across in my earlier post. The whole thing is > worth a read. >
