A Mind Matters Column™
The Mind of a Mystic
By R. Murali Krishna, M.D.
President, James L. Hall, Jr. Center for Mind, Body & Spirit
President, INTEGRIS Mental Health
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Presidend COO, INTEGRIS Mental Health and James L. Hall, Jr. Center
for Mind, Body and Spirit
Sri. Nithyananda Swami is a trim, healthy looking young man with
dark, shoulder-length hair. Handsome and polite, possessing an open
manner and a wealth of curiosity, he could be any ordinary American
college student.
The difference is that ordinary American college students do not wear
orange robes and turbans, have not experienced spiritual
enlightenment and are not regarded as a teacher, healer and mystic by
millions of people in all corners of the world.
A mystic? The term is not a bad fit for "Swami," as he is known.
Mystics, popular culture tells us, have direct communion with God.
Through means not understood or measurable, mystics are thought to
have access to ultimate realities or truths. Picture a mystic and
you’ll probably picture someone full of bliss, someone gifted with
lofty thoughts and insights the rest of us do not possess. The very
presence of a mystic is thought to bring peace and healing to others.
That’s an apt description of Swami, a 27-year-old from South India.
He is approached by thousands of people a year seeking relief from
diseases and ailments that conventional medical approaches have not
cured. Swami’s background lends him the air of a mystic, too. He left
his home as a teen, visited ashrams across India, immersed himself in
philosophy, read extensively and mastered the art of meditation.
When Swami passed through Oklahoma City recently as one stop in his
world travels, I asked him if he would let me use some of modern
medicine’s newest technology to peer into his brain while he
meditated. My goal: to understand, measure and demystify what happens
during the mystic phenomena. Swami, who believes that meditation has
a scientific basis, happily agreed.
The procedures Swami went through were administered by some of
Oklahoma City’s finest and most experienced physicians,
neuropsychologists and researchers: Drs. Fordyce, Ruwe and Higgins of
the Jim Thorpe Rehabilitation Center Neuropsychology Department and
Dr. Chacko of the PET Center of Oklahoma. These doctors were using
technology they use with patients on a routine basis. When they look
at images obtained by their technology, they know what’s normal and
what’s not.
The results from testing Swami? Decidedly not normal.
Imaging Brain Activity
Our first look into Swami’s brain was achieved with the help of a
Positron Emission Tomography (PET) device. Unlike traditional
diagnostic techniques that produce images of the body’s structure or
anatomy, such as X-rays, CT scans or MRI, PET produces images of the
function of the brain through the metabolic activity of cells. An
analog of glucose is attached to a radioactive PET tracer. The PET
scanner then images the metabolically active brain areas at any given
time.
In the case of Swami, the drug was intended to identify highly active
areas of the brain in an alert and conscious state, in the early
stages of meditation and during deep meditation.
The results of the PET scan tests were stunning. To begin with, the
activity in the frontal lobes of Swami’s brain were significantly
heightened, even in early meditation stages. The level of activity
was higher than would be seen in the average human brain under any
conditions.
When we then asked Swami to go into the deepest meditation state,
there were two more remarkable findings.
First, the dominant hemisphere of Swami’s brain was more than 90
percent shut down. It was as if Swami’s brain had packed up and gone
on vacation. It was quiet and still, completely at peace … and Swami
had made it so at will.
A second amazing aspect of Swami’s deep meditation was that the lower
portion of his mesial frontal areas lighted up in a very significant
way. This area roughly corresponds to the reputed location of the
mystical "Third Eye."
When we later asked Swami what he was doing when the mesial frontal
areas lighted up, he said he was opening his third eye.
Associated with both cosmic and inner knowledge and thought to be a
place of clarity and peace, the Third Eye is considered by many to be
the seat of the soul. Were we seeing an indication that deep
meditation can open an area of the brain responsible for
communicating with the divine, looking deep into the mysteries of
self or creation? I believe the PET scan revealed what I call the
brain’s "D-spot." Whether you consider the "D" in D-spot to stand for
delight, the divine or even dopamine, the chemical through which our
bodies experience pleasure, initial indications are that meditation
can stimulate it.
Measuring Brainwaves
The second procedure we used to look into Swami’s brain is known as
Quantitative Electroencephalography, or QEEG. QEEG measures
electrical patterns in the brain, patterns commonly referred to as
brainwaves.
There are four bandwidths of brainwaves, each different in speed and
each associated with a different state of mind. For instance, beta
brainwaves are small and fast and linked with an awake, alert state
of mind. Alpha brainwaves are slower and larger and are connected to
feelings of well-being. Theta waves represent a state of
consciousness between that is close to sleep, a stage in which there
is a sense of calmness and serenity without active thought.
In a day’s time, most people will experience all four types of
brainwaves. The progression from one bandwidth to another, though, is
not so easily in their control.
From Swami’s QEEG, though, we can see that he has complete control
over his brainwaves. When in deep meditation, his brain smoothly
shifted from one state to another, like a talented pianist playing
the scales. There was no hesitation and no retreating, just
continuous, fluid shifts from one type of brainwave to the next.
Because the QEEG represents the five brainwave bandwidths as colors,
it was as we were watching Swami float from color to color within a
rainbow.
Conclusions
The brain is the body’s most complex organ, containing more than 100
billion neurons, each of them in chemical and electrical conversation
with up to 10,000 other neurons. Its sheer capacity to process
information is astonishing.
Remarkably, that complexity presents little difficulty for Swami in
managing his brain activity. Swami’s mind – his thoughts, emotions
and intellect – control his brain. He can, in a very fluid, easy way,
shift his brain function and alter his brainwaves.
More than answering questions, the voyage we took into the mind of a
mystic brings intriguing questions for study.
Are there techniques we can learn and teach that will bring balance
and peace into people’s lives?
Can we invoke a healing response or accelerate healing through
specific training? Can we learn techniques that will allow us to
control pain or alter the course of a disease?
Can we learn to activate what I call our D-spot, thus putting us in
instant connection to delight or the divine?
The results from our study of Swami are new pages in our world’s
growing book of research on the brain. There continue to be
indications that the human mind may be able to choose to heal the
body. We’re now looking at the possibility of people learning and
acquiring these healing capabilities, an event of immense benefit for
humankind. The potential for altering the rates and progression of
many diseases – heart disease, cancer, arthritis, alcoholism and many
others – is beginning to look achievable.
Swami is a bridge between the invisible, ancient world of mysticism
and the modern, visible world of science and discovery. As brain
research continues on a widespread basis, and as we appropriately
bring the phenomena of mysticism into the realm of science for
further study, we are taking strides on a path of hope and health.
The web site.
http://www.integris-health.com/INTEGRIS/Specialties/MindBodySpirit/
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