Let us see high states of consciousness, including spiritual or transcendental states, in terms of the brain’s functioning. First let us understand that that virtually every sense-perception, as well as bodily sensation, is mediated by the nervous system. This means that all of these require a certain amount of neural activity to be dedicated to it. Let us consider the individual’s neural capacity to be fixed.

The primary factor I am going to be discussing is the potential of consciousness being largely determined by dividing total capacity by the amount of neurons required to mediate perceptions. Regardless, all perceptions and bodily sensations are mediated by neural activity, as I stated previously. The more sensations you experience, and the more neurons directed towards mediating them, the less capacity you have for experiencing expanded states of consciousness.

John Lily devised a brilliant device for dealing with this fact, and allowing expanded states of consciousness to be accessed more easily; I am speaking of the isolation tank. Here virtually all perceptions and bodily sensations cease to be. All of your neural potential that would have been directed towards these perceptions, is now freed for new activity. Because of this, your potential for experiencing expanded states of consciousness is greatly increased. This is the basic principle behind meditation, as well as the monk-lifestyle. Through meditation, or leaving the societal life altogether to live in a monastery, or a cave, or whatever, this same basic principle is applied.

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A technique for addressing this specific problem is meditation with what are called asanas. This is where you pick a position in which to put your body, and during the time of meditation you do not move your body AT ALL. Perhaps slowing the mind would be good as well, but that is not the primary purpose of this mediation. The purpose is to keep your body absolutely still throughout the meditation. You cannot itch, you cannot address any discomfort, you cannot move at all.

Now, your nervous system/brain works largely through feedback loops. This means that feedback is a cue for persistence of the existing processes. If you address the itch, or do any movement in response to some physical sensation, you are giving your brain a cue to continue these sensations. Through absolutely ignoring them, keeping your body absolutely still in the asana no matter what, your brain can learn to basically close these bodily feedback loops down.

This is the attainment of the asana. If you can accomplish this, your nervous system will basically cease sending signals to your body, and there will be no distractions while you are in the asana. Because of this, intense physical bliss is possible. Also because of this, high states of consciousness, and intense spiritual or transcendental experiences become possible. These states come by your brain not being distracted by routine functions. The more these distractions are removed, the more of your brain’s power can be directed towards intense experiences in consciousness.

Looking deeper yet, detaching from conceptual or emotional responses can close down deeper feedback loops in your cognitive functioning, which can open up even deeper states of consciousness, even more transcendental experiences. Note that in this view, spirituality and science are reconciled. Spiritual experiences are seen as being legitimate functions of the brain, which can be induced by specific techniques, and that our knowledge of all of this can be expanded through scientific analysis.

Well said.

Thanks for sharing.