How God Changes Your Brain - Andrew Newberg, M. D_ [104]
Advanced meditators can achieve deep states of unity and connectedness through intensive practice, and this can trigger some unusual activity in the brain. If parietal activity declines, you alter your sense of self, and if you do this often enough, you may permanently alter the structure of your thalamus, which is part of the reality-processing circuit in the brain. In these situations, the meditator may see the universe in an entirely different light.
When you consciously direct your intent on a particular object, the brain blocks out sensory and neural information that does not pertain to the object of contemplation, and it screens out anything it considers irrelevant. As your meditation progresses, this blocking becomes more intense. The end result is intense awareness of the object, and a loss of awareness of anything other than the object of meditation. If that object is God, then the meditator has the experience of becoming one with God, or the sense that God pervades all of reality. If the object of meditation disappears, as sometimes happens in the most intense mystical states, the person may experience the universe as a completely un-differentiated whole—a sense of absolute unity of all things. When this happens, you might become aware that “you” are not your thoughts, and this raises the paradoxical question of what “you” may actually be. This can happen in any of the exercises we described before, but it typically results after many months of intense meditation.
Focused awareness sometimes creates the uncanny sensation of losing your sense of self. As you begin to realize that “you” is a rather arbitrary neural construction, activity in the parietal area of the brain decreases, and your sense of self begins to dissolve. Most practitioners describe this state as being simultaneously enlightening and disturbing, because a core sense of self is one of the earliest neural constructs in the brain. However, simply shifting your focus back to your breathing turns out to be an effective way to handle such disturbances. Now you can understand why relaxation is such an important foundation, especially if your goal is to modify an unwelcome personality trait. The only people who run into trouble are those with serious underlying personality disorders.
Ultimately, all that we are asking you to do is become a little more aware of life. We want you to slow down by paying attention to your body movements and your breathing as you go about your daily activities. And we want you to learn to become more aware of how your mind produces an endless stream of unconscious feelings and thoughts. By simply becoming more aware of what you think, feel, say, and do, you train your brain to become more organized and calm. Stress diminishes, and life begins to feel more pleasant and rich. It's easy to be mindful throughout the day, and all you need to do is remind yourself to be aware. You can take a minute to “meditate” in the elevator, when you're standing in line at the grocery store, when you're stuck in rush hour traffic, or when you're gazing into the eyes of those you deeply love. This is what mindfulness is all about, and it will change your brain in beneficial ways.
DESTROYING THE ILLUSION OF THE UNIVERSE
Having a conscious intention or goal underlies nearly every form of meditation and prayer, but there is one style worth mentioning that has a very different objective. It is common in some forms of Eastern philosophies, but absent in most Western religious traditions. It involves the conscious pursuit of having no goal at all. You are attempting to achieve absolute inner silence. No emotions or thoughts—just pure awareness or consciousness of what is.
Many people have had spontaneous, momentary experiences of emptiness, but deliberately evoking such a state for more than a few seconds often takes years of practice. Those who accomplish it say that it is one of the most serenely ecstatic states they