How enlightenment permanently alters your brain | Dr. Andrew Newberg 

I had an unusual experience at age 18. I can only compare it to descriptions of people who have had a stroke, and people that experience "Kundalini Shakti", the power of the coiled serpent in Yoga Kundalini. It felt as if my head and spine opened up, and liquid electricity began to flow through my whole body. Felt the dissolution of ego and separateness between the internal and external world. This lasted several months. I learned a lot about the connection between body and mind. When the experience ceased, I felt drained or burnt out. I learned from instruction in Kundalini Yoga that I had opened up that energy pathway without any of the foundational work to properly cool the flow of energy, and as a result overheated from a faster metabolism. My sympathetic nervous system was hyper-active, while my parasympathetic nervous system was underactive. Since then I have been slowly learning the foundational techniques of realization, through learning meditation and pranayama yoga/breathing practices, Taoist spiritual alchemy, did a lot of reading on biology and the relationship between the endocrine system and the nervous system. Diet and hydration is also foundational to health. The biology of whatever people report as Kundalini awakening is poorly understood, but I like to believe there is a deep metabolic reason for these sort of awakening experiences that has to do with strong feedback in the nervous system and endocrine system. In the book, "I am a strange loop", Douglas Hofstadterchaos argues that chaos theory can explain the persistence of self-consciousness; all chaotic systems exhibit self-referential dynamics that lead to the kind of sense of self which is both sensate or receptive to the state of the environment, as well as proprioceptive or aware of the internal state of itself. The question that is more difficult to answer is: what is it that is aware of the outside and inside? The brain and body are surely the interface which is aware of the world, and itself. But the distinction between the inside and outside isn't very solid. Hofstader describes a tornado as a good example of a type of primitive self awareness in physical processes that resembles life. The tornado has no mind, but it has inputs and outputs that causes it to steer towards and feed off heated air, it can merge or split like cellular division, it grows and then dies, it's organized toroidal flow of wind energy dissipating into the background heat of the air. I think biological life is very similar. A circular or toroidal flow of water and Oxygen and chemical energy and everything else that our body moves around. It has inputs and outputs, it lives and reproduces and dies wherever there is the energy in the environment to do so. The big mystery to me at the bottom of all these ideas about how biology supports consciousness will always be "does consciousness continue after death"? Maybe but I'm skeptical. The Taoist idea of immortality is, to me, somewhat like Christian idea of Resurrection, in the former you must cultivate an immortal spiritual body in life through virtue and spiritual alchemy (transforming your food and breath, and therefore your bodily substance and energy, into spiritual energy given form), and in the latter that cultivating a relationship with God and accepting the offer of salvation through repentance allows one to partake in immortality by Grace. Both traditions seem to state quite clearly that the truth must be apprehended directly through experience here and now, not necessarily after death. As it is written, "Behold! The Kingdom of God is within you!".

Only while watching Wall-E

First ever DMT experience (pharmahuasca) - i *think* it was Big-E.. (but could have been like a medium ē or something.. 🤔)

Yes…I’ve had both. Life-changing to say the least. 🥰🦋🌈✨

Oh, man - I can't pass up the opportunity to reply here! YES! Big E when I was 16 and on acid for the first time. I saw "myself" as the All - The Everything - the I AM That! :) I was looking out from the center of all things and knew myself as every blade of grass, every bird, every planet, every person, etc, etc, etc... :) The experience in consciousness was of being those things, not just seeing them, so knowing the details of all creation from the inside out. My first thought upon returning to my small self was to rip off my clothes and run down the street shouting, "It's just us - it's all love - there's just love!" My best friend was sitting for me at the time and calmer heads prevailed, but I have always felt like I'm one heartbeat away from some next-level, naked-love-run-evangelism :) Thank you for such a cool video and such a cool channel!

I had this experience by falun dafa pracitice. I had similiar experience, described by this guy from youtube. From my experience: You feel like God is in connection with you. All things in every minute are like written by God to you. All things have meaning. You don't fear anything even death. You feel love and gratitude to God. it is constant... but some other experienced occurred also in my journey even - like being aware for few days and nights in a row. I didn't sleep. I didn't experience hunger. I was eating 1 slice of bread per day and it was enough. Most strange experience I had it was body, or my body parts like legs or hands or torso floating in zero gravity bubbles. I didn't levitate but I was not feeling weightiness of my body. Amazing. And of course I had visions.. or more precise I was leaving body to travel with 100% consciousness on. Before I get to this points - all my diseases disappeared. I spend 8 years meditating for 1h per day... and nothing special has happened... and some day I decided to truly, but very honesty live with values. I decided to be really pure. To really fight with addictions and entangles. After 3 months Iv had seen falun and things begin to happen. I was practicing falun dafa. only book and exercises. I only one time meet other practitioners - so Im not of part of any group. What I want to tell you: enlightenment is real and very extraordinary. This is real experience but you must be absolutely honest to get it. No margin for mistakes. Pure sanctity.

2 years of meditation? wow. i have a long way to go. by chance, do you drink alcohol, have intercourse, and/or eat meat because i have heard that these things you must quit if you want to achieve enlightment

​​@@TheOne_isGOD you must quit things that are attachments. Duing spritual improvement not eating meat will occure naturally. Some day you will feel not good eating meat. It will taste raw even grilled or boiled. If you like meat don't eat because it is attachment. Sex is something hard to explain. During ejaculation you loose energy which is necessary to enlightenment. Second is how you can manage sexual intercourse. You must be aware not to be "animal" during sex. Interesting think is that sex when you are enlighten is better stronger and perma orgasmic without orgasm or ejaculation. Alcohol is banned but when you are enlighten and your way to achieve that includes not only mind but body training, alcohol will not affect you.

Your journey has just begun.............................Falun Dafa is the Way. Never mind peace and love for all, evil exists.

I didn’t quit sex after the experience, but I did lose the desire for it. I also stopped looking at women with lust as objects. I found that I lost all interest in alcohol, I couldn’t drink it. If you want to know about my experience I can share more.

It's very true--and it is necessary. There's far more information that is coming into our senses than we can process. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-YkYrQR8tFzk.html

@@The-Well even though in many cases this information that is coming in is poor, our brains do an amazing job of filtering and enhancing it

Yeah, most of our experiences are ways of conditioning that takes place in our minds, I think they become forms of beliefs and our filters to see. The mind tends to patterns. So to understand who we are we can take a look at our thinking, and if we’re honest we can observe all our fears and hatred, as well as our most sublime thoughts of bliss

these mental and cognitive biases literally alter your senses over time

Very true. It should be everyone’s mission to strive towards the “primal nature,” as Lao Tzu termed it. A mind liberated from attachments and conditioned ways of being.

So well said! Concise yet so profound. A little 'e' epiphany?

Yes, and I think that is because our practical/survival brain (aka EGO) has to take control back to run our lives,

That part is very hard

I don't think you can "stay enlightened", or that we're meant to (that is, constructed to hold onto that state, with our busy minds and fizzing bodies). I've noticed that the few experiences I've had of contact with another person that was warm, beautiful, and completely trusting for both have been more and more elusive as time passed, and that the best way to keep these moments alive in memory was to let them go, to *not* clutch at them or try to recreate the experience in my mind. They were transitory by their nature, at least for me in whatever spiritual state I was then and am now. Maybe more experienced souls, Older souls in terms of lives lived, slide more easily into that kind of state, and I'm still too "Young". I don't know, and here toward the end of this lifetime (I've entered the low 80s), I don't feel any urgency about it. So I meditate every evening, and expect nothing, and that contents me.

Wonderfully put! It's a seemingly small but vital distinction that's easy to miss. Nothing is permanent, not even enlightenment. It has to be won over and over. A verb rather than a noun. Makes me think of that BoJack Horseman quote: "Everyday it gets a little easier. But you gotta do it every day. That's the hard part."

Enlightenment is when all attachment to this planet is given up.............................Falun Dafa

💯

Everything is an experience, don't be silly. Not being affected by your thoughts is called passive awareness. We all have black karma on our souls and it is this karma that stops us from realizing our own Divinity. The practice Falun Dafa can show you the Way to remove that karma, good luck.

Enlightenment is knowledge. It changes the way you see the world, revealing the truth behind everything. You may gain a deeper understanding of others and their motives and all your senses become heightened. If sadness cannot enter your heart, grief, or fear of anything, then you're truly enlightened. But be cautious-spiritual enlightenment can come from two paths: the path of light and divine love, or the path of darkness and deception. Practices like meditation, if not approached wisely, may weaken your consciousness, leaving you vulnerable to false enlightenment-a projection of what you want to believe, straight from the deceiver, rather than the true essence of it, True enlightenment requires discernment and balance, constant purification of the heart from all desires, and continuous contemplation of the divine creator and his attributes, not just quieting the mind.

@@bassamel-ashkar4005 The difference between knowledge and wisdom is suffering........................Buddha.

Wonderful book.

Irvin Yalom's books about death anxiety are powerful too

Just the first step on a long journey....................Falun Dafa

Suffering is not a choice, it is black karma being scraped from your soul. Falun Dafa can show you the Way

Suffering is the only way to remove black karma from our souls. We all have black karma on our souls and it is this karma that stops us from realizing our own Divinity. The practice Falun Dafa can show you the Way to remove that karma, good luck.

We all have black karma on our souls and it is this karma that stops us from realizing our own Divinity. The practice Falun Dafa can show you the Way to remove that karma, good luck.

Yes that is most certainly the case. 🙃

Yep, it can make the obvious... obvious. 😢

I have wondered and thought about this, and can conclude that for us humans, for the most part we see enlightenment as growing up, maturing, because I know a lot of people that don’t get bothered or hurt by whatever is going on in the families, friends circle, community and society at large, and I think, as I once read in a metaphysical book, for us, peace is the closest to enlightenment, or the most sublime of the mental states, which is the love spectrum

I had a nervous breakdown 8 years ago and started meditating every day and now I don’t have any anxiety, depression and very little thinking. I no longer identify my thoughts as me. I still have days or weeks where feel this heavy load but it’s ok I let it stay as long as it wants. I literally didn’t my life stuck in my mind and controlled by my mind. I feel free now

yes, i have lived a life of hell and have come to the conclusion that all this spiritual stuff is great in theory but on planet earth i just sex, money and life of leisure. that is what makes my soul and heart sing. My spirit wants to enjoy life not be a slave ; 0

We all have black karma on our souls and it is this karma that stops us from realizing our own Divinity. The practice Falun Dafa can show you the Way to remove that karma, good luck.

@@jeff_forsythe no practice can help you. The practice is for the ego identity. The "practitioner" is the very idea you have of yourself that has to be realized as illusory. This is the tricky part of realization.

@@WuWeiFlow Not talking about the ego, talking about the immortal soul Not so tricky when you realize that it is your soul that is reading this and the ego is judging, Falun Dafa is about purifying the soul and the ego then falls away. Impossible to do without a great master, lets see if your ego will let you understand and accept the truth.

Any advice on how you got there? I am genuinely interested.

​@@KasperSparrowA good place to start is self enquiring, ask yourself 'who am I' or 'what am I' just a tip, you are not your thoughts about you.

We all have black karma on our souls and it is this karma that stops us from realizing our own Divinity. The practice Falun Dafa can show you the Way to remove that karma, good luck.

You're very welcome!

We all have black karma on our souls and it is this karma that stops us from realizing our own Divinity. The practice Falun Dafa can show you the Way to remove that karma, good luck.

Falun Dafa can answer all your questions.

We all have black karma on our souls and it is this karma that stops us from realizing our own Divinity. The practice Falun Dafa can show you the Way to remove that karma, good luck.

Truthfulness-compassion-tolerance.............................Falun Gong

Start doing Nam Japa

That's very interesting. Is it possible for this to happen through trauma, or could trauma cause a kind of inverse of this experience--a negative epiphany?

@@The-Well it depends. It's more like conditioning, but conditioning works for a reason. Like when you keep getting sick when you drink from a water source, so you use another, or when you're conditioned by your bosses, parents, teachers, rulers, and clergy to be very skeptical of those who seek out authority, because the most celebrated ones almost exclusively do so for the ability to abuse that authority.

We all have black karma on our souls and it is this karma that stops us from realizing our own Divinity. The practice Falun Dafa can show you the Way to remove that karma, good luck.

@@jeff_forsythe look up the origins of modern karma during the british invasion. Practicioners were hand picked because they enabled the invaders so well, while the old karma got wiped out. Karma is bad.

@@matthewatwood207 We all have black karma on our souls either from this lifetime or previous lifetimes and as long as you have karma you are not permitted to return home to Heaven, Falun Dafa can help you solve this problem.

The brain is like the cockpit of an airplane and the soul is the pilot.......................Falun Gong

The brain does not think, it is the soul. We all have black karma on our souls and it is this karma that stops us from realizing our own Divinity. The practice Falun Dafa can show you the Way to remove that karma, good luck.

We all have black karma on our souls and it is this karma that stops us from realizing our own Divinity. The practice Falun Dafa can show you the Way to remove that karma, good luck.

Thanks so much, really appreciate it!

Psychedelic drugs have a huge role to play in the future of enightenment. They don't change the ground of being and of course they cant change 'reality' (whatever that is), but what they can do is manifold. They can shake people out of their sense of complacency. They can open doors and provide insights that even many years of meditation can fail to do, and in effect move your practice up a level. They also drastically increase neuroplasticity, so your brain can respond much more easily to effort in meditation, yoga or whatever other method you apply. What's wrong with validating spirituality? What if it is true? I've seen evidence of, and experienced directly, all sorts of stuff in my life that cannot be explained by recourse to the brain alone.

Enlightenment is achieved through suffering..................Falun Gong

@klank67 For many, Reality is a hidden constant.

Enlightenment can only be reached when we are alive. We all have black karma on our souls and it is this karma that stops us from realizing our own Divinity. The practice Falun Dafa can show you the Way to remove that karma, good luck.

Our brain does not think, it i the soul that thinks and orders the brain to take action..................Falun Gong

​@@jeff_forsytheCultist

It is our soul that thinks, not the brain. We all have black karma on our souls and it is this karma that stops us from realizing our own Divinity. The practice Falun Dafa can show you the Way to remove that karma, good luck.

No, you need a great teacher. We all have black karma on our souls and it is this karma that stops us from realizing our own Divinity. The practice Falun Dafa can show you the Way to remove that karma, good luck.

We all have black karma on our souls and it is this karma that stops us from realizing our own Divinity. The practice Falun Dafa can show you the Way to remove that karma, good luck.

@@ILikeLanguages What kind of references would help you?

One can only wonder how Buddha has reached his enlightenment without a proper scientific aproach 😳

We all have black karma on our souls and it is this karma that stops us from realizing our own Divinity. The practice Falun Dafa can show you the Way to remove that karma, good luck.

We all have black karma on our souls and it is this karma that stops us from realizing our own Divinity. The practice Falun Dafa can show you the Way to remove that karma, good luck.

So nirvana is a healthy response or not?

Overall, yes, although nirvana sets up another conundrum which has to be accepted, that of the eternal mystery of the universe. This can be a real downer because it quells ambition and hope. So, nirvana has positive and negative impacts. Another example - my organic chemistry teacher at uni did research into the tears of joy and tears of sadness and their effects on immunity and found happiness, bliss, etc, keeps you healthy. I plan to to do some youtube vids this year describing all this stuff.

@@giardino-di-terra Thank you and subscribed.

Like most of us, you are lost. Falun Dafa can show you the Way

@@giardino-di-terra Yes, in the Buddhist way of describing nirvana both ambition and hope needs to be abandoned in order to reach liberation (as it is often called within Buddhist thought). Neither hope nor ambition is part of the Natural State, but strategic approaches in our unenlightened relationship with the reality we try to comprehend and manage. Nirvana is a state in which all is understood and no strategies are needed. Nirvana is thus an irreversible way of being beyond being just another mind-state, according to Buddhist thought. It is described as the Natural State, an original state beyond any form of fabrication or ambition. It is our true nature, whatever we realise it or not. It is not a produced state but the true nature of awareness when all ambitions, hopes, fears and conceptualisations have ended. It is beyond the duality of past, present and future. It doesn’t have personality or a history. It is simply primordial.

Glad to hear it! Thanks for watching!

It is the soul that thinks and has ideas, not the brain. We all have black karma on our souls and it is this karma that stops us from realizing our own Divinity. The practice Falun Dafa can show you the Way to remove that karma, good luck.

The soul thinks, not the brain. Falun Dafa can show you the Way

Wisdom is obtained not through thought but through suffering. That is why over the centuries millions of nuns and monks cut themselves off from earthly delights. We all have black karma on our souls and it is this karma that stops us from realizing our own Divinity. The practice Falun Dafa can show you the Way to remove that karma, good luck.

Nice try. We all have black karma on our souls and it is this karma that stops us from realizing our own Divinity. The practice Falun Dafa can show you the Way to remove that karma, good luck.

Like everyone else, you need a great teacher. Falun Dafa can show you the Way

We all have black karma on our souls and it is this karma that stops us from realizing our own Divinity. The practice Falun Dafa can show you the Way to remove that karma, good luck.

Glad you think so! Thanks for watching!

@@The-Well I really enjoyed it! I had an awakening in 2017 at a ayahuasca retreat. So really interesting to look at 'enlightenment' with the science-glasses on. Keep up the good work!

We all have black karma on our souls and it is this karma that stops us from realizing our own Divinity. The practice Falun Dafa can show you the Way to remove that karma, good luck.

Yes meditation which is really a non doing, just an understanding can give you the experiance easily. You just have to understand it and it happens in an instant. By being in a state of acceptance, non choosing. Allowing the mind. If angry etc allow, is stressed, if sick etc and you will notice a detatchment between you and your mind. Between you and the experiance the mind is generating and you will experiance enlightenment

It's quite amazing how doing mushrooms - even once - can be a life changing experience. See also: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5T0LmbWROKY.html

This comment stands out to me and it makes sense, in other words we already are enlightened then, covered through the ego ?

Not for me. However acceptance does that for me. Acceptance is the way of Buddhism/ zen.