Here is an interesting find...
The limbic system (aka the paleomammalian brain) is the part of the brain that is responsable for both mystic experiences and hallucinations. It was found that if certain parts of the limbic system are removed, drugs such as LSD have no effect...
I was hoping someone(s) can help me expand my research on this!
What do you know of the workings of the brain/mind?
What do you think of the relation of the two experiences coming from the same part of the brain?
Do you think there is a relation between hallucination and mystic experience?
There certainly is a relation between hallucination and 'mystic' or 'religious' experience. The feelings of euphoria and of disconnect from the physical realm have been recreated in experiments, i believe that just about all paranormal, mystical and religious experiences can be explained as external interference on our very fragile minds. Drugs, atmospheric changes, electrical anomalies and chemical imbalance can all cause these feelings or even hallucinations, this to me suggests it isn't divine or magical but instead a result of our susceptibility to our surroundings and our psychological tendency to subscribe extraordinary explanations to natural occurrences.
Permalink Reply by Ms.Pouncer-Curiousier&Curiousier on i believe that just about all paranormal, mystical and religious experiences can be explained as external interference on our very fragile minds. Drugs, atmospheric changes, electrical anomalies and chemical imbalance can all cause these feelings or even hallucinations
Very well stated!
Permalink Reply by Ms.Pouncer-Curiousier&Curiousier on I had never heard that term for it, but I describe it all the time lol
thank you for the proper term :)
Permalink Reply by Ms.Pouncer-Curiousier&Curiousier on Very interesting for a brain scientist to be able to learn about her own brain from her stroke!
Permalink Reply by Party Pooper on Do you think there is a relation between hallucination and mystic experience?
Have you read any of the books from Carlos Castaneda? The American southwest has tribal members who are allowed to use the hallucinogenic plants (peyote) to induce mystic experiences. I think there is a relation between the mystic experience and hallucination. There may be more than one example of a holy man or woman in religious history suffering from hallucinations (through dehydration, fasting, or heat stroke) who claimed divine contact when they had medical problem at the time.
What do you think of the relation of the two experiences coming from the same part of the brain?
I would say the brain is very creative. It can fill the brain with subject matter if and when something is suggested. For example, someone could say they see a ghost in a window when someone else does not. Fear induces this same imagination. Alone in the woods, isolation, cold, or war and other conditions cause the brain to work in over drive. Hallucination doesn't need a drug or natural chemical for the otherworldly imagination to go into effect. The brain is adaptive, since this is necessary for survival, adaptation, and evolution.
What do you know of the workings of the brain/mind?
It is said we use only 10% of our brain. I think we don't fully comprehend the full possibilities what the brain could do. The brain has billions and billions of nerve cells and there are more studies which suggest the brain has (in comparison to the memory capacity of a computer) several terabytes of storage capacity. I know I don't use that much space in my brain but who is to say what if we could?
Permalink Reply by Ms.Pouncer-Curiousier&Curiousier on The American southwest has tribal members who are allowed to use the hallucinogenic plants (peyote) to induce mystic experiences
I was aware of this. I also heard they use 'shrooms' and some say marijuana puts them 'in touch'
Permalink Reply by Party Pooper on Maybe some hallucinogens have more impact on the brain than others? Uphoria, hightening of the senses, altered perceptions, OOBE's etc.
Permalink Reply by Ms.Pouncer-Curiousier&Curiousier on Kara put it well... All of it is outside influences on our mind, creating a 'chemical reaction'........be it drugs, or other more natural/subtle causes such as a difference in air pressure.
Many variables to effect the limbic system to react...
Permalink Reply by Dave Pellani on I think you meant LSD. Sure, just as the Prietal lobe is responsible for discerning things such as mathematics. Einstein was born with a deficient Prietal lobe, and could not speak until he was three years old. His brain increased by 15% in volume to compensate for that.
Your question would be better posed to a psychiatrist, or psychologist, But even though a mystical experience can be tangible, a halucinatory experience can be related to a tangible experience, but distorted depending on the brain's ability to process it rationally. Halucinations are due to natural psychosis, just as well as the use of psychotropic drugs.
When you take LSD, you may be looking at the stars, and the sky can become sort of mumble jumbled. Things tend to look like they are moving randomly. If effect, lunimous bodies in the sky do indeed move, but not the way they were moving while under the influence. So, it's not necessarily, entirely halucinogenic, but simply distorted.
You can be reading something, and get an entirely different pespective of it while under the influence. In fact, that may actually be the way for you to get a better understanding of it's meaning. Being impared does not necessarily mean something negative. It will work differently with each individual. If you are stressed out or distracted while reading the same material, you will get a different understanding of it, and because of that kind of distraction, there may be some of the meaning missed under those circumstances.
Or, when you quiet, narrow, and focus your mind, sort of on "base brain" or "auto-pilot", say, while taking a long drive, and you are impaired, it has an effect on the thoughts streaming into your mind, positive or negtive, depending on the mental or emotional stability you are experiencing at the time. If you are afraid or paranoid while being impaired, the substance may enhance the experience by making it worse, OR, it can actually make it easier to rationalize and more comforting. There may really be nothing to be paranoid about. So, it works both ways, depending on individual ciurcumstances.
You can be looking at a sunset, when under the influence, the colors seem to be much brighter and resilient, as opposed to looking at the colors while not impaired. Same colors, but different resiliency. Or, in a more extreme case., you can think you have the ability to fly from atop a ten story building, mostly due to psychosis enhanced by the experience of being impaired, and when you jump, you get a "reality check"
Permalink Reply by Ms.Pouncer-Curiousier&Curiousier on lol...thanks for pointing out the typo lol
I find it interesting that the brain compensates for 'abnormal' function.
I have heard of unconventional thinkers say their brain is 'wired differetly'... I wonder if a 'natural compensation' would be the reason?
Permalink Reply by Dave Pellani on Ya, just a minor correction, Einstein was born with a deficient Frontal lobe. It was his Prietal lobe that increased by 15% in order to compensate for that. That could be a fluke, or it could be a common occurance, that I am not sure of.
Probably explains Einsteins extraordinary genious with thinking in general and especially mathematics, which is processed in the Prietal lobe. So, yes the brain, can do that. It could be that everyone is wired differently that way, and the brain does not necessarily develop at the same rate with all humans, which to me, explains alot of irrational behavior. The Amygdala is the part of the brain that triggers emotional stuff like fear, anger, spontanaeity, and stress, and I have a difficult time believing that this develops evenly in all humans.
It could also explain why different people react differently to psychedelic drugs, whether they be natural substances, or chemical.
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