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  #1  
Old 15-05-2017, 05:37 PM
shanmugam shanmugam is offline
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Enlightenment and science

Hi everyone..

I am currently working on formulating ways to explain spiritual enlightenment in a scientific way.. I went through a spiritual transformation in 2014 and and for the past one year I have been studying academic psychology, to understand what science has found about our inner world so far...

I have narrated my story, everything that happened ever since I was a child to till date, in my blog. I will be able to post that link soon .( As a newbie, it doesn't allow me to post any link unless I make 15 posts) I am sure that if you are a spiritual seeker, you can relate to my story...I have also talked about my spiritual experiences and two majors shifts that took place in life, which ultimately produced an irreversible transformation and changed my perception of reality.

But I can post an excerpt from that blog post..Here is the part of the post which is about my transformation and what changes it made:

"The trip to Velliangiri mountains triggered the seeker in me and I decided to go deep in meditation as much as I could. I started paying attention to every moment, every thought and every sensation. I made very clear to me that whatever I observe, perceive, think, experience and know is not me. I witnessed all the passing emotions and moods as a passive observer.

I went to Isha yoga centre every week, took bath in Theerthakund and meditated for an hour. I spent almost half of the day there. In the office, my nature of job was to talk to the customers over the phone during the whole night and answer their questions. I became deeply involved in the present moment and enjoyed my work. I soon stopped thinking about many things in the external world. I noticed my thoughts slowing down leaving a peaceful, clear stillness in the large gaps between each thought. Very soon, I started feeling intense euphoria at times which lasted for hours. The quality of my work increased, the clarity in my voice and speech increased and I started to feel waves of bliss in my head. It was like a cool breeze flowing in my head.

Soon, I stopped my interactions with other people. It was not my conscious decision but happened automatically. I couldn’t believe that all these things were happening to me. I didn’t feel any intense negative emotion or anxiety but almost the whole day at my work was filled with bliss and peace. Soon, the psychological boundaries between me and the world started to disappear. I started getting a lot of attention and I was pretty sure that something tremendous was happening.

I went to attend Sadhguru’s darshan that happened in the Isha ashram on June 18th and 19th, 2014. I felt one with the whole universe during the entire satsang. The feeling of oneness with the world was then continuous. Whatever I did seemed to happen without much of my conscious will. Everything I did was spontaneous like a river flowing down the hills. The doer in me seemed to have completely disappeared and everything seemed to be happening out of cosmic will instead of my own will.

It was a huge blessing. Every day at work, I felt tremendously happy and satisfied. For the first time in my life, I felt complete and fulfilled. I wondered, ‘Is it really possible for me to suffer ever again?’… I felt like the king of the whole world.

I went to another satsang that was held on July 12, 2014 (Guru Purnima day). I remember getting on the bus feeling so light as if I had no weight on the body. Everything seemed to be so transparent. During the entire satsang, I was immersed in my Self. That night while I was lying on my bed, there was a sudden clarity. It seemed that my search was over. There was nothing else to achieve and nothing more to do to make me complete.

The days after the change

The excitement and the wave of bliss were gradually reduced in the days to come. Though I no longer felt the waves and breeze of bliss in my head, being peaceful and complete has been the normal state of my mind from those days of transformation to till date.

Though I had no doubt that the journey as a human being in my life was over and it wouldn’t matter if I die at any moment, the transformation didn’t exactly fit into the description of enlightenment as implied by Osho and Sadhguru. When I thought about it later after the next two years, I noted down my observation of the changes it had made in my thinking, well being and my way of life:

Self image is no longer important to me.
My past no longer plays a role in giving me a mental identity in my mind.
I cannot think about future the same way I did before. In a sense, I seemed to have lost the sense of time. I don’t and can’t rely on an event in the future for satisfaction.
I stopped feeling that there is an ‘other’. The psychological boundaries between me and the world disappeared. A lot of concepts in Psychology doesn’t seem to apply to me or relevant to me. For example, I no longer felt the psychological self-consciousness and cognitive dissonance.
Emotions like sadness and fear seems to have disappeared. But I continue to show the sign of a sudden fear in my facial expression and bodily movements. (For example, if a moving vehicle suddenly comes close to me enough to hit me, I respond to it in the usual way. But it doesn’t have the same impact on my mind as it did before. May be it is so subtle but I don’t usually feel fear or sadness)
I continue to feel angry when I am disturbed by others. As a person, I always used to be high in neuroticism and easily angered ever since I was a child. It seemed to a genetic factor. It makes sense to assume that meditation or an awakening experience doesn’t mysteriously change a person’s genetics. But the factors that will make me angry were reduced completely. I could easily change my mood from being angry to being normal.
It is not like feeling continuous bliss and being drugged all the time. But there is always a peace and fulfillment and there is no longer a feeling that something is incomplete.
The thoughts have not completely disappeared but they have been tremendously reduced. My thinking is usually not about the past or the present. For example, at any moment I may be thinking ‘May be there is life on one of the moons on Saturn’, or ‘How come humming birds are really too small? They are cute’… I hardly think about me.
There is absolutely nothing paranormal. I don’t have any memories of past life and have never seen a damn aura in my life.
Biological drives like food and sex motivates my behavior as usual. But motivation theories like expectancy theory or goal setting theory doesn’t seem to apply for me much. I am not driven to do something because I will get something as a result in three months time. I have to remember to consciously involve myself to do it. But I will do something to get a bottle of brandy to drink this evening. These days I have developed a conscious practice of planning ahead and thinking about doing things which are necessary for the future. The drawback with that is, I may completely forget to do it.
Also, while some changes obviously occurred as an immediate result of the transformation, some changes are gradual and still occurring within me. It took a long time to learn to live with this transformed personality and there were challenges that I faced. It is hard to put it in language, because in one way or the other, it will be misleading.

I continue to learn by my experience with this new phenomenon (in fact, people will say that it is not a new thing, it is just a person’s real essence which was and will be always present. That is true… But it is still gives a new outlook. The way it affects our behavior and our experiences is new).

I went through a great deal of suffering after this transformation when I lost my job in the next two years. That is long story and I don’t want to go into that in detail now. I had to find a new job, had no money and depended on my parents for a couple of months. During those days, I actually missed my old job and the people. Then I realized that I had a subtle attachment with that environment which was not obvious. It took a while for things to settle down. But it was only temporary and soon it became like nothing actually happened."


I think science can explain more about enlightenment by studying the brains of people who are considered as enlightened.. I believe that enlightenment rewires the brain..

The most famous psychologists like William James, Abraham Moslow and Carl Rogers have studied spirituality. A branch of psychology called transpersonal psychology is devoted to religious concepts and spiritual transformation of human beings..I am doing my own case studies and research and I will have more to say about it in a few months.. My main research is based on the question 'How does enlightenment change human behavior?'

You thoughts and comments on my story of awakening is greatly appreciated...
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  #2  
Old 16-05-2017, 07:15 PM
organic born organic born is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by shanmugam
My main research is based on the question 'How does enlightenment change human behavior?'

You thoughts and comments on my story of awakening is greatly appreciated...

Loved reading your post! You've "stumbled" across what I've discovered myself in my own way. I put the word "stumbled" in quotes because I don't see in the modern "spiritual" teachings this focus on the simplicity/complexity of just being.

As I'm seeing it, the way in which human behavior is changed by such enlightenment is that our minds are finally being permitted to do it's job. When we attempt to create ~mental worlds~, where such conclusions from such creations are allowed to take precedence, then very little is in alignment. We attempt to make things happen that only exist in imaginary formats. Should we turn-off this intrusion of mentalized imagery then we awaken to the present.

Without concepts to distract us we're left cleanly in the moment.

A day becomes a day, the moment becomes the moment... it takes mentalized imagery to pull us away from this most natural connection.

And it's only in the moment where we're able to awaken to what's going on around us, and to awaken to the flow in which it's occurring.

So attempting to accumulate "spiritual knowledge" by studying the images that other "spiritual" people are developing, based on their own 'studies', only pulls us further from this base experience-of-self/experience-of-presence.

I'm currently working with plants as a steady meditation as to how they interact with the world that they're designed for. Plants do not "imagine". They 'experience' and respond to stimulus as it presents itself. All of nature does this. All of nature experiences itself in relation to context and inclination, and responds accordingly. Our minds are free floating associative generators. This is a blessing if such is done within a natural context, and as a reflection of our continuous adapting to natural rhythms.

If we're only dreaming in order to satisfy the dissociative dreams of our own making then our resulting experience-with-self can only be chaotic. Nature will not reflect such thinking, nor will we find ourselves awake within the moment in a direct and interactive way.

I love this experience of being naturally awake... tomorrow will naturally take care of itself, and the past is out of reach to do anything about! :)
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  #3  
Old 17-05-2017, 01:06 AM
Carnate Carnate is offline
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I've generally got a habit of making very large posts.. but in this case, the topic is vast enough that if I try to go into detail I'll end up only covering a portion of one aspect, and will likely run out of time before getting to the rest.

To help you, I'm simply going to suggest some areas of research that will likely serve you in some way.

In relation to psychology (as a science) and how it relates to spirituality, you'll likely find benefit in 'parapsychology'. Two links that could help you get started are organisations that are dedicated to the field:
http://www.aiprinc.org/
http://www.parapsych.org/
And a link that was provided by another member here is: http://www.spiritualemergencenetwork...emerge-crisis/

While more of a philosophical field, you may find some correlations between spirituality and metaphysics
http://www.iep.utm.edu/category/m-and-e/metaphysics/

Finally, there's an entire field of spirituality that deals with mathematics; called Sacred Geometry. This also considers aspects of physics, time/space, dimensions, DNA, consciousness... and much more.
https://www.geometrycode.com/sacred-geometry/


The links above only give a brief overview of the fields, and it's likely you'll need to do further (extensive) research into each of them to improve your understanding of how each can be applied in a scientific way.


Additional fields that could be of interest are:
Crystals, in particular orgone generators: https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/c...ia_reich13.htm

Scientific research into astral projection: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnPQk2QXGzc

The pyramids and other sacred sites in terms of location/dimensions (this is a very 'dry' speaker, but the information is good): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw9lTB0hTNU

How technology/automation is removing our need to work (and potentially allowing us to pursue more spiritual paths): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU

How sound frequencies can be used to affect our physical and subtle bodies:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binaural_beats

How sonics and ultrasonics can be used to kill viruses: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k13v3zdSgIM&t=4s

How ultrasonics can result in 'ghost sightings': https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2015/10/s...human-hearing/

How chakras are linked to physical organs. Keep in mind that there are often differences about which chakra performs which role and where they are linked depending on who's providing the details: http://www.chakras.info/chakras-glands/

Healing, in this example with chi energy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3F3ovb2kZ9Q
(another example where we can see an ultrasound of a tumor being healed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m_ReyrqiLs)


It likely goes without saying, that there are many other fields of research and study into spirituality (in relation to science). Everything from reading minds, remote viewing, healing, manipulating the weather/temperature, levitation, extrasensory perception... the list can go on. It mostly depends on your area(s) of interest.

If you have any questions, or would like me to expand on any of the above, please let me know.
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  #4  
Old 17-05-2017, 09:42 AM
Baile Baile is online now
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Funny how modern spirituality is just living quietly and simply... the way human beings naturally did throughout the centuries, before everything modern.
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  #5  
Old 17-05-2017, 05:59 PM
shanmugam shanmugam is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Carnate
I've generally got a habit of making very large posts.. but in this case, the topic is vast enough that if I try to go into detail I'll end up only covering a portion of one aspect, and will likely run out of time before getting to the rest.


Awesome.. Thank you for all the links, Carnate.. I think transpersonal psychology is more related to parapsychology, when it comes to spiritual awakening experience.. But paraspychologists have been doing research on auras, reincarnation etc.. So far, no strong evidence has been found.. There has been some experiments which showed evidence on some stuff but they have been rejected due to errors in experiments.. I am more interested in transpersonal psychology than the parapsychology..

organic born, thanks for sharing your points...
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Old 17-05-2017, 09:32 PM
slowsnake slowsnake is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Baile
Funny how modern spirituality is just living quietly and simply... the way human beings naturally did throughout the centuries, before everything modern.

Hello,
You're spot on you know,we and this universe and everything in it including all life forms will not ever be replicated by current technology, not even in the next millennium!

The length of the posts in this thread are dwarfed by your 20 word post,and by its accuracy!

Kind Regards Billy.
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Old 17-05-2017, 10:12 PM
weareunity weareunity is offline
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Hello shanmugam--and all.
Changes in perspective/perception offer the mind opportunity to travel differently and beyond boundaries which previous perspective/perception may have set in place. I guess that to understand how these changes might occur we need to understand how perspective/perception is arrived at in the first place.-? Good wishes. petex
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Old 18-05-2017, 02:52 AM
Carnate Carnate is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by slowsnake
Hello,
You're spot on you know,we and this universe and everything in it including all life forms will not ever be replicated by current technology, not even in the next millennium!

The length of the posts in this thread are dwarfed by your 20 word post,and by its accuracy!

Kind Regards Billy.
Maybe read the Philadelphia Experiment: https://www.amazon.com/Philadelphia-.../dp/0449007464
And then Montauk Project: https://www.amazon.com/Montauk-Proje...2BFH2KB05CB162

There's a lot of other books on experiments that focus on replicating spiritual progress.. another example is Robert Monroe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Monroe

Not at all suggesting that these are positive in any way.. but the research/science is out there. Of particular relevance to your comment is the Montauk Project that partly deals with manifesting by use of technology. Granted, this technically not going to replicate anything to the standard you (and I) would desire.. but that there are some people who are interested in this, and were making progress decades ago, doesn't bode well.
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  #9  
Old 18-05-2017, 02:23 PM
organic born organic born is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by shanmugam
organic born, thanks for sharing your points...
What I see here is an interesting dichotomy. When I first read your post it appeared that you were focused on a personal awakening and then looking for scientific ways of explaining it. This has long been my involvement with spirituality, so I was curious to see your response. The direction that Carnate is entertaining is indeed interesting and fun in an investigative way and has been one that I've personally explored as well for some time. But, at it's core, that's not what will lead to an awakening. When exploring in that way, we are placing our attention "out there", as though the "answer" is "out there" to be found.

While an awakening doesn't involve any of that. The seeking-of-knowledge involves a continual shifting of "perspective". While our own awakening involves our deepening experience of "presence". Within this experience of presence we'll find that "knowledge" is optional. We also find that knowledge is dependent on the context being explored, while our immersion in presence is forever adaptable and immediate. It takes a busy mind for the former and a quiet mind for the later. The former is interesting while the later is ever deepening and profound.

Both approaches are highly relevant when it comes to our physical experience, so the two can be seen as a team and cooperative. It's just that our current culture is almost strictly focused on knowledge as the primary, at the expense of a deep appreciation of the very "I" that's doing the thinking.
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Old 18-05-2017, 02:26 PM
organic born organic born is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by weareunity
Hello shanmugam--and all.
Changes in perspective/perception offer the mind opportunity to travel differently and beyond boundaries which previous perspective/perception may have set in place. I guess that to understand how these changes might occur we need to understand how perspective/perception is arrived at in the first place.-? Good wishes. petex
That's pretty much it in a nutshell. :)
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