Bill Maher on Catholics and Organized religion's pedophilia

Chapter 3. The "Sacred Disease" And Other Paranormal States

Chapter 3. The "Sacred Disease" And Other Paranormal States

I. The Varieties of Epileptic Experience

Epilepsy is Nature's way of conducting neurological experiments. The wide variety of phenomena, which are associated with the epileptic seizure, can teach us a lot about how brain functions affect our perception and behavior.
The history of epilepsy presents one with a truly confusing picture. On one hand, it was nearly always associated in the popular mind with such things as demon possession, sorcery, ability to prophesy and so on. A story from the Bible immortalizes this attitude to the
"sacred disease." A man brings his son to Jesus to be healed and says: "Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit: And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him: and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth and pineth away..." Jesus then "rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, 'Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee come out of him, and enter no more into him. And the spirit cried, and rent him sore and came out of him: and he was as one dead... But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose." 70
On the other hand, the first treatise on epilepsy available to us, written 2500 years ago by the Greek physician Hippocrates, already refers to epilepsy as the "so-called sacred disease" and attempts to give this condition a purely scientific explanation. And so this curious conflict between the popular and enlightened opinion continues to the present day: the specialists are trying to assure the lay public that epilepsy is caused by "cold fumes rising from the head" (medieval explanation), or "abnormal, excessive electrical discharges of neurons" (modern explanation). The lay public listens politely, but still continues to view the "falling sickness" with fascination, awe, and sometimes fear and hostility.
The amount of suffering this attitude by people afflicted by epilepsy must be staggering. An ancient historian tells us that one way in which the disease used to be diagnosed was to put the suspect into a goat's skin, plunge him into the sea, and observe whether he sank or not. If he did, the diagnosis was confirmed. 71 Even during more enlightened times (last third of the 18th century) castration and clitoridectomy were still considered to be of good therapeutic value in cases of stubborn epilepsy, since this disease was sometimes thought to be caused by the "pernicious habit" of masturbation. The practice of trephining (making a hole in the skull) was used in cases of epilepsy and may have possibly been practiced for this purpose even in prehistoric times.
However, not the whole of the history of past attitudes to epilepsy has such a gloomy character. At certain times epilepsy was associated with special gifts such as high intelligence or creativity. Perhaps the best-known advocate of this view was the Spanish psychiatrist Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909). In one of his books he wrote of
...the numerous men of genius of the first order who have been seized by motor epilepsy, or by that kind of morbid irritability which is well known to supply its place. Among these we find such names as Napoleon, Moliere, Julius Caesar, Petrarch, Peter the Great, Mahomet, Handel, Swift, Richalieu, Charles V, Flaubert, Dostoyevski and St. Paul.72

Here, of course, Lombroso has stretched the definition of epilepsy a bit too far in some cases, or based his diagnoses on scanty evidence.
Another author who gave epilepsy a very prominent place was Tommaso Campanella. In his Utopian City of the Sun quite a number of citizens were epileptics. Campanella describes this unusual feature of his Utopia thus: "This is a sign of great talent, wherefore Hercules, Socrates, Mohammed, Scotus, and Callimachus suffered from it”.
What is the current understanding of epilepsy? It comprises such a number of diversified conditions that a simple and straightforward answer to the question of its origin seems impossible. In one of the books on epilepsy, the classification table contains 27 separate types of seizures, the last one being "unclassified." (This, however, is intended for clinicians and is obviously too finely graded for any other purpose.)
Most commonly, all epilepsies are subdivided into three clearly distinguishable types: grand mal (in French — big sickness), petit mal (little sickness), and psychomotor epilepsy. The grand mal is what people most often associate with epilepsy. It is accompanied by convulsions of the whole body, loss of consciousness and falling to the ground. Sometimes immediately before the attack the grand mal epileptic emits a shrill cry, caused by sudden contraction of the breathing apparatus. The seizure then proceeds automatically through the "tonic" phase, when the patient turns blue in the face and is immobile, to the final "clonic" phase, when his limbs start jerking and he may experience incontinence and tongue-biting. There is nothing much one can do about the fit until it has run its full course, usually in a few minutes.
Petit mal fit is also known as a "short absence," which conveys the nature of the disorder. A person who suffers from this type of epilepsy may be engaged in some task when, all of a sudden, his consciousness lapses and he will have a "blank" period generally lasting only a few seconds. This may happen a dozen, or in some severe cases, several hundred times a day. Children are particularly prone to this type of epilepsy.
The last type of epilepsy is called "psychomotor" (or "temporal lobe," or "limbic"). It is more widespread than the previous two varieties. Perhaps 60% of all epileptic seizures are psychomotor. Like all epileptic fits they are often preceded by a peculiar sensation, which is called, an "aura" and which is usually repeated before every attack.
After experiencing the aura the psychomotor epileptic becomes unresponsive and may indulge in some automatic, stereotyped (like moving things randomly on the table) or even aggressive behaviour. The last one is not as typical of psychomotor seizures as was once thought.
There is one more feature associated particularly with psychomotor epilepsy, which is of special interest to us. Sometimes the aura experienced by epileptics is associated with very powerful sensations of bliss and tranquillity which are usually interpreted within a religious framework and which often lead to cases of sudden religious conversion. A 17th century English scholar described a typical case of an apprentice boy who was badly beaten over the head by his tutor and acquired epilepsy which eventually led to "ecstasies":
As soon as he was out of a fit, the first thing he would do, was to sing divers songs and hymns (though it was not known that he had ever learnt any) very melodiously. From this singing he would now and then pass abruptly to some strange relations, but especially of such and such, lately dead, whom he had seen in Paradise; and then fall to singing again. But when he was perfectly come to himself, and had left singing, then would he sadly and with much confidence maintain that he had been, not upon his bed, as they that were present would make him believe; but in heaven with his Heavenly Father, having been carried thither by Angels and placed in a most pleasant green, where he had enjoyed excessive happiness, and had seen things that he could not express; &c.74

By the middle of the 19th century a sufficient number of such accounts was accumulated to convince some historians of the basic similarity between these epilepsy-provoked religious revelations and the supposedly authentic ones. A typical case in question is that of Mohammed. When the circumstances of his famous conversion were shown to be indicative of epilepsy, some scholars denounced him as a fraud. The more moderate critics realized, however, that the epileptic is completely convinced of the reality of his vision and should therefore be at least given credit for honesty.
Another famous case of revelation through an epileptic fit is that of Dostoyevski. He described how his first attack and accompanying revelation occurred. It was the night before Easter Sunday and Dostoyevski (who was then in exile) spent the whole night with a close friend arguing hotly about the question of God's existence. The friend was an atheist, Dostoyevski a believer, and both were firmly convinced in the veracity of their views. Becoming excited, Dostoyevski shouted: "God exists, yes he does!" At this very moment the air around them became filled with the ringing of the bells in a neighboring church. "And I felt," Dostoyevski tells, "that the sky had descended on earth and swallowed me. The nature of God was directly revealed to me and became part of me." "Yes, God exists," he shouted and lost his consciousness.75 Dostoyevski was very preoccupied with the religious experiences of Mohammed in which he found parallels to his own. He also indicated very clearly that the most important feature of his aura was indescribable bliss. He emphasized that this sensation of bliss had intensity, which would be completely incomprehensible to those people who know only "earthly joys." There is even an air of haughtiness when Dostoyevski talks about his experiences:
All you, healthy people...you don't even suspect what real happiness is, that happiness which we, epileptics, experience during that second which precedes the fit. Mohammed tries to tell us in his Koran that he really saw paradise and visited it. All the clever fools are convinced that he is just a liar and a fraud. Oh no! He is no liar! He really was in paradise during epilepsy from which he, like myself, suffered. I do not know whether this bliss lasts seconds, hours, or months, but believe my word, I would not forfeit it for all the joys which life can offer.76

This idea of the profound superiority of bliss experience in epilepsy to that found in ordinary life was so embedded in Dostoyevski's mind that, whenever he brought this subject up in his novels, he reiterated it almost ad verbatum. In his novel The Idiot the epileptic Prince Myshkin exclaims to himself: "Yes, for this moment, one can give away all one's life."77 In another novel The Possessed a hero describes an epileptic aura: "During those five seconds I lived through a lifetime, and for them I would give away my whole life because it's worth it.78
These experiences are so far removed from the lives of the vast majority of people that, I suspect, many regard them as a product of Dostoyevski's imagination. Many people do not know that very similar experiences occur all the time, though perhaps in more mundane settings. The research, which has been done into this subject, concerns mainly the temporal lobe epilepsies. Researchers who study this type of epilepsy report that mystical experiences associated with it are remarkably common.
Out of 69 patients analysed in one study, 26 were found to be preoccupied with religious ideas. Prior to the onset of their illness, only 8 patients had any religious interests at all .
Some of the epilepsy-provoked conversion experiences were quite dramatic. A bus driver who had been demoted to conductor as a result of his epileptic predisposition had, during one of his trips, a feeling of profound bliss. He collected the fares correctly, telling his passengers at the same time how pleased he was to be in Heaven. He told his G.P. later that at first he felt "as if a bomb had burst in his head." The patient was examined in a hospital and a possibility of degeneration in the right temporal lobe was indicated. Some years later this patient had another revelation experience which, this time, convinced him that the ideas of Heaven and Hell were unreal and that Christ could not possibly have been conceived in any other manner except by his mother and father. The second revelation brought to him a sense of joy, well-being and clarity of mind.
Another patient had a vision of flying in an airplane over some mountains in France. Then the aircraft climbed higher and brought him into "a land of peace," in which he had no cares or burdens and felt the power of God upon him. Being discharged from the hospital, the patient went to listen to a talk at a Billy Graham meeting and became a firm member of the Pentecostal Church. He used to walk the streets with a banner saying, "Be prepared to meet thy God" and acquired a tendency to bring any conversation around to a religious topic.
An even more dramatic conversion happened to a patient who began having epileptic fits at the age of 17. When he was 33 he stopped taking anticonvulsants and the frequency of his fits increased. Around this time "he suddenly realized that he was the Son of God; he possessed special powers of healing and could abolish cancer from the world; he had visions and believed that he could understand other people's thoughts." During the following five years he experienced himself as being operated by some higher power (which he variously termed as "God" and "electrical power"), and communicated with his dead father and with God.
These contemporary cases have some well-known historical precedents. The conversion of St Paul is often quoted. The incident on the road to Damascus involved falling down, hearing voices, seeing things, and experiencing temporary blindness. More complete information is available in the case of another Christian mystic — St Teresa of Avila (1515-1582). As noted by her biographer, she experienced visions, suffered from chronic headaches and had temporary lapses of consciousness. When she was young she used to see diabolical apparitions. At the age of 24 she fell into a coma and was considered dead. Upon recovery her tongue was found to be bitten, her joints strained and she was covered in bruises. She told later that there were constant noises in her head: "a number of rushing waterfalls within my brain; while in other parts, drowned by the noise of the water, are the noises of birds singing and whistling." This sort of phenomena is usually caused by some pathological process in the temporal lobe — a part of the brain, which is intimately involved in auditory experiences.
Another well-known mystic, St Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897) began to have experiences, which resembled temporal lobe epilepsy when she was about 9 years old. There were "strange and violent tremblings all over her body" from which she thought she was going to die. She suffered from terrifying hallucinations, which only gradually changed to visions of a religious nature.
In Florence, another saint, St Catherine dei Ricci (1522-1590) had visual hallucinations, suffered from stigmata, and regularly lost consciousness for prolonged periods of time. A few other Christian mystics are also implicated in having epilepsy because of the symptoms, which accompanied their religious experiences. They include St Catherine of Genoa (1447-1510), Mme Guyon (1648-1717) and St Marguerite Marie (1647-1690). The symptoms in question were: "sensations of extremes of hot and cold trembling of the whole body, transient aphasia, automatism, passivity feelings, hyperaesthesia, childish regression, dissociation, somnambulism, transient paresis, increased suggestibility and an inability to open the eyes."
One can of course object to this linking of mystical experience with epileptic conditions by saying: but could not these experiences, no matter what their physical manifestations, be of "higher" origin? They may be superficially similar to certain pathological conditions but, surely, there is much more to it than that! This argument can of course be reversed. Why is it that these "higher" states had to manifest themselves through conditions, which were identical to those, linked with definitely established cases of clinical epilepsy? Naturally, the elaboration upon their experiences is going to be different in the case of a Dostoyevski and in the case of some semi-literate bus driver. Most of the traditional mystics were quite remarkable individuals in their own right. Thousands of other "mystical" epileptics must have vanished without a trace, even though their subjective experiences were probably no less powerful than those of St Paul or
Dostoyevski. They were unable to express them and utilize them to their full capacity; it is only natural that sensations of peace and blissfulness of an unusual intensity would be, in most people's minds, readily converted into the customary notions of Heaven, Heavenly tranquillity, etc.
We have seen from our discussion of brain stimulation that an unusual degree of pleasure can be experienced through stimulation of certain brain structures. Many people are unaware that stimulation of various other brain centers is capable of evoking other extremely unusual and complex sensations, which we would ordinarily be unwilling to link with any physical structure.
When Penfield found that stimulation of certain parts of the human brain was making his patients perceive whole strands of memory bits in an orderly fashion, it caught him completely by surprise. This was despite the fact that, by that time, there was already voluminous literature on the symptoms accompanying epileptic fits. Even though the irritation in the brain was due to some very small physical lesions, the symptoms manifested themselves as rather complex mental states. Feelings of persecution, fear, anticipation of some disaster, desire to be alone, and overwhelming sadness, feelings of familiarity or estrangement and even feelings of "unnecessariness" — these are some of the symptoms found in descriptions of temporal lobe epilepsy.
It makes one think that in our brains there are locations in which we have the various ordinary sensations contained in their pure form. During an act of perception, these various sensations will be "fed in," in a diluted form, to give our perceptions their familiar or unfamiliar, pleasant or unpleasant, real or unreal, necessary or unnecessary quality. It is hard to see how one can otherwise explain the presence of these pure undiluted sensations in epilepsy, in mystical states and during artificial stimulation of the brain. The similarities between epileptic and mystical experiences are often quite striking. There is, for example, an aura of "depersonalisation" which makes the individual feel estranged from himself and his surroundings while watching them as if from outside. This feeling is very close to the mystical experiences of "detachment."
It is also known that these and similar experiences sometimes accompany administration of hallucinogenic drugs which, obviously, affect not messages from higher planes of existence, but neurotransmitting messages. Of course, one can conveniently envisage that God, in His Wisdom, has provided us with two identical sets of neural ganglia, one of which is to provide us with mystical experiences of the profane and the other one of the sacred variety .
Presumably, only those that are destined to pursue traditional religious paths (and particularly those who belong to whatever creed we ourselves happen to subscribe) are providently endowed with equipment suitable for "proper" transcendence. Those who get off on wrong tangents (no matter how similar their experiences might be to the "sacred" variety) are obviously deluding themselves and are prey to tricks of imagination.
There is a description of one state, also caused by an epileptic irritation, which I find almost disconcerting. A patient, described by Paul MacLean, had an epileptic condition (with a focus in the left medial temporal region), which was preceded by a vivid sensation of "knowing the absolute truth." As the patient says, "Each time this happens, thoughts occur very clear and bright to me...as if this is what the world is all about...[this is] the absolute truth." As MacLean summarizes: "Here is evidence that a primitive system of our brain that represents an inheritance from lower mammals is able to generate, all out of context, a feeling of what is real, true, and important.”80 Dostoyevski also mentions an epileptic aura, which provided a sensation of "existence in the most intense degree.81 I suppose this is about as far as one can go in localizing "pure" aspects of our ordinarily diluted and intermingled perceptions of reality.
Apparently, the perception of these intense varieties of ordinary sensations out of context is not confined to cases of clear-cut pathology or recognized mysticism. In one national survey in the U.S. 29% of all people asked reported having déjà vu experiences at least once or twice in their lives and 6% had them often.82
The tapping of these ordinarily subconscious reservoirs of powerful sensations contained in the limbic structures might, in some cases, bring a subjective feeling of expanded awareness and greater clarity. The importance of the subconscious in a creative act has often been emphasized. It is known for example that the German chemist August Kekule discovered the formula of the benzine ring on the basis of a dream he had. Henri Poincarě, the French mathematician, could not solve a difficult mathematical problem by conscious effort but came to a creative insight while taking a walk by the seaside. However, a lot of conscious exploration usually occurs before the subconscious creative insight can take place. It is true that Charles Darwin discovered his theory of evolution while taking a ride in a carriage but this would have been hardly possible had he not spent many years gathering and evaluating masses of concrete material.
Dostoyevski gives us a glimpse of the creative potentialities felt by an epileptic:
There was one stage right before the attack (if it happened when one was awake) when, all of a sudden, right in the midst of sadness, spiritual darkness and depression, his brain was momentarily as if set aflame and his whole life force enlivened to an unusual degree. The sensation of living and of being conscious would increase nearly tenfold during these lightning-like moments. His mind, his heart would become aglow with an extraordinary light; all his doubts, all troubles would suddenly subside and resolve themselves into some higher quietude, which was full of transparent, harmonious joy and hope, full of wisdom and total understanding.

But this was only a prelude to that final "unbearable moment" of the appreciation of "the highest synthesis of life."83
It is interesting that here Dostoyevski, speaking through the words of one of his heroes, also draws a line between these supposedly sacred revelations and the profane stupefying influences of "hashish, opium and wine."
We realize that the potentialities so lucidly described by Dostoyevski do not automatically flow out of a transcendent state, when we compare his case with that of the epileptic bus driver, quoted earlier. He also had a vivid subjective feeling that his mind was "cleared." However, when he put down his religious ideas in a letter to his wife they turned out to be completely unintelligible.
This is an appropriate moment to remind the reader that we have been talking only about a relatively small number of epileptic cases. Even among the temporal lobe epileptics, only about a quarter become newly preoccupied with religious ideas, and out of those only a third have vivid conversion experiences. This comprises about 5% of all epileptic cases, which is probably an overestimate. This would mean that in a nation of 200,000,000 people, about 50,000 people might have undergone religious conversion as a result of temporal lobe epilepsy. (It is considered that, on the average, one person in 200 suffers from epilepsy.)
In most cases auras consist of unpleasant odours or tastes, fear, peculiar gastric sensations and various auditory and visual distortions. (See Fig. 14c) The attacks usually leave a person in a shattered state and, with frequent repetition, may lead to the more general physical and psychological disorders. I doubt if even Dostoyevski himself quite meant it when he spoke about giving his whole life away for one moment of his aura. It is hard to say whether he would have been taking anti-convulsions had he lived in our times. He had of course sincerely believed that he, like Mohammed, really visited Heaven in those moments. But he also had his reservations. He spoke of dullness, mental turbidity, and debility, which were the inevitable consequence of these "higher moments."
In clinical literature one does not often come upon cases of self-induced epilepsy, and only in a minority of these cases is there any blissful sensation involved. Some specialists put the percentage of self-induced epilepsy as low as 0.1%.85 An epileptic discharge is a stab in the dark. Only in rare cases does one hit a jackpot and even then a high price is being extracted for it. The important lesson is, however, that the jackpot can be hit.
I hope it has now become clear that stimulation of the pleasure centers through crude electrode implantation is providing only a vestigial echo of the powerful potential these areas possess. During some epileptic discharges, they are stimulated in a more "natural" and wholesale manner. I hardly expect critics, who hold results of intracranial stimulation of the pleasure circuit ambiguous, to call the preceding testimonies ambiguous.

II. In the Beginning There was the Rhythm

Are the phenomena described above relevant as far as the majority of human population is concerned? Or are they just curious examples of human pathology?
Beginning in 1946, W. Grey Walter, one of the pioneers in the field of electrical studies of brain activity, found that epilepsy-like phenomena could be experimentally produced in entirely normal subjects. At the end of the war, Grey Walter and his collaborators began to use bright flashes of strobe light in conjunction with EEG (brain wave pattern) recordings. The rate of flashing could be regulated by turning a knob. It was found that at certain very precise frequencies (e.g. not 9, or 10.5, but exactly 10 flashes per second), the electrical potentials evoked in the brain of the experimental subject by rhythmically flashing light were spilling over across the usually impassable borders in the brain. The flashing light might for example provoke a ringing sensation in the subject's ears - thus breaking down physiological barriers between the visual and the auditory regions of the brain.
This is precisely the mechanism, which underlies most forms of epilepsy: a strong discharge, originating in some area of the brain tends to spread around and involve greater and greater numbers of neurons, which would ordinarily not take part in a synchronous discharge. Flicker stimulation (or "photic stimulation") became an accepted tool in the diagnosis of epilepsy.
Grey Walter and his collaborators wanted to see what percentage of the normal subjects would respond to the flicker. They tested several hundred people who came from all walks of life and who had never had an epileptic fit. In 3-4% of all cases tested, scientists were able to find the frequency, which triggered off responses that were similar to those found in epileptic subjects. When the right frequency was hit people would report "strange feelings," "swimming in the head," faintness and even brief periods of unconsciousness. Some jerked their limbs in synchrony with the flashing light; some reported sensations of "tingling" etc. As soon as these responses occurred, the flicker was turned off. This technique proved that epilepsy-like symptoms could be produced in completely normal subjects. We must remember that the general incidence of epilepsy among the population is only 0.5%, which is way below the percentage reported by Grey Walter.
Later, a more sophisticated flicker apparatus was constructed. It had a built-in triggering mechanism, which fired the flicker in synchrony with brainwaves. A feedback system was devised to keep the flicker and the constantly fluctuating brainwave pattern in tune. With this piece of equipment, Grey Walter writes: "In more than 50% of young normal adult subjects, the first exposure to feedback flicker evokes transient paroxysmal discharges of the type seen so often in epileptics. 86
These observations are backed up by reports of epilepsy-like phenomena, which occur sometimes in perfectly normal people and under natural circumstances, in response to flickering light. Grey Walter quotes a case in which a person experienced a violent jerk as he was being driven through a forest with the sun flickering through the trees. Another person found that the flickering on a movie screen was provoking violent impulses and dimmed consciousness in him. When tested in the laboratory, he developed powerful jerking of the limbs when the frequency of stimulation was brought up to about 50 flashes per second - which approximates the flicker rate of a movie projector. Another curious case concerns a cyclist who nearly "passed out" a few times as he was cycling in the forest with the sun's rays flickering through the trees. A temporary loss of control would make him slow down and bring the frequency below its effective range. This would terminate the dimming of consciousness.
One can compare the mechanism by which rhythmic stimulation breaks down barriers between different regions of the brain with the well-known cases of powerful reverberations produced, for example, by a platoon of soldiers marching in step across a bridge. If they continue to march in step and reinforce the vibration, the structure of the bridge is affected and may even collapse. This is the reason why marching columns are allowed to break the step when passing over a bridge. The kind of feedback flicker described above is capable of producing an even more perfectly synchronized oscillation of the brain rhythms. After a certain point, the oscillation becomes too powerful to be contained within one brain structure and starts to spill beyond the normal physiological pathways in the brain. With people who are predisposed to epilepsy, these runaway oscillations can be produced relatively easily. With them, a flickering picture on the television screen, to give one example, may be enough to provoke an epileptic fit. As a matter of fact, specialists regard television 87 as one of the worst offenders in children's epilepsy. Not only the fragmentary sensations already described, but also complete and organized hallucination-like feelings involving more than one sense were provoked by flicker stimulation. A distortion of time sense may occur: the subject may find that he was being "pushed sideways in time." Even an experience of religious conversion, with all the complex sensations and emotions involved, can be provoked by flicker stimulation. The conversion experience in a case quoted earlier (the patient who flew into Heaven in an airplane and who later became a member of the Pentecostal Church) occurred during a photic stimulation test in a hospital.
Not only visual, but also other types of rhythmic stimulation were shown to initiate the spillover processes in the human brain. This was done with the use of a rhythmic clicking sound. The effective frequency of stimulation was similar to visual precipitation, even though different brain rhythms and receptor structures were involved. The frequency for visual flicker stimulation was usually in the range of 10 to 20 per second88 and for auditory - less than 30 per second.89
Cases of "musicogenic epilepsy" (epilepsy caused by exposure to music) are sometimes reported in literature. In many cases only classical music or music with a strong rhythm seems to be effective. Sometimes the emotional associations provoked by music ("sad," "sentimental") appeared to play a role. Even cases of epileptic precipitation by church bells (Dostoyevskil) were reported.90 The effective frequencies in this case were found to be in a band between 290 and 1120 cycles per second. In one case, emotional excitement was involved in an epileptic response caused by ringing church bells.
We can now take a closer look at the anatomical structures, which may be involved in some of the experiences described above. It has been noticed that some people subjected to flicker stimulation experienced feelings of fatigue, confusion, disgust, anger, and pleasure. It is natural to assume that, in these cases, the discharge involved various structures in the limbic system, which have been shown to regulate these various emotional states.
We also know that the temporal lobe and the limbic system are located close to each other and are interconnected. Involvement of the limbic system is also indicated by the fact that emotional upsets and particularly fear are some of the most common triggers of epilepsy. Even in animals a sudden loud noise may precipitate something like an epileptic fit. Specialists have grouped these epilepsies under the title of "startle" epilepsies. One investigator emphasizes that the fear which an epileptic feels is not fear of something in particular, but "fear which comes by itself - the symptom fear" (in other words, "pure" fear).91
An even clearer connection between many epileptic disorders and the limbic system is indicated by the fact that the sense of smell is often involved. Smell is one of the most "limbic" senses (as pointed out earlier, the limbic lobe used to be called the "smell-brain" and was supposed to deal primarily with smell perception). The capacity of certain pungent smells to elicit fits in epileptics was well known throughout the ages. An old poem, attributed to mythical Orpheus, describes how burning jet (black mineral, resembling coal) affects epileptics:
Jet too he flees, which through ascending vapors
All mortals makes to suffer with its pungency
Smoke-hued and flat, not large to look upon, It flames up brightly like some dried up fir,
Yet to the nostrils brings destructive power; and man
Will not escape the test thou settest
To prove them sufferers from the sacred ill.
For quickly will they bend and forward tilt,
As to the earth it draws them. Smeared by froth
From their own mouths, hither and thither will they turn,
And wallow on the ground.92

The belief that strong odours can trigger epilepsy was so widespread that slaves used to be tested for potential epilepsy by exposure to burning jet. The ancient physicians were also not too far behind the achievements of modern experimental physiology: they used to test predisposition to epilepsy by exposure to a light flickering through a potter's wheel. Epileptics were advised by their physicians to avoid looking at turning wheels of carriages in the street. The physio-logical mechanism, which underlies the influence of odours on an epileptic, was most elegantly, if not sufficiently scientifically, summed up by the Aristotelian philosopher Alexander of Aphrodisias:
For the thickness of the particles of the odours carried up through the nose, thickens and condenses the psychic pneuma, which is already thick and cold, and renders the psychic pneuma unfit for functions of the soul. Now the body, if not supported by the soul, is overcome by its own weight and falls down.93

Another Greek physician, Arotaeus, had with great acuity pinpointed symptoms all of which are indicative of the limbic system involvement: "The patients feel their ears ringing [temporal lobe], they smell bad odours ["smell-brain"], are irritable and become angry without reason" [limbic structures such as amygdala, which were shown to provoke anger experimentally].
Nowadays, the importance of odours in precipitating epilepsy is played down. Some experiments prove, however, that the electrical activity of the temporal lobe shows spike discharges characteristic of epilepsy when people are exposed to perfumed air.95 The peculiar odours frequently reported by epileptics as part of their auras are probably internally produced. In other words, they result from the excitation of neurons in the smell-regulating areas in the brain itself, and therefore represent one more example of a "pure" undiluted sensation. Typical is the case of an epileptic patient described earlier (the "Son of God" case) who told his doctors that he could perceive a "holy smell." Usually the smells reported by epileptics are, however, unpleasant and difficult to describe.
It has already been mentioned that the sense of smell is located in the brain in close proximity to the centers, which regulate sexual functions. This is due to the importance, which was placed upon the sense of smell in the sexual repertoire of mammals from which we evolved. As can be seen from Fig. 10 the areas which produce pleasure in intracranial stimulation (septum and medial forebrain bundle) are also intimately interconnected with the olfactory bulb.
We may summarize by saying that in the case of epileptics, as well as in normal subjects in experimental and natural settings, a rhythmic stimulation of a particular frequency may break down normal physiological barriers between different regions of the brain. When this happens, people become aware of such sensations as intense pleasure or pain or peculiar sensations ordinarily associated with mystical experiences. These sensations can be traced down to certain limbic structures whose involvement is supported by the influence of smell and emotional excitement upon precipitation of an epileptic fit.

III. But what do I love, when I love Thee?

If what was said at the end of the previous section corresponds to facts, then we should be able to observe milder versions of the phenomena discussed, not only in cases of confirmed epilepsy or in an experimental laboratory, but in everyday life. That this indeed is so can be confirmed by examining a beautifully systematized collection of ecstatic experiences in Marghanita Laski's book Ecstasy. 96 This book contains descriptions and analyses of ecstatic experiences reported in literature and also in response to Laski's questionnaires. Laski makes it very plain that the experiences recorded by her have nothing to do with any "morbid conditions" and that they presumably emanate from some higher realm of the human psyche. She quotes approvingly a memorable passage from William James’ The Varieties of Religious Experience.
Medical materialism finishes up St Paul by calling his vision on the road to Damascus a discharging lesion of the occipital cortex, he being an epileptic. It snuffs out St Theresa as a hysteric, St Francis of Assisi as a hereditary degenerate. George Fox's discontent with the shams of his age, and his pining for spiritual veracity, it treats as a symptom of a disordered colon. Carlyle's organ tones of misery it accounts for by a gastro-duodenal catarrh.97

I propose, at this stage, not to get involved in any emotional condemnation or support of either the "medical materialist" or the opposite point of view. The question of normality or otherwise of these experiences will be dealt with at the end of this chapter. First, we must try to look objectively at the exact circumstances, which provoked ecstatic experiences described by Laski.
One is tempted immediately to recognize some experiences as fairly straightforward descriptions of psychological phenomena, which accompany some epileptic fits:
This ecstasy lasted from half an hour to an hour, and whether his souls were in the body, or out of the body, he could not tell. But when he came to his senses it seemed to him that he returned from another world. And so greatly did his body suffer in this short rupture that it seemed to him that none, even in dying, could suffer so greatly in so short a time. The Servitor came to himself moaning, and he fell down upon the ground like a man who swoons and he cried inwardly heaving great sighs from the depths of his soul and saying, 'Oh, my God, where was I and where am I?1 And again, 'Oh, my heart's joy, never shall my soul forget this hour!' He walked but it was but his body that walked, as a machine may do.98

Some other experiences, such as that of Tennyson ("thick night came down upon my eyelids, and I fell") are also suggestive of epilepsy. However one can argue endlessly, especially in the cases of historical personalities, whether we are dealing with epileptic phenomena or ambiguous descriptions. I suggest that we should look not so much at isolated incidents as at the whole spectrum presented by these experiences.
What were the most frequent triggers of the ecstatic experiences reported by Laski's correspondents? Music is mentioned more often than any other art form. Another frequent trigger is flickering light or flashes of light. Here are some of the key phrases, which describe circumstances, which acted as triggers: "When the light and the smell and the scene is just right"; "the newly-risen sun sent flickering...a series of elastic reflections" "the shining waters glittering in my dreamy eyes"; "flickering red flames"; "the lights of the sun shining on the metal of the cars was dazzling." There is also flickering on the water, which seems to flash through the body of the person describing his experiences; sunlight flickering through leaves; fires flickering in grates and flickering starlight. As Laski notes herself, "It would be possible to multiply almost indefinitely examples of sudden or flashing light appearing both in actual triggers to ecstasy and in images used to describe the feelings of ecstasy."99 There are also feelings of "thrills, shudders, and tingling" associated with the flashes. Laski attributes all this to possible effects of atmospheric electricity during stormy weather.
Two people mentioned in Laski's book had their experiences triggered by a film. Another frequent trigger mechanism was "regular rhythmic movement." An authority on art and inspiration, quoted by Laski, explains this connection:
It is possible that the rhythmic movement of a carriage or train, or a horse and to a much lesser degree of walking may produce on sensitive minds a slightly hypnotic effect conducive to that state of mind most favourable to the birth of ideas.100

It is also extremely interesting that among "literary" triggers there were mostly poetic works (endowed with rhythm and emotion?), fiction being mentioned only by one person. "Scent — the odour of flowers, trees, the earth, etc.," writes Laski, "is often mentioned in accounts of trigger circumstances." In one particular case smell was reported as the only trigger. Another person writes that after his experience, "All creation gave another smell unto me than before." "Can scent to any extent act as an intoxicant in inducing ecstasy?" wonders Laski.
Storms and bad weather are mentioned by some correspondents (possible fright?). Wind, breeze or air are mentioned by eight people. Even though in modern literature the association between these factors and epilepsy is not brought up, it used to be regarded as one of the important triggers. Hippocrates, for example, considered that cold, sun, and winds changed the consistency of the brain and therefore affected epileptics.
Some of Laski's correspondents reported feelings, which were strikingly similar to those, found in limbic epilepsy. There are for example, "dreamy mental states" and feelings of "having been here before" (dėjá vu). There are various other sensations reported, some of which resemble epileptic auras. There is a "terrific constriction in the throat and stomach," "something...inflating my entire being," etc. Experiences of refined breathing and peace are also very common. People spoke of a "standstill feeling," a "complete calm," a "tranquil ecstasy."
Laski was surprised that so many people reported negative or mixed feelings together with ecstatic ones. People spoke of "sadness mixed with joy," "disturbing presence," "great agony...and terror," "a violent throb of emotion." This is perhaps less surprising if one keeps in mind the close anatomical proximity of the structures which mediate pleasure and. pain. An uncontrolled discharge brought about by rhythmic stimulation may spread across the boundaries and involve both of these areas, producing "mixed" feelings.
A connection between ecstatic feelings and basic drives, such as hunger or sex, was sometimes mentioned. In two cases ecstatic feelings were actually provoked by eating pleasant foods. More tenuous - some would say only metaphorical - connection, as well as differentiation, between basic needs and their ecstatic counterparts can be inferred from St Augustine's description of religious ecstasy:
But what do I love, when I love thee? Not beauty of bodies, nor the fair harmony of time, not the brightness of the light, so gladsome to our eyes, nor sweet melodies of varied songs, nor the fragrant smell of flowers, and ointments, and spices, nor manna and honey, nor limbs acceptable to embracement of flesh. None of these I love, when I love my God; and yet I love a kind of light, and melody, and fragrance, and meat, and embracement, when I love my God, the light, melody, fragrance, meat, embracement of my inner man; where there shineth unto my soul, what space cannot contain, and there soundeth, what time beareth not away, and there smelleth, what breathing disperses not, and there tasteth, what eating diminisheth not, and there clingeth, what satiety divorceth not.101 (See Fig. 14f)

Here, I think, one finds an eloquent confirmation from no lesser authority on psychology than St Augustine, that ultimate rewards are closely linked to basic drives, and yet transcend them in some way, which we will attempt to define later.
As could well be expected, some people connected their ecstatic experiences directly with sex, while others expressed their feelings through similes full of sexual overtones. It is interesting to note in this connection that Kinsey reported in his investigation of sexual practices that one out of every six pre-adolescent boys and a small proportion of men sometimes experienced violent convulsions during and after orgasm. All ancient authorities, almost without exception, elaborated upon the close connection between sex and epilepsy. Most often, sexual activities were supposed to aggravate epilepsy. Only very rarely sex was regarded as a cure. It was noticed that many epileptic disorders disappear around the age of puberty; if they continued after that the prognosis was considered to be much worse. Some contemporary investigators also point out connection between epilepsy and the level of sex hormones in patients' blood.102 Inferring cause and effect relationship between
the onset of puberty and the disappearance of epilepsy, some ancient physicians even "did violence to the nature of children by unseasonable coition" in order to effect an early cure. This permissive attitude was rather exceptional and most attempts to cure epilepsy by alteration of sexual behavior centered around, as befits general attitudes of those days, such things as enforced abstinence and, occasionally, castration or clitoridectomy.
The confusion between the sacred and the sexual is indeed a time-honored one. At the ancient Anatolian town of Catal Huyuk (circa 6000 BC) we find some of the earliest Neolithic representations of the hieros gamos, the "sacred marriage," depicting two deities locked in a tight embrace. The phallic festivals of Egyptians, the Dionysiac celebrations of ancient Greeks, the Saturnalias of Romans, the sexual frenzy of Russian Khlysty (the Whips) — all bear testimony to the recognition of the significant overlap between man's highest aspirations of religious transcendence and the supposedly lowest "animalistic" drives .
An even more significant confirmation of this overlap comes from those who have actually had the "peak experience" towards which all mystics strive.
Oh night that was my guide!
Oh darkness dearer than the morning's pride,
Oh night that joined the lover
To the beloved bride
Transfiguring them into each other.

What is this? The ravings of a Cupid-struck honeymooner? The sublimated longings of some second-rate poet of the Age or Romance? No, these are the words of the celebrated Christian mystic, St John of the Cross, trying his best to describe his union with the Divine in our limited earthly vocabulary.
"Let me do my pleasure," he said, "There is a time for everything. Now I want you to be the plaything of my love, and you must live thus without resistance, surrendering to my desires, allowing me to gratify myself at your expense."

Thus another saint, this time a female (St Mary Margaret Alacogue), describes her vision of God speaking to her like a seductive and demanding Casanova.
Some mystic’s describe the actual experience of transcendence in terms, which denote sensations suspiciously orgasmic in nature. St Teresa of Avila speaks of a vision in which an angel came to her with a long and fire- tipped golden spear, which he repeatedly "plunged . . .into my deepest inward. When he drew it out, I thought my entrails would be drawn out too, and when he left me I glowed in the hot fire of love for God. The pain was so strong that I screamed aloud but simultaneously felt such infinite sweetness that I wished the pain to last forever. It was the sweetest caressing of the soul by God."
St Francis of Sales speaks of religious rapture in terms, which are suggestive of ejaculation:
...as melted balm that no longer has firmness or solidity the soul lets herself pass or flow into What she loves...The outflow of a soul into her God is a true ecstasy by which the soul transcends the limits of her natural way of existence, being totally mingled and engulfed in, her God.

The nature of the "communion with the Divine" assumed frankly physical connotations in some forms of American Revivalism, where converts were sometimes deliberately encouraged to "come through" to Jesus, this being considered a sign of God's grace.
As reported by Laski, sexual love appeared to be a frequent trigger of mystical experiences, being mentioned by nearly half of the people surveyed by her. Some of them made quite explicit references to sexual intercourse, while others alluded to it in a more oblique fashion. Laski herself, in common with other religiously inclined commentators, tries to separate somehow the mystical and the erotic or at least to make them appear casually rather than causally related. One of her chief arguments is as follows: The religious mystics usually assume a passive female role in their love relationship with God; "In sexual intercourse," writes Laski defiantly, "whether ecstatic or not, no male, so far as I know, feels himself to be playing the part of the female and his female that of a male." No comment.
However, is there any real reason to suppose that the mystical and the erotic are connected in more than a purely accidental fashion? If we look at the diagram of the human brain, we see a picture, which strangely upsets our understanding of the geography of the human body. In the brain, our mouths and our genitals (as well as our anuses) are not separated by the respectful distances which we tend to regard as being God-given, but are actually crowded into one tightly interconnected neural ring. As Paul MacLean wryly observed, "Civilized man long suspected that the world was round before Columbus sailed to America, but how could they have imagined that the limbic lobe [our animal brain] was a closed ring and that in voyaging in one direction the head would be reached by the way of the tail and vice versa." The centers of pleasure, sex, fighting and hunger all lie in this innermost part of our brain in close proximity. No wonder that confusion between some of these areas arises.
In the same ancient part of the brain there are also sites which, when excited during epilepsy or electrical brain stimulation, provoke sensations indistinguishable from those reported by religious mystics. The pieces of the jigsaw puzzle with the seemingly incongruous pictures of embracing gods and epileptic saints and Secrets of the Universe begin to fit together surprisingly well.
Yet, can we unreservedly equate transcendental bliss experienced by a mystic to a purely sexual orgasm? There must be some fire behind the smoke and some truth in the unanimous observation by recognized mystics that their "spiritual marriage" is of a different order than the mundane sexuality of their lay brethren. What is it that makes the "fragrance, meat and embracement" of St Augustine and other mystics different from our own fleshy variety?
Could it be that it is the breathlessness, the "peace that passeth all understanding," the "oceanic feeling," the "tranquil ecstasy," the "standstill feeling" that differentiates the two types of experiences?
Certainly, the emphasis on complete passivity is one of the most frequently encountered components of a profound mystical experience.
Usually, the pleasant feelings which we experience while listening to music, for example, or after having a good meal or intercourse or both are associated with a passive state of mind and body. Sexual orgasm represents one of the very few exceptions where Nature was obliged, so to speak, to reward us generously even though we were in a state of extremely vigorous activity. Here, a neurological compromise had to be struck because of the tremendous importance of fighting behavior as a preliminary to mating. No wonder orgasm resembles an epileptic fit!
Now if we could tap the same reservoir of pleasure but in a passive state, the rewards would be so much greater. Thus, another piece of the jigsaw puzzle falls into place: bliss which the mystic experiences is derived from the same source as the one which in tapped to reinforce sexual and other drives, only its quantity and quality are vastly different due to the state of extreme passivity in which the mystic receives his Heavenly Reward.
Ignorance of the physiological discrepancy between the orgasm and transcendental ecstasy led to a tremendous amount of confusion among the seekers of "heavenly rewards." The follower of the sexual practices of Tantric yoga (or the sex-orientated follower of the Occult) could not overlook the obvious connection between the transcendent and the erotic and decided to reach the former through exaggerated emphasis upon the latter. The ascetic, on the contrary, discerned the superior nature of transcendental bliss and decided to reach it through suppression of carnal desires. In reality, as we can see, profound mystical experience is only indirectly connected with the sexual drive and can co-exist, barring excesses, with either sexual activity or its absence, in the same way that it can co-exist with relative satiety or hunger. As we shall see, either the suppression of sexual desire or its excessive promotion must, if anything, hamper the arrival of a profound mystical experience.
The sexual rites of either Tantrism or the Occult almost invariably seem to lead us to the deep chasms of what even the most liberated will be obliged to call perversions. In certain Tantric practices, the devotees are required to perform necrophilic (corpse-defiling) rites at cemeteries. To inspire a suitable amount of terror, which is deemed to be necessary for attainment of success in subsequent practices, the practitioners of Tantric rites are required to contemplate the destructive aspects of Siva as a black-limbed, wrathful, etc. being, accompanied by ghouls, demons and ogresses. Hashish is often taken before the ritual intercourse, which is then performed by a number of couples sitting in a circle. While this is going on, sacred mantras are chanted. A great deal of fuss is made of semen discharge, which is either completely eliminated, or is meticulously collected and reabsorbed (through the mouth) to prevent the loss of this magical substance.
In a well-documented case of the occultist Aleister Crowley, ritual intercourse was usually performed until complete exhaustion was achieved. Any means whatsoever were used to obtain further orgasms. Homosexual intercourse, sadistic mutilation, drinking of semen mixed with menstrual blood, etc. were practiced. There is no doubt that these practices could produce an altered state of consciousness (Crowley used to affectionately label it "Eroto-comatose Lucidity"). There can also be little doubt that it is severely detrimental to the physical and psychological well being of the person who practices them. Crowley himself died a ruined man, hopelessly addicted to heroin.
As a sideline, it is interesting to note that both the Tantric adherents and Crowley emphasized the need for great passivity during sexual rituals, which in the former case was achieved through breath control.
Let us now look at what the Ascetic Path has to offer. The history of ascetic, practices is almost too well known to need further elucidation. Some gems, however, bear recapitulation. One of them is a yogic practice called Vajroli Mudra, aimed at achieving the state of Brahmacharya (sexual celibacy in this context). It entails drawing into one's urethra first milk, then honey, then mercury!
An eyewitness at one of the penitent festivals in India describes the following practices:
Every inch of one man's body was pierced with small hooks...A few naked women had arrows penetrating their breasts, stomachs and buttocks, so that they could neither sit nor lie down... A woman was handing from hooks attached to her breasts and vagina, the two centers of desire.104

It may well be that the superior rewards obtained by a few mystics made sexual satisfaction unnecessary and unattractive to them. We know from experimentation with animals that pleasure centers' activation makes them, at least for a while, oblivious to the "worldly pleasures" of sex and food. However, some recent long term experiments have shown that after the novelty of the experience wears off, these experimental animals begin to incorporate direct brain stimulation into their normal routine, alternating it with sex and food intake. (See Folio 178) In another interesting experiment by two Swedish researchers, the mating behavior of 15 male albino rats was shown to be unrelated to direct brain stimulation. The rats naturally preferred to self-stimulate, rather than copulate, but the frequency of their mating, and the rate of self-stimulation were not related to each other in any meaningful manner.105

Transcendental Meditation (TM) A Chapter out of my book The Transcendent Ape.

IV. Transcendental Meditation (TM)A Chapter out of my book The Transcendent Ape.

This technique is easier to analyse than most others because it has been subjected to quite an unprecedented amount of independent scientific scrutiny, and also be¬cause its main exponent, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, presents a fairly clear and unambiguous picture of his teaching.

The theoretical foundation of TM is based on a new interpretation of the sacred Indian scripture The Bhagavad Gita.202 Maharishi Mahesh Yogi also maintains that his teaching springs directly from the most ancient Indian scriptural writings - the Vedas. Once again, the essence of these teachings is claimed to have been misinterpreted and misunderstood for countless ages, with the current exponent setting out to put the record straight.

To anyone who reads The Bhagavad Gita with an impar¬tial eye, it will be immediately clear that it was written by someone who advocated the traditional Indian approach to renunciation, withdrawal of the senses, abstinence from bad habits etc. as a path to realization, and not as a result of it. The verse, "For an undisciplined man, Yoga is hard to achieve, so I consider; but it can be gained through proper means by the man of endeavour who is disciplined," can mean only one thing: Yoga is a hard grind. It is difficult to see how something as straight¬forward as this can be misinterpreted.

Nobody can misinterpret what Maharishi says in this respect. His teaching is unequivocal: do not put the cart before the horse; no practice of the virtues will get one anywhere until one has repeated experiences of Bliss-consciousness, which will make those virtues part of one's nature. Until that experience is achieved, forced practice of the virtues will only mean strain and hypocrisy. It is a pity that Maharishi tried to force this lively bit of wisdom into the Procrustean scriptural bed. His commentary on some verses (the one above, also Chapter 6, Verses 10, 13, 35 and 45, among others) amounts to virtual distortion of the original text. One understands of course that for an Indian to claim that he (or his tradition) has come up with something new is simply inconceivable. Everything must hark back to the Ancient Scriptures to be of any value.
The message Maharishi brings out is indeed in vivid contrast to most spiritual guidances: meditation, he says, should be fun. The mind wants, by itself, to go in the direction of greater bliss. Give it a suitable medium to focus attention on and it will begin its march towards the source of thought, which is also the source of bliss.

It will be noticed that the mantras given to beginners in TM are meaningless one or two syllable words, which should at least in theory be able to generate the fast "cross-talk frequencies" we spoke of earlier.

In TM the process of meditation is defined as, "...turning the attention inwards towards the subtler levels of a thought until the mind transcends the experi¬ence of the subtlest state of the thought and arrives at the source of the thought.”203 The perception of the subtler levels of thought is accompanied by greater bliss and relaxation. Using our terminology, it can be said that the gently pulsing mantra creates the "cross-talk" effect and activates a more direct circuitry to the pleasure centers. This circuitry, as pointed out earlier, is probably similar to that utilized for indirect reward procurement through satisfaction of our ordinary needs (sex, food, etc.).
It has been observed that during TM the dominant alpha frequencies (8-13 hz), supposedly associated with states of relaxation and pleasure, gradually shift forward, towards the frontal areas (one can say, roughly in the direction of the direction of the pleasure centers). Occasionally, and usually with more experienced meditators, trains of theta waves appear in the frontal leads. Theta waves (4-7 hz) have been termed "the pleasure scanners." In an ingenuous experiment by Grey Walter (who coined the above term) a male subject was stroked by an attractive female assistant while the EEG record was being taken. As soon as she stopped stroking, trains of theta waves occurred ("Please keep doing this, I like it"). It was also noticed that in meditation both cerebral hemispheres become quickly engaged in highly synchronized rhythmical alpha activity. This may suggest that as the mantra is allowed to join the limbic reward circuit (the frequencies of short TM-type mantras were found to be in the theta range) the focus of nervous activity shifts toward the frontal and deeper areas of the brain. The synchronously functioning cerebral hemispheres begin to resemble a twin resonator for the more powerful activity, which occurs in the limbic system. The processes of "unstressing," desensitization, and increased pleasure and relaxation can then occur.

Here we also have the elements of an extremely subtle built-in biofeedback system. The pulsating mantra adjusts its frequency to “feed through” into the conscious brain the maximum amount of pleasurable “ seepage.”

The diminution of inputs from the environment (closing the eyes, assuming a relaxed posture) and from the cerebral hemispheres (absence of coherent thinking, lack of conscious associations with the mantra) will facilitate the activation of the subcortical limbic circuitry. Once "the seepage" of pleasurable sensations directly from the pleasure centers has begun, the process of meditation becomes truly effortless. The powerful pull of the bliss areas is sufficient to keep the attention glued to it. Or at least so goes the theory.

The element of non-interference with the natural tendency of the mind to go in the direction of greater bliss is much emphasized by Maharishi. Any conscious effort or analysis will not only impede the progress of attention towards the source of bliss, but may even bring some undesirable sensations. Attention which has already begun to penetrate the deep non-verbal limbic circuitry is apt to stray into areas, which may provoke adverse re¬actions. Maharishi issues a clear warning about the negative influence of conscious interference with the meditation process:

The intensity of thought is very great at that subtle level of thinking where the mind is slipping out of thought and is about to lose the experience of the relative field. If the process is not disturbed and is allowed to go by itself in a very innocent manner, then the mind slips into the Self. If, on the other hand, pressure or force is applied in any way to check the mind or to control the process, the mind will be thrown off the course on which it is naturally set and off-balance into agitation and a feeling of discomfort.

If this rule is followed, supposedly nothing untoward can happen. Left to itself, the attention has no inclination to deviate onto any other path, except the path of greater bliss. The principle “no peace — no bliss” is clearly delineated by Maharishi. The degree of peace necessary for perception of ultimate bliss is truly remark¬able. In meditation, the breath "...becomes more refined and eventually comes to a standstill." However, the full attainment of this peculiar physiological state of "restful alertness" is initially impossible. As the body attains greater degrees of restfulness it tends to throw off some "strain in the nervous system." This strain will manifest itself as a thought and will push the attention back to the surface level of the mind. Only gradually will the blissful nature of the Self get infused into the ordinary consciousness. The thoughts which arise in meditation should be disregarded, one should simply go back to one's mantra and proceed with meditation "in a relaxed way."

In general, Maharishi's attitude to conscious thought is very similar to Krishnamurti's. "Transcending thought," he writes, "is infinitely more valuable than thinking." Thought is intimately implicated in the production of "insatiable desires." Abstract thought springs from the mind and develops into a concrete desire on the basis of past impressions, which are the "seed of desire that leads into action." This action will, in turn, create a memory to serve as a seed of future action. Thus man is bound to a cycle of impression, desire and action, which keeps him acting in a puppet-like fashion. The natural forces ("the gunas of Nature") employ man's consciousness as a stage for their interplay, while he mistakenly assumes the authorship of his action.

The desire for fleeting joys, prompted by thought, can only lead to sorrow, "there being no point in rela¬tivity to satisfy finally its craving for greater happiness." Maharishi's answer to this problem of perpetual frustration and discontentment is not to control or reduce the desire, but to fully satisfy it by reaching a state of permanent Bliss-consciousness. In that state, even though the mind still entertains thoughts, they do not exert any binding influence upon the individual. His senses are sharper than before, for the constant anxiety and the resultant stress have been lifted, but the experience of the sensory pleasures fails to create an emotional memory, which would serve as a seed for future action and involve¬ment. The individual's consciousness is too dominated by the perception of inner bliss to register sensory impressions. The binding cycle of impression, desire and action has been cut asunder.

From a neurophysiological viewpoint, it is conceivable that a circuit as powerful as that, which would connect cortical awareness to the pleasure centers, would change the customary motivation and memory traffic. Cortical motivation will no longer have a binding influence because the "carrot" which was used to lure it along is now freely available at any time. The emotional memories have been neutralized through the process of "unstressing" during meditation.

The physical state of the body has also been changed. The state of calmness, which was at first experienced only during meditation itself, tends to become more and more persistent. At first, exposure to activity would shatter the inner peace, but repeated exposures "harden" it, not unlike the way in which the colour of a piece of cloth becomes fast after it has been alternatively exposed to the sun and dipped in the dye. As Maharishi succinctly summarizes: "Self-awareness acts as a shock-absorber on the mental level, while the state of restful alertness of the nervous system acts as a shock- absorber on the physical level." Neurophysiologically it is conceivable again that the powerful parasympathetic activity, provoked through the direct activation of the pleasure centers, will be superimposed upon whatever activity the body is engaged in. Its superimposition upon the ordinary sympathetic/parasympathetic oscillation will produce a peculiar physiological state. The constant background of calmness throughout all types of activities makes it organically impossible for a "fight or flight" memory to be filed. The "hypothaiamic tuning" is permanently on the "calm" mode, which prevents this.
Maharishi himself explains the relaxation, which accompanies the process of meditation as a result of diminution of physical activity, which is proportionate to the diminution of mental activity produced by perception of the mantra on a more "refined" and subtle level of thinking. This could be another way of saying that, as the mantra regresses towards subcortical non-verbal levels, it is appreciated as becoming "finer." As the appropriate "restful" circuitry also becomes activated during this process, the physical activity correspondingly diminishes.
Alertness also seems to go together with the restfulness and pleasure. Heath, in his human experiments with implanted electrodes, noted that "with septal stimulation the patients brightened, looked more alert and seemed to be more attentive to their environment during, and for at least a few minutes after, the period of stimulation."

Like Krishnamurti, Maharishi claims that the new level of consciousness profoundly alters not only waking, but also dreaming and sleeping stages. The attractiveness of Bliss-consciousness is such that in time it is maintained uninterruptedly, "through all the activity of the waking and dreaming states and through the silence of the deep sleep state." It is true that in our primitive brains there are centers, which maintain awareness around the clock. The visual example quoted is that of a mother who will sleep soundly through the noise of heavy traffic but will immediately wake up when the baby stirs or cries. There must be some center in the brain, which has been maintaining awareness all the time.
The attainment of permanent Bliss-consciousness (or “Cosmic-consciousness”), which would be regarded as many as a pinnacle of personal evolution, is looked upon by Maharishi as only a half-way house to the ultimate state of “Unity.” In a sense, Cosmic consciousness highlights the duality between the permanent nature of the Self and the impermanency of the manifest world as perceived by the senses. As Maharishi puts it: “The eyes cannot see Being, the tongue cannot taste It, the ears cannot hear nor the hands touch It.”208 The estate of consciousness has been changed, but the separation of the inner Being from the world of gross material phenomena is still perceived. At this stage the notion of Yoga (“Union”) becomes relevant: finally there is something to unite. This is accomplished through the conscious practice of “the most refined activity of all, the activity of devotion to God,” when “everything is naturally experienced in the awareness of God.”
It is fascinating to speculate about the possible neurophysiological substratum of this process if it indeed exists, as Maharishi and other mystics claim. The emotions of love and reverence are cultivated in one’s transactions with the world. So while it could be said that up to the stage of Cosmic-consciousness the self-assertive emotions of the bottom half of MacLean’s ring (see Fig. 10) were brought under control, in this later stage, the top part of the ring — the self-transcending one — is being activated in a peculiar manner. This is being done while the various sensory inputs impinge upon the mind. Gradu¬ally, the traffic, which carries the emotions of love and reverence, becomes an inseparable part of the perception of the outside world. It is also possible that at this point a neural area, which deals with the sensations of unity, is being directly activated.
The adjective "pure" which Maharishi attaches to the various aspects of the transcendent perception ("pure awareness," "pure bliss," "pure intelligence," "pure creativity," etc.) confirms the earlier expressed notion that in the human brain there are areas which house undiluted perceptions which are similar to, but much stronger than, those of ordinary awareness. The situation here is similar to that discussed in relation to drugs and creativity. Whether the "expansion of consciousness" or "tapping the creative source of thought" in TM can have any direct influence on creativity is something which may need further investigation by impartial observers.
Even though TM appears to utilise the physiological mechanisms favouring transcendence in the human brain, all the qualifications , which have been discussed in relation to the relative inaccessibility of higher states of consciousness to people with low T.Q.'s would, naturally, apply here as well. It is said that Maharishi used to indicate that five years of regular meditation, should be enough to take one to the level of cosmic consciousness. It is nearly two decades now since Maharishi, brought his technique to the West. Literally thousands of people should be, if Maharishi's estimate was correct, enjoying the tremendous energy and creativity , which were open only to a few selected saints in the old times. Yet this hope, like the hope of initiating 1% of the world population into TM during the first 10 years, prove to be grossly overoptimistic. The literature, which emanates from the Maharishi's international University (MIU), which should supposedly have the concentration of these people with highly expanded consciousness is amazingly unimaginative and intellectually simplistic. It seems to be completely dominated by Maharishi's own curious blend of Western science and Vedic mysticism.
The attempt by Maharishi to stimulate the dwindling interest in his technique by announcing his extraordinary claims of miraculous capabilities for TM practitioners resulted in discrediting the cult among most serious observers and accelerated its decent into obscurity.


INSTEAD OF EPILOGUE

“And the last word must meet an anxiety that arises out of this very confidence. Darwin was right. It is--not exclusively, but mainly--the struggle for life that has begotten higher types. Must every step of future progress be won by fresh and sustained struggle? At least we may say that the notion that progress in the future depends, as in the past, upon the pitting of flesh against flesh, and tooth against tooth, is a deplorable illusion. Such physical struggle is indeed necessary to evolve and maintain a type fit for the struggle. But a new thing has come into the story of the earth--wisdom and fine emotion. The processes, which begot animal types in the past, may be superseded; perhaps must be superseded. The battle of the future lies between wit and wit, art and art, generosity and generosity; and a great struggle and rivalry may proceed that will carry the distinctive powers of man to undreamed-of heights, yet be wholly innocent of the passion-lit, blood-stained conflict that has hitherto been the instrument of progress.

We don't have to search for a new God or make God out of science. We just have to clearly see who we are and where we came from. Both science and religion, in very different ways, can help us to do that.”

The above chapter was written in the 70’s.

See also my humorous essays The Electric Dog Goes Buddhist http://patrushev-publications.com/Documents/Pyotr_Patrushev_buddhist_dog.htm
, and Burping and Enlightenment – in Memory of Maharish Mahesh Yogi on http://patrushevhumor.blogspot.com/2008/02/burping-and-enlightenment-in-memory-of.html

Jesus Freaks

Jesus Freaks

http://www.harpercollins.com.au/global_scripts/product_catalog/book_xml.asp?isbn=0061118044

Bruce Elder, reviewer
February 1, 2008

This true crime story is also one of the best accounts of the history of the sect known as the Children of God.
The cover says it all ... Jesus Freaks.

The cover says it all ... Jesus Freaks.
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Author
Don Lattin
Genre
History
Publisher
Harper One
Pages
236
RRP
$39.99

It is a pity that this book is subtitled True Story Of Murder And Madness On The Evangelical Edge and declares on the cover: "On January 8, 2005, a woman was found stabbed three times with her throat slit by a young man christened to be prince and future prophet of a bizarre Christian sect. The story leading up to this crime is one of messianic delusions, free love, and blind faith ..."

This murder is only peripherally what this book is about. It is actually one of the best accounts of the history of American wacky Christianity (not the fundamentalism of recent times but the way-out, sex-fuelled evangelism) in the 20th century. It is, on the surface, the story of Moses David (the adopted prophetic name of David Berg) and his 1960s-70s sect known as the Children of God or The Family.

But Berg didn't emerge from a vacuum and author Don Lattin, who has spent most of his life investigating American religious cults, traces Berg and his family back to the 1920s, when evangelical Christianity boomed. In 1925 in less than a year, for example, Berg's parents went from preaching in a tent in Miami to owning, and filling, a 4500-seat "church", the Gospel Tabernacle, in the city.

This is the era when the famed evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson was busy preaching piety and practising wild sex. And it was a time when the pre-teen David Berg was being regularly fellated by his Mexican nurse (until his evangelist mother caught them at it), supposedly so that he could enjoy his afternoon nap.

It was therefore an easy step for Berg to grow his hair, wear hippie gear, declare himself a prophet, gather around him the Children of God (remember for some hippies Jesus was cool - witness Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar), insist on polygamy so he could satisfy his huge sexual appetite (of course he always described it as "the love of God") and spend a lot of time running from the law.

Is anyone surprised that in 2005 his son and heir (named, hilariously, "Davidito") went on a murderous rampage?

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Paradoxes of life and the great chain of being

I am constantly amazed at the paradoxes of life. One stems from the utter vulnerability of the individual being’s existence. A tiny virus, a large earthquake, a small meteorite, or even something as silly as coconut falling from a tree can extinguish it, be it life of a tiny gnat or a mighty king. At the same time, the resilience of DNA, of life in general, is equally amazing. It had sustained itself through all the travails of Earth’s existence, all its volcanic eruptions and its Ice Ages, and even cosmic calamities that periodically wipe out most life forms. Everyone of us can claim unbroken heritage of all the life forms, starting with the amino acid soup some 4 billion year ago, and even beyond, to the basic chemical components of life in the stardust. We have an amazing amount of knowledge about how matter and life developed, from the structure of the human brain, with all its Pavlova’s layers of cells, to the structure of galaxies and atoms. We can trace these details with mathematical precision to within the tiniest fraction of a second (to be exact, within 10-43 from the moment of creation). But in that last moment and before it, everything is shrouded in mystery. Was it a continual rebirthing of expanding and contracting universe? Or a mysterious emergence from some sort of a black hole? The primate brain, with its limited range of perception and even imagination, will never know “the answer”. We can only marvel at paradoxes, and coin elaborate metaphors, whether scientific or “spiritual”. We can try to enhance our senses through the instruments of science and technology or through mind-expanding practices or substances, or through prayer and fasting. But to no avail. Our vision of the universe will be ultimately as circumscribed as that of an ant.

Another paradox that affects all of us, no matter how smart or dumb, is the clash between the joy of life that new and innocent life forms enjoy, and the subsequent pain of existence. Gradually, our pain and our anguish, conscious or unconscious, gel into symptoms and then into structural or functional deficiencies that we call “diseases”. Each being’s diseases metaphorically reflect its DNA’s life path, its “karma”. Can we heal ourselves if we retrace our evolution, consciously and experientially, from our birth as individuals, to our birth as a DNA strand, and ultimately as a mote of stardust? Can we do it first through our imagination and finally, through some form of “time machine”? This quest will be a form of religion (“re-ligare”, re-connecting to the source). It will also be science. We will be spurred onto this quest by the many paradoxes of life. We may call the source of these paradoxes God or Mystery.