The search for the source of the "mystical experience" is nothing new by any stretch of the imagination. Shamans have experienced first hand the transformational capacity of psychedelic plants which are are said to be capable of opening the door to the divine. Almost all of organized religion is at least in part based upon some type of mystical experience powerful enough to mold the future actions and behaviors millions of loyal followers. Wikipedia mentions the following common general descriptions (among others) of the fundamental mystical experience:
- Nullification and absorption within God's Infinite Light (Hassidic schools of Judaism)
- Union with God (Henosis in Neoplatonism and Brahma-Prapti or Brahma-Nirvana in Hinduism, fana in Sufism)
- Experience of one's true blissful nature (Samadhi Svarupa-Avirbhava in Hinduism and Buddhism)
- Seeing the Light, or "that of God", in everyone (Quakerism)
But what is behind these experiences? Whether you hold the opinion that these are mere brain chemistry fluctuations or that they are true channels to the gods, the power of the transcendental experience simply cannot be denied.
It stands to reason, then, that the search for the true meaning of this experience is one that has been highly debated for centuries if not millennia. For many years, science has primarily avoided the subject, unsure of how to best refute something they could neither see nor measure. In recent years however, our ever-expanding (albeit never-complete) search for understanding of the human brain has led researchers to the ability to reproduce similar mental states by use of magnetic impulses applied to certain areas of the brain itself which have been identified as correlating to a mystical experience.
These responses to magnetic stimulation, however, don't just pertain to Union With the Field, similar electrical activity in the brain are believed to extend also to the realm of alien encounters and abductions. The staggering number of eerily similar abduction reports raises many questions that have been shoved onto the back burner of mainstream science for decades. Just as with the mystical experience If you happen to have a subscription to NewScientist magazine, you will have access to the entire article regarding magnetic stimulation of the brain and the sensation of an alien abduction, available
here (if you don't have a subscription I'd HIGHLY recommend it, it is one of the best magazine's I've ever read. most of newscientist is free but archived articles, such as this one from 1994, require a login). Long story short, the author of the article underwent magnetic brain stimulation in a laboratory, investigating for BBC's "Horizons". He relates his experience as such:
I was wide awake throughout. Nothing seemed to happen for the first ten minutes or so. Instructed to describe aloud anything that happened, I felt under pressure to say something, anything. Then suddenly my doubts vanished. "I'm swaying. It's like being on a hammock." Then it felt for all the world as though two hands had grabbed my shoulders and were bodily yanking me upright. I knew I was still lying in the reclining chair, but someone, or something, was pulling me up.
Something seemed to get hold of my leg and pull it, distort it, and drag it up the wall. It felt as though I had been stretched half way up to the ceiling. Then came the emotions. Totally out of the blue, but intensely and vividly, I suddenly felt angry - not just mildly cross but that clear-minded anger out of which you act - but there was nothing and no one to act on. After perhaps ten seconds, it was gone. Later, it was replaced by an equally sudden attack of fear. I was terrified - of nothing in particular. The long-term medical effects of applying strong magnetic fields to the brain are largely unknown, but I felt weak and disoriented for a couple of hours after coming out of the chamber.
No visits from spacemen or entereing into Nirvana, but it does go to show that the brain is capable of interpreting this stimulation in a way that, while not abiding by any rules of the physical universe, is extremely convincing and undeniable to the observer. It's obvious that subjective experience and neuronal firing in the brain are inextricably linked, but there are still so many questions to be answered. Who is to say what really happened to the many people who have experienced a mystical union with the Great Beyond or been kidnapped by little green visitors from distant galaxies, all too eager to poke, prod, and probe there way into the victim's body. What we do know is that these experiences tend to feel and seem so real to the subject that many are completely incapable of distinguishing what is "real life" and what is perceived. Our brains are programmed to work in a specific way that, to me, seems more than just chance. Perhaps magnetic fields are just one way our bodies download information from the universe-at-large, a means of communication with the great life-force that researchers have finally learned to hack into. Or maybe they're all a bunch of kooks. We may not know the answer to these questions any time soon, but we are getting closer all the time. No matter how far science takes us though, there will always be questions to which we simply can't (or shouldn't) know the answers.
