During the Science and NonDuality Conference in San Rafael, CA was "measured" by EEG by the research folk from the Institute of Noetic Sciences (http://www.noetic.org/). Directing the EEG measurements was their Senior Scientist, Dean Radin, Ph. D. and Cassandra Vieten, Ph.D. Director of Research and Education.
The pic shows research assistant Leena Michel, attaching the EEG "headnet". Yes, every "button" has to make good electrical contact. Dr. Dean Radin showed me the preliminary scans and some cool video graphic representations. There is a lot of post-processing required to take out things like eye-blinking, breathing, moving, etc.
Preliminarily, they told me that nondual awareness EEG scans have many attributes of "normal" awareness, "except that it's different".
i have little/no background in EEG scans, but from what i could gather, nondual awareness does not appear to have some of the states that occur in dualistic meditation where concentration by a subject on an object is taking place. This is not really a big surprise, as the emphasis in nondual awareness is remaining fully functional, aware and present, except w/o thoughts or a subject doing anything.
There also appeared to be little difference between my ongoing, "normal" thoughtless, state of "Presence" and what manifested when they told me to "OK, now do nondual awareness". Also not a surprise, as they are/were indistinguishable for "me" as well, except when i tried (unsuccessfully) to manifest a "doer" to "do" nondual awareness.
When asked for his "take" on my EEG, Dr. Radin replied "it looks like a happy brain".
This all seems in accord with the common Zen replies over millenia that the awakened state is "ordinary", "nothing special" and "rivers and mountains are still rivers and mountains".
They are looking at nondual awareness to determine if "these experiences (are) fantasy, hallucinations, or do they accurately reflect awareness extending beyond the accepted boundaries of time and space? We are studying this question by monitoring brain activity during states of nondual awareness and assessing brain and autonomic reactions to sensory stimuli."
Will update as results unfold. Dr. Radin said he would forward the files as soon as they do the post-processing.
wow, you can't even manifest a "doer" if you try... I was wondering about that... actually the question I had was more like "does gary ever slip out of awareness?" I guess the answer is no.
ReplyDeleteIf you never slip out of awareness, does that mean you have no thoughts triggering emotions and therefore are in a constant state of equanimity? Do you experience things like "happiness" or "sadness?"
The deep stillness/beingness never goes away.
ReplyDeleteAs far as never having thoughts, thoughts do arise, but rarely and typically a) when blood sugar is very low (this body tends to hypoglycemia), b) when it is very tired, almost exhausted and c) the first 15 or 20 minutes or so in the morning when there is a "hey, is this important?" for a few items from the previous day.
Other than that thought is normally not present.
That doesn't mean that you lose the ability to solve problems; a problem can be worked on "off line" in the "unconscious" and the trial solution presented as "thoughts" some unknown time later, and then accepted, or rejected and sent back for more work. These trial solutions can also be part of the morning 15 or 20 minutes.
As far as emotions or behaviors, "Gary" continues as a persona and has many of the same idiosyncrasies as before, i.e. preferring sushi, green tea and Thai food, yoga, and the outdoors, etc. and tending to talk fast with a lot of articulation and being an outspoken analytic.
What looks like emotional responses can arise, particularly "limbic" or "reptilian" ones, which are hard-wired into our body-mind response system for protection, like jumping out of the way of an oncoming car or pulling your hand away from a hot stove, w/o thought or hesitation.
Few "awakened" folk have shown any apparent outward changes, i.e. Nisargadatta dressed the same, smoked the small Indian cigarettes, kept running his store, etc. He also, if you've seen the videos, continued to shout, wave his arms wildly, throw people out, etc. Ramana behaved very differently, of course, but also showed what would look like "emotion" on some occasions.
i had one of the well known British "awakened" folk storm away angrily at a question i asked him. He has talked about moving between "meing" and "being" - that can happen, but "meing" is not frequent.
The great value of the annual Inner Direction Gatherings (unfortunately discontinued) was seeing many reputedly "awakened" folk, up close - none of them would have stood out in a mall - they behaved like "normal" folk, which they were, at the deepest level, very ordinary.