Welcome to This week's lecture in spirituality in the brain. Tonight the theme is applying neuroscience to the spiritual process. Over the last few weeks a lot of information have been given. This week we're going to talk about how to actually use it in practice. To begin we're back as we were with the Temporal Lobes and the Temporal Lobes of the brain are the source for most spiritual experiences. There've been several papers published a couple of books that deal unless the case for the Temporal Lobes being more or less the the center or the seat for spiritual experiences is quite strong. But where I'm gonna start tonight is with the fact that there are there's actually a kind of epilepsy that stays in the Temporal Lobes and not surprisingly it's called Temporal Lobe Epilepsy. It's also called Complex Partial Epilepsy Complex because it can have a wide range of phenomena that goes goes along with the seizures as well as involving a number of different brain parts. And it's called partial because it doesn't spread to the whole brain. The Temporal Lobes have lower firing thresholds than other areas of the brain so it's possible for activity to start there and then stay there without actually reaching a threshold to spread into other areas of the brain. So of course Temporal Lobe Epileptic seizures are not convulsive. The person doesn't shake, they don't foam at the mouth. In fact from the outside you might not even know they were having a seizure. Because spiritual processes and experiences seem to be sort of based in the Temporal Lobes and Temporal Lobe Epilepsy is confined to the Temporal Lobes it's not too surprising that some Temporal Lobe Epileptic seizures; some Complex Partial Seizures actually involve dramatic spiritual experiences. They're not common and one of the things I should emphasize is that Temporal Lobes can often have very very mundane phenomenon that goes along with them. In fact the single-most common phenomenon that comes up in Temporal Lobe Seizures is lip smacking, the person smacking their lips are making automatic movements with their mouths over and over again. From the outside it doesn't look like much in from the inside there's nothing really phenomenal going on. Spiritual seizures are only a small part of the total range of experience as the Temporal Lobe Epilepsy can create. There's an EEG pattern showing the spiking that's characteristic of epilepsy. And with grand mal seizures the kind where a person can actually fall down and convulsed their body can become rigid. This kind of thing can be found all over the brain. With the Temporal Lobes it's only found in the Temporal Lobes. In the course of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy seizures and again these aren't common. But the events that included visions of god, out-of-body experiences, the visual experience of a total absolute but clear blackness. Intellectual revelations kind of insights where there in the middle of the seizures they feel that they have somehow contacted the information that drives the universe. Sometimes feelings of connectedness where they feel they're one with all things. And of course one of the most common spiritual experiences that comes up with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy is a mind that's absent mind that's empty of words total inner silence. Which is a very much sought-after stage in Buddhism but when it happens during seizure it's actually not too pleasant. In fact most of the really powerful Temporal Lobes experiences have been fairly unpleasant. And these have included a feeling of impending doom, a strong sense of unfamiliarity with things to the point where a person can actually feel alienated from their environment. Deja vu, that the time has slowed down for a few Temporal Lobes Epileptics during their seizures. There can be feelings of profound loneliness as though you were the only person alive in the world. One person who had this experience regularly told me that they had sense that there had been a nuclear holocaust. The world had been destroyed and only their home had been left intact they were that lonely Another one that can come up is the feeling that your body has changed. So that the normal shape and size of your body can be disturbed you can feel you're very much larger or smaller than usual or you can feel that one side of your body has gotten too big and the others too small something like that. And then depersonalization. And the illustration you'll see on the screen right now actually shows some drawings of a kid who had a type of seizures related to the Temporal Lobes Seizures but they're not quite the same thing It's impossible to find an illustration for a true Temporal Lobe Epileptic seizure but the feeling is that of depersonalization. One moment the person is there then they're gone and then they return. And in the meantime they can't really account for what happens from the outside, their eyes will stop being quite so open they lose a lot of their body tone, sometimes it's enough they can actually fall over which is why the kid in the illustration is wearing a head harness. Anytime this child sat on a chair there is a danger that they would have a seizure and fall over and hit their head. From the outside this just looks like a sort of daydreaming version of sleepwalking the person can be going through the motions over and over again. Whatever it is I remember being told of a case where a person found themselves wiping a dish over and over again for a good solid five minutes drying the same dish, until someone came and said 'hey you've been drying the dish for too long' and kinda nudge them on the arm and that pulled them back and they were able to continue doing the dishes. I do want to emphasize and this is for primarily professionals who are really interested in this sort of thing as well as those among you who take a lot of notes. Spiritual experiences may be born of the Temporal Lobes and Temporal Lobe Epilepsy may be confined to the Temporal Lobes. But the next conclusion that many researchers have drawn won't hold up. And that is that spiritual experiences are epileptic events. Spiritual experiences are not epileptic events. Rather the pathology of epilepsy can leave a seizure involving or recruiting any part of the brain you care to name. There are a few very deep structures that don't become involved very often but nearly anything between your ears can be accessed by an epileptic seizure. So it is my contention that spiritual experiences happen when areas of the brain that are wired for these experiences and that are ordinarily and organically initiated during the death process get involved in epileptic seizure. There are areas of the brain that normally function at the time of death and are normally sort of hidden away until that moment comes, can still be accessed pathologically by an epileptic seizure. So an epileptic seizure can involve an out-of-body experience but that doesn't mean that the brain produces out-of-body experiences only in response to seizural events. There's an organic natural circumstance under which we might see God, an organic natural circumstance under which we might find ourselves feeling incredible bliss but just because those same experience has come up during an epileptic seizure doesn't mean that they're seizure related. They're related to an organic function that is pathologically initiated during a seizure. One of the things that people with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy experience often is a class of experiences called Temporal Lobes Signs and they also have the name of CPES. Complex Partial Epileptic Sign are deja vu, jamais vu which is kind of an opposite to deja Vu. In deja vu you feel that the present moment is more familiar than it has "and it right been" and in jamais vu you can find yourself looking at something completely familiar or in a very familiar circumstance and yet feel that it's completely new or alien or strange. Another one is the Sensed Presence where you feel that there's someone watching you but when you turn to look there's no one there. Another one is Paresthesia pins and needles tingly electrical buzzy sensations that run through the body. And the other one is Vestibular Sensations. And Vestibular Sensations are what you get if your body's balancing system goes out of "work" so that you can feel your body is moving when it's actually still. It's most common when people are falling asleep but I've also experienced it myself in the course of certain meditation practices.1 One of the questions that comes up most often1 when I mention deja vu is people raise their hands and they say 'Well what is deja vu anyway?'1 First I'll say there are several theories and I adhere to one but not all1 of them.1 So I only represent my own paradigm in talking about deja vu and there are other paradigms1 available that you can look into.1 First of all I need to be clear on what deja vu is.1 Deja vu is the sensation1 that the present moment has happened before1 and that's different from spontaneously remembering a vivid dream.1 That's different from1 simply a familiar feeling1 where a place may actually resemble a place you've been before.1 But the ... rather talking about the sensation that the present moment 1 with everything in it exactly as it's happening now1 has happened in the past.1 Now the normal way1 that we access the past,1 the mind's normal sense of the past1 comes through a brain part called the Hippocampus.1 And you'll see it illustrated in the current slide1 and the Hippocampus1 consolidates and retrieves memories1 it takes present moment experience1 and turns it into memories that we can then retrieve.1 And because memory is the way we usually access the past1 1 it becomes a pretty simple1 explanation to say1 that deja vu involves a kind of misfiring,1 or an unusual activation of memory mechanisms because that's where our sense of the past1 is to be found.1 Now I enjoy history.1 I watch samurai movies that are set in the 15th century, I watch BBS documentaries1 about the Byzantine Empire and so forth1 and that is1 a different sense of time. That's a sense of the past that i've actually artificially1 to a certain amount of intellectual effort, created for myself. It was worth1 to know that things of the 15th century happened after things of the 12th1 century and I had to assemble1 a sense of history together in order to be able to gain that sense of the past.1 But when I think of my own past when I was twenty when I was ten when I was five1 that's a very personal sense1 of time sense of the past.1 And that is very much involved in normal functioning1 of the brain part called the Hippocampus1 which word by the way just mean seahorse because an early anonymous when they cut into the brain1 found it and they said 'oh that's shaped like a seahorse so let's call it a seahorse.'1 1 People who repair cars don't have that problem with their1 with their nomenclature,1 their names for things.1 Memories are created,1 consolidated1 in the Hippocampus1 and they are retrieved from1 Hippocampal processes the Hippocampus is very deeply involved1 in working with memories.1 And so1 what's deja vu?1 Deja vu is the experience of over-connectedness1 in the Hippocampus in the area around it.1 There's an area of the cortex of the brain the surface of the brain which is kind of1 topped-up underneath1 1 and it's called the Parahippocampal region1 and that means simply means1 the area around the Hippocampus.1 And there are some very technical sounding names for the the parts of this area1 the Parirhinal Cortex just means near the nose, the Entorhinal Cortex1 the Parahippocampal Cortex and the Dentate Gyrus1 for those of you who want to look up these parts and get a better1 get a better sense of what they do.1 And these are cortical areas, areas on the surface of the brain1 which seem to have to do with the actual storage of memory.1 So there's one brain part that turns up present exerience into something we can remember1 that same brain part is involved in reaching1 from the present moment 1 to moments in the past1 so that we can remember them.1 When they lose the ability to inhibit one another,1 when these two areas in the brain are actually connected more intensively than they ordinarily would1 then you have the experience of the present moment1 happening at the same time as your sense1 of the past.1 So the present moment feels like it's happened1 before.1 So I like to think of1 deja vu as a moment when we're actually remembering the present1 instead of remembering the past.1 Deja vu1 is the feeling that the present moment has happened before but it could also be a1 memory of the present which is an odd way of putting it.1 We think of ourselves as perceiving the present1 and remembering the past.1 Deja vu is a moment when both of them1 can happen at the same time.1 So1 in deja vu1 we find ourselves and I'm giving this spiel a bit so that you can actually look at the1 illustration which I think1 illustrates deja vu very well.1 The moment is happening now1 with the birds and the horse running by1 passed the house,1 is at the same time being remembered1 as though it were coming from the past.1 The Hippocampus the source for deja vu has been called the brain's1 contextualization engine.1 It puts things into context,1 it finds context for things and when we have a percept1 a perception from outside ourselves or for or from within,1 it will actually create a context for it.1 It will artificially create a setting1 that the perception can go into,1 so that it can be put into context because without some kind of context or association1 it's very hard to pull up memories at all.1 So what kind of context could the brain create1 for a perception that has caught my attention in this moment?1 And that is it would create a situation1 the way its accustomed to creating situations that don't exist and was accustomed to doing1 that most commonly1 is in our dreams.1 So people who have deja vu1 often feel1 or often suddenly remember a dream1 in which they dreamed1 the present moment, and save themselves well that was a pre-cognitive dream that1 I forgot until this moment.1 Well, I wonder what the use for precognition is1 if you can't access the precognition until the moment when its1 precognitive prediction1 comes to pass.1 Not very useful.1 So now there may be such a thing as deja vu1 that reflects a kind of precognitive perception1 but that is a little bit outside the range of normal consensual science mainstream science1 and as much as possible I like to keep these lectures and these ideas1 within the framework of science that most scientists will consider even if they won't1 accept it.1 And precognition crosses that line just a little bit but I will say that there's a book1 that's written on the subject1 and it's titled 'Future Memory' and it's by PMH Atwater who is a noted researcher1 in the field of near-death experiences1 and she's publish half a dozen books1 'Future Memory' is a very interesting one1 and has an awful lot of 1 case histories from people who've experienced1 precognitive events.1 The next1 of the important temporal lobe signs is jame vu.1 Now deja vu means,1 is French and it means something like ever seen1 meaning seen before,1 'have you ever seen this before?'1 jamais vu is never seen --jame means 'never' in French1 and vu means 'to see'1 in this context.1 So jamais vu is the experience that everything is strange,1 dreamlike,1 surreal1 or alien.1 And in a moment of jamais vu you can actually look at something that's1 ordinary and familiar as your own hand1 and find yourself confronted with a vexing sense1 that this is not my hand1 or I've never seen my hand before1 and this can leave you feeling quite disoriented and alienated.1 So just as1 deja vu is too much connection1 between the deep 1 limbic structure the Hippocampus1 and its nearby area on the surface of the brain,1 jamais vu is what you get when those two normally well-connected areas are completely1 separated from one another in their function.1 And if you look on the screen you will see the Hippocampus sort of1 flashing on and off1 rather crudely1 and other areas on the surface of the brain part of that Parahippocampal region1 staying nice and still for you.1 The next Temporal Lobes sign1 is called1 the Sensed Presence1 and the Sensed Presence happens when1 you have the feeling that someone is standing behind you or someone is watching you1 but when you turn to look there's no one there.1 Now this is is an illusion based on a very social brain part1 the Amygdala1 and it happens when communication between the left the left and right Amygdala breaks1 down1 so there isn't quite enough communication between2 your sense of self on the left side of the brain and your sense of self on the right2 side of the brain.2 When this happens2 the2 sense of self that2 you're not identified with2 usually the one that's housed on the right2 is projected outside of you where you experience it as an outside entity or a2 being of some kind.2 The next one2 is Paresthesia2 tingling sensations, electrical sensations, buzzy feelings in the body.2 And the brain parts that are involved with that are the Parietal Lobes2 very often on the left side more than the right although I'm not entirely sure why2 that is2 and the structure deep in the brain called the Caudate Nucleus2 which has been called the brain's2 emotive visceral integrator it integrates our emotional state2 with our body's state of tension or relaxation.2 So2 when you have this happening your2 body's normal response2 to your emotions2 can go a bit overboard2 and you can find that more than just having your body be excited by something where your2 body pleased by something it can actually give you so much input in the form of tingles2 and chills that run up your spine and so forth.2 They can actually compete2 with whatever it is that has given you that pleasure.2 So people have tingly sensations during sex it's very common while listening to music 2 the operatic2 soprano reaches her crescendo2 the orchestra wells up, you're overwhelmed with a barrage of exquisite music and you just2 go 'ahhh...'2 and the chills run up2 your spine if they get too intense they can actually take some of your attention away from the2 music.2 So this seems again to be another case of activity sort of overflowing or spilling out2 from one structure to another.2 The next one2 is called Vestibular Sensations and I hope the camera stays on this one long enough to2 let the viewers2 interpret it well.2 But that's the sensation you get when your2 body's orientation system2 gives you2 misleading information.2 So that for example with Vertigo you come to the edge of a very high cliff and you look2 down2 there's no one pressing you to fall over,2 nothing's happening except looking down your sense of space2 which ends at your feet,2 at a normal floor2 can suddenly2 at the edge of the cliff be extended out to an enormous space2 and the result is your brain2 can't quite orient itself in space between2 the nearby space you're standing on2 and the very very far away one at the2 bottom of the cliff.2 And it's just too much orientation information coming at once2 you get a bit dizzy from this and you say 'wooh2 I think I need to take a step back.'2 The most common time for2 2 Vestibular Sensations to appear2 in the course of Temporal Lobes activity2 is when you're falling asleep the so-called Hypnagogic phase or the twilight phase of sleep2 and then people can find that their bodies are2 moving when they're2 falling asleep rising, the bed can seem to rise, fall, rock2 even spin2 and 2 the other place it comes up for a lot of people and I actually found this one a bit frightening2 when I was a child2 was if someone mounted a camera on the front of a roller coaster ... let the camera run2 while it was recording the roller coaster's motion as an ad for an amusement park or something.2 2 I would actually find myself getting disoriented by that and have to look away from the TV2 as if somehow watching television was going to throw me over a cliff.2 Of course it wasn't going to be able to do that2 and I wasn't young enough to actually think that such a thing was possible.2 But my body's sense of its location orientation and space and movement was such that2 it felt like a real danger2 and of course the easy way to2 eliminate any danger coming from the television is to look away from it.2 I think I like to point out to people when they're getting scared2 during a scary scene in a movie you want that to stop? Turn off the TV.2 And this one has its origins in two different areas of the brain2 here we have the Hippocampus2 the 2 upper left panel2 as you can see.2 And we have an area on the right side of the brain on the surface of the brain2 which carries the cumbersome name of2 Occipital Temporal Parietal Region2 and it's just the area where the Occipital Lobe2 the Temporal Lobe and the Parietal Lobe all seem to come together.2 And this area is also very important in maintaining our spatial perception.2 So these are some of the very common signs of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy.2 So a good epileptologist confronted with a new patient and he's wondering2 about2 whether or not this person has Temporal Lobe Epilepsy2 should they go on and do2 more intensive screenings2 and so he's asking these questions ho ften do you experience deja vu, how often do you have2 the feeling that someone's standing behind you,2 how often does everything turn alien, dreamlike or strange does your body tingle, does it2 move when it's at rest2 and if the answers to these are yes enough2 then they will be given a clue that this may be Temporal Lobe Epilepsy and not something2 else like2 psychiatric disorders.2 One of the things I learned in the course of doing my basic studies to empower myself2 to give these talks and understand these ideas2 was the claim that2 sixty percent of all Temporal Lobe Epilepsy2 was misdiagnosed as some kind of psychiatric disorder.2 And I've even caught a few cases of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy and I'm not a doctor2 but I would ask people about these experiences and they'd be yes,2 yes, yes2 in their2 in their2 endorsing2 of these items.2 And then I'd say well go get yourself to an Epileptologist get a referral2 and have them do a screening for that2 it couldn't hurt.2 And in a couple of cases out of the word came back to me2 once from the person and once from someone I never met but it came by email but they2 in fact had been diagnosed2 with Complex Partial Epilepsy2 and now they didn't have to take the medicine for Schizophrenia anymore2 and although they were not well2 because there is no cure for Epilepsy per se2 they were actually doing much better,2 and of course I feel very good when I think about that.2 But those are signs2 of Epilepsy,2 discrete experiences that are signs of Epilepsy2 not from diagnostic markers2 but simply2 signs that Epilepsy maybe probable with this person or that.2 The other point2 is the Temporal Lobe Personality2 and I'm not sure how many people use this exact phrase I may be the only one2 but there is a personality that comes up for people2 with very active Temporal Lobes2 whether the2 activity in the temporal lobes has to do with a strong predisposition to spirituality2 whether they're very spiritual people2 or whether it comes up in association with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy.2 They2 both groups have enough in common.2 But to to me it looks like there is such a thing as a Temporal Lobe Personality2 the personality that you get2 when a person's frontal lobes aren't really working hard enough, aren't contributing as much to their2 consciousness, as other Temporal Lobes2 are more active than they ordinarily would, contributing too much to the person's ongoing2 states of consciousness.2 And there are2 five traits2 that I've noticed with the Temporal Lobe Personality2 and 2 four of these were first discovered by the great Epileptologist2 Norman Geschwind2 and it's called Geschwind syndrome2 and it has four traits.2 Hyper Religiosity.2 And the paper was published in the early seventies2 when the mainstream medical community was a bit less friendly to spirituality than2 it is today.2 And you couldn't say a spiritual person you would say2 a Hyper Religious person.2 The next trait is Hypergraphia2 which relates to another trait called viscosity.2 Hypergraphia means the tendency to write at length.2 And viscosity2 is a word that anyone who works with people and is interested in psychology ought to have2 in their vocabulary it actually comes from physics where it's used to describe fluid dynamics.2 Honey2 is very viscuous2 water is not.2 Viscosity is defined as2 resistance to change in flow2 and if that doesn't describe some people's personalities I don't know what does.2 So a Hypergraphic person gets2 writing about something and they cannot stop2 and this is a little bit different from people who simply keep restating their phrases.2 I do that myself but it's not because I'm not2 viscuous it's because in the course of doing these lectures2 I'm often phrasing things for the first time while I'm talking and if another way2 to phrase it comes to mind2 I'll throw it out as well.2 That's a different trait from simply being unable to shut up2 and I'm compelled to speak here not by neurosis but rather by the clock.2 So the next trait is Irritability which refers to a specific pattern2 in anger.2 It doesn't mean that the person is easily angered2 although it can mean it in some cases2 if we are talking about a Temporal Lobe Epileptic and 2 the locus the origin point,2 the beginning point of their seizures is on the left side of their brain, then they may2 well be very easily angered. But the characteristic feature of Temporal Lobe Epileptic anger3 or the anger pattern of the Temporal Lobe personality,3 is that the anger comes quickly, is very intense3 it's gone3 and then very frequently afterwards they feel just awful about it3 and that's because the anger itself represents a burst of activity on the left side of the3 brain,3 when that burst3 fade out3 the same areas on the right side of the brain will become active sort of draining3 off that electrical activity giving in an outlet3 and the right side of the brain tends to right "hemispherisity" and hemispheric right3 hemispheric activation3 tends to correlate with things like depression and low self esteem.3 So one minute they're so important that it's 'how dare you3 take a sip from my can of coke'3 and then when that3 instance of rage is gone3 they'll realize how self-important they've been3 the activity drains off into the right side of the brain so to speak3 and then they will think 'Oh my God how can I respond that way to a simple can of Coke'3 'How can I be3 that tied up3 with my five cent3 aluminum can deposit?'3 and they feel awful.3 The next one is called Altered Sexuality3 and Altered Sexuality can be of two types.3 One type3 is Hyposexual,3 very low interest in sex and these Hyper and Hyposexuality3 refer not to the amount of hormones the person's body is secreting3 not to their capacity for the act of sex itself3 but rather their overall level of interest.3 Some people are very interested in sex and they can't seem to think about anything else sometimes,3 other people almost never think of it all unless something happens3 to make them think about it.3 The first would be Hypersexual the second would be Hyposexual. At one time Hypersexuality3 in women was known as Nymphomania and in men was known as Satyriasis3 and3 Hyposexuality was once known as frigidity3 and in a testament to the incredibly sexist character of traditional academic3 the traditional academic world,3 as far as I know there was no name for male Hyposexuality.3 Perhaps they were priests3 or teachers somewhere who decided that3 a lack of interest in sex and men3 was actually a healthy thing3 and didn't give it a name.3 The fifth trait3 which was not one of the four3 traits given by 3 Norman Geschwin in his paper the 'Interictal Behavioral Syndrome 3 of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy'3 is Hyper Emotionality.3 Many of the structures that3 work in the Temporal Lobes the emotional structures3 um..3 get included3 in Temporal Lobe seizures, get included in whatever temporal lobe processes drives a3 spiritual person,3 so they can find that their3 emotions become enormously intense.3 I know a woman who if you give her something delicious to eat3 will literally explode3 her appreciation for it.3 And for a couple of moments actually can't eat because the first bite was so delicious3 her emotional response is so strong,3 that if she eats in that moment her own emotions will be the object of her attention3 and not the food that she's appreciating.3 3 And I can'd tell you the author's name3 but there is a paper and3 publication called the 'Schizophrenia-like3 Psychosis of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy'3 and this is one of those papers where the researcher realized3 how intensely emotional3 the Temporal Lobe Epileptics were3 and went in to look at their emotions.3 It's actually strong enough3 that it could give you a3 Schizophrenia-like profile3 for some Temporal Lobe Epileptics.3 As it turns out i don't think it's actually a good3 way of looking at it.3 The pathology of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy can include any emotions3 not just those that denote Schizophrenia or depression or anxiety. All of them can come3 up3 for Temporal Lobe Epileptics3 when they're not having seizures.3 So let's look at these traits one-by-one.3 Hyper Religiosity.3 Now you could be dealing with monks, nuns3 or spiritual people or you can be dealing with real live religious nuts.3 The end of the world is coming tomorrow repent!3 Give your life to Jesus.3 Begin meditation now.3 But their spirituality is always presented3 first of all it's usually bound up with a set of concrete religious beliefs which they often can 3 and will rattle off for you.3 3 At the same time3 they can weave3 everything3 into a fabric of religious belief.3 Excuse me3 you dropped a quarter.3 And the man leans down, he picks it up and he says 'Thank God you were here3 without you3 I wouldn't have this quarter.'3 God3 wants me.3 God in his heaven, Lord and master and creator of the universe wanted me to have this quarter3 and that's why3 he3 put me here3 to guide this moment.3 Praise be.3 Everything gets woven into3 spirituality or religion3 one way or another.3 And of course these people can be extremely tedious.3 There's actually a case on record3 of a Temporal Lobe Epileptic whose whole who