A head-shrinker from the University of Warwick has seek to take out the scientific lustiness ofmystical experiencesby delineate his own transcendental encounter while emerging from oecumenical anesthesia . Detailing the strange phenomenon in theJournal of Nervous and Mental Disease , Professor Swaran Singh explains how he follow to “ understand the cosmos , not in a cognitive sense of know but in an experiential fashion , which is difficult to give voice . ”
The upshot hap almost 40 twelvemonth ago on April 4 , 1984 , during postoperative recovery follow a serious road accident . Since then , Professor Singh has dedicated himself to the report of objective science , yet insist that the experience “ has become increasingly salient in my sense of self and my intellect of the relationship between the empirical and the transcendental . ”
Describing the experience itself , he reveals that it was sink in with a “ noetic quality , ” which is defined as “ a sense of Apocalypse and complete understanding . ” According to the author , the odd occurrence lasted for ten to 12 minutes , and allowed him to “ know something completely and whole , which I had never recognize before . ”
“ I do not eff how I know , but I know that I recognise , ” he writes , before going on to excuse how he came to totally understand the interplay between “ infinite , time , push , topic , and life history . ”
“ Life changes from one form to another , but the total quantity of life force remains constant and fixed , ” he says . “ The increase of one form is at the expense of another , and in case of animation , one life-time kind appear at the expense of another disappearing . ”
Attempting to ascertain the source and genuineness of this unexpected download , Singh insists that “ there must be a nervous base to these phenomenon . ” Delving deep into the matter , he recounts how the activating of brain area such as the insula , premotor cortex , and subscript parietal lobe have all been implicate in the genesis of mystic experience during meditation or while under the influence ofpsychedelic drug .
He also notes that any such changes in his ownbrain activitywere most likely provoked by “ a toxic / drug - induced confusional state , ” yet at the same fourth dimension maintains that the knowledge gained during the experience was valid and unquestionable . He thus capsulise the gulf between empiric skill and the indescribable power of pure experience and argues that while neural activity undeniably determines our mental summons , certain levels of consciousness may be derived from something deeper than mere brain bodily function .
“ Einstein states are mechanisms . They do not confer substance , ” he writes . “ And subjective meaning can not be reduced to a brain state , regardless of the strength of the statistical connexion between the two . ”
Ultimately , then , the newspaper publisher serves to highlight a philosophical paradox that threatens to thwart our spare-time activity of a scientific explanation of consciousness , experience , and ultimately , realism itself . Having outlined this apparently primal conflict , Singh conclude that “ I can not know which reality I experience – drug - induced , lucid dreaming , or something else . ”
