The Neural Mystic (Excerpt 3)

The Brain, Meditation, Happiness, and Transcendence (Chapter One, continued)

Meditation is a Key Mystical Practice

William James is the most famous Western philosopher of mysticism, yet he claimed that he wasn’t mystical:

Whether my treatment of mystical states will shed more light or darkness, I do not know, for my own constitution shuts me out from their enjoyment almost entirely, and I can speak of them only at second hand.¹

Yet his study of mysticism convinced him that

our normal waking consciousness . . . is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different. . . . No account of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded.²

Meditation is the key practice for transcending normal waking consciousness, and key to meditation is the deepening and extending of concentration. Meditation was not widely practiced in the West in James’s day, so he lamented that concentration is hard to cultivate:

And the faculty of voluntarily bringing back a wandering attention, over and over again, is the very root of judgment, character, and will. . . . An education which should improve this faculty [concentration] would be the education par excellence. But it is easier to define this ideal than to give practical directions for bringing it about.³

The education of attention in meditation is the practice that James missed in his era, when such training was not yet widespread. Had he been exposed to systematic training in meditation and similar contemplative practices, he might have discovered that he was more of a mystic than he thought.

Contemporary Contemplative Practices

Today we are much better equipped than a century ago to awaken our inner mystic. The variety of contemplative practices is wide and includes:

• seated and walking meditation (derived from various schools of Buddhism)

• mindfulness, or insight, meditation (based on the Buddhist practice of vipassana)

• Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, or MBSR (a secular form of meditation and bodywork developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn)

• contemplative prayer (as revived by Thomas Merton)

• Centering Prayer (as developed by Thomas Keating and other Cistercian monks and laypersons)

• yoga, including hatha yoga (psychophysical yoga), raja yoga (meditative yoga), bhakti yoga (devotional yoga), and karma yoga (the yoga of service or unmotivated action)

• chanting (japa, or the repetitive chanting of mantras)

• numerous East Asian martial arts and healing modalities

Most of these practices were unavailable in the Western cultural mainstream a century ago, nor was there as much interest in alternative spirituality then as there is today. For the gradual broadening of the Western mind to include meditation and mysticism as mainstream pursuits, we can thank many trailblazers, including:

• Ralph Waldo Emerson (Transcendentalism)

• Margaret Fuller (Transcendentalism)

• Henry David Thoreau (Transcendentalism)

• Mary Baker Eddy (Christian Science)

• Myrtle and Charles Fillmore (Unity)

• Swami Vivekananda (Hinduism and yoga)

• Evelyn Underhill (Christian mysticism)

• D. T. Suzuki (Zen Buddhism)

• Paul Brunton (nonduality, mysticism)

• Paramahansa Yogananda (Self-Realization Fellowship)

• Sivananda Swami and disciples (integrative yoga)

• Sri Ramana Maharshi (Advaita Vedanta)

• Aldous Huxley (author and spiritual teacher)

• Thomas Merton (Catholic monk and mystic)

• Alan Watts (countercultural spiritual teacher)

• Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (Transcendental Meditation)

• Deepak Chopra (mind-body pioneer)

• Jon Kabat-Zinn (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction)

• Thomas Keating (Centering Prayer)

• Richard Davidson (contemplative neuroscience)

A Nation of Mystics and Yogis

The result of more than a century of widening exposure to mystical ways of thinking has dramatically changed what counts as normative consciousness in the West. A 2018 survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) shows that 14.3% of U.S. adults practiced yoga in 2017—up from 9.5% in 2012. Even more dramatic was the increase in the practice of meditation from 4.1% in 2012 to 14.2% in 2017.⁴

Perhaps the most striking change over the last half century has been the rising number of people who report mystical experiences. According to a Pew Research Center Poll in 2009, 49% of the U.S. public reported “a religious or mystical experience.” This was up from just 22% in a Gallup Poll in 1962.⁵

Clearly, something has happened since the 1960s!

The Many Benefits of Meditation

Later chapters will focus on proven benefits of meditation at the following levels:

• genetic

• neurological

• physiological

• mental

• social

The Spiritual Benefits of Meditation

But now I want to stress meditation’s spiritual benefits, which include:

• stabilization of attention

• balanced state of mind

• increased creativity

• increased sense of peace

• increased awareness

• bolstering of positive thinking

• elevation of consciousness

• increased confidence and wisdom

• awareness of the nonphysical dimensions of being

• awareness of ultimate reality, or the divine

These benefits become richer the more one meditates and lives contemplatively.

In the initial stages of stabilizing our attention on a meditation object, we may notice these changes:

• the slowing of thoughts

• a sense of relaxation felt in the limbs as coolness

• a sense of weightlessness

• a reduction in the perception of bodily sensations

When concentration becomes stable, we may notice these changes:

• transcendence of brain-based thought

• a sense of peace and stillness

• awareness of inner light

• a sense of bliss or happiness not connected with the senses

• sensitivity to the subtle, or prana, body

• mental images of oneself performing mudras (ritualistic hand gestures) and asanas (hatha-yoga movements)

• awareness of ancestors, saints, deities and their subtle realms

When stable concentration transcends language and thought, we may notice these changes:

• the fading away of concepts and inner verbalization

• the fading away of the sense of the reality of death

• the fading away of desire, hatred, greed, and sorrow

• the fading away of experience into nonduality

When deep concentration blends with mystical insight, we may experience this change:

• The realization of the one’s nature as already enlightened (moksha, kaivalya, unio mystica, nirvana, etc.)

(To be continued) This is an excerpt from a book draft based on an online course that I taught at Embodied Philosophy.

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Image: The Neural Mystic book cover created by Kenneth Rose using Canva

The information presented in this post is the author’s opinion and does not constitute any health or medical advice. The content of this post is for informational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any condition or disease. Please seek advice from your healthcare provider for your personal health concerns.

1. William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature (New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1902), Lectures XVI and XVII, “Mysticism,” 379.

2. James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Lectures XVI and XVII, “Mysticism,” 388.

3. William James, Psychology: Briefer Course (New York: Henry Holt, 1892), 228. Elsewhere James recounts that one of his attempts at concentration was “in the highest degree exhausting.” It left him fatigued and covered with perspiration even though he hadn’t stirred from his chair. See William James, The Principles of Psychology, volume 2 (New York: Henry Holt, 1890), 90-91.

4. Tainya C. Clarke, Patricia M. Barnes, Lindsey I. Black, Barbara J. Stussman, and Richard L. Nahin, “Use of Yoga, Meditation, and Chiropractors Among U.S. Adults Aged 18 and Over,” NCHS Data Brief (November 2018), no. 325, https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db325-h.pdf.

5. “Eastern, New Age Beliefs Widespread: Many Americans Mix Multiple Faiths,” The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, Pew Research Center (December 9, 2009), http://www.pewforum.org/2009/12/09/many-americans-mix-multiple-faiths/.