The Neuroscience of Enlightenment, with Dr. Andrew Newberg | Big Think

The Neuroscience of Enlightenment
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Enlightenment is a traditionally mystical and slippery concept, but when it is subjected to the rigors of empirical analysis, there is a lot to be learned about our brains and ourselves. Dr. Andrew Newberg, who has put enlightenment through a battery of scientific tests, says there are actually two kinds of enlightenment: lowercase-e enlightenment, which changes our opinions about the world, and Enlightenment, which changes our essence, i.e. how we think of life, death, God, etc.
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ANDREW NEWBERG:

Dr. Andrew Newberg is the director of research at the Jefferson Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine and a physician at Jefferson University Hospital. He is board certified in internal medicine and nuclear medicine. Andrew has been asking questions about reality, truth, and God since he was very young, and he has long been fascinated by the human mind and its complex workings. While a medical student, he met Dr. Eugene d’Aquili, who was studying religious experiences. Combining their interests with Andrew’s background in neuroscience and brain imaging, they were able to break new theoretical and empirical ground on the relationship between the brain and religion.

Andrew’s research now largely focuses on how brain function is associated with various mental states—in particular, religious and mystical experiences. His research has included brain scans of people in prayer, meditation, rituals, and trance states, as well as surveys of people's spiritual experiences and attitudes. He has also evaluated the relationship between religious or spiritual phenomena and health, and the effect of meditation on memory. He believes that it is important to keep science rigorous and religion religious. Andrew has also used neuroimaging research projects to study aging and dementia, Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, depression, and other neurological and psychiatric disorders.

Dr. Newberg has published over 100 research articles, essays and book chapters, and is the co-author of the best selling books, Why God Won't Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief (Ballantine, 2001) and How God Changes Your Brain: Breakthrough Findings from a Leading Neuroscientist (Ballantine, 2009). He has presented his research throughout the world in both scientific and public forums. He appeared on Nightline, 20/20, Good Morning America, ABC's World News Tonight, National Public Radio, London Talk Radio and over fifteen nationally syndicated radio programs. His work has been featured in Time, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and many other newspapers and magazines.

His newest work is How Enlightenment Changes Your Brain: The New Science of Transformation.
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TRANSCRIPT:

When we start to think about enlightenment we try to divide it into two basic ideas about enlightenment. And one is what I usually refer to as the small E enlightenment experiences and these are the kind of experiences that people have a number of times through their life. It may be kind of the sudden epiphany about how to resolve some problem at work or solve an issue with a relationship. Some issue you’ve been working on for a long time and you suddenly figure it out and you kind of understand things in a different way for the first time. But that’s the little E experience. And the big E experiences are usually those experiences that are kind of are life changing. They’re mind blowing. They change everything about the way you think, about the world, about life, about death, about spirituality. Whatever it is it changes everything about who you are. 

For example one of the experiences that people often have is a very profound sense of an intensity of the experience. The experience is the most powerful experience they have ever had. And if there’s specific elements within it, if it’s something that they’ve seen, if it’s some vision of light or something like that - it’s the most beautiful light that they’ve ever seen. It’s the most beautiful music they’ve ever seen. It’s the most intense feeling of love that they’ve ever seen. So whatever it is it’s this very, very powerfully intense experience. 

We can look at the areas of the brain that help us to determine which things in our lives are particularly important, are particularly intense to us. This usually occurs within an area of our brain called the limbic system, which is the em...

[jameskrukowski]

I quite enjoy when science is used to discuss aspects of philosophy. These fields truly must coexist.

[Critterbt]

“If the brain were so simple we could understand it, we would be so simple we couldn't.”
-Lyall Watson

[juancabrera]

I had my whole body vibrate as an epilepsy attack, after that I was healed instantly and continued to heal during the following days and weeks. I was terminally ill and prayed God the night before to heal me and help me stop abusing drugs, since that day I am drugfree and alcohol sober. I also, changed my perspective on seeing things, and have a passionate loving heart, and I know that I can't harm anyone or do something that is not right. I became humble and lonely and now ready to implement what I have become in the new me, the I Am in me.

[captbradford]

2016 to 2022 I was experiencing a epilepsy ( ecstatic epilepsy) diagnosed in 2022 after some nasty seizures, this is a temporal lobe epilepsy.. I’ve had countless rapture seizures( incredible feelings of love and unity) usually all ways an aura before. One very profound seizure was a feeling of weightlessness, walking a beach one day I had a very strong aura, then it came an feeling of love I really can’t put into words and everything was white light and I was given a sensation of floating in gods love. Anyways thanks if you’ve read this, I want everyone to know the spark of god is within you…the peace that passeth all understanding is real

[wonder]

Yes, I experienced this, I was able to quit cold turkey, 5 different medications and had zero withdrawals. It also released my debilitating lifelong anxiety. I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't experience it. Sleep guided meditation, find a video on YouTube and lay down and relax.

[MarioTomicOfficial]

Great video, haven't been paying attention to this channel much lately. This video will make me come back :)

[NextGenAge]

Ego-death in psychedelics is the #1 experience that can start enlightenement. Without understanding through reflection it can also lead to derealization but we are here all to learn so that's fine.

[squamish]

Andrew Newberg and others in his field are laying the foundation of what may be the most important thing ever to happen to humanity. If we can hold civilization together for a few more decades, until we can harvest the fruits of this extraordinary labour, we may be alright. Maybe...

[ummmwhatnow]

Wow, it's amazing that you guys came out with this video and helped me see enlightenment from a more scientific point of view. I only learned about enlightenment a few months ago, and only had my first sober experience very recently. But there's a huge difference between understanding that there's no "I" and actually becoming aware of this 'field' of consciousness. glad to see from a neurological perspective that I may not be wasting my time. The brain being a radio receiver is a really beautiful yet simple analogy!

[pprehn]

Thanks, I've had a couple of these epiphanies through mushrooms and peyote, and they have profoundly directed my life where it needed to go...I was so blessed that my soul
could translate the experiences into meaning.

[wilkinsune]

This experience was enlightening itself. what an amazing talk!

[berwynsigns]

This guy's smart. I like this guy.

[laoerrr]

Such a lucid professor. I'd love to attend his classes.

[Dyslexic-Artist-Theory-on-Time]

I like the idea that “we are the universe becoming aware of itself” it has a truth to it. This would also be logical if everything is based on one universal process of energy exchange formed by the spontaneous absorption end emission of light. This is an interactive process, relative to the atoms of the periodic table with an uncertain future unfolding relative to the energy of our actions. In this theory the Universe is a continuum with a future continuously coming into existence relative to the atoms of the periodic table. We are made of atoms so it is logical that, looking, thinking, art, and poetry are all based on this process. Consciousness is the most advanced part of this universal process being aware of itself or aware of its own electrical potential. Light is an electromagnetic wave and the future is even unfolding photon by photon relative to the electro activity formed by the thoughts of each individual in this theory!

[ArcaneInkTattoo]

Enlightenment is not an experience, it’s not a Big Bang of any kind. It’s the absence of all things.

[createseventyeight]

From my understanding, the reason true enlightment is rare, is that it takes a rare type of brain wiring to achieve permanent enlightenment.

[ConstanceMaas]

This observation opens the door to so many questions, what if's, and assumptions!!! so much to think about here. So much more to discuss... Brilliant presentation! Absolutely brilliant!

[harriehoutman]

Enlightenment is beyond thought, 24/7 available for everyone. Consciousness is wat we Are, beyond thought/brain. Just This, no state, just being aware knowing. Thought is just a part of being, 'me' is a thought too.

[PVdaWiz]

this man just dropped some serious knowledge

[GiaSimone]

You don't lose your sense of self, you realize more of yourself. You remember your enormity. Oneness is just that - All That Is. It is all inclusive. And anyone can do it, if they really want to. It's thee most natural experience you will ever have.