What part of mind do hallucinations come from?

[Tirisilex]

What part do Hallucinations come from or witness it? What's it nature? For example someone on LSD or a Schizophrenic or someone in a deep trance?

[Eastern Mind]

Vanakkam Trisilex: Very interesting question. What is it that scientists say? We use one tenth of our minds? Normal people that is. Personally I think there are several views, ranging from the mystics to a scientists, and ranging by the condition.

Some days I think its all hallucination, but that's another topic.
Many theorists think the pituitary and more likely the pineal gland corresponds physically to the ajna, and then the sahaswara chakras. I've also heard of the 'wires crossed' idiom that suggests syntaxes get built or crossed in abnormal ways. This could lead to odd things. I remember back when I was a pandaram when I had memorised 108 names of Ganesha, and also 108 names of Siva. Somewhere in the middle of the list there existed the exact same name. So I'd be chanting Ganesha's names, and then when I hit that one name, I'd switch over to Siva's name's. Within 3 or 4 names, the vibration would switch, and I'd have to stop, and start over all over. I tell you this just as a simple example of chains of syntax memory crossing over as in an intersection of a road. Can't imagine if it were a whole whack of crossings all getting mixed.

So the memory, the emotions, its all interconnected. Mental diseases or conditions such as the aforementioned schizophrenia, but also autism, even Alzheimers, etc all give us hints I suppose.

You brought up a very fascinating topic. Thank you. Maybe there are experts lurking.

Aum Namasivaya

[smaranam]

Namaste

Scientists tell us that real spiritual experiences , experiences during epileptic seizures , as well as hallucinations from biological reasons , all can be located in the temporal lobes.


The problem is, scientists many times are skeptical about Reality of God, and dismiss a spiritual experience as biological hallucination although they do scratch the surface now and then of what Vedas and Vedanta have been telling us is the Truth.

This is a good thing provided their research is bringing science one step closer to God and the spiritual truth - whatever it may be.


However, let us look at what some scientists with faith or open to the possibility have to say.

1. Dr. V. S. Ramchandran, neuroscientist has written a book "Fantoms in the brain" which has a chapter "God and the Lymbic system" (- on amazon)

http://www.calvin.edu/~lhaarsma/GodModuleInBrain1999.pdf

This experiment did not prove that God exists and communicates with us. Neither did it prove that God doesn't exist, and that religious experiences are reducible to nothing but brain chemistry. The scientists themselves cautioned against any such sweeping conclusions. Our experience of sunlight causes electrical and chemical changes in our brains, but it does not follow that the sun is reducible to nothing but brain chemistry. The same is true of religious experiences. Questions of God's existence and human accountability have been debated for millennia. In the last centuries people have used and misused scientific results to argue for their beliefs......

Fortunately, God's gift of saving grace does not depend upon how our brain is wired. Our personalities do not merit saving grace; our actions do not earn it. We are commanded to live lives of faithful obedience, but our faith in God is not measured by the strength of our emotional responses; nor is our obedience to God determined solely by our personalities. The predispositions which are hard-wired into our brains may hinder or help us to live obediently. By God's grace, through a life of faith, those predispositions will increasingly conform to God's will.

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2. This article seems to have a balance of atheistic and theistic views.
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/biology/b103/f01/web3/ford.html

The fact that spiritual experiences can be associated with distinct neural activity does not necessarily mean that such experiences are mere neurological illusions. ItÌs no safer to say that spiritual urges and sensations are caused by brain activity than it is to say that the neurological changes through which we experience the pleasure of eating an apple cause the apple to exist. The difference lies in the fact that most of us agree on the physical existence of an apple....
Neuroscientist Eleanor Rosch agrees with Zen practitioners that our everyday perception--even the mostly universal agreement on the existence of apples-- may be a useful fiction. (5). Rosch and research partner Christine A. Skarda suggest that the feelings of interconnectedness that people perceive during deep meditation may in fact be just as real as the popular assumption that humans are separate beings. Our perception of separateness from the outer world may just be a handy ability that enables us to achieve certain sensations. The moments of oneness we experience may be the recovery of a larger reality. (5).
The difference and controversy between the neural experiences of toe stubbing or apple eating and transcendent contact with God partially lies in the meaning and purpose that we ascribe to each experience. These meanings and purposes originate from the neural pathways of the very brain that we are trying to dissect. What can we trust other than our perceptions and the knowledge that they are limited? Believing that mechanisms within the brain prove the existence of God cannot be an act of reductionist science, but one of faith.


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Hope this helps and does not harm.

Dear members, moderators, Satayji, if this post is bad for the health of HDF, please delete it. Its in your hands - to keep or delete.

PraNAm

[smaranam]

Namaste

I was avoiding the chakras and Kundalini topic simply because i would not do justice to this vast science, as i do not know much about it.

Just from common knowledge, imbalance/excessive energy in the Anahat chakra - heart , causes nightmares and hallucinations and
imbalance/excessive energy in the Sahasra chakra - crown, causes seizures.

The result can be seen, observed in terms of high activity in the temporal lobe, prefrontal cortex of the brain , Modern science says.

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* From spiritual sAdhanA point of view - A very informative thread on Kundalini Yoga has resurfaced (Meditation section). I am sure there is a lot more information under the HDF iceberg.


** Here are 2 books that map physiology (organs, nerves, glands) to the Vedic science of chakras and nAdis. Also talks about Vishnu Granthi , Shiva Granthi (one is pineal , other is pituatory ) and everything else.

1. Kundalini Yoga - Swami Shivananda
http://www.dlshq.org/download/kundalini.htm

2. "Chakras: Energy Centers of Transformation" , by Harish Johariji
http://www.amazon.com/Chakras-Centers-Transformation-Harish-Johari/dp/0892810548 (He also touches the autism spectrum , briefly at a point.)

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** Maharshi Mahesh Yogi shows co-relation between our physiology , nervous system and the vedas, brahmanas , (all shruti & smriti) . In short, the microcosm.
http://is1.mum.edu/vedicreserve/ (Click on an elipse - branch of Vedic Literature 
to access the pdf files.
)


How amazing !

Humblest praNAms to the Apurusheya Vedas, to the ParamPurusha from whose breath they are born, and to all the maharishis , yogis that brought them to mankind.