Brain Science Behind Metaphor

Brain Science Behind My Work

When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness.

Joseph Campbell

Often I encounter braniacs who want “scientific” proof before they can accept the “validity” of the metaphorical work I do.  Believe it or not, I am one of them. Coming from a family of academics, I was curious myself. I encounter people like this every day, and current neuroscience is grappling with these concepts finding some very interesting answers. The main question still remains:

IS IT TRUE? Is what you experience in the spiritual awareness true?

With this question in mind, a few years ago, I embarked on a study which conclusively points out that meditative states have psychological, emotional and physical benefits. What I have come to discover is much more than just benefits.

I studied the neuroscience that hypothesized and researched the logical connections into creativity, memory, awareness, and higher consciousness.

Early prominent psychologists determined that the mind adapts the concepts and beliefs we form in early childhood into a vocabulary of personal representations for easy interpretation of situations, and to dictate responses to our environment, creating a complex vocabulary of personal symbology for everyday use.

Recent discoveries in neuroscience, neurobiology, neurophysiology and neurosociology show us how the perceptions of the outside world influence our inner awareness and how we can influence our own responses to those responses from within, based on the filters we created as we developed.

Research shows that the responses that are triggered by certain situations, people, voices, words, images, sounds, and smells, can be purely primal, and based on old memories. In my transformational work I help others experience conscious awareness and assist in creating structural changes in these perceptions of oneself; essentially reorganizing the filters through which they perceive the world.

In daily life, through our senses we actively perceive information, coming through our skin, our eyes, our ears, nose, and tongue. The data goes to the receptors of the central nervous system, and through the sensory channels of the central nervous system, is delivered to the brain. Depending on the quality of the data coming in through the receptors, the neurons fire off special chemical components into the blood stream, identifying the quality of the data, creating the experience of perception.

If the person is afraid, under stress and in struggle, the body responds by releasing stress hormones, epinephrines, triggering the production of catecholamines, the chemical components of the blood stream thickening the blood, initiating fight or flight response.

In the brain, special neurons fire off, making synaptic connections with the limbic system, amygdala, our primal brain, and the first “resource” on the checklist for safety and survival. Further, the “data” is immediately processed and released toward the hippocampus, and the pre-frontal cortex areas, anterior cingulate cortex, where the “meaning,” emotional responses and memories are generated, decided upon, and reasoned in accord with other memories of our “self” stored deeper in the limbic system.

Forty thousand years ago or more, we lived in the wild. We were adapted to have this response in place, in the case of a sudden attack of an animal or other foe. Our distress was always temporary, and once the danger passed, if we survived, we would return quickly to neurological equilibrium.

Today, the stress response is ubiquitous. Most of what we are afraid is invisible, and long term.  Fears of losing our status, in the forms of work or money, family concerns, appearances act as perennial phantoms that trigger the primitive fight or flight response. There is no escape and no abatement. Many people find themselves in stress overload, and adrenal fatigue, where their adrenal glands are constantly under pressure, and unable to supply the adrenalin that motivates us to take action under threat.

Long-standing effects of living without mindfully letting go of muscular tension and the effects of stress leads to many diseases, and accumulated illnesses. The leading theme of a person’s life becomes “Survival”, where the only desire is to stay alive, not FEEL alive.

Meaning is made as a result of filters, set in place through inner set of beliefs, stored as memories of behaviors, and a narrative available to the individual from the area of the middle brain, where inner physiological circuitry fires off the “understanding” and “connection” back to the frontal areas of the neocortex.  The brain creates a “vision,” a personal “reality” in accordance with the individual’s views and the corresponding input, suggestions, intentions and a person’s view on their place in the universe.

In a position of pure survival, in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the response will always be a pure response to the question: “How can I get what I need?” This is the physiology of stress.

In the work that I offer, I show how one can experience the other end of the spectrum. In a relaxed and focused awareness, a position of balance, allows the experience of positive elevated consciousness, a view of one’s role in the universal scheme of life, the person’s place in the universe. It is of this position Joseph Campbell spoke referring in the first function of mythology that a myth is meant reconcile an individual to the experience of awe in relation to the divine in her life.

In balance, physical calmness and equilibrium of the mind, the creative decision-making process becomes possible as opposed to just pure survival. The physiology of balance allows for a more “wholesome” state of mind, where both the rational and intuitive abilities of the mind are optimally available.

Rich in serotonin transporters, pre-frontal areas of the brain, particularly orbito-frontal cortex, activate the associations and rewards based, cognitive connections with the limbic system, and, again, if in balance, in a higher consciousness position in gamma state, solutions emerge.

This enables the seeker to connect with a metaphor of their personal role in the universe. Subsequently, connecting the dots in accordance with the intention, a creative action emerges as a solution, as a strategy of the next step, creating an active inner vision of necessary action to be taken in the near future.

Gamma state is implicated in resolving the binding problem the essence of which is how does consciousness of perception form?

The metaphor of unity of “me” in regard to the “world” is well known in neuroscience as a sensation, and it occurs when a particular part of the brain is stimulated to awareness.

Gamma state was researched to have demonstrated the longest wave in relation to deep transcendental meditation by Tibetan Buddhist monks. The variations of gamma wavelengths oscillating between 30-120Hz were observed in control groups of “normal” people who participated in research.  Notable evidence was discovered in research in gamma-band oscillations which may explain the heightened sense of consciousness, bliss, and intellectual acuity in and subsequent to focused intentional meditative states.

Besides tangibly improving physical health, letting go of stress, relaxation of the body and oxygenating the brain, being in a safe and comfortable balanced awareness in the hypnotic gamma state in a controlled environment of my office, client’s physiology experiences massive amounts of oxytocin, a natural hormone present in states of a heightened sense of well-being. In gamma state the individual experiences pleasure from connection with her spiritual guides, attaining the information, and sensing a harmonious place in the universe.

By stimulating specific areas of the brain in gamma, you have the opportunity to gain insight, wisdom and knowledge about your place in the world, the community and awareness about your purpose. You establish your connection with the inner wisdom, and as you remain in this state during your session, new neural pathways are created to further strengthen your ability to optimal brain function to project possibility into the creation of positive outcomes in the future.

After your session you return to your day to day experience with the knowledge and ability of what to do to relax deeply, and continue to be open to the information that deepens your knowledge about what to be doing through time to  create the future you intend for yourself.

More recent research shows that as you experience a deep connection with your inner wisdom, gamma state helps the new neurological connections serve to expand your mental ability and improved decision-making as a result of the new access to neocortical brain function. You are literally building connections to use more of your brain for higher quality decisions in every day life.

Tags: brain science, brain science behind hypnosis, gamma hypnosis, gamma metaphor, metaphor, Morrin Bass, neuro-science