Is Enlightenment an Abstract Concept or a Biological Default?

What one neuroanatomist’s stroke taught me about enlightenment

Recently, without much schmaltz, fanfare, or drama, God left me and walked away into the sunset.

Science made sure that the One who was fundamental to my belief system left with a clean cut, along with His stories, conditions, and contradictions.

• When classic physics shows that we only know 5 percent of the entire universe and that we are completely in the dark with the remaining 95 percent,
• When quantum physics shows that the 5 percent of the universe that we do know only exists as a wave of possibilities until we observe, at which point they collapse into a singular reality,

— it is not hard to wonder if we are in the wrong to assume that we “know” God.

I figured that we have deluded ourselves into thinking that we “know” God, having conformed Him within limited parameters like name, nature, origin story, good, evil, and His grand goal for this world. But “He” must’ve ceased to exist the moment we tried to measure the immeasurable within human definitions.

Oh, the gullibility of us, humans!

Take one close look at our scientific world through the peephole of a quantum mystery called the Double-Slit Experiment and you would agree that God probably exists beyond our “knowing”.

The aftereffects

But ever since God left, the subsequent ponderings and realizations have only been further affirming the burst of my God bubble time and again. This conformation has deepened to the point that I draw a blank whenever I try to pray these days.

My mental shift over this new development has felt rather matter-of-factly and there has been no separation anxiety per se about His leaving.

But, a small part of me has been latently wary of old uncertainties like enlightenment, inner peace, and everlasting bliss that have resurfaced with a new kind of blurriness in His wake.

When a super-abstraction like God can vanish with a sleight of the hand, what will become of sub-abstractions like enlightenment that are just as godly as God Himself?

Enter, Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, the author of My Stroke of Insight whose personal experience of a stroke has forced me to see existential concepts through a different lens.

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor is a neuroanatomist whose unexpected but astounding experience of a stroke that was brought on by a blood clot in her brain allowed her to witness the workings of the two hemispheres of the brain from the inside out.

While her book is an interesting read, her TED talk from almost 14 years ago is simply phenomenal and one listen will convince anyone as to why it still reigns as one of the top 25 most popular TED talks of all time.

First, a little mandatory biology to set the stage —

Our brain can be split up into left and right hemispheres. The left side of the brain is responsible for logic, language, memory, and social skills while the right side takes care of visual imagery, creativity, intuition, and imagination among many other functions.

Even though the two hemispheres of the brain interpret the world differently, inputs from both parts are essential to perform any task. Information streaming in from these two hemispheres is stitched together by the brain seamlessly for our comprehension that in our normal experience we don’t see them as two different sets of information.

This is because evolution split up the job of comprehending reality between the two hemispheres, so the brain could process more data and perceive the world in a wholesome manner.

In her narration, Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor explains that —

• The right hemisphere understands incoming information through sensory experiences while the left processes information through language and analysis.
• While the right is all about the present moment, the left is about the past and the future.
• While the right comprehends everything as a fundamental energy form that is one and the same, the left pulls back the reins with the inner voice of reality that helps us stay in our lane. (Oh, that rhymed!)

A neuroanatomist’s stroke of insight

It was in this left hemisphere where, on the day of Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor’s stroke, a blood vessel burst causing her to lose the ability to talk, walk, read or recall within a matter of hours.

When the part of her brain that helps her perform as a social being deteriorated, she noticed that her brain chatter ceased and an engulfing silence took its place.

The stroke drew a curtain between the two hemispheres and allowed her to discover the magic that resides in the right hemisphere of her brain as her left hemisphere started shutting down function after function.

“I lost my balance and I am propped up against the wall.

I looked down at my arm and I realized that I can no longer define the boundaries of my body. I can’t define where I begin and where I end because the atoms and the molecules of my arm blended with the atoms and molecules of the wall and all I could detect was this energy.

I am asking myself what is wrong with me, what is going on and in that moment, my left hemisphere brain chatter went totally silent just like someone took a remote control and pushed the mute button. Total silence.

At first, I was shocked to find myself inside a silent mind, but then I was immediately captivated by the magnificence of the energy around me. And because I could no longer identify the boundaries of my body, I felt enormous and expansive. I felt one with all the energy that was and it was beautiful there.”

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor

Sounds familiar?

Sounds suspiciously like the stuff of yogis and teachers who spend their lifetime meditating, searching for the truth, and finally reaching that sea of blissful silence, aka, enlightenment?

There have been many neurophysiological studies done to understand the correlation between brain functions and mental states. Scientists use brain imaging technology to measure the blood flow in the brain during religious and spiritual practices.

One such study was the SPECT imaging done on Tibetan meditators and Franciscan nuns while they meditated or prayed, which had revealed a decrease in the language center activities in the left hemisphere. It has been shown that this reduction results in the silencing of brain chatter, along with a decrease in the orientation-association area of the left hemisphere that enables one to identify their personal physical boundaries.

Just as Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor’s experience.

So when the master teachers said things like “You are already That”, “Enlightenment is a natural state that is within us”, or the simplest of all, “Be Still”, what they implied was that the big ticket items of life like inner peace and enlightenment are not an abstract, farfetched potential within us, but rather tangible entities that are as real as the liver or spleen.

They are very much present in all of us, like the rectus abdominis muscle, which is a biological default in every human being that is not going to reveal itself as the fetching six-pack abs unless we lose the fat atop and strengthen the muscle.

We truly don’t have to do anything but only remove the obstacles that stop us from seeing that which we already are.

So enlightenment is a simple neurochemical interaction of neurons in an ocean of grey matter. It is a dormant biological function, a straightforward spiritual neuroscience. It can come with years of practice or come in the blink of an eye because our neural wirings just up and decided to go a different way.

Does this oversimplify the ethereal godly concept and knock it down from its heavenly pedestal? Probably, yes.

Does it make it any less spectacular? Most definitely, not.

I guess what this now means for me is that the reverence has not been lost but just switched places. Now it is closer to home, right at my neural tip.

Enlightenment doesn’t make me uneasy anymore because it sits not at a faraway destination as an abstraction but right here, perfectly between my fears and joy, mistakes and anxieties, untouched by anything that was and anything that would be.

We may not have been officially introduced to each other yet, this enlightenment and I, but it is no longer a stranger. This realization in itself feels like an invisible shackle breaking off, a shackle that I did not even realize I was wearing on me all this time.

Sure, God left me and walked away into the sunset.

But not before He looked over His shoulder and promised, “You are going to be okay, my child.”

“If you are plotted anywhere near me on the spiritual graph or if you find my journey relatable, please follow me for more rants, raves, and reflections.”