Your Brain in a Lucid Dream

Bridges in the world of metaphysics and neuroscience

As a teacher and student who bridges the world of metaphysics and neuroscience, and am always seeking out mainstream exploration and explanation of esoteric ideas, events, and experiences, I love to read articles and watch videos on how the brain works.

The brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in most invertebrate animals, and all vertebrates, a small part of the brain called the hypothalamus is the nerve control center for all hormonal systems.

The brain is the largest cluster of nerve cells in the body and is generally located in the head. In primates it is usually near organs for special senses such as hearing vision, and the sense of smell. It is the most specialized energy-consuming organ of the body, and the one responsible for sensory perception, endocrine regulation,the development of intelligence. and motor control,

The spinal cord, which directly interacts with somatic functions below the head, can be considered a caudal extension of the myelencephalon enclosed inside the vertebral column. Together, the brain and spinal cord constitute the central nervous system in all vertebrates.

In humans, the cerebral cortex contains approximately 14–16 billion nerve cells (neurons), and the estimated number of neurons in the cerebellum is 55–70 billion.

Each nerve cell is connected by synapses to several thousand other nerve cells, typically communicating with one another via long fiber-like extensions called axons, and root-like protrusions called dendrites.

Physiologically, brains exert centralized control over a body’s many organs. They act on the rest of the body both by driving the secretion of chemicals called hormones, and generating patterns of muscle activity. This centralized control allows coordinated and rapid responses to changes in the internal and external environment. Some basic types of responsiveness such as reflexes can be mediated by peripheral ganglia or the spinal cord. Still, but sophisticated purposeful control of behavior based on complex sensory input requires the information integrating capabilities of a centralized brain.

One of the questions I have always asked is “What is going on in my brain when I am in a lucid dream, an astral projection, an altered state of consciousness, or some other mental process where stuff is going on but if measured in a lab, my brain seems to be idle?”

In my research, I came across an article on this subject by Nora Bradford in Quanta Magazine. Quanta Magazine is an editorially independent online publication covering developments in physics, mathematics, biology, and computer science.

In 2001, the neurologist Marcus Raichle identified the network of brain activity that activates when the mind is wandering, calling it the “default mode” of brain function.

The default mode is clearly up to something complicated; it’s involved in many different processes that can’t be neatly described.

“It’s kind of silly to think that we’re ever going to be like, ‘This one brain region or one brain network does one thing,’” Uddin said. “I don’t think that’s how it works.”

Who Are We?

Uddin began investigating the default mode network because she was interested in self-recognition, and many self-recognition tasks, such as identifying your own face or voice, appeared to be associated with the network.

Recently, she has shifted her attention to interactions between brain networks. “Just as different brain areas interact with each other to form networks, different networks interact with each other in meaningful ways.” Uddin said. “Network interactions are more elucidating to study in some ways than just a network in isolation because they do work together and then come apart and then change what they’re doing over time.”

Uddin is also investigating how different brain networks, including the default mode network, interact.

She’s particularly focused on how the default mode network interacts with the salience network, which seems to help us identify the most relevant piece of information at any given time. This is invaluable information for me as a predictive forecaster and in the ways I create game theory strategies. Her work suggests that the salience network detects when something is important to pay attention to and then acts as an off switch for the default mode network.

Researchers have also been examining whether mental health disorders like depression could be linked to problems with the default mode network. So far, the findings have been inconclusive. In people with depression, for example, some researchers have found that network nodes are overly connected, while others have found the opposite — that nodes are failing to connect. In some studies, the default mode network itself isn’t abnormal, but its interactions with other networks are. These findings may appear incompatible, but they align with recent findings that depression is perhaps a cluster of different disorders that present with similar symptoms.

Meanwhile, Menon has developed what he calls the triple network theory. This posits that abnormal interactions between the default mode network, the salience network, and even a third one called the frontoparietal network could result in mental health issues including depression, schizophrenia, anxiety, autism, and dementia. Generally speaking, the activity of the default mode network is reduced when someone is paying attention to an external stimulus (a sound, sight, smell, or touch), while activity in the two other networks seems to expand. This push and pull between networks may not function the same way in people with developmental or psychiatric or disorders.

Deanna Barch, who studies the neurobiology of mental illnesses at Washington University in St. Louis, is fascinated by the triple network theory. Exploring how networks are connected up differently in people with mental health disorders than high functioning people can help researchers find underlying mechanisms and develop treatments, she said. Yet, she doesn’t think network interactions alone will fully explain mental challenges and full blown mental illness.

“I think of understanding connectivity differences as a starting point,” Barch said. “It’s not an endpoint.”

The current understanding of the default mode network is surely not its endpoint, either. Since its discovery, it has motivated neuroscientists to think beyond the responsibilities of single brain regions to the effects of the synergy that arises between brain networks. It has inspired many people to appreciate the inward-focused activities of the mind.

Even when we’re daydreaming, meditating, or at rest our brain is working to make things happen.

The Takeaway

If we were to isolate all of these neurobiological factors we might have a mechanistic explanation of what goes on the in brain while we are meditating, or daydreaming. This might give us greater inner wisdom concerning the nature of what we call Zen Mind, the nature of language and how it helps us define an create our reality It can also show us how to be in the world and not of the world.

This video with one of my great influences, a Taoist teacher and physicist, Fritjof Capra may expand on what I have presented you with here.

Here is a Medium story on this subject:

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This story is an excerpt from my Module for making the best choices, from my online Course, “The Self Improvement Lifestyle”. You review introductions to his many personal growth courses at:

Author: Lewis Harrison is a Manifestation Coach, professional futurist (forecaster), and business consultant at…

He is the Executive Director of the International Association of Healing Professionals an educational organization that offers programs around the world in Intentional Living. He is also Independent Scholar, with a passion for knowledge, personal development, self-improvement, creativity, innovation, and problem-solving.

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