The Mind Of A Mystic

Researches

By R. Murali Krishna, M.D. President, James L. Hall, Jr. Center for Mind, Body & Spirit President COO, INTEGRIS Mental Health, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Sri Nithyananda Swami is a trim, healthy-looking young man with dark, shoulder-length hair. Handsome and polite, possessing an open manner and a wealth of curiosity, he could be any ordinary American college student. The difference is that ordinary American college students do not wear orange robes and turbans, have not experienced spiritual enlightenment and are not regarded as a teacher, healer and mystic by millions of people in all corners of the world. A mystic? The term is not a bad fit for 'Swami,' as he is known. Mystics, popular culture tells us, have direct communion with God. Through means not understood or measurable, mystics are thought to have access to ultimate realities or truths. Picture a mystic and you'll probably picture someone full of bliss, someone gifted with lofty thoughts and insights the rest of us do not possess. The very presence of a mystic is thought to bring peace and healing to others. That's an apt description of Swami, a 27-year-old from South India. He is approached by thousands of people a year seeking relief from diseases and ailments that conventional medical approaches have not cured. Swami's background lends him the air of a mystic, too. He left his home as a teen, visited ashrams across India, immersed himself in philosophy, read extensively and mastered the art of meditation.

First, the dominant hemisphere of Swami's brain was more than 90 percent shut down. It was as if Swami's brain had packed up and gone on vacation. It was quiet and still, completely at peace ... and Swami had made it so at will. A second amazing aspect of Swami's deep meditation was that the lower portion of his mesial frontal areas lighted up in a very significant way. This area roughly corresponds to the reputed location of the mystical "Third Eye." When we later asked Swami what he was doing when the mesial frontal areas lighted up, he said he was opening his third eye. Associated with both cosmic and inner knowledge and thought to be a place of clarity and peace, the Third Eye is considered by many to be the seat of the soul. Were we seeing an indication that deep meditation can open an area of the brain responsible for communicating with the divine, looking deep into the mysteries of self or creation? I believe the PET scan revealed what I call the brain's "D-spot." Whether you consider the "D" in D-spot to stand for delight, the divine or even dopamine, the chemical through which our bodies experience pleasure, initial indications are that meditation can stimulate it.