Meditation & Light Visions: A Neurological Analysis

This neurological, "reverse-engineering" analysis of the spatial and temporal characteristics of meditation-induced light visions observed by the author and described in ancient Indian, Tibetan, and Chinese texts is an indispensable reference for neuroscientific researchers, physicians, psychotherapists, anthropologists, scholars of religion, and intellectually curious meditators. The analysis shows how sleep rhythms generate meditative states and how destabilization of sleep rhythms triggers hypersynchronous activity in corticothalamic circuits that drives the emergence of hippocampal seizures with ecstatic attributes. A review of EEG studies of experienced meditators reveals the unacknowledged presence of topological patterns typical of simple partial seizure. The book includes detailed, empirically-oriented drawings of the complete progression of light visions and charts that compare descriptions of light visions in ancient texts.

Philip Nicholson has published articles on the neural correlates of meditation-induced light visions in medical journals (Epilepsia, Medical Hypotheses, The Journal of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine) and academic publications (The Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies; Shamanism in the Interdisciplinary Context; Proceedings of the 7th International Conference of the International Society for Shamanistic Research, Changchun, China, 2004 [in press]; Proceedings of the 2006 Harvard-Peking University International Conference on Comparative Mythology, Beijing, China [in press]). His research on the neural correlates of meditation and meditation-induced light visions originally published in those sources has been incorporated-in revised form-in this book. The author’s other projects encompass a wide range of subjects, including an examination of ethical dilemmas facing military psychiatrists (Archives of General Psychiatry); a high school psychology text (Grace et al., Your Self: An Introduction to Psychology); filmscripts for a ＂Dilemmas in Legal Ethics＂ series commissioned by the American Bar Association; videoscripts for programs used in the continuing education of physicians (sponsored by The American Cancer Society, The National Heart Lung & Blood Institute, and myriad pharmaceutical companies); and articles on the cumulative psychological impact of living and working in fast-paced, computer-driven environments (＂Technostress at the Top: Work, Morale, and Self-Scrutiny,＂ Leaders Magazine). More information about the book and about the author’s credentials are available online at www.philipnicholson.com. Subsequent to the publication of this book on the brain mechanisms that generate meditation-induced light visions, the author published a new website, www.religiousvisionsoflight.com, that contains video animations of each light vision in the predictable meditation-induced sequence along with descriptions of each type of vision found in the narratives of influential mystics from virtually all of the world’s major religious traditions.