The human brain, perhaps the most fascinating part of the human body, is more active during sleep than while awake! With all of the brainpower used during a day, one would logically think that this should be the other way around. As it turns out, when we turn off activity, our brain turns on! Something is occurring during sleep. Of course, we know that during REM (Rapid Eye Movement) the human brain is dreaming. Perhaps Elihu revealed what’s going on during human sleep when he told Job that, “God speaks once, yes twice, though man pays no attention—in a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, in slumbering on the bed; then He opens the ears of men and seals their instruction.” (Job 33:14-16, World English Bible [WEB])
The original meaning of the word “conscious” was very different than most of us understand it today. Originally the word came from the Latin conscius, which is itself from con- (a form of com-, meaning “together”) and scire (meaning “to know”). Thus it meant, “Knowing together,” having knowledge with another. Does consciousness exist without stimuli? A sentient being is considered to be one who responds to stimuli—perceives it, processes it, and reacts to it. Also, we generally believe that consciousness is personal, subjectively unique to a being’s perception and perspective. In Latin, we also find the term conscius sibi, meaning “knowing with oneself,” indicating that we share knowledge of something with oneself and by implication, one knows that one knows something. (For more on this, see C.S. Lewis’ Studies in Words, Chapter 8: “Conscience and Conscious,” Cambridge Press, 1960.)
Consider the following from Bernard J. Baars and Katharine McGovern:
“No alien space visitor could fail to observe that vertebrates, including humans, engage in purposeful motion only two-thirds of the earthly day. In the remaining third, we hibernate. When consciousness returns in the morning, a massive change in electrical activity takes place all over the cortex, as the fast, small, and irregular waves of waking EEG replace the large, slow, regular hills and valleys of deep sleep … When we try to understand conscious experience we aim to explain the differences between these two conditions: between the events in your nervous system that you can report, act upon, distinguish, and acknowledge as your own, and a great multitude of sophisticated and intelligent processes which are unconscious, and do not allow these operations.”7
Our Unconscious Life
The fact that there is so much going on while we are supposedly unconscious—sleeping—says something about the dynamics of human consciousness.
So much of bodily life occurs subliminally, below the threshold of sensation or conscious awareness. Skin conductance, also known as Galvanic Skin Response (GSR), is a method of measuring the electrical conductance of the skin, which can vary depending on the skin’s moisture level. This is of interest because the sweat glands are controlled by the sympathetic nervous system not the central nervous system, so skin conductance is used as an indication of subliminal psychological or physiological stimuli. There has been a long history of electro dermal activity research, most of it dealing with spontaneous fluctuations or reactions to stimuli. The scientific study of GSR began in the early 1900s. One of the first references to the use of GSR instruments in psychoanalysis is the book by Dr. Carl (C.G.) Jung entitled Studies in Word Analysis, published in 1906. GSR was used for a variety of types of research in the 1960s through the late 1970s, with a decline in use as more sophisticated techniques (such as EEG and MRI) replaced it in many areas of psychological research. As of 2010, skin conductance monitoring equipment is still in use, probably because it is inexpensive (e.g., a galvanometer cost between $10 and $20).
There is a relationship between subliminal activity and semi-conscious or unconscious emotional reaction, and this can be detected. Skin conductance monitoring is highly sensitive to emotions in some people. Fear, anger, startle response, orienting response, and sexual feelings are all among the reactions that may produce similar skin conductance responses (SCR). These reactions are utilized as part of the polygraph or lie detector but are also a means for getting helpful biofeedback—a read on your subliminal activity. In 2008, the three primary organizations involved in biofeedback created this definition: “Biofeedback is a process that enables an individual to learn how to change physiological activity for the purposes of improving health and performance. Precise instruments measure physiological activity such as brainwaves, heart function, breathing, muscle activity, and skin temperature. These instruments rapidly and accurately ‘feed back information to the user. The presentation of this information—often in conjunction with changes in thinking, emotions, and behavior—supports desired physiological changes. Over time, these changes can endure without continued use of an instrument.”8
In addition to this, numerous research projects have captured the curious changes in human brainwave patterns during various methods of meditation. Considering that in most forms of meditation we strive to shut down the outer self and outer activity in an effort to arouse inner states of consciousness, vibration, and poignant stillness, these studies have added to the known fact that much goes on inside of us when we are inactive.
Monitoring the frequency and location of electrical brain waves is done using an Electroencephalography (EEG). EEG electrodes are placed in locations on the scalp that can pick up electrical activity in the brain. The recorded brainwave patterns are now categorized in six main patterns: mu (8-13 Hz, Sensorimotor cortex), gamma (30-100+ Somatosensory cortex), beta (15-30 Hz, frontal regions of the brain, both hemispheres), alpha (7-14, Hz posterior regions of brain, both hemispheres), theta (4-7 Hz, strangely located in areas not related to the task at hand), delta (1-4 Hz, frontal regions in adults, posterior regions in children—hmm, this is curious).
Beta occurs during normal waking consciousness; alpha occurs during deep relaxation, usually with the eyes closed—in light meditation, reflection, or memory recall; theta occurs during REM sleep and deeper meditation; and delta occurs in deep, dreamless sleep and transcending meditative states. Gamma occurs during problem-solving and short-term memory matching, such as faces with names. Mu is the rest state of motor neurons, awake but not active.
Studies have shown that theta waves indicate deep relaxation and occur more frequently in highly experienced meditators. These patterns are found in the frontal parts of the brain, which are associated with the higher mental processes.
In addition to brainwaves, the two hemispheres of the brain that normally operate randomly during waking life, dramatically unite into a synchronized rhythm of brainwaves. This is nicknamed “hemi-syncing.”
In the online edition of the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience (February 29, 2012), Eileen Luders, an assistant professor at the UCLA Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, and colleagues, have found that long-term meditators have larger amounts of gyrification (“folding” of the cortex, which may allow the brain to process information faster) than people who do not meditate. Furthermore, a direct correlation was found between the amount of gyrification and the number of years the subject had been meditating, providing further proof of the brain’s neuroplasticity (the brain’s ability to adapt to environmental changes). Perhaps most interesting, though, was the positive correlation between the number of meditation years and the amount of insular gyrification. “The insula [located deep within the cerebral cortex] has been suggested to function as a hub for autonomic, affective and cognitive integration,” said Luders. “Meditators are known to be masters in introspection and awareness as well as emotional control and self-regulation, so the findings make sense that the longer someone has meditated, the higher the degree of folding in the insula.”9
More cortex surface area results in greater intelligence. And since the birth canal restricts the size of the head, the evolutionary adaptation was to fold the cortex. The idea that meditating increases cortical folds could be countered with the idea that people with more folds might tend to meditate more. Whatever the case, there appears to be a correlation between meditation and gyrification (folding of the cortex), which correlates to intelligence and faster processing of information and cognitive integration.
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