How Enlightenment Changes Your Brain: The New Science of Transformation

by Andrew Newberg, Mark Robert Waldman

Overview

The bestselling authors of How God Changes Your Brain reveal the neurological underpinnings of enlightenment, offering unique strategies to help readers experience its many benefits.
 
In this original and groundbreaking book, Andrew Newberg, M.D., and Mark Robert Waldman turn their attention to the pinnacle of the human experience: enlightenment. Through his brain- scan studies on Brazilian psychic mediums, Sufi mystics, Buddhist meditators, Franciscan nuns, Pentecostals, and participants in secular spirituality rituals, Newberg has discovered the specific neurological mechanisms associated with the enlightenment experience—and how we might activate those circuits in our own brains.
 
In his survey of more than one thousand people who have experienced enlightenment, Newberg has also discovered that in the aftermath they have had profound, positive life changes. Enlightenment offers us the possibility to become permanently less stress-prone, to break bad habits, to improve our collaboration and creativity skills, and to lead happier, more satisfying lives. Relaying the story of his own transformational experience as well as including the stories of others who try to describe an event that is truly indescribable, Newberg brings us a new paradigm for deep and lasting change.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780399185595
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	06/06/2017
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	1,088,502
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Andrew Newberg, M.D., is the director of research at the Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and Medical College. He is the author of several books, including the bestselling Why God Won’t Go Away, and his research has been featured in Time, Newsweek, and O, The Oprah Magazine, and on the Discovery Channel, the National Geographic Channel, the BBC, and NPR.

Mark Robert Waldman is executive MBA faculty at Loyola Marymount University, where he teaches the NeuroLeadership program. He is a business and personal development coach and the author of twelve books, including Words Can Change Your Brain, coauthored with Newberg.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Authors' Note ix

Part 1 The Roots of Enlightenment

1 The Enlightenment of a Troubled Kid 3

2 What Is Enlightenment? 27

3 What Enlightenment Feels Like 47

4 Enlightenment Without God 67

5 The Spectrum of Human Awareness 83

Part 2 The Paths Toward Enlightenment

6 Channeling Supernatural Entities 109

7 Changing the Consciousness of Others 127

8 Opening the Heart to Unity 143

9 Believing in Transformation 165

Part 3 Moving Toward Enlightenment

10 Preparing for Enlightenment 189

11 Intensifying the Experience 213

12 Enlightenment for All 243

Appendix: Tools and Resources to Foster Enlightenment 249

Notes 251

Index 269

Editorial Reviews

"A heartfelt pursuit of enlightenment and its causes."
—Kirkus Reviews

"I love every book I have read from Andy Newberg and Mark Waldman and this book is their best yet.  How Enlightenment Changes Your Brain is a book you just can’t put down.  It will show you how enlightenment is real with clear underpinnings in the brain.  From looking at the brains of Brazilian psychic mediums, Sufi mystics, Buddhist monks, Franciscan nuns and Pentecostals this books takes you on a fascinating ride and shines a light on wisdom and insight.  If you want to know more about the deeply human and spiritual parts of your brain, read this book."
—Daniel G. Amen, MD, Founder, Amen Clinics, Author of Change Your Brain, Change Your Life
 
"An incredible book! Newberg and Waldman’s 'Spectrum of Human Awareness' is especially brilliant, providing the reader with a 'how-to' map to shift between different states of human consciousness.  They have dozens of experiential exercises to help you gain greater emotional control as you tap into the creative wisdom of your mind. Read it, apply it, and be enlightened!" 
—John Assaraf, Chairman & CEO of NeuroGym, Author of the New York Times bestseller, The Answer
 
"This extraordinary book shows you how to tap into mental powers you never knew you had, and release your full potential for living  a great life."
—Brian Tracy, author of Maximum Achievement

"Humans were experiencing enlightenment millennia before fMRI brain scanners were invented.  Yet, modern imaging techniques unquestionably add to the fascination of the correlations between consciousness and brain function.  Newberg and Waldman's book brings these findings up to date.  How Enlightenment Changes Your Brain is a feast for anyone interested in the neurophysiology of the spiritual quest."
—Larry Dossey, MD, author of One Mind: How Our Individual Mind Is Part of a Greater Consciousness and Why It Matters

From the Publisher

03/01/2016
Coauthors Newberg (director of research, Myrna Brind Ctr. of Integrative Medicine, Thomas Jefferson Univ. Hospital and Medical Coll.) and Waldman (executive MBA faculty, Loyola Marymount Univ.; both, How God Changes Your Brain) have put together a "how-to" for illuminating the mind. Based on neurological studies of individuals who have had transformational experiences—nuns, psychics, mystics, those who speak in tongues—this study distills some of the commonalities among these varying groups of practitioners, such as perceived experiences and physiological changes in the brain. Through relating their own stories, Newberg and Waldman set the scene for why enlightenment should be sought. Buoyed by their survey quotes from others whose lives have been changed and Newberg's neurological findings, readers are encouraged to engage in practices that will promote personal improvement. A comprehensive overview of the history of enlightenment in Eastern and Western religious and secular traditions is also provided. VERDICT Recommended for readers looking for a structured path to moments of enlightenment.—Rachel M. Minkin, Michigan State Univ. Libs., East Lansing

Library Journal

Two articulate researchers discuss fascinating brain scan studies that show how blood flow to specific parts of the brain changes when we are more or less controlling, are overloaded with mental static, feel agitated, or see ourselves as separated from others. The tasteful urgency in Fred Stella’s performance fits this groundbreaking research; his phrasing and vocal quality are unfailing throughout this audio. The authors show how practices like meditation not only change blood flow in the moment but also create longer-lasting brain connections that can alter our habitual approaches to many aspects of life. By making the neurological underpinnings of mental states so concrete, and drawing on so many cultures for examples, they provide enough anchors to give this audio both familiarity and excitement from start to finish. T.W. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2017 - AudioFile

2016-01-19
Combining anecdotes, awareness exercises, and examinations of contemporary neurological research, Newberg and Waldman (How God Changes Your Brain: Breakthrough Findings from a Leading Neuroscientist, 2009) seek to identify pathways to enlightenment. To clarify, that's "small-‘e' " enlightenment, the "mini-experience that provides us with new insights about ourselves and the world," and "big ‘E' Enlightenment," the "experiences…that ultimately relieve suffering and bring peace and happiness to the world." Early on, the authors admit that moments of "e" and "E" are "almost impossible to relate in words"; ineffability hardly seems promising as a guide to either kind of enlightenment. Readers may be skeptical when the authors suggest they have discovered "insights into a faster way to experience the big ‘E' forms of Enlightenment that are often described in ancient spiritual texts" or "some shortcuts that may speed up your own quest for a small ‘e' or a big ‘E' experience." But step back, and remember this is a spiritual quest—characterized by the authors' common elements of "E": oneness, clarity, intensity, surrender, and permanent change—and a spiritual quest is nothing if not confusing and mysterious, perhaps even just an extension of wishful thinking. The authors are on more solid footing when they discuss their levels of awareness, which have merit as guides, though transcendence remains elusive. Their exploration of Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's concept of "flow" is furtive yet intriguing, and they offer a promising look into the working of the brain's frontal lobe—an area concerned with compassion, empathy, and connection—and how it appears to be deliberately accessed by a wide variety of spiritual people, from Pentecostals to Sufis, when they practice "intense body movement." A heartfelt pursuit of enlightenment and its causes, a subject that calls for an even more dynamic treatment.

Kirkus Reviews