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Copyright © 2016 by Andrew Newberg and Mark Robert Waldman
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eBook ISBN: 9780698194403
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Newberg, Andrew B., 1966- | Waldman, Mark Robert.
Title: How enlightenment changes your brain : the new science of transformation / Andrew Newberg, MD, and Mark Robert Waldman.
Description: New York City : Avery, 2016.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015025731 | ISBN 9781594633454
Subjects: LCSH: Spirituality. | Awareness. | Insight. |
Enlightenment—Miscellanea. | Neurosciences—Religious aspects.
Classification: LCC BL624 .N485 2016 | DDC 204/.2—dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015025731
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright
Acknowledgments
Authors’ Note
PART 1 The Roots of Enlightenment
one • The Enlightenment of a Troubled Kid
two • What Is Enlightenment?
three • What Enlightenment Feels Like
four • Enlightenment Without God
five • The Spectrum of Human Awareness
PART 2 The Paths Toward Enlightenment
six • Channeling Supernatural Entities
seven • Changing the Consciousness of Others
eight • Opening the Heart to Unity
nine • Believing in Transformation
PART 3 Moving Toward Enlightenment
ten • Preparing for Enlightenment
eleven • Intensifying the Experience
twelve • Enlightenment for All
Appendix: Tools and Resources to Foster Enlightenment
Notes
Index
About the Authors
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Every book involves dozens of people to bring one’s vision to fruition, and Mark
and I would like to express our deepest appreciation to everyone who has
worked with us over the past two decades. I especially want to thank the
thousands of anonymous contributors who have shared their spiritual
experiences with us through our surveys and brain-scan studies.
I would like to acknowledge my close colleagues that I have worked with over
the years. In particular, Dr. Daniel Monti has become a great friend and
colleague as the director of the Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine at
Thomas Jefferson University. He has been incredibly supportive of all of my
work. My two wonderful mentors, Dr. Abass Alavi and the late Eugene d’Aquili,
allowed me to explore this fascinating intersection of the brain and spirituality,
always encouraging me to tread into uncharted waters. And Nancy Wintering
has been a steadfast collaborator on all of these exciting projects.
We extend our gratitude to Chris Manning, PhD, at Loyola Marymount
University, Los Angeles, for helping us to clarify our Spectrum of Human
Awareness. We also thank Yuval Ron, a scholar of the Abrahamic mystical
traditions and their music, for his input and guidance regarding the complexities
of Sufi practices and beliefs.
Our deepest appreciation goes to our agent, Jim Levine, and to our beloved
editor, Caroline Sutton, who has brilliantly guided us through our last three
books. Also, our heartfelt thanks goes to Brittney Ross, our coeditor for this
project, and to Brianna Flaherty, our wonderful copy editor. We send an
especially big hug to Bo Rinaldi, who gave us the inspiration to frame this book
around the topic of personal enlightenment.
And of course, we could not do this work without the support of our
wonderful families, particularly our wives, Stephanie and Susan. While
enlightenment is always deeply personal, the experience becomes lacking if we
cannot share it with those we love and work with every day.
AUTHORS’ NOTE
For over a decade, Mark and I have worked together exploring the nature of
consciousness, spirituality, and the brain. For this book, since we have used
much of my own research to describe enlightenment, we will generally be using
“I” to refer to myself (Andrew), unless otherwise indicated.
But since Mark and I work closely in building our models and hypotheses, I
will often use “we” to reflect our collaborative efforts. In addition, research is
never a solitary venture, so you’ll often find references to “our” work, which
also includes the members of my research staff and colleagues with whom I have
worked for many years.
We have attempted to make the information in this book as “user friendly” as
possible. But generalizations often leave out important subtleties and
complexities. So for those who are interested in exploring these topics in more
depth, we have provided extensive peer-reviewed references to substantiate the
conclusions we have reached.
PART 1
THE ROOTS OF ENLIGHTENMENT
I awake
Like bursting ice
In a water jar.1
—Basho, seventeenth-century Zen poet
ONE
The Enlightenment of a Troubled Kid
H
ave you ever had an experience that completely and wholly changed your
life? An experience that changed the way you thought and the way you acted?
An experience that entirely changed your views about your job, your
relationships, and your life in general? Many people have. For some, it
converted their religious or spiritual beliefs. For others, it may have convinced
them that God doesn’t exist. It’s the type of experience that can totally change
the direction of your life, leading you down new paths of discovery.
Perhaps such an experience hasn’t happened to you, but you know that you
are looking for something that will profoundly change your life and provide you
with a new sense of meaning and purpose. People have questions, really big
questions, and they are seeking answers, really big answers. They’ll spend a
fortune on self-help books and courses that promise to transform them, only to
be disappointed.
Still, most of us continue to struggle to find “it.” But almost everyone has
gotten a glimmer of those big, life-changing experiences. Even the smallest
moments of clarity harbor some of the same basic elements of the “it” we feel
driven to find.
The “it”—the transformation we seek—is what most people refer to as
Enlightenment, with a big “E.” Eastern philosophy makes a big deal out of big
“E” Enlightenment, but in the West, philosophers talk about another form of
enlightenment, a small “e” mini-experience that provides us with new insights
about ourselves and the world. Throughout this book, we will distinguish the big
“E” experiences by using the capital letter for “Enlightenment,” and when we
refer to the smaller moments, we will use the lowercase “enlightenment.” These
smaller experiences—these little “e” enlightenments—are great to have and are
very helpful for understanding the big “E” Enlightenment. In fact, our research
shows that the smaller experiences might even prime our brains to have those
grand life-changing transformations. The big Enlightenment experiences are the
ones that ultimately relieve suffering and bring peace and happiness to people.
And that is the type of experience that the human brain appears to crave.
We want to show you what big “E” Enlightenment is all about—how it affects
