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Arguments about money are the top predictor of divorce, research finds.
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"Imagination is the highest kite one can fly."
-- Lauren Bacall
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Viewing enlightenment through this psychological lens, we can see that in normal waking consciousness we don’t typically see reality clearly, and as a result, we suffer. This gives rise to the idea of enlightenment as “awakening” from this deluded state--the Buddha means “the one who woke up”. What is at the core of this delusion? One could argue that it is the perception of the world and the mind as being divided into separate objects. When conceptual divisions are seen for what they are, as concepts rather than objective categories, what’s left is the perception of a perfectly unified reality. Often the most challenging conceptual division to see through is between “self” and “world”. When this division collapses, one experiences what might be called ego-death or ego-dissolution. In the modern world, this is a major route into the liberated enlightened state, particularly when it comes to the use of psychedelics.
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Scientists have discovered that if you let someone’s mind wander while scanning their brain, you see a constellation of brain areas that become active together. There are three brain areas that form the core of this network. One is the medial prefrontal cortex, a region of the part of the brain behind your forehead that we met earlier. Instead of sitting on the surface directly under the skull, however, it sits on the side of the brain where the two hemispheres meet, in the same way as the cingulate cortex that we also met earlier. The posterior cingulate cortex, located behind the anterior cingulate cortex, is another key area of this network. Finally there is the angular gyrus, a bump of brain tissue that sits just above your ears. This network is active when you’re in your everyday, default way of being. As a result, it is known as the default mode network (DMN).
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Psychedelic ego-dissolution
When we meditate or take psychedelics, we are no longer in our default mode. We may even totally see through the conceptual division of self and other that is thought to be mediated through the activity of the DMN. What happens to the DMN during meditation? When meditation consists of focussed attention on an object like the breath, reductions in the medial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex are observed. This fits with the idea of this form of meditation practice as a route to enlightenment through self transcendence. As DMN activity quiets we are less focused on activity constructing a psychological concept of self, allowing this suffering-generating division to be overcome or transcended
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