[Avodah] Kabbalah and Neuroscience

[Moshe Feldman]

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/992347.html
Excerpt:
<<These examples clearly demonstrate that major trends in Jewish mysticism
were based on repeatedly practicing techniques that led to experiences which
challenged the habitual perception of the mystic's own body and self, such
as seeing his "double" or disengaging from his body during "ascent of the
soul."

The above mentioned techniques are not at all simple to perform, and require
years of practice which do not always bear fruit. Why, therefore, did these
prominent kabbalists invest so much time and effort in these practices? The
kabbala saw in the "human soul" a "divine spark," "part of the divine
above." Therefore, to understand God, the mystic could study the "divine
spark" within by introspectively studying himself. Mystics and philosophers
throughout the generations utilized ecstatic states to understand the "self"
as well as the relationship between body and mind. Literally, the term
"ex-stasis" means "standing outside" the body. Accordingly, ecstatic states
include autoscopy (seeing one's body from outside); "ascent of the soul" (an
out-of-body experience, mostly accompanied by paranormal encounters with
celestial beings); "Maggid" or a "dybbuk" (possession of one's body by an
external "personality"); and "uni-mystica" (the experience of mystical union
with the divine). The "ascent of the soul" is therefore a state in which the
"self" separates from the body and allows the mystic to look within each of
these components in turn, attempting to understand their individual
functions. The autoscopic experiences as described by Abulafia's circle also
refers to another autoscopic body: Between that body and his own physical
body, the mystic can "move" his sense of "self" and thus peruse even more
closely the boundaries of the body, the "soul" and the "self."

A study of reports of patients suffering from lesions in the junction of the
brain's temporal and parietal lobes (temporoparietal junction), as well as
of people whose brains are electrically stimulated during surgical
procedures, reveal experiences that challenge the ordinary perception of the
body and the self, experiences that are similar to the reports of various
mystics, research that were described. Increased activity in the
temporoparietal junction was also found in experiments involving healthy
subjects who practiced tasks similar to those cited by the abovementioned
mystics. This brain mechanism was found to play a central role in the
integration of various kinds of input from the body, as well as in higher
cognitive functions involving the body and the self.

Such experiments may also explain the differences between various
kabbalistic techniques and the experiences they evoke. In an experiment
described in a recent edition of the Journal of Neuroscience, subjects were
presented with schematic human figures in different positions. In one task,
they were asked to imagine that the schematic figure was their own
reflection in a mirror, and in another task, they were asked to imagine
themselves in the position of the human figure - and from these points of
view, to perform different judgment about the presented figure. Notably, in
the first task, subjects saw themselves from their habitual point of view,
embodied within their physical body, similar to descriptions of Abulafia's
technique ("as if seeing himself in a mirror"). In the other task, subjects
came "out" of their bodies (disembodiment), and looked at themselves and the
world from that perspective - as did those who followed the teachings of the
Lurianic kabbala and early Hasidism ("and he will imagine himself as if his
soul has gone out and ascended").

*Activation of the brain *

Electrical neuroimaging revealed that different brain activities correlate
to these tasks. While in the first task (embodied self-location), activation
was found in the left extrastriate body area (EBA) of the brain, the second
task (disembodied self-location) was associated with activity in the right
temporoparietal junction. These findings are compatible with the role of
these brain mechanisms: extrastriate body area is involved with
visualization and imagination of bodies and of body parts, and therefore it
is active in an experience that is mainly visual, like autoscopy; the
temporoparietal junction is involved in multisensory coding and higher
processing of the human body and self, and thus involved in the sense of
disembodiment. The special function of the right hemisphere, which allows
people to imagine their body in numerous and sundry variations, including
from outside of it, can also be seen here. The left hemisphere is more
involved with the common visual basis of the phenomenon, as well as
Abulafia's technique of letter combinations, since the mechanism involved in
reading is located nearby.

Moreover, application of electrical neuroimaging on these two tasks while in
supine or sitting positions revealed that body position influences the sense
of embodiment. This is in keeping with the fact that neurological patients
describe out-of-body experiences as occurring while they are reclining,
while autoscopy occurs mostly in a sitting position. It also conforms to the
fact that Abulafia's techniques as performed mainly in a sitting position,
while those of the Lurianic kabbala and Hasidism were done in a supine
position.>>

Comments?

Kol tuv,
Moshe
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