In recent years, the interest of specialists in the search for the physiological foundations and mechanisms of trance has grown noticeably. Scientists have been able to establish which areas of the brain are responsible for these kinds of experiences. Psychiatrist Olga Frailikh told Pravda. Ru about whether the trance state is useful and what processes take place in the body. Trance (from the French transir - to be numb) is a functional state of the psyche, in which the degree of consciousness control over information processing changes. It, as scientists have found, is accompanied by certain changes in brain activity. The trance is medical - it is recognized as a healing state of consciousness, in which a person gets about twice as much rest as during sleep. Transcendental experiences have been noted by scientists among deeply religious people when visiting the temple, reading prayers. You can enter a trance on purpose, for example, during meditation. But no matter how hard scientists have tried during numerous studies to identify in believers who think about God, any "divine point", a separate organ or area responsible for experiences related to faith, they could not do it. Even the most thorough brain scans did not lead to anything. Many complex mechanisms of our consciousness seem to be involved in this process, and another case study was recently conducted by Italian neurophysiologists led by psychologist Cosimo Urgesi. This time, the specialists took a different approach: they recruited 88 volunteers with brain cancer and were referred by doctors for surgical removal of the malignant tumor. Patients were asked to fill out a special questionnaire before and after surgery. One of the sections of the questionnaire tested just the "ability to transcendence." For example, the respondent must evaluate how often he is so absorbed in business that he forgets where he is and how much time has passed; or tell him if he feels a strong spiritual connection with some other people or nature in general. And so on. Then the scientists analyzed the results obtained taking into account the location of the tumor. It turned out that people with a neoplasm that affected the higher structures of the brain, such as the cortex of the parietal or temporal lobes, showed a greater tendency to trance, mystical experiences than patients whose tumor affected, say, the frontal lobe. In the first group of patients, this tendency increased markedly, while in patients with problems in the frontal region, no changes were recorded. There were no changes in patients with an operated tumor of the cells of the meninges (meningioma). A more thorough analysis showed that a particularly strong increase in the tendency to trance experiences was demonstrated by people in whom certain fragments of the parietal lobe cortex were removed during the operation. Scientists concludedthat in an ordinary average person, these areas are responsible for inhibition of such experiences and, accordingly, damage or removal of these fragments removes this blockage. It is interesting that the same areas, as experts have found, are actively involved in the creation and awareness of a person's sensations of the position of his own body in space. Their damage can cause a violation of this feeling and, according to Italian scientists, cause experiences of something transcendental, going beyond awareness of oneself “here and now.” It is interesting that psychologists from Denmark, headed by Uffe Schjødt, who conducted experiments completely different kind, came to a similar conclusion. Danish studies have shown that it is the structures of the cortex of the parietal and temporal lobes of the brain that become especially active during fervent prayer or meditation. Psychiatrist Olga Frailikh told a Pravda. Ru correspondent about what happens to the human body in a trance state: “Currently, there is a surge of interest in practices that allow you to achieve trance, or the so-called states of altered consciousness. There are many options here: from holotropic (in a special rhythm) breathing, dynamic meditation, any yoga practices with pranayama to jogging (but always with "opening the second breath"). Rapid breathing, or some other triggering mechanism, leads to the so-called pneumokatarsis - a state of relaxation, a stormy experience of joy, happiness. Apparently, the impetus to this process is given by impulses coming from the very parietal and temporal lobes of the brain, which neurophysiologists who have conducted research in this area tell us about. After prayer, meditation and other options for entering a trance, the human body begins to produce natural opiates. - hormones of happiness endorphins. Accepting more and more, they independently cause and maintain a state of euphoria.
And what is especially important, in parallel, the release of special hormones by the adrenal cortex - corticosteroids, which have a powerful anti-inflammatory effect, suppressing inflammatory processes in many diseases, increases. In addition, the production of other hormones also increases: the hormone of the anterior lobe of the pituitary gland, the thyroid gland, sex hormones and some others.
Perhaps, mysterious cases of recovery of ardent believers who say prayers if they wish to be healed from various serious ailments are connected with the work of this internal “chemical laboratory”.
