I grappled with this book on several occasions having abandoned it and returned to it much later on. How Enlightenment Changes Your Brain is aimed at a lay audience, for those perhaps that might have an interest in the scientific basis of meditation and secular aspects of spirituality. Or for those seeking to validate their experiences and beliefs through scientific findings. The quotes dispersed throughout the book, at the beginning of each chapter added some pseudo erudition to the text. Perhaps this is a harsh criticism, but I suspect that anyone with an academic background from the cognate disciplines, and a rudimentary understanding of the workings of neuroimaging, will be mildly frustrated at the presentation of the findings from neuroimaging studies as the limitations of neuroimaging studies in general are not touched upon. Although there are references in the ‘Notes’ section towards the end of the book. The neuroimaging research in combination with self-reports of spiritual aficionados appear to form the majority of the authors findings.

Chapter 5 the ‘Spectrum of Human Awareness’ does briefly mention the distinguished Damasio’s somatic marker hypothesis, without much elaboration though. Although I am prejudiced and references are included in the back for those who wish to follow up. Admittedly this is not reference material I would have thought cited and despite it being one of his lesser known works ( albeit it has been published as a mass market book) I expected to find Damasio’s ‘The Feeling of What Happens’ in the reference section. His classic study on acquired study on ‘acquired sociopathy’ in patients within a neurocognitive model provides an apt demonstration on the concept of embodied cognition and the spectrum of human consciousness in a scientific model, which is what I believe is being demonstrated in part in this section of the book.

The book does redeem itself in this chapter (in my opinion) as the notion and concept of self is eloquently introduced into the equation, and ways in which this could relate to feelings of ‘unity’. Essentially, how a potential erosion in the concept of one’s self correlates with brain activity and brain localisation, an overall decrease in emotional intensity and a sense of oneness with the environ. This is namely attributed to changes in activity within the frontal and parietal lobes. The perception of self — so-called little ‘e’ and big ‘E’ (Enlightenment) experiences is also brought up at this point. The majority of the findings pertaining to this very important area of self that are presented here seem to corroborate the findings of other reports from peer reviewed journals. (mainly concerning psychopathology)

Overall, a well-intentioned and light hearted tone is maintained throughout the book. Arguably the purposes of this book are not to meet the needs of the scientifically greedy, or academically needy reader and it would be unjust to dismiss this book on this basis alone. For those with an interest in mindfulness, meditation , and cognition it is a good starting point and includes some brief practical exercises towards the end. If you are seeking a read which is a little more intellectually rigorous and are feeling a little skeptical, then perhaps following up the references would be advisable!

© 2017 Alexandra Moraitis

Alexandra Moraitis is an translation and interpreting candidate with the CIOL.(The Chartered Institute of Linguistics) She graduated in 2015 from The University of Durham in the area of Cognitive Neuroscience.