I think our purpose in life is to express God. It’s naturally within us. When we begin to unlearn those emotional states that drive us to our lowest denominator and we begin to reinvent a new self and recondition a new self, we go from being selfish to being selfless.

Welcome, blessed viewers to this week’s edition of Science and Spirituality the first in a two-part series featuring excerpts of interviews with respected scientists regarding how our brain is connected to spirituality and self-transformation.

The brain contains a massive and complex neural network with approximately 100 billion nerve cells. It monitors and regulates key body functions such as breathing and heart rate, receives sensory information, manages physical motion like walking and talking, and is involved in reasoning and dreaming. The major parts of the brain are the hindbrain, which has the cerebellum and brainstem, the midbrain, and the forebrain which has the diencephalon and the cerebrum.

During much of the modern era, mainstream science has avoided focusing on spirituality in neurological research. However, in recent years, there have been an increasing number of studies regarding how the human brain functions and reacts during meditation, prayer, near death experiences, and when one is engaged in focused constructive thinking.

In a study, they did these SPECT (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography) scans, with Buddhist meditators and Franciscan nuns, and that shows what parts of the brain get blood flow. When these Buddhist monks were at their most heightened state of awareness, they pushed a button. They took a picture of blood flow of the brain. And same with the nuns. What happened? Parts of the frontal lobe became very active. Parts of parietal lobe became very active. And then the right parietal lobe shut down, so it got less blood flow.

If you look at nuns and reverie of prayer, Buddhist monks and meditation, a part of the brain that turns on is called the "frontal lobe" and that is like the volume control of the brain. When the frontal lobe begins to work properly, it quiets down all the other circuits and the brain so nothing else is being processed, but a single-minded thought. All of a sudden they started to experience altruistic states of compassion and joy and inspiration and goodwill.

Brain structures like the amygdala, the orbital frontal cortex and the front of the brain are also involved in various aspects of spiritual experiences and states.

Many studies have examined the connection between faith and healing. Dr. Larry Dossey, a physician from the United States and former Executive Editor of the peer-reviewed journal Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine has said that prayer is as effective as penicillin in curing people, but without the side-effects.

Spiritual concentration and religious conviction can change brain activity and boost the body’s immune system, which can lead to spontaneous remission of a disease or the complete healing of an illness.

In general, it’s been shown that people who are more religious are healthier.

As a clinician, all the years I’ve practiced – and most health professionals will tell you this – there is clearly something about religion and spiritual experience that helps people cope. And basically will make it easier for them to deal with their conditions and to get better, or as much as they can.

When we produce synchronized coherent patterns, the immune system gets very strong. These monks they didn’t get sick because their system was so integrated and so orderly that disease couldn’t live in their body. The signal that’s travelling down the central nervous system is creating amazing order that allows the body to begin to function in wonderful ways.

We know that the brain is connected to all the other physiological systems in the body, like the immune system, and the endocrine system. So this means that when you change something at the mind level, for instance a belief, you will influence not only the brain, but all the other physiological systems connected, for instance, the immune system.

Obsessive–compulsive disorder can be reversed through mind exercises and purposefully shifting the focus of one’s attention to physically change the way the brain functions.

In the bottom of the front of the brain, right above the eye sockets, a part of the brain called the “orbital frontal cortex” and this is basically, among other things, an error-detection circuitry in the brain and it's overactive. So we were seeing that people who had obsessive-compulsive disorder had an overactive error-detection circuitry, but they realized that the way they were thinking and feeling didn't make sense so this enabled me to say, “Well, the reason why you're feeling like everything is wrong is because your brain is sending you a false message.”

Getting people to change their perspective, change their quality of attention. Use the impartial spectator, use full awareness, to help them understand that this is their brain sending them a false message, and then when they understand that it’s their brain sending a false message, they can change the perspective they take on it.

When Science and Spirituality returns, we will continue to examine the brain’s role in spirituality and effecting self-transformation. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

Welcome back to Science and Spirituality featuring distinguished scientists speaking about how the brain is interrelated with spirituality and can be re-mapped to significantly change our physical and mental state.

We have done a study also with people suffering from arachnophobia, spider phobia, and before starting the therapy, the patients were not even able to look at colored pictures of spiders in a booklet. At the end of therapy, and we use cognitive reframing, which is you change your belief systems with regard to the phobogenic stimulus, the spiders for instance, then at the end, all of our patients were able to hold in their hands a giant tarantula.

And we scanned them twice, before and after therapy. While we scanned them, we were showing them film clips of spiders in motion. At first they all experienced a panic attack, but at the end of the therapy, which lasted only four weeks, there was no reaction in the emotional portion of the brain.

There are cases of remission of cancer that are seen when people use visualization, mental imagery, meditation, and various relaxation techniques.

The informational processes at the mind level, for instance, a thought, can influence brain activity.

“As you think so shall you become” is a famous aphorism that reflects the power of the mind to shape who we are as a person, with thoughts directly re-shaping how the brain functions. If we focus on a single goal, our lives can be fundamentally changed.

The thought, how you think is the electrical charge in the quantum field. And how you feel is the magnetic charge you emanate. So how you think and feel creates an electromagnetic field that affects every single atom in your life.

In the movie, “What the Bleep Do We Know!?” what I was saying most importantly was that, if I’m going to sit down and take the time to emulate the Creator, if I’m going to be like God, if I’m going to emulate the quantum field which gives life to all things, if I am going to express divinity and I’m going to be a Creator, I want to know that my thoughts count and I want to know that I some way made contact with this mind.

So I need a sign to let me know, great mind, cosmic mind, that I’ve been heard by you. I want you to bring a signal or a sign to me in my life in a way that I could least expect.

The belief that everything about your mind is completely determined by and in fact reducible to what your brain does, what's become a slogan; that is, “The mind is what the brain does.”

These things can markedly be influenced by the neural chemistry of your brain. But, and it's a big “but,” it's also important to realize that the way you experience those feelings, the way you interface with those thoughts, the kinds of attention that you pay to it, being either mindfully aware or having sort of a rational, third person perspective on it, or being just gripped by it interfaces with what your brain is doing, and how you focus your attention can change what your brain is doing.

If you form an image in your mind of how you want to behave, you can become that, and on top of that the science that we’ve done has shown that you change your brain in the process of doing that, so that the brain actually evolves to become the image that you’re portraying.

So this kind of focus of attention in some significant way changes who you are, changes your inner chemistry; so it's powerful stuff.

The fathers of quantum mechanics realized about 80 years ago that the observers could influence the behavior of the microphysical system that they were measuring. The sub-atomic particles, if you will. They now recognize that human consciousness can influence the physical world at that level.

Neuroplasticity, the capacity of neurons to form new neural pathways and to reorganize existing ones, allows the brain to evolve.

Now great inventors in history here, great visionaries that had genius ideas, they had the ability to function neuroplastically. They had the ability to have a neuroplastic brain, which means in the brain the sum of the parts is greater than the whole. So, they could learn something and begin to speculate and ask questions and begin to think about those answers.

For example, (Albert) Einstein, when he was 12 years old, he asked himself this question, “If I ride my bicycle at the speed of light, and I turn my head lights on, will they go on?” Now he thought about that question every single day of his life.

The fathers of modern science were all very spiritual people, like Newton, Galilei, Descartes. But after a few centuries, scientists thought that we only needed mechanical explanations to understand humans and the Universe. So, materialism became a metaphysical assumption most scientists now are afraid to challenge. Fortunately, there’s an increasing number of scientists who dare to challenge openly this old notion of materialism.

Our sincere gratitude goes to the notable scientists featured today for sharing their insights on the brain, mind and consciousness. Please join us next Monday on Science and Spirituality for part two of our program where we continue to delve into the brain’s role in spirituality and effecting self-transformation.

For more information on the scientists on today’s program, please visit the following websites Dr. Mario Beauregard Dr. Joe Dispenza Dr. Brick Johnstone Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz

Benevolent viewers, thank you for your company today on Science and Spirituality. Coming up next is Words of Wisdom after Noteworthy News here on Supreme Master Television. May we all contemplate within to discover our true great selves.

When we have a group of people that can think compassion, think peace, think goodwill and demonstrate it and be able to maintain that state of being where they’ve memorized it internally, nothing in their external world can move them from it. When they’re in a state of being, they’re more prone to do things and think things equal to that state of being.

Welcome, blessed viewers to this week’s edition of Science and Spirituality, the conclusion of a two-part series featuring excerpts of interviews with respected scientists regarding how our brain is connected to spirituality and self-transformation.

The brain contains a massive and complex neural network with approximately 100 billion nerve cells. It monitors and regulates key body functions such as breathing and heart rate, receives sensory information, manages physical motion like walking and talking, and is involved in reasoning and dreaming.

The major parts of the brain are the hindbrain, which has the cerebellum and brainstem, the midbrain, and the forebrain which has the diencephalon and the cerebrum. During much of the modern era, mainstream science has avoided focusing on spirituality in neurological research.

However, in recent years, there have been an increasing number of studies regarding how the human brain functions and reacts during meditation, prayer, near death experiences, and when one is engaged in focused constructive thinking.

(Andrew) Newberg, the person who did the studies of the Buddhist monks and meditators, got qualitative descriptors of what these people felt like during their most advanced stages of meditation. And they said, “I feel unconditionally loved. I do not feel a sense of the self. I feel like I am totally connected to the universe.”

So I would say that is kind of the overall spiritual transcendence. And if you think of what the term transcendent means, it means to go beyond the self, which really fits with the neuropsychological studies.

It has been well documented that regular meditation changes the way the brain functions. Thanks to the development of state-of-the-art tools, neuroscientists now better understand the role of brain. Some of the many instruments they use include rCBF (regional Cerebral Blood Flow), real time MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging), MEG (Magnetoencephalography), and improved EEG (electroencephalography).

In a study, they did these SPECT [Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography] scans, with Buddhist meditators and Franciscan nuns, and that shows what parts of the brain get blood flow. When these Buddhist monks were at their most heightened state of awareness, they pushed a button. They took a picture of blood flow of the brain. And same with the nuns. What happened?

Parts of the frontal lobe became very active. Parts of parietal lobe became very active. And then the right parietal lobe shut down, so it got less blood flow.

Meditation is the process of knowing yourself, and understanding who you are. Because we have such a large frontal lobe, we can observe our own thoughts, own actions and our own behaviors. And that concept in neuroscience is called “meta-cognition.”

A number of brain imaging studies show that patients suffering from clinical depression or obsessive compulsive disorder, when they start meditating and doing what we call “meta-cognition”, which is to take a distance from your own thoughts, your own beliefs, your own emotions, then it’s possible to change the functioning of the brain.

The benefits of meditation are immense. Scientific studies have shown that practicing meditation leads to lowering of heart rate, chronic pain alleviation, and erasing of negative thinking.

A recent study found that long-time practitioners have significantly larger volumes of the right hippocampus and increased gray matter in the right thalamus, left interior temporal gyrus, and right orbito-frontal cortex as compared to the rest of the population. Interestingly, all of these regions are associated with control of one’s emotions and researchers feel that this may be an explanation for the emotional stability seen in those who meditate.

So the process of meditation requires unlearning and relearning. Or what neuroscience calls “pruning synaptic connections” and “sprouting new connections.” Because we can do that, that allows us to modify and change our behavior so that we can do a better job in life.

You really can change the way certain brain structures function, and brain networks underlying all sorts of negative emotional states.

While our daily thoughts may seem to be inconsequential, this is far from the case. Our thinking literally has the power to change our genes.

You have genetically inherited patterns of brain activity. There is no question about that. That is completely non-controversial, but your genetically inherited patterns of brain activity are going to have very, very large effects on how you live your life.

However, if you realize that you can transcend, you can go beyond those patterns of brain activity through the power of your attention, and through focusing your attention more wisely, you can change the expression of those genes.

When Science and Spirituality returns, we will continue to examine the brain’s role in spirituality and effecting self-transformation. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

You can see that everything we were saying here about how focused attention changes your brain is very compatible with that, because you’re basically forming a view of the self, you are, through prayer and meditation, coming to see what God wants you to be.

Welcome back to Science and Spirituality featuring distinguished scientists speaking about how the brain is interrelated with spirituality and can be re-mapped to significantly change our physical and mental state.

Some habits are deeply ingrained and imprinted in our brains and thus become even more entrenched as we grow older. If we do not focus our attention, or deeply concentrate, on changing an unwanted trait that we have, scientists such as Dr. Bruce Lipton, who is an expert in cell biology, say these habits stay with us permanently.

From before birth to two years of age, a child will express predominately delta activity, which is very low frequency brain activity. When we express that, we're essentially sleeping or not being conscious. It doesn't mean the child's unconscious. The child is totally present but not engaged in what's going on. It seeing, observing it and downloading it, but doesn't like (to) interfere with the download. Doesn't say, "Gee, that was a good behavior. That was bad behavior.”

It just watches you and learns the behavior. It's not being consciously involved in the learning. Sub-consciousness is not consciousness. Consciousness is creative. Sub-consciousness are tapes. Where did you get the tapes? Oh, your subconscious was programmed before birth up through six years of age without you even being involved. You learned tapes about how to live.

After you get past six, this development of the pre-frontal cortex region here, which is where our central source of consciousness comes from, self-consciousness, self-reflection is an add-on really. And as a matter of fact it's an option. A lot of people in this world don't even use consciousness. The reason is, you don't need it.

Once you learn the program, it's just repetition. When you are not paying attention to your own consciousness, you are playing tapes that are not even yours. And you don’t even see it. Because the sub-consciousness works in-perceptively, it’s so fast that it doesn’t even engage consciousness.

You see, every time we have a thought we make a chemical. So if we have a great thought or, if have an unlimited thought, we make chemicals that make us feel great or feel unlimited. If we have negative thoughts or self- depreciating thoughts, we make chemicals that make us feel negative or unworthy.

So this immaterial thing called thought fires a set of circuits in the brain that produces a chemical to signal the body for us to feel exactly the way we’re just thinking. The moment we feel the way we think, we begin to think the way we feel, which produces more chemicals for us to think

This creates a big loop.) the way we feel. And this loop, the cycle of thinking and feeling, and feeling and thinking creates what I call a state of being and it’s the cycle of thinking and feeling, and feeling and thinking over time that begins to condition the body to memorize that emotional state better than the conscious mind.

The power of thought can affect the brain to such a degree that if one’s thoughts are continually not on a constructive level, it and the entire bodily system can be affected in a very negative way. By contrast, if our thoughts and attitude are positive, our brain reacts differently and our body is healthier and outlook on life is sunnier.

We live in two states of mind: we live in survival or creation. When we live in those states of anger or aggression or hatred or judgment or fear, anxiety or insecurity or pain or suffering or depression, it’s those chemicals that are created from the chemicals of stress or survival that activate those states of mind. It’s the redundancy of those chemicals or the chemicals that push the genetic buttons that begin to cause disease.

If you’re thinking and feeling has been negative for the last twenty years, your mind may be thinking positively, but your body is remembering being negative. Ninety percent of who we are by the time we’re 35 years old is sitting in a subconscious set of programs. Automatic programs that operate without our conscious mind.

So here’s the 10 percent of your conscious mind wanting to change against 90 percent of who we’ve become as a personality. So we have to learn how to get into the operating system. It takes going past the analytical mind to be able to do that. And that takes practice.

Our sincere gratitude goes to the notable scientists featured today for sharing their insights on the brain, mind and consciousness. We wish all of them success in their further study of the brain and how self-transformation and spiritual experience are related to this fantastic organ.

For more information on the scientists on today’s program, please visit the following websites Dr. Mario Beauregard Dr. Joe Dispenza Dr. Brick Johnstone Dr. Bruce Lipton Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz

Thank you, intelligent viewers, for your company on today’s episode of Science and Spirituality. Coming up next is Words of Wisdom after Noteworthy News here on Supreme Master Television. May our planet always be united by love and grace.