The Awakened Brain

Spirituality is usually evident whenever deeply personal experiences take on a special universal quality, and psychology professor Lisa Miller courageously treats us to numerous such synchronicities in her own life, profound moments (in part related to prolonged unsuccessful infertility treatment) that led to her involvement in the epidemiological and neuro-imaging studies reported here. It makes for a beautiful story, interwoven with those of some of her patients, and a pivotal encounter with a group of Native Americans. Her conclusions are solid, ‘The protective benefits of spirituality (against depression) are incontrovertible’ (p. 145), and all-encompassing,’The awakened brain... gives us a new paradigm for being, leading, and relating that can help us act with greater clarity and capability as we face humanity's great challenges.’ (p. 9).

Supporting this claim, in this revealing and insightful book, in a way reminiscent of Iain McGilchrist's exposition of the different types of left and right brain hemisphere function, Miller describes two types of awareness by which people conduct themselves. Achieving awareness encourages people to organise and control their lives, with the main concern being, How can I get and keep what I want? Awakened awareness (using different parts of the brain) allows people to see more, to integrate information from multiple sources of perception, helping them feel better connected to the whole, to nature and to each other, so that they experience themselves, rather than doers, as seekers, tasked with finding their own uniquely meaningful pathway through life. According to Dr Miller, ‘We look across this vast landscape and ask, What is life showing me now?’ adding that it's important to integrate the two. The final three of the sixteen chapters are given over to each of the three key ways Miller describes as bringing the wisdom of our awakened brain into our daily lives: awakened attention, awakened connection, and awakened heart. There are excellent pointers here, but I can think of other wisdom exercises and spiritual practices that would surely help too. And I have some further thoughts...

Dr Miller's ‘achieving awareness’ is associated with chronos, linear clock time, by which we abide in order to get and keep what we want in terms of fortune, fame, power and possessions. ‘Awakened awareness’, on the other hand, relates better to kairos, circular sacred time, when things happen unpredictably, serendipitously, always at the perfect moment, bringing about synchronicities, meaningful coincidences that help direct us in finding and keeping to our destined path. Humankind is facing a crisis. Dr Miller's insistence that everyone has the neural circuitry underlying “a natural inclination toward and docking station for spiritual awareness” (p. 8), makes me think that every person on the planet has a choice to make between two valid options.

Option One is to continue with ‘achieving awareness’ dominating our lives, getting what we want (or think we want) – continuing to wreak havoc and destruction on the planet, persisting in competing with one-another, living lives ruled by fear, mistrust and eventual stark deprivation through the cumulative effects of technological advances, war, climate change, epidemics of depression, anxiety and addiction, viral pandemics and the rest. Should it happen, the wise will accept this impending catastrophe because it is reality, not make-believe, and primarily because it is just. Through ignorance and folly, people are bringing disaster down upon their own heads. It may seem more tolerable because the survivors who will thrive into the longer-term future will probably be those indigenous peoples of the earth who have the knowledge, skills and wisdom to husband nature's gifts, not plunder and destroy them. They have been marginalised and mistreated, and their special relationships with the land and living creatures ignored, for far too long.

The alternative, Option Two, requires people to foster ‘awakened awareness’ within ourselves, to teach and encourage others in similar vein – to develop an over-arching sense of unity, oneness, kinship, and thus an outlook of altruism, of loving one's fellow humans as oneself, whatever differences of age, skin colour, nationality, creed, politics or anything else may threaten division; to foster kindness and tolerance; to treat nature and the planet with restraint and respect; and to rediscover the joys of frugality and humility, the release from permanent striving. Option Two, avoiding the intolerant, short-term, self-seeking approach of Option One, is the way of wisdom, compassion and love.

The way forward cannot successfully be prescribed by government agencies or other global institutions, however well-meaning. What happens depends on individual decision-making. This is our responsibility. Every person on the planet, consciously or otherwise, faces the two options of achieving and awakening. As far as the Universe is concerned, there is no right or wrong here; both are equally acceptable. As Dr Miller says, both ways of engaging with the world are necessary and must be integrated; the question is, 'Which dominates?' 'Which takes precedence in the heart and mind of each person?'

Although some may find the prospects associated with Option One harrowing, it is not necessary in the long run to feel greatly stressed about one’s personal response. If you think you’ve chosen the wrong option today, you can reverse your decision tomorrow. Dr Miller says that if we quieten down our ‘achieving’ brain sufficiently, our ‘awakened’ brains will inform us spontaneously either of what to do, or of what simply to wait patiently, courageously and confidently for, indicating somehow what the universe will be conspiring for our individual and collective benefit. All we need do is humbly acknowledge the wisdom we are continuously being offered and live by it; respect and follow the signs and synchronicities; make a commitment to shift our life balance from achieving to awakening. Give ourselves time, and it really shouldn't be all that hard.

I highly recommend this rich, entertaining, emotionally engaging and intellectually satisfying book.