DeConick A.D

185
GNOSTIC ALTERED STATES
The Ecstatic Brain
Why bother with such rigorous practices of bodily stillness? Were such
practices merely mimetic of the divinities, or did they achieve something
more for the Gnostic initiates? The literature suggests that the practice
was associated with altered states of consciousness, that the Gnostics
stood silent in moments of great ecstasy. Their records remind me of the
tale of Socrates, who was known to stand still for twenty-four hours in
ecstasy, as if his soul were absent from his body. Were the Gnostics using
bodily stillness and silence to prompt ecstasy?
The Gnostics claimed to offer initiates out-of-body experiences and
unitary raptures with a universal Good. This is the stuff of ecstasy, or
what we today might call altered states of consciousness. Ecstatic states
of consciousness are universally attested phenomena. Beneath the layers
of local divinities and locations that populate ecstatic experiences, we find
a set of commonly reoccurring characteristics, including an awareness of
disembodiment and liberation, feelings of ineffability and timelessness, an
altered sense of the self and its boundaries, and participation in or integration
with a transcendent category of being (Shantz 2009, 71).
Modern neurological studies show that these types of ecstatic states of
consciousness have a biological basis (McNamara 2009). Although it has
long been known that the ingestion of certain pharmaceuticals can induce
altered states of consciousness, what we are now discovering is that brain
structures actually undergo increased activity during an ecstatic state of
consciousness. These have been identified as a circuit involving the limbic
system (figure 6.5). This circuit starts in the prefrontal cortex when attention
is directed away from the external senses (1). This triggers a decrease
in the activity in the parietal lobe and the right orientation association
area (2). The right hippocampus is stimulated, leading to the activation
of the quiescent centers of the right amygdala and hypothalamus (3). This
arouses the autonomic nervous system, leading to changes in the midbrain
and feelings of peacefulness (4). The continual stimulation of this
circuit results in the deafferentation of the orientation association area
and feelings of transcending space, time, and self (5). This brain circuit is
regulated mainly by dopamine and serotonin neurotransmitter systems.
During ecstatic states, serotonin levels fall and dopamine levels rise.