An interesting piece of research put forward by a couple of doctors on the brain chemistry of the enlightened can be found at this link.

It’s called “How Enlightenment Changes the Brain” and to quote the jacket:

“In this original and groundbreaking book, Andrew Newberg and Mark Robert Waldman turn their attention to the pinnacle of the human experience: enlightenment. Through his brain- scan studies on Brazilian psychic mediums, Sufi mystics, Buddhist meditators, Franciscan nuns, Pentecostals, and participants in secular spirituality rituals, Andrew has discovered the specific neurological mechanisms associated with the enlightenment experience—and how we might activate those circuits in our own brains.

In his survey of more than one thousand people who have experienced enlightenment, Andrew has also discovered that in the aftermath they have had profound, positive life changes. Enlightenment offers us the possibility to become permanently less stress-prone, to break bad habits, to improve our collaboration and creativity skills, and to lead happier, more satisfying lives…”

For another good bit of insight you might want to have a look at this link as well and read about the brain in Nirvana and the neurophysiology of Buddhist suffering.

“All that we are is the result of what we have thought.” 

Dhammapada 1st line.

I’ve just been so intrigued by the idea that there are so many people out there equating symptomatic distress with awakening that I had to look around. Here’s a link to a Quora thread given to fighting bi-polar without medication. One hundred-plus answers, but the one at the top of the list got my attention immediately wherein Raymond Morales talks about an ability via neuro feedback for a person to actually get a grip on his own mind even under these dire circumstances. Seems to me the enlightened would be similarly empowered and enabled. Just sayin’.