11.  Structures and Functions of the Brain
As a foundation for our techniques for Transmutation of human life, first it is necessary to consider some of the structures and functions of the brain in a little more detail.  As I mentioned above, the brain can be analyzed in terms of structure and in terms of function.  The different structures in the brain carry out different functional tasks.  It is important to understand, however, that the brain always functions as an integrated whole.  
As described above, when we throw a baseball, the whole body is involved.  When we have an experience, the whole brain is involved, with a multitude of structures functioning in a highly integrated manner.  Although there is specialization of function in the brain, all higher functions are carried out by multiple structures with overlapping functions, operating interactively and synergistically.  This will become clearer as we describe some of the major structures and functions of the brain.
Because our interest is in transmuting the functioning of the brain, I will describe the brain in terms that focus more on function than structure.  I will discuss some of the structures that are most important for the process of Transmutation of the brain, in terms of the functions that these structures contribute.
This is not meant to be a comprehensive account of brain anatomy or physiology.  Many such exist already.  My purpose here is to discuss those structures and functions of the brain that are most useful for our purpose of Transmutation in life.
The Whole Brain
Everything we experience always involves the whole brain functioning in an integrated way.  Many experiences and the corresponding functions of the brain can be to some degree localized to the structures that contribute the most to a particular phenomenon.  Nevertheless, there are some things that the brain does that involve the whole brain to such an extent that they do not lend themselves to localization at all.
First and foremost among these is the experience of consciousness.  The most important and most fundamental thing the brain does is to reflect consciousness.  Consciousness is the essential constituent of human life, the most fundamental thing that makes a human being different from a rock or a robot.  Moreover, consciousness is our access to the Conscious Unified Field, the unified field from which all of the forms and phenomena in the physical universe spring as particle/wave phenomena.  
The better the brain is functioning, the more consciousness is reflected.  The whole brain reflects consciousness in an integrated way.  In fact, all the elementary particles that make up the brain are nothing but perturbations or waves in the Conscious Unified Field.  That unified field is the same as the unbounded field of infinite intelligence and consciousness that gives rise to the manifest universe.  Obviously, anything we can do to improve the overall functioning of the brain will enhance the brain’s ability to reflect consciousness, and thus will improve life in a holistic way.
Consciousness is the essential nature of life, the Nature of the Self, with a capital “S.”  Consciousness is present in every experience, and gives rise to every experience throughout life.  Consciousness is the universal aspect of our existence and experience.
There is another, more relative and individual aspect of our life that is reflected by the whole brain.  This is the self, with a small “s.”  The self is our individuality, everything that makes you and me unique and different from everyone else.  It includes our fundamental likes and dislikes, tendencies, propensities, innate talents, and qualities.
The individual qualities of the self are a factor – but not, as we shall see, the only factor – in what kind of things, people, places, and experiences suit a person, what resonates with him or her.
The small-s self has in some spiritual circles been thought of as something low, base, small, selfish, something to be overcome or left behind.  Not so.  The self is simply our individuality, the qualities that make each of us individual and unique.  This is not something small or limiting, or something to be overcome or left behind, any more than being left handed and having blue eyes and blond hair is.  
Of course, experiencing as much of the large-S Self as possible, raising consciousness as much as possible, bringing as much of the Self into our awareness and our daily life as possible, is highly beneficial and desirable.  That does not, however, involve suppressing the self or divorcing oneself from the self.  In a highly developed state of consciousness, the individuality of the self still remains, and is as much a valuable part of life as it always was.  (More on this comes later.)
The Cerebral Cortex
The cerebral cortex comprises the surface of the brain.  If you look at a brain from the outside, almost all of what you see is the cortex.  The cortex makes sense of our experience.  It is largely responsible for intentional, planned behavior as well as for the processing of sensory input and motor output.  The cerebral cortex plays a key role in consciousness, attention, memory, perceptual awareness, thought, language, and behavior.  
The entire brain, including the cortex, is divided into two hemispheres that are approximately mirror images of each other.  Almost all of the structures of the brain are dual, with identical or nearly identical structures in each hemisphere.  Although the two hemispheres are structurally nearly identical, a few of the major functions, most notably speech, are lateralized to one hemisphere or the other.
The surface of the human brain is convoluted.  It is comprised of ridges called gyri (singular: gyrus) and furrows or depressions called sulci (singular: sulcus).  This configuration allows for a large surface area in a relatively small volume.  Surface area is important because the surface is comprised of grey matter consisting of cell bodies and blood vessels, wherein much of the information-processing activity of the brain takes place.  Beneath the surface of the various structures, the brain is largely white matter, consisting primarily of axons and the protective myelin sheaths that surround them.  
The cortex has four lobes: the frontal lobe, the parietal lobe, the occipital lobe, and the temporal lobe.  Each lobe contains numerous gyri and sulci.
The Frontal Lobe and Prefrontal Cortex
The frontal lobe is at the front of the brain.  It is primarily responsible for controlling both simple and complex behavior, and for the sophisticated thought processes that are involved in that control.  
The most posterior (toward the back) part of the frontal lobe is the primary motor cortex, which directly controls voluntary muscle movement.  All the different parts of the body are mapped onto the motor cortex in a pattern called a homunculus.  The homunculus is inverted from the body, with the toes at the top and the various parts of the face and head at the bottom.
The more anterior (toward the front) areas control behavior on increasingly abstract levels.  Anterior to the motor cortex is the premotor cortex, which monitors and modulates sequences of motor activity in conjunction with feedback from the senses.
The Prefrontal Cortex
The majority of the frontal cortex in humans is comprised of the prefrontal cortex.  The prefrontal cortex is the primary area of the brain involved in the application of the intellect.  Complex planning and execution of sequences of action, balancing of consequences, weighing of alternatives, and many other intellectual functions are primarily carried out by the prefrontal cortex.  The prefrontal cortex is fundamental to virtually all activities that involve functions of the intellect.
The orbitofrontal cortex is the most anterior portion of the prefrontal cortex.  It modulates behavior and thinking at a highly abstract level.  It is involved in moral judgment and in the assessment of risk and reward.  It is essential for meaningful evaluation of the consequences of actions, and for appropriate social skills involving understanding the impact of actions on others as well as their consequences for oneself.  
People with severe damage to the orbitofrontal cortex may still be highly intelligent, but they lack an ability to evaluate risks and act appropriately.  They appear to lose the capacity for risk aversion.  They also lack social skills, and appear to have little understanding of what is socially appropriate.
The frontal lobe is the last of the areas of the brain to develop.  It is not fully developed until a person is in the mid-twenties.  Teenagers act like teenagers not only due to lack of experience.  Their brains have also not fully developed.  The as-yet-underdeveloped prefrontal cortex explains why a teenager may be intelligent enough to learn calculus, yet sometimes apparently not intelligent enough to stay alive while driving a car full of other teenagers.
The Man Who Lost His Personality
As with other brain structures, scientists have learned much about the frontal lobe from a few cases where that area was severely damaged.  For the frontal lobe, one such case was a young railroad foreman named Phineas Gage.  Gage was a foreman for the Rutland and Burlington Railroad.  At age 25, he was considered to be a highly skilled and responsible foreman and a capable leader of his crew.
It was late afternoon on September 13, 1848.  Gage and his crew were tasked with clearing away some rock to make way for the railroad near Cavendish, Vermont.  One responsibility of the foreman was to fill a drilled hole in the rock with gunpowder, tamp it down gently with an iron tamping rod, then sprinkle sand in to cover the powder, and then tamp it down hard with the rod to confine the explosive power of the blast to a small area so as to have maximum impact on the rock.  Gage was using an iron tamping rod three feet seven inches long.  It was one and one-fourth inches wide at the bottom, and tapered to a point at the top.  
Gage’s men were loading broken pieces of rock onto a cart nearby.  Gage and his assistant, who was responsible for pouring the sand into the hole, were both distracted by something that the men did.  Accounts differ as to exactly what happened next.  Either Gage’s assistant failed to pour in the sand, and Gage slammed the rod down hard on the gunpowder, thinking there was a barrier of sand, or Gage misjudged and hit the side of the hole in attempting to tamp down the gunpowder.  In any case, the rod scraped the side of the hole and created a spark that ignited the gunpowder, blasting the rod skyward.
The rod entered Gage’s face below the left cheekbone and exited his skull just behind his hairline.  It obliterated a large part of Gage’s prefrontal cortex, flew 50 feet into the air, and landed upright in the dirt like a thrown javelin, covered with blood and brain matter.
Gage was thrown up and backwards by the force of the blow.  He landed hard on the ground.  Gage later said that he never lost consciousness.  His body twitched convulsively for a short time.  To the amazement of witnesses, he not only survived the blow; within a few minutes he was able to walk and talk.  He climbed into an oxcart and sat upright, holding his head, on the mile-long drive to Cavendish.  When they reached his hotel, he sat on a chair on the porch, still able to talk and apparently not in excruciating pain.
Two doctors arrived shortly.  When the first one arrived, Gage tilted his head to show the exit wound, and said, “Here’s business enough for you.”   Shortly thereafter a second doctor, John Harlow, arrived.  Dr.  Harlow later provided much of the limited information we have about Gage, his injury, and its aftermath.  
Gage was still able to walk and talk rationally.  He even said he would be back on the job blasting rock within a few days.  He made it up the stairs at the hotel and lay on a bed while Dr.  Harlow cleaned and bandaged his wound.  He rested during the night.  The next morning he recognized his mother and his uncle, and was able to converse with them.
Several days later, Gage developed an infection in his brain, became delirious, and then fell into a coma.  Dr.  Harlow performed surgery to drain the wound and relieve the pressure on his brain.  Slowly but surely Gage recovered.  He regained his ability to converse rationally and began to undertake many normal human activities.  He lost sight in his left eye, however, and it was sewn shut for the rest of his life.
Gage retained what Dr.  Harlow referred to as “full possession of his reason,” but his wife and other people who had known him before the accident noticed a very substantial change in his personality, demeanor, and behavior.
There were two reports from physicians on Gage’s condition after the accident.  The first was from Dr.  Harlow, who wrote a short report in a medical journal.  He wrote: “His contractors, who regarded him as the most efficient and capable foreman in their employ previous to his injury, considered the change in his mind so marked that they could not give him his place again.  He is fitful, irreverent, indulging at times in the grossest profanity (which was not previously his custom), manifesting but little deference for his fellows, impatient of restraint of advice when it conflicts with his desires, at times pertinaciously obstinate, yet capricious and vacillating, devising many plans of future operation, which are no sooner arranged than they are abandoned in turn for others appearing more feasible.  In this regard, his mind was radically changed, so decidedly that his friends and acquaintances said he was ‘no longer Gage.’”
The second report was by Dr.  Henry Bigelow, a professor of surgery at Harvard University.  He gave Gage some standard neurological tests, on which Gage performed normally.  The tests included only sensory and motor systems and some basic skills that were commonly tested in the laboratory at the time.  Frontal lobe damage, however, affects primarily features that show up in life outside the laboratory, the kind of things that may not be revealed on standardized neurological tests and yet will be readily apparent to friends, family, and employers.  
Gage’s life after that has been the subject of very sparse reporting, considerable speculation, and not a little outright fabrication.  
Gage spent some time traveling around New England, earning money putting himself and his tamping iron on display.  He displayed himself and his tamping iron for a short time at P.T.  Barnum’s museum in New York, where viewers could reportedly part his hair, peer into the hole in his skull, and see his brain.  (Contrary to numerous reports, he did not travel with Barnum’s traveling circus.)  
Gage then obtained a job driving a horse coach in New Hampshire, where he worked for a year and a half.  Then he traveled to Chile and drove horse coaches there for seven years.  When his health began to fail, he returned to the US.  He took a steamer to San Francisco, near where his family then lived.  After initially recovering, he fell ill again, began to have seizures, and died in May, 1860, twelve years after his fateful accident.  
There has been considerable controversy, and little verifiable factual information, about the quality of Gage’s life after the accident.  Unfortunately, those who knew Gage personally left no written records about him.  Different writers have made different speculations about what Gage was like after he left Dr.  Harlow’s care.  Some accounts portray him as a vagrant sociopath.  Others paint a much more positive picture.  They point out that he held a job for seven years in Chile driving horse coaches on narrow mountain paths, an occupation that involves considerable skill and responsibility.  
In any case, Phineas Gage was clearly changed by the frontal lobe damage ensuing from his accident.  His was one of the first cases to bring to light the specialized functions of higher areas of the brain.
The Parietal, Occipital, and Temporal Lobes
The Parietal Lobe
The parietal lobe primarily processes sensory information.  It receives sensory input from the skin and the tongue, which is relayed through the thalamus (discussed further below).  The most anterior section of the parietal cortex is the primary somatosensory cortex.  As is the case with the motor cortex, all the different parts of the body are mapped onto the somatosensory cortex in a pattern called a homunculus.
The posterior portion of the parietal cortex processes visual and auditory information that originally is directed to other lobes, and then to the parietal lobe for further processing.  The parietal association cortex is one of the areas of the brain that generates the EEG activity that comprises the P300-MERMER.
The Occipital Lobe
The occipital lobe is devoted largely to primary processing of visual information.
The Temporal Lobe
The temporal lobe has multiple functions.  On the level of higher sensory processing, the temporal lobe combines information from different senses.  Auditory signals originating in the ears first reach the cortex in the temporal lobe.  The primary auditory cortex processes sounds into meaningful forms such as speech and music.  The temporal lobe also engages in high-level processing of visual stimuli, including processing of visual objects and recognition of faces and scenes.  
The temporal lobe is extensively involved in the processing of language and semantics, combining information from both auditory and visual sensory inputs.  Language is lateralized to the left temporal lobe in right-handed people.  
The temporal lobe is also involved in the encoding of memories and the processing of emotion.  I will discuss these in relation to the limbic system.
The Thalamus
The thalamus is a deep structure centrally located near the base of the brain.  It is not a part of the cerebral cortex.  The functions of the thalamus, however, are critical to those of the cortex.  The thalamus acts as a central switchboard for the brain.  
Almost all sensory input comes in through the thalamus and is directed to various parts of the cortex and other structures.  The thalamus also functions as a switchboard for numerous varieties of information traveling from one part of the cortex to another, and for information traveling to and from deep structures to the cortex.  In addition to cortical connections, the thalamus is richly connected with the various structures of the limbic system.
The Limbic System
Structure and Function of the Limbic System
The limbic system is a constellation of functionally related structures that are involved in the processing of emotion, and also in memory and context.  The limbic system plays a major role in emotions, drives, appetites, and motivations.  The functions of the limbic system include emotional, social, motivational, and sexual functioning; learning and memory; and homeostatic, endocrine, and hormonal activities.
The structures of the limbic system are primarily deep structures that surround the thalamus.  The cerebral cortex, in turn, surrounds the limbic system, primarily on the top side.  The limbic system consists primarily of subcortical (below the cortex) structures, and also includes some cortical structures that are close to the subcortical limbic structures both in location and function.  
The limbic system has extensive input from and output to virtually the entire cortex.  Like almost all of the rest of the brain, all of the structures in the limbic system are bilateral, that is, there are two of each of them, one in the left hemisphere and one in the right hemisphere.
The primary structures in the limbic system include the hippocampus and closely associated structures, the hypothalamus, the amygdala, the cingulate cortex, and the basal ganglia.
The involvement of the limbic system with pleasure and pain on the emotional level is borne out by the fact that electrical stimulation of virtually all limbic structures (except the hippocampus) induces extreme pleasure or extreme negative emotions such as anger and fear.  
The Hippocampus
The hippocampus interacts, both sending and receiving information, with virtually all areas of the cerebral cortex.  The hippocampus is involved in regulation of cortical arousal, long-term memory storage, and the experience of context – the ability to visualize oneself and the surrounding environment.  It interacts extensively with the executive control centers in the prefrontal cortex.
The hippocampus is critically involved in the formation of new long-term memories.  We hold in short-term memory whatever we are currently experiencing and/or thinking about.  The hippocampus interacts with widespread areas of the cortex to store as long-term memory information that is originally held in short-term memory.  
The hippocampus is also involved in establishing the context or operating environment in which one’s experiences take place.  This includes the features of the physical location, and also the expected way that other things and people in that environment will act.  
When you have an “Aha!” experience, and take note of something new, interesting, or noteworthy in the environment, the hippocampus is involved.  Ensembles of neurons in the hippocampus fire in specific patterns.  This electrical activity propagates to the scalp and contributes to the P300-MERMER brain response.  In other words, some of the neural generators of the P300-MERMER brain response are located in the hippocampus.
Many general associations we have that involve connections between different events, people, locations, and things, and between these and particular emotions, involve mutual interactions between the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex.
The Man Who Lost His Memory
As with many other areas of the brain, scientists have learned much about the function of the hippocampus from the results of damage to it.  Before the function of the hippocampus was well understood, one famous patient known as HM had both hippocampi removed, along with some closely related structures, in a surgical attempt to control extreme and debilitating epileptic seizures.  
From that time on, HM had no ability to form new explicit long-term memories.  His ability to speak, read, write, solve mental problems, recall a series of numbers that had been presented to him a short time before, and interact socially with people remained intact.  He had no physical deficits.  
HM was very much like the fictional character played by Drew Barrymore in the movie 50 First Dates.  A man fell in love with a woman, but she had anterograde amnesia and related to him as a newly met person each day.  Unlike HM (or any other real, non-fictional person), her short-term memory lasted a whole day.  
He still had memory of events that took place prior to the operation.  He still knew what was going on in the present, and could converse intelligently about present happenings and much of what he knew from before the surgery.  He thought that the conditions of his life were essentially what they had been up until his surgery.  Although he lived in a hospital ward, he thought he still lived in the house where he had lived prior to the surgery that removed his hippocampi.
HM lacked the ability to convert any of the present events to long-term memory.  This is known as anterograde amnesia.  You could come into the room, introduce yourself, and carry on a relatively normal conversation with him.  If you left the room for a few minutes and returned, however, he would not recognize you.  He would not remember ever having met you, or anything that you and he had done and said in your previous meeting.  
Brenda Milner, a scientist who studied HM extensively from the time of the surgery in 1957 to his death in 2008, got to know him quite well.  To him, however, she remained a stranger, someone he met newly on each occasion when they interacted.
His memory was also somewhat impaired for events that took place up to a couple of years before the surgery.  This indicates that the hippocampus plays a major role not only in the formation of new long-term memories, but also in the consolidation of memories over time.
HM could not remember what he had seen and done, but he could still remember how to do things.  He could even still learn how to do new things – without any recollection of the process of learning.  Although HM could not form new explicit long-term memories of events, his performance of various tasks improved with practice, despite the fact that he had no recollection of previous sessions.  He retained the ability to learn motor skills such as drawing a figure by looking at its reflection in a mirror.  
He could not remember (except for a very short time) what he had done since the loss of his hippocampi, but he could in effect learn and remember how to do things.  In other words, he lost only his ability for explicit memory.  He did not lose his ability for implicit (non-conscious) memory.  
The case of HM and a few others like it led to the understanding that the hippocampus plays a critical role in the formation of new long-term memories.
A minor character in the movie 50 First Dates, referred to as Ten-Second Tom, could only remember things for ten seconds.  This is actually closer to the real-life situation of HM.  HM’s short-term memory, like that of people without brain damage, was somewhat longer than ten seconds, but considerably shorter than a day.
Clive Wearing, a patient with damage to the hippocampus resulting from an infection, is very similar to the fictional Ten-Second Tom.  He lives in the present moment, with a memory span of seven to 30 seconds.  
As a musician, he still remembers how to play a piano and conduct a choir.  Having done so, however, a moment later he does not remember his actions or anything else about the event.  
The Hypothalamus
The hypothalamus is located below the thalamus.  It plays a major role in emotions, drives, and appetites.
Damage to, or stimulation of, various parts of the hypothalamus has a major impact in eliciting intense emotions and emotion-driven behaviors, or in inhibiting them.  
The hypothalamus also provides a link from the nervous system to the endocrine system through the pituitary gland.  The endocrine system is the system that secretes hormones, chemical messengers that travel through the bloodstream and have widespread effects throughout the body.  
The hypothalamus is the part of the central nervous system that provides the primary interface between the brain and the autonomic nervous system, which will be discussed below.

The Amygdala
The amygdala is at the tail end of the hippocampus in the temporal lobe.  Like the hippocampus, the amygdala has extensive connections in both directions to widespread areas of the cortex, particularly the prefrontal cortex.  The amygdala plays a major role in emotions, drives, and motivations.  
The amygdala is primarily involved in emotional processing.  It interacts with prefrontal cortex to generate and process major emotions – anger, happiness, disgust, surprise, sadness, and fear.  The amygdala has been extensively researched as a major factor in the experience of fear, anger, and rage, particularly in animal research.  The amygdala is also intimately involved in the experience of positive emotions, however, which are most highly developed in humans.
The Cingulate Cortex
The cingulate cortex lies deep within the medial longitudinal fissure, the deep fissure running from the front to the back of the brain that divides the left and right hemispheres.  Below the cingulate cortex is the corpus callosum, the thick band of neural fibers connecting the left and right hemispheres.  
The cingulate cortex associates emotions with external stimuli.  The anterior (toward the front) cingulate cortex monitors progress toward a goal.  It works in conjunction with the rest of the limbic system and the cortex to modulate behavior and emotions in response to changing conditions, particularly when something goes wrong.
The anterior cingulate cortex has widespread connections throughout the cortex, particularly the prefrontal cortex.  It is involved in allocating the resources of the cortex to the demands of the task at hand.  Its extensive limbic connections provide emotional input to this allocation.
The anterior cingulate cortex instantly generates a specific response when an individual notices an error in behavior, or when it becomes apparent something is not proceeding according to plan.  This shows up on the scalp in the EEG patterns as an event-related potential known as the error-related negativity or ERN.  The ERN was discovered by a grad school buddy of mine named Bill Gehring, at about the same time that I was developing Brain Fingerprinting and the first brain-computer interface.  Gehring has become a major leader in the field.  
The cingulate, along with the amygdala, is also involved in speech, particularly emotional speech.
The Basal Ganglia
The basal ganglia are involved coordinating the limbic system with behavior, particularly voluntary muscle movements.  They play a major role in planning and organizing movement, in action selection, and in initiating or inhibiting action, particularly actions involving the voluntary motor systems.  They are extensively connected with the prefrontal cortex, where executive decisions are made, as well as with many of the structures of the limbic system, where the emotions motivating actions are embodied.  They are involved in reward learning, in connecting positive experiences with particular behaviors.  
Basal ganglia are involved in translating emotions to movements, and also in coordinating emotions with other parts of the brain that are involved.  The basal ganglia are partly under the control of the amygdala.  The amygdala is responsible along with the hypothalamus in inducing fighting, fleeing, feeding, and sexual behavior.  The basal ganglia mediate the physical, muscular actions that carry out the drive- and emotion-oriented behavior.  
Disorders of behavior control such as Tourette’s syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorder are associated with dysfunction of the basal ganglia.  
Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease and the associated motor deficits result primarily from deficits in the functioning of basal ganglia (the substantia nigra and the striatum respectively).  
The Pineal Gland
Unlike other brain structures, the pineal gland is a single, unitary structure.  Virtually all other brain structures are dual, with mirror image structures in the left and right hemispheres.  The pineal gland is about the size of a pea.  It is located near the center of the brain, between the two hemispheres, in a groove between the two thalami.  
The pineal gland is involved in regulating our internal rhythms and our resonance with the environment.  It affects circadian rhythms, 24-hour cycles affecting sleep and waking and many other functions of the brain and body.  It is involved in seasonal rhythms, sexual maturation, and seasonal sexual activity.  The pineal interacts with the hypothalamus to modulate the sex drive.
The pineal gland is an endocrine gland.  It produces the hormone melatonin.  Melatonin production is stimulated by darkness and inhibited by light.  Melatonin is a mechanism for the pineal’s role in coordinating the brain with the rhythms of Nature – the regulation of sleep and waking in coordination with light and darkness, seasonal patterns in experience and behavior, as well as sexual maturation and cycles of sexual desires and behavior.  In addition to melatonin, the pineal gland also secretes other hormones that affect sexual maturity and various other processes in the brain and body.
The pineal gland receives input both from the central nervous system and from the peripheral nervous system, particularly the sympathetic nervous system.  It receives extensive input from limbic structures, particularly the hypothalamus and the amygdala, as well as the thalamus.
The pineal gland has a more profuse blood supply than any other part of the brain or any other organ in the body except the kidneys.  Unlike the rest of the brain, it is not separated from the blood supply by the blood-brain barrier.
Descartes thought the pineal was the seat of the soul.  Reports of experiences in many spiritual traditions locate it as the seat of intuition, insight, and subtle perception.  The pineal gland has been equated with the “third eye” of intuition and subtle vision common to many spiritual traditions.  
In some lizards the pineal actually functions like an eye.  It contains light sensors, and some visual neurons receive projections both from the eyes and from the pineal.  In humans, the pineal contains cells similar to the rods and cones that are responsible for vision in the eyes and proteins similar to those involved in light sensing in the retina.  The pineal receives input regarding light and dark indirectly from the eyes.
Much of what is known of the functional role of higher brain structures in humans has been empirically observed on the basis of the effects of damage to these specific structures.  Unlike the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex, which can be subject to relatively isolated damage as described above, the pineal gland is located very deep in the brain, near the center of the entire brain.  It is virtually impossible to damage the pineal gland without major damage to other highly important brain structures.  Therefore, except for its production of melatonin, the role of the pineal in human experience has not been as thoroughly investigated in scientific and medical laboratories as that of many other brain structures.
Throughout history, in many different spiritual traditions, however, there have been extensive reports linking the pineal to spiritual experiences.  Many individuals in various spiritual traditions have reported experiences linking the pineal to the experience of subtle perception – seeing and/or feeling subtle realms of creation such as auras,  celestial beings, and other phenomena that are not perceptible to the ordinary senses or measurable mechanically – phenomena that have not yet been quantified by current-day physics or biology.
According to the experiential reports, a primary function of the pineal is to provide a subtle, unified, visionary, intuitive, and inspired vision of life.  The pineal reportedly is activated when one is perceiving reality on a subtle level, beyond the superficial realms of life.  Reportedly it is activated when one is experiencing deep inspiration and unified connection with Nature and with the essence, value, and meaning of life.
The pineal may play a major role in the experience of intuition and subtler realms of life, but the whole brain, functioning in an integrated way, reflects the experience.  The totality of the Conscious Unified Field is reflected by the totality of the brain, and experiences involving a high level of attunement with the Conscious Unified Field also necessarily involve the whole brain.  
The brain functioning involved in such global experiences can be compared to the holistic functioning of the brain involved in the storage of memories.  Just as the experiences that become memories are embodied in functioning of the whole brain, and memories are stored throughout the brain, the experiences of subtle perception and intuition involve synchronous functioning of a multitude of structures throughout the brain.
The pineal, and the whole brain, are synergistically and mutually activated in dynamic, deeply inspirational interactions with other beings.  The pineal, and the whole brain, are stimulated in a highly pleasurable way by profound and intense connection with another being.
Many people throughout the centuries have reported the experience that when the pineal is lit up, the whole brain reflects some of this light, and the light projects forward and all around, wherever your attention goes.  It enlivens everything you see, hear, touch, smell, or taste, and everything, perceptible or not, that you give your attention.  Ecstatic experience in life may be intimately connected to the pineal and its synergistic functioning with the whole brain.
Light and the Limbic System
The eyes, of course, are the primary organs for sensing light.  The retina of the eye contains two primary types of receptor or light-sensing cells, rods and cones.  Cones are responsible for color vision.  Rods are more prevalent and more sensitive, but pick up only black-and-white information and do not respond differently to different colors.
Because rods are more sensitive, when there is very little light, only the rods are functional.  This is why everything looks black-and-white (or gray) at dusk.  The actual light entering the eye at dusk is in the same full spectrum as during full daylight.  The cones, however, are not sensitive enough to pick it up, so when the light is dim we have only black-and-white vision using the rods.  
This is yet another example where what we experience depends on our perception, not on what is “really there.”  What is really there at dusk is just as broad a range of wavelengths of light as during the day, but we don’t  have the subjective experience of the different colors associated with these different wavelengths except when the light is bright.  Color, like all of our experience, is a subjective phenomenon created by the interaction of our consciousness with our nervous system, not something that is out there in the world.  
Rods and cones project primarily through the optic nerve to the  visual cortex in the occipital lobe, which is responsible for our experience of vision.
Recently, to the surprise of scientists, a third type of receptor cell has been discovered in the eyes.  These cells sense light, but do not project to the visual system.  They have no input to what we see.  They project to various areas of the brain associated with circadian rhythms (the 24-hour cycles associated with sleeping and waking and many other functions that vary throughout the day and night) and other functions that involve light such as seasonal changes.  
There is also evidence that the timing of sexual maturity is measured not in days or years, but rather in the amount of time light is entering the eyes, and that these cells are involved in that timekeeping function.  
These special receptor cells, called intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs), project directly to limbic system structures that are involved in emotions.  They project to the amygdala, described above, and also to the habenula.  
The habenula is a tiny structure just below the pineal gland.  It projects to the pineal gland.  The pineal, as described above, is involved in regulation of light-related activities such as sleep and seasonal changes as well as emotions.  It is thought to be involved in the light of higher spiritual experiences.  The habenula also projects widely to various structures in the brain that are involved with pleasure and reward systems.  
To put that in practical, experiential terms, it appears that special cells in the eye sense light and communicate with areas in the brain that are responsible for emotions, pleasure, rewards, and perhaps with higher spiritual experiences and ecstasy.  
Some people feel emotionally depressed during times of the year when the hours of daylight are short.  This is known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD).  Sunlight (or other full-spectrum light) appears to help these people.  
Many people feel happier on a sunny day, and a little gloomier on a dark day.  
The ipRGCs and their connections show that there is a biological basis for the connection between light and happiness, and between lack of light and unhappy emotions.
We humans have known this intuitively for a long time.  It’s no accident that we have expressions like “a dark mood,” “a dim view of life,” “gloomy weather,” “brighten up your life,” and “let the sun shine in.” No doubt people have been saying these things in some language since before the discovery of fire.
This message is founded in ancient folklore and also in some new discoveries in neuroscience: If you want to do your amygdala and your pineal gland a favor and feel a little lighter and more joyful in spirit, then brighten your day, open your eyes, and get out in the sunshine.  
Brain Structures and Facets of a Human Being
You are a whole person, not just a collection of parts.  Yet there are different aspects of your individuality (and universality) that can be meaningfully delineated.  For understanding and living life, it can be useful to delineate these aspects of life.  So it is with the brain.  The brain always functions as a unified whole, and yet certain brain structures function to enliven and support particular aspects of your individuality and universality.
The whole brain reflects the Self, pure consciousness.
The whole brain also reflects the self, your individuality, those particular attributes that make you different and distinct from others.  
The pineal gland, and many associated functional structures throughout the brain and even the rest of the body, reflect your spirit and your intuition.
The prefrontal cortex reflects your intellect.
The limbic system reflects your emotions.
The peripheral nervous system and the sensory and motor homunculi in your somatosensory cortex and motor cortex reflect the body.
Next we will consider how to apply this knowledge about the brain to improve our experience of life.  

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12.  Self-Knowledge, Integration, and Resonance: The Key to Happiness and Success
How can we understand and apply our knowledge of the brain to create a style of functioning that brings success, happiness, and fulfillment in life?  The key is threefold: self-knowledge, integration, and resonance.
Some of you may be thinking, “Ok, now comes the hard part.  This is going to take a lot effort, control, and homework.” Not so.
We are designed to discover, experience, apply, and live self-knowledge, integration, and resonance.  This is natural.  It is inherent in our Nature.  Because it is natural, it is easy.  It does not take a lot of work or effort.  It does, however, take a considerable amount of willingness to look at reality, and to let go of what is not real.  It takes openness to Transmutation, where you enjoy the result only if and when you are open to the process.  It takes a certain level of understanding of life and how it works.  And it takes some practice.
Self-knowledge involves coming to clearly experience and understand what each of the aspects of yourself is driving at.  Integration involves creating a situation where all of the aspects of you are functioning in harmony toward the same end.  Resonance involves vibrating, in all of your aspects, in harmony with who you truly are and with what you truly desire, both within you and in your experiences of the world around and the people in it.
Intellect and Emotions: The Prefrontal Cortex and the Limbic System
To begin with, let’s take a look at the relationship between the prefrontal cortex and the limbic system, between the functions of intellect and emotions.
The limbic system, as the primary mediator of emotions, has in my opinion gotten a bad rap.  It is sometimes referred to as the “reptilian brain.” This description has some foundation in the fact that reptiles have similar brain structures to the limbic system, and lack the highly developed cerebral cortex that characterizes humans.  Nevertheless, such a characterization can also carry the implication that the function of the limbic system is to motivate base, sub-human behavior like that of reptiles.  The perspective is often set forth that for us to be fully human and not just animalistic, the “higher” human functions of the cerebral cortex must gain mastery over the base urges of the limbic system.  
I think this perspective arose out of the residue of misguided religious ideas that were prevalent in previous centuries.  Some seriously misguided religious traditions have turned the teachings of the original founders of all the spiritual traditions upside down, and held that at core we are all sinners.  
According to this misunderstanding, divinity is not our Nature, but is to be found somewhere outside of us.  Our desires are base and selfish.  To rise to spirituality and get to Heaven, we must overcome our fundamental Nature as sinners.  To do this, we must renounce our own inner value, and find goodness and holiness outside ourselves in some religious personage or institution.  We must control and suppress our natural, evil desires and tendencies.
When human character, tendencies, desires, and behavior began to be understood in terms of science and ultimately brain functioning, it appears to me that some of this nonsensical pseudo-religious perspective inadvertently crept into the thinking of some of those who were formulating the functional description of the brain.  This led to the idea that the limbic system, and the powerful emotions it embodies, must be controlled by the “higher” functions such as the intellect as embodied in the prefrontal cortex.  
Some misguided Eastern spiritual teachings also devalue the functions of the limbic system.  As with the Western religions, this is out of sync with the teachings of the originators of these traditions.  
A common misunderstanding of spiritual development is that to grow spiritually you must minimize desires.  To obtain enlightenment, you must be free from desire.  This is a fundamental misunderstanding.  If anyone ever does become completely free from desire, the rest of their short life will be a race to see whether they starve to death or die of boredom first.  
Enlightenment is not absence of desire.  It is a state where your unbounded consciousness is not limited or overshadowed by desires (or anything else), where your consciousness is in tune with the unbounded field of cosmic consciousness, the Conscious Unified Field, and therefore your desires are spontaneously in tune with all of Nature.  Enlightenment is a state of integration of all realms of life, not of suppression or abandonment or elimination of desires.
Enlightenment does not mean renouncing or abandoning or suppressing your individuality or your emotions or any aspect of your self.  The true you, the enlightened you, are in tune with your own individual thoughts, emotions, desires, likes and dislikes.  The enlightened you is in fact highly tuned in to what resonates with you on an individual as well as on a cosmic level.
The limbic system does indeed reflect strong desires and strong emotions.  Emotions elicit motion: they motivate us to action.  Instincts in all sensate living things are driven by strong emotions, so that we’ll do the actions that the instincts are pulling us toward.  
The limbic system is not only responsible for our survival; it is also largely responsible for a lot of the pleasure and fun we have in life.  If eating were as pleasurable as brushing teeth, and sex were as enjoyable as childbirth, the human race probably would not have lasted long.
The limbic system is not just a remnant of our less developed, reptile-like ancestors.  It performs some extremely valuable and vital functions, both for our survival and for our enjoyment of life.  If your parents hadn’t been motivated by their limbic systems to do some important and enjoyable things like eating and having sex, you would not be here.
The human brain is not just a reptilian limbic system with a sophisticated cerebral cortex added on top.  For example, the amygdala, a major player in the human limbic system, is vitally involved not only in fear, anger, and aggression, but also in positive emotions and social interactions.  In the limbic system, the amygdala in particular had gotten a bad rap because it is heavily involved in behaviors associated with negative emotions like fear and anger.  It also, however, has very positive and life-supporting emotional functions.  
When both amygdalae are damaged, a person becomes less angry and aggressive, but also loses the ability to recognize and care for his or her relatives, friends, and loved ones.  Such a person, even with an entirely intact cerebral cortex, loses interest in social interaction.  People with bilateral damage to the amygdala have been known to cause serious injuries to their own infants by treating them as if they were an inanimate object like a rag doll, not a sentient human being.  
A human limbic system is not a reptilian limbic system.  A human amygdala is not equivalent to a reptilian amygdala.  Reptiles with an intact limbic system including the amygdala do not have loved ones, and do not engage in sophisticated or heartfelt social interactions with others of their species.  Human beings do, and the human limbic system is a necessary instrument for them to do so.
Like all other brain structures, the amygdala and the whole limbic system work synergistically with the human cortex and the rest of the brain.  The limbic system makes a contribution to overall functioning that involves emotions and drives, but this aspect of life cannot exist in isolation from the aspects of experience mediated by other brain structures.  
In lectures on neuroscience and psychophysiology, I have given college students a well-known mnemonic for remembering the functions of the limbic system – one that generally seems to elicit a P300-MERMER in the brains of the students.  The limbic system is responsible for the “Four Fs” – “feeding, fighting, fleeing, and procreation.”  The four Fs mediated by the limbic system, when appropriately elicited and applied, are vitally important not only for survival, but also for enjoyment of life.  
Hunger and thirst are designed to provide us with appropriate nourishment and the pleasure inherent in partaking thereof.  Anger, in appropriate circumstances, keeps you from being violated, harmed, and thwarted.  When appropriate, it is valuable for enlivening your power.  Fear, when appropriate, keeps you out of harm’s way.  It is vital for your safety.  Sex is not only necessary for reproduction; it is also a means to connect deeply and lovingly with another human being on every level of life.  It can be one of the most powerful ways to affirm and experience your value, and to affirm and enliven the value of another.  
The limbic system can enhance our experience of power, safety, and value.  Why, then, does the limbic system seem to get us into so much trouble?
The misguided idea that we must use the prefrontal cortex to suppress or bypass the limbic system does have some basis in reality.  The limbic system does indeed engage in powerful emotions, and may appear to motivate us to powerful action with extreme negative consequences for ourselves and others.  We may intellectually see that certain actions the limbic system appears to be pulling for would be harmful and not helpful.  This can lead to the mistaken conclusion that the limbic system is something to be overcome or controlled.  This misconception, however, comes from an incomplete understanding and experience of what is actually going on.  The reality is that the limbic system is not the culprit.  
The trouble arises not from the nature of the limbic system, but from lack of self-knowledge, lack of integration, and inappropriate resonance, as discussed in the following sections.
Transmutation Trigger can be applied to address this situation.  Previously I discussed Transmutation Trigger in terms of Transmutation, of transmuting what we resonate with.  Now we can see a second, related benefit of this technique.  Transmutation Trigger is a means for gaining self-knowledge.
Transmutation and Self-Knowledge
When a Hellfire missile comes along, and you are highly triggered by it, the limbic system springs into action.  You are angry, afraid, or experiencing some other strong emotion.  You are motivated to act forcefully on the basis of this emotion.  Now is the time to engage the prefrontal cortex – not to do battle with the limbic system but to guide it.  
Misguided limbic-system-motivated actions come not from the nature of the limbic system, but from two sources that are actually malfunctions of the prefrontal cortex in conjunction with the limbic system: misinterpreting the eliciting event, and erroneous choice of actions in response to it.
Understanding this phenomenon, and knowing how to deal with it, can make the difference between a disastrous outcome and a Transmutational outcome.
Here’s an example.  One day I was standing on my dock, enjoying the sunny day on the lake with a woman I liked very much and was just getting to know.  We had just returned from a swim and a cruise around the lake in my boat.  A neighbor paddled up in a kayak and confronted me quite angrily: “When are you going to get rid of that piece-of-shit boat?  I don’t like looking at it out there on that buoy, interfering with my view.”   
My initial impulse was that clearly this was a major threat to my existence.  I had no choice but to blast this guy out of the water, both figuratively and literally.  This guy had degraded my value by insulting my boat.  He threatened my safety – maybe he’d take it into his own hands to do something to the boat.  He threatened my power.  
He insulted me – or my boat, which occurred to me as the same thing – in front of a woman I cared about and wanted to impress.  This could threaten my chances to have progeny, or at least my chances to get laid (which to the limbic system is the same thing).  This could seriously be the end of my life as I knew it, an end to my entire legacy on earth.  At least, that is the way that it felt to my limbic system.  That guy came very close to getting knocked out of his kayak.
This doesn’t mean that the tendencies of the limbic system are wrong.  They were just misguided in this case.  The emotions I was feeling, and the actions they would tend to spur, would have been appropriate if the kayak attacker had been about to kill me and eat my children.  Realistically, though, that was unlikely to happen.  
Fortunately, I was familiar with Transmutation Trigger, and my prefrontal cortex came to the rescue.  First of all, I managed to pause long enough to consider the reality of the eliciting event.  Was this guy’s voicing his opinion of my boat actually a threat to me?  Once I paused to think about it, I realized pretty quickly that some guy’s opinion of my boat had nothing to do with the value of my boat, let alone my own value.  What some guy thinks of me and his boat reveals that guy’s issues, not mine.  His opinion has nothing to do with me.  So much for value.  
The guy was extremely unlikely to go out and sink my boat just because he didn’t like its looks, or do any actual harm to me or anyone else.  So much for safety.  
The kayak attacker’s words had zero actual impact on me, once I properly understood the situation in relation to reality.  So much for power.  
Any woman who would be swayed in her views or involvement with me based on what some guy thinks of my boat would not be someone I would be interested in, and the woman with me at the time certainly was above that.  So much for depriving me of feminine attention and enjoyment, or ending my family line here on earth.  
Once I managed to meaningfully engage my prefrontal cortex, the imagined threat disappeared.  My limbic system no longer had anything to be hyped up about, and my anger subsided quite quickly.  My limbic system went back to the emotions appropriate for enjoying a sunny day on the lake with a delightful woman.
As for choice of actions, arguably this guy deserved to be yelled at, or insulted, or knocked out of his kayak.  But none of those actions had any value for me.  I ignored him.
Having dismissed the messenger, now I got a chance to look at my own value, power, and safety issues, in this case particularly my value issues.  I could see that the comment landed in me because I had a value issue.  I associated my value with having a nice boat – something fun that I could play with and share with others, and a possession that displayed my level of success in the world.  I was sensitive about people appreciating my value, particularly women I was interested in.  Nice to know.  The Transmutation Trigger is a great way to gain more self-knowledge.  Later I’ll discuss more about applying such knowledge.
I quickly used Transmutation Trigger to reawaken myself to my infinite value, power, and safety, to my unbounded self-liking and self-love, and to the inherent perfection in my life and the universe.
The self-knowledge aspect adds another level to Transmutation Trigger.  Use it as a technique for gaining self-knowledge, in addition to Transmutation.  When something comes along that triggers you, take a look at why.  Observe the mechanics that are taking place.  What is this threatening?  Your value?  Power?  Safety?  What do you want that this appears to be denying you?  What makes you feel good about life and yourself, that this is threatening?  What do you enjoy that this threatens to take away?  What do you dislike that this is pushing at you?
It’s not only intensely negative experiences that provide this opportunity.  Intensely positive experiences can provide the same opportunity for Transmutation and insight.
If it’s an intensely positive experience that produces the MERMER moment, ask these same questions in a positive light.  What is it about this experience that I deeply enjoy?  What do I need that I am receiving here?  Does this affirm my value?  Safety?  Power?  How?  What does this give me that I want?  What about this experience makes me feel good about myself and my life?  What is this giving me that I really enjoy?  What do I intensely like about this situation and this experience?  This self-knowledge will come in very handy later, as we shall discuss.
It was not necessary, and would not have been productive or healthy, for me to use my prefrontal cortex to simply suppress the urge to knock that obnoxious idiot out of his kayak.  The job for the prefrontal cortex was to recognize the reality of the situation.  Once you really get the reality of the situation, the limbic system will respond with the appropriate emotions.  
The limbic system’s power is in emotion, and that can always be guided to something genuinely appropriate to the circumstance.  Emotions only get us in trouble when the limbic system has been misguided.  You can count on the limbic system to have the emotions appropriate to the information it is given.  The job of the prefrontal cortex is not to suppress the limbic system or the actions it spurs us toward, but to guide the limbic system with accurate knowledge and understanding of the situation.  The key to proper guidance is self-knowledge, and every MERMER moment provides an opportunity for self-knowledge.
Transmutation and Integration
In addition to self-knowledge, every Transmutation Trigger moment opens the door for integration.  Integration is a key factor in the Transmutation that takes place with Transmutation Trigger.  In fact, integration is a major key to enlightened use of the brain.  
The key integration in the experience I just described is integration between the prefrontal cortex and the limbic system.  The role of the prefrontal cortex is to provide guidance, in light of the true reality of the situation.  The role of the limbic system is to provide emotions and the motivation to act.  It is the job of the prefrontal cortex to guide the limbic system to be activated by reality rather than by an illusion or a maladaptive habit.  
In the interaction on the lake, the limbic system started with emotions appropriate to a real threat to my life.  Unexamined, that is what the situation felt like.  The prefrontal cortex shed the light of insight into the situation, and I quickly realized that this was not a threat at all, but rather an opportunity.  
The prefrontal cortex and the limbic system then acted in an integrated manner to shift from inaccurate, unexamined understanding and inappropriate emotions – and the potential for inappropriate and destructive actions in doing battle with some guy in a kayak – to the understanding and emotions appropriate to sharing a sunny day on the lake with a wonderful woman.  This whole process was effortless.  All it took was awareness and a willingness to look for and find the truth.  
Transmutation and Resonance
The third key to this particular opportunity, and to using your brain for success and fulfillment in life as a whole, is resonance.  Resonance is a key to both the problem and the solution.  
I came into this life with an inner blueprint that said I was only X% valuable, and Y% valueless.  Something in me resonated with, and attracted to me, the attack on my value delivered by the messenger in the kayak.  The resonance between something in me and that particular attack made it land hard in me.  This activated my limbic system with emotions that were both unpleasant and out of touch with reality – both the reality of who I really am, and the reality of the situation I was facing in the form of the messenger in the kayak.  
Transmutation Trigger transmuted the resonance for the kayak attack on my value to resonance with enjoying a life-affirming, value-affirming, sunny day on the lake with a beautiful woman.  From that time on, the result of this Transmutation is that I resonate more with that more positive and enjoyable reality and attract more experiences of that kind into my life.  I’m also more enlivened by those experiences when they do arrive, due to my resonance with them.  
Thank you, kayak attacker.  You in fact turned out to be a blessing, albeit a heavily disguised blessing.
This is not the first time such a thing has taken place.  In the Mahabharata, the story of Krishna’s life five thousand years ago, there is a story about Arjuna, a close friend and disciple of Krishna.  Arjuna was the greatest archer of his time, a highly accomplished warrior.  In addition to his physical prowess, he was said to have tremendous spiritual powers, including various immensely powerful celestial weapons commanded by his consciousness on the subtler levels of creation.  He was said to be a maharathi, a warrior who could singlehandedly do battle with an army of 10,000 men and win.  
One day he was traveling through the forest, and he came across a deer.  He decided to take the deer for food.  At the same time as he drew his bow, a common woodsman came on the scene.  He decided to oppose Arjuna and draw his bow on the same deer.  Arjuna politely advised him against such a fight, but the woodsman insisted on doing battle over the deer.  Arjuna reluctantly agreed, saying in effect, “OK, if you are intent on assisted suicide, I will oblige you.”  
They commenced to fight with bows and arrows and all sorts of celestial weapons.  To Arjuna’s shock, the common woodsman was holding his own in the battle.  He thought to himself, “Who is this guy?  There are only a handful of warriors now on earth who could come close to holding their own against me.  If he were one of them, I would know and recognize him.”   
Shortly he found out.  His adversary was not a common woodsman at all.  He revealed himself to be Indra, a god who was also Arjuna’s father.  (Arjuna and his brothers had a mother who was quite an exceptional human being; that’s another story.)  Indra had just come down to throw some stuff at Arjuna and see how his son handled himself under fire.
To the best of my knowledge, my father was a human and not a god, but the lesson of that story about Arjuna landed in me nonetheless.  Whenever someone attacks me in one way or another, I remind myself of this story.  That’s not just some idiot in a kayak.  That is Nature incarnate, giving me a pop quiz, throwing some stuff at me to see how I handle it.  
Is this insult going to turn me into a raging lunatic, terrified that the opinion of some clueless guy will threaten my life here on earth and my progeny throughout all time?  Will someone else’s opinion really tarnish my value in the eyes of a woman who is watching (or anyone else)?  
Or will I see the messenger for what he is, dismiss him, and take advantage of the opportunity Nature has given me for Transmutation?  When my prefrontal cortex and my limbic system are both awake and functioning in an integrated manner, I make the latter choice.  Like Arjuna’s father Indra, every kayak attacker is a blessing in disguise.
Creating Integration and Resonance between the Prefrontal Cortex and the Limbic System
Creating resonance, balance, and integration between the prefrontal cortex and the limbic system is a little like dealing with a teenager, or in some cases a two-year-old.  Teenagers have raging hormones and strong emotions.  They lack good judgment regarding what elicits the emotions, and what to do to express them in life-supporting actions.  
The solution is not to lock them up or tie them down.  The solution is twofold.  First, help them to have insight regarding what triggers the emotions, and whether these emotions actually are appropriate and are serving them or not.  Second, guide them to appropriate expressions of their emotions.  Show them how to get what they want in a way that is socially appropriate, safe, life-supporting, and successful.  
You can treat your limbic system in the same way.  The solution is not to use the prefrontal cortex to suppress the limbic system, or to countermand the actions that the limbic system is motivating.  Every emotion that the limbic system is capable of expressing is there for a good reason.  Every emotion is viable and appropriate in some situations.  Every emotion leads to actions that are valuable and appropriate in some circumstances.  
The value of the prefrontal cortex is for self-awareness and guidance, not suppression.  The trick is to use the prefrontal cortex to become aware of the reality of the situation, to put it in perspective.  This will transmute the emotions reflected by the limbic system to ones that are appropriate for the present reality, not some imagined threat.  
Then it’s up to the prefrontal cortex to provide a guide to motivating actions that are in accord with the now-appropriate emotions being expressed by the limbic system and also in accord with a vision of the present impact and future consequences of these actions.  
The limbic system motivates action.  The prefrontal cortex weighs the consequences, the risks and benefits, the social meaning and appropriateness of the actions.  When functioning in harmony in an integrated fashion, the prefrontal cortex and the limbic system function together to create motivations and congruent actions that are emotionally satisfying, highly motivated, and also highly effective and appropriate now and for their future effects.  Both emotions and actions now resonate with a life-supporting style of functioning of the nervous system, and with life-supporting outcomes that are desired, appreciated, and enjoyed on all levels.
The key is a combination of self-knowledge, integration, and resonance.  All of these develop naturally and spontaneously through the Transmutation Trigger technique.  In the next two chapters we will discuss more techniques to further this development.
Creating Integration and Resonance Between the Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Nervous Systems
As mentioned above, the autonomic nervous system is that part of the peripheral nervous system that modulates visceral functions such as heart rate, digestion, perspiration, and sexual arousal.  Its effects are generally not under explicit voluntary or conscious control.
The autonomic nervous system has two major parts.  The sympathetic nervous system mobilizes the body for action through the fight-or-flight response.  It prepares the body for the strenuous activity of fighting or fleeing in response to a real or imagined threat.
The parasympathetic nervous system modulates the body in the opposite direction.  It facilitates activities that take place primarily when the body is at rest, such as digestion.  It is also active in sexual arousal.
The sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems motivate the physiology in opposite directions.  Both are necessary, and both are appropriate for specific circumstances.
When you are being chased by a bear, it is useful and adaptive to perspire, to raise your blood pressure and heart rate, to direct the blood flow toward the skeletal muscles and away from the digestive tract, and generally to activate your body for strenuous activity.  The sympathetic nervous system accomplishes all of these and many related changes.
When you are relaxing, it is useful and adaptive to take all of those systems in the opposite direction.  The parasympathetic nervous system accomplishes this.
Strong negative emotions such as anger and fear activate the sympathetic nervous system.  A difficulty that often arises in modern life is that strong negative emotions arise in situations where there is no need or use for strenuous physical activity.  There are many modern situations of anger or fear where there is no possibility of, or use for, physically fighting or fleeing.  Yet the sympathetic nervous system becomes activated in the fight-or-flight response nonetheless.
This over-activation of the sympathetic nervous system in the absence of strenuous physical activity leads to a host of health problems such as high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease.  Poor digestion resulting from the routing of the blood flow to the skeletal muscles and away from the digestive tract results in the buildup of toxins in the body.  This in turn leads to many stress-related diseases and autoimmune disorders.  Overactivation of the sympathetic nervous system also leads to hormonal imbalances that are far-reaching in their negative effects on physical health, emotions, and overall well-being.  
The physiological details of this phenomenon are beyond the scope of this book.  Suffice it to say that inappropriate activation of the sympathetic nervous system, particularly when it takes place in the absence of strenuous physical activity, has a substantial negative impact on one’s health and well-being.
The fact that strong negative emotions such as anger and fear activate the sympathetic nervous system does not mean, however, that activation of the sympathetic nervous system is always a negative experience, or always has a negative impact on one’s life.  If you are going to win an Olympic race, you’ll need to have your sympathetic nervous system fully activated, no matter how much you enjoy racing and winning.  If you are being chased by a real bear, your life may depend on your sympathetic nervous system being fully activated.  
The key is balanced and appropriate activation of both the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.  This often requires applying the prefrontal cortex to correctly distinguish reality.  The prefrontal cortex and the parietal association cortex can be very useful in distinguishing between real and imaginary bears, that is, between real and imaginary threats to your existence.
It may feel as if an argument with your boss or your significant other is an existential threat to your life, but it isn’t.  The prefrontal cortex can assist you in recognizing whether or not you are being chased by a real bear that could end your life, or something not so life threatening is going on.  The prefrontal cortex can help you see that whatever people are saying, you are not really in a life-threatening situation (unless you are).  
Waking up to this awareness will help considerably to balance the activity of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems so as to be more appropriate to your real situation and the physical demands (or not) that it engenders.  Whatever words are flying at you, they are not sticks and stones.  Whatever financial or personal loss you may be facing, it’s not life-threatening.  The sooner and more fully you can wake up to this fact in any situation, the healthier for you.  
Over time, this awareness can create a shift toward more balance and integration in the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.  Neuronal tracks that are used are strengthened; tracks that are not used get weaker.  This means that complex neuronal patterns of response that you engage in habitually are strengthened, and patterns you habitually eschew are weakened and fall away.  
Another key to health, with respect to the autonomic nervous system and the body as a whole, is to exercise regularly.  Inevitably in today’s world, the sympathetic nervous system will be activated in situations where strenuous physical activity does not ensue.  Exercising regularly serves to make use of the resources that sympathetic nervous system activation releases.  This restores balance and creates integration throughout the whole body and nervous system.  It is well known that exercise can counteract both immediate and cumulative negative effects on health of stress and the concomitant activation of the sympathetic nervous system.
Sex is a great opportunity to balance the activity of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.  Sexual arousal is mediated by the parasympathetic nervous system.  Orgasm and the accompanying ejaculation is mediated by the sympathetic nervous system.  When all goes well, the two branches of the autonomic nervous system work in balance and harmony.  
When one is emotionally at ease during sex, the concomitant activation of the parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for the sexual response.  The ensuing relaxation includes relaxation of the blood vessels that allow blood to flow to the genitals, creating the physical sexual response in the genitals.  Only when this response is well established do things reach the point where the sympathetic nervous system is activated, which mediates an orgasm.  
When one is not emotionally at ease during sex, what happens?  The relaxation that takes place with the activation of the parasympathetic nervous system is inhibited.  The genital sexual response is similarly inhibited.  
If fear or other negative emotions are present during sex, this also can lead to inappropriate or excessive or premature activation of the sympathetic nervous system.  In men, this can lead to premature ejaculation.  
Either way, if the parasympathetic nervous system is underactivated or the sympathetic nervous system is overactivated, the sexual response is less than ideal, and the experience is less than fulfilling.
From a neuroscience perspective, the key to sex is the same as the key to life: Create a situation – and a partner – that truly resonates with you, enjoy yourself and her/him, and everything will be wonderful.  This phenomenon in life as a whole is further discussed in the following section.
Love or Fear: The Approach and Avoidance Systems
It is often said that at any time we are either choosing love or fear.  Although that is an oversimplification that leaves out some other important emotions, there is some truth to the saying.  We are always choosing to go toward something we desire, or away from something we experience as repugnant.  
Another universal dichotomy is pleasure versus pain.  We always seek to experience pleasure and avoid pain.  Again, we are always moving toward an experience we desire and away from an experience we want to avoid.
The human nervous system embodies a comprehensive machinery for moving toward that which we like and moving away from that which we dislike.  The activation of this approach-avoidance system is embodied in the functioning of the brain and reflected in the brainwaves.  Brainwave measurements can be used as an accurate, objective means of discerning what one desires to approach or avoid.  
Brainwaves can be a key to discerning whether, and to what degree, one is acting out of love or fear.  The specific details of this phenomenon are beyond the scope of this book.  Briefly, activation of the frontal right hemisphere corresponds to avoidance, and activation of the frontal left hemisphere corresponds to approach.  When an area of the brain is less activated, alpha waves (8-12 cycles per second) increase; when it is more activated, alpha waves decrease.  Therefore, activation of the approach system is associated with increased amplitude of frontal right hemisphere alpha waves, and activation of the avoidance system is associated with increased left hemisphere alpha waves.
Does this mean that right frontal alpha waves are an index of love, and left frontal alpha waves are an index of fear?  Only approximately, and only in some circumstances.  In brainwaves as in life, the dichotomy between love and fear is only an approximate and incomplete account of the phenomenon.  
The avoidance system is activated in negative emotions such as fear and sadness.  It is also more active, as a baseline, in people with tendencies to experience negative emotions (and in some cases some kinds of psychopathology such as depression and anxiety).  
The approach system is activated in positive emotions such as happiness or joy, and, putatively, love and attraction.  So far, so good.  
The situation is a bit more complicated than this, however.  Anger, which is not generally considered to be a positive emotion, is associated with activation of the approach system.  We tend to move toward (approach) the focus of our anger, rather than away from it (avoidance).
With all of this in mind, let’s take another look at love and fear in human life.  In life as a whole, both have their place.  Certainly there are many situations where love is the appropriate, healthiest, most fulfilling, and overall best response.  
There are also some situations where fear is appropriate.  If you are being chased by a bear, fear and the accompanying activation of the avoidance systems and the fight-or-flight response will serve you well in the strenuous physical activity of running away.
In situations involving choices regarding the path of your life, however, love is virtually always the emotion that will engender the most fulfilling, successful, and overall best choice.  In making personal life choices regarding a career or life work, a relationship, or a place to live, it works much better when your choices are driven by what or whom you love rather than by what or whom you fear.  
A relationship founded in moving toward someone who embodies everything you love is much more likely to succeed than a relationship based on getting away from people with qualities that you fear.  Finding and/or creating a career you love is a much more successful pursuit than running away from work you fear or hate.  
Life choices based on love always have you moving toward something.  As you approach, you have more and more of what you love.  Life choices based on fear always have you moving away from something.  No matter how far away you get from what you fear, you may still be no closer to what really resonates with you, to what you truly love.
It’s an oversimplification to say that we’re always choosing between love and fear, and the best choice is always love.  Nevertheless, in many situations, particularly situations involving discerning what truly resonates with you, choosing love rather than fear is a highly useful and enjoyable life strategy.
When you’re at a crossroads, when you have a choice to make for the direction in your life, the key is to be aware of what is motivating each possible choice.  When it’s love, that’s an excellent choice.  When it’s fear, not so much.
From a neuroscience perspective, this means being aware of the activation of the approach and avoidance systems, and making conscious choices that take into account what’s appropriate under the circumstances.  When you are being chased by a bear, the avoidance system and the fight-or-flight response are highly adaptive.  A choice made out of fear is just the right thing.  
When you are exploring a relationship or a career or a life path, the approach system will help to guide you toward who and what resonates with you.  A choice made out of love of what you love, rather than fear of what you fear, is the path to success and fulfillment.  
The approach system, and the accompanying brainwave patterns, indicate that which resonates with you.  The avoidance system, and the accompanying brainwave patterns, indicate that which does not resonate with you.  The key is being aware of which system is currently involved in your emotions and actions, and making conscious choices based on this awareness.  
The lesson that the approach and avoidance systems offer for us is this.  First of all, when making life choices, take note of what is motivating your choice.  In neurological terms, activate your prefrontal cortex.  
Be aware of whether you are motivated to move toward something or away from something.  Assuming that you love sunny beaches and fear forest fires, when you are choosing a home it’s obvious that if you move toward sunny beaches you are much more likely to end up with something that suits you than if you run away from forest fires.  With other life choices such as a romantic partner, sometimes the distinction is not quite so clear.  
Look closely at whether you are motivated to move toward something or away from something.  Your choices will be much more likely to result in something that truly resonates with you if you choose what you desire to move toward, rather than choosing to run away from something.  
As a practical rule of thumb, it is wise to make life choices when you are inspired, happy, and exhilarated.  These choices will move you toward what truly resonates with you.  Choices made out of fear, sadness, or any kind of avoidance may move you away from something you don’t want, but often will not get you close to what you truly desire.
Neuronal tracks in the brain that are activated repeatedly become strengthened.  Neuronal tracks in the brain that are not used fall away.  Thus, when you engage in a particular pattern of neuronal functioning, the tendency toward activating that same pattern in the future is strengthened.  This means that as you continually practice becoming aware of your motivating emotions and consciously choosing love over fear, that pattern becomes strengthened in your life.  It becomes easier and easier to choose love over fear, and your baseline state becomes more and more attuned to love and less and less attuned to fear.
Moreover, you can apply neuroscience in the form of brainwave measurements to optimize your brain function to support love and Transmutation.  This is discussed in the next chapter.

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13.  Optimizing Brain Function
Every experience is supported by a specific style of functioning of the brain.  When something resonates with the true you – or doesn’t – this is reflected in the functioning of the brain.  The functioning of the brain is revealed in the brainwaves, or EEG.  
Brainwaves reveal whether and to what degree anything resonates with the real you: people, events, places, careers, creative pursuits, life aspirations, goals, activities, anything that may be important to you.  
When you experience the shift in brain functioning that constitutes Transmutation, that is revealed in the brainwaves as well.
I have found that brainwaves can provide a highly effective guide to using your brain to create a life that truly resonates with you, a life of miracles, a life filled with creations, people, events, and surroundings that nourish your soul.
The Brain Function Optimization System
After my invention of the first brain-computer interface, for communicating from the brain to a computer, and Brain Fingerprinting, to detect concealed information stored in the brain, I continued my research along the same lines.  This led to the development of a Brain Function Optimization system that objectively measures the functioning of the brain and provides a guide to optimizing brain functioning for maximum success and fulfillment in life.  
When exploring choices in life, the Brain Function Optimization system provides an effective tool to reveal objectively what resonates with you, the real you.  
The Brain Function Optimization system reveals one’s current style of brain functioning and how this changes with experience, choices, inspiration, insight, and in particular the shift in consciousness that constitutes Transmutation.  This provides an objective, scientific guide to progress in Transmutation and Guided Transmutation.  
A scientific, brainwave-based system for guiding you through the Transmutation and Brain Optimization process can enhance your progress and results in your life.  As with any human pursuit, a trained guide can also be helpful in your Transmutation.  That said, you don’t need a computer or a guide to experience Transmutation.  As a human being, Transmutation is your birthright, and something we are all designed to experience.  Both are true.  Yes, guidance can be helpful, and yes, you can do it on your own.