Never an Absolutist: Satorix, the Nirvana Pill! (Part I)

You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.

-- Morpheus [Wachowski A. and Wachowski L. (1999) The Matrix.]

Could we, one day, invent a pill that gives people an enlightened state of mind? And, if such a "Nirvana Pill" were available, would you take it?

While catching up on some copies of Scientific American that must have arrived during an exceptionally busy time, I found an intriguing article by Scientific American's resident skeptic, Michael Shermer. The article was about seemingly metaphysical phenomena such as out-of-body experiences, and the sense of "oneness with everything" that long-time meditators occasionally experience.

Apparently, these phenomena can also be induced through external physical stimuli. Dr. Shermer tells us, "Neuroscientist Michael Persinger, in his laboratory at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, for example, can induce all these perceptions in subjects by subjecting their temporal lobes to patterns of magnetic fields. (I tried it myself and had a mild out-of-body experience.)" (Shermer)

The article explains that there is a small section of the brain critical to your sense of physical orientation. During meditation, this area quiets down, as it would while you sleep, and you may experience a sensation of floating, or perhaps, "oneness." No matter how real the sensation may feel, even the recipient's own descriptions often revealed an illusion of sorts. One woman said she could "see myself lying in bed, from above, but I only see my legs and lower trunk."

Ask yourself:

Did this brief article just debunk meditation? Or, worse, all spiritual pursuits?

What if all perception--our entire experience of life, in fact--could be altered via physical means? Where does that leave my trust of my senses, and my reality?

"Whoa!" ;-)