Dangerous Side of De-Activating the Default Mode Network

-
Self-referential thought (and the Default Mode Network activity it's tied to) can be a source of suffering, but it also plays an essential role in empathy, memory, and moral decision-making!


    You may have heard people in the spiritual world glorify diminished activity or even deactivation of the the DMN, since it diminishes our self-referential thought, and this is seen as the holy grail in much of nondual spirituality for example where the goal is a permanent loss of self and self referencing. You may not have heard however that research (see below) shows that DMN inactivity also can lead to decreased empathy, memory impairment, capacity for moral decision-making, and is even implicated in conditions like psychopathy.

    This highlights the importance of not glorifying the loss of self-referential thought as the holy grail of spiritual attainment, a panacea for freedom from suffering, the most advanced level of evolution, or the pinnacle of human well-being. While there are benefits to it, and individuals may perceive a sense of freedom through this loss, as I once did, a big blind spot lies in the potential negative impact on their relationships with others and even society at large when they experience significant memory issues, loss of empathy, and impaired moral decision-making, aspects often overlooked in discussions surrounding the pursuit of a diminished sense of self.

    It really is essential to acknowledge that the loss of self-referential thought, and the accompanying decreased activity in the DMN, when glorified without considering its potential consequences, can jeopardize our own wellbeing and that of others. By diminishing our memory, empathy, and moral decision-making in an extreme way, this can create an environment where the well-being and security of individuals end up compromised. A balanced portrayal of the outcome of DMN inactivity/loss of self really ought to go beyond just the benefits (of which there certainly are some) and how it can enhance personal well-being, to considering how it can potentially negatively impact the welfare of oneself and others too.

    An example of this can be seen in the many examples where individuals revered as fully enlightened and egoless have engaged in highly harmful abusive behavior, inflicting profound suffering upon others, including sexual and psychological abuse. I think these disturbing patterns need to be a poignant reminder of the potential consequences when loss of self-referential thought is celebrated without serious critical evaluation. It points to the need for a balanced approach to minimizing excessive rumination and the kind of self-referencing that is out of control and at unhealthy levels, without swinging to the opposite extreme of crippling it/extinguishing it entirely!

    Another thing related is how fundamentally flawed it is to claim, as many nondual teachers often do, that once someone is "fully realized," egoless, and ceases self-referencing, they can no longer cause harm to others. This I see as a preposterous fantasy and illusion, and for one it contradicts the fact that such a large number of those who have eroded their sense of being a person, and thought-based activity, still engage in highly harmful actions that cause profound suffering to others, and I don't see this as very surprising!

    Along with this, the notion that resting in your "true nature" and acting from/as "pure consciousness" alone guarantees actions that benefit others is yet another fantasy, and it's telling that some of those who claim to have deeply eroded their sense of self and self-referencing often make emphatic claims devaluing or invalidating the importance of indivdiuals and societies coming to some semblance of agreed upon moral and ethical guidelines. This seems to give more credence to the findings that high levels of decreased self-referencing can lead to a loss of empathy and consideration of what constitutes ethical behavior (based on, for example, the degree to which it inflicts suffering on others). Hopefully this gives some food for contemplation and encouragement for a more balanced discussion of the benefits and negative consequences of seeking to radically diminish self-referential thinking and simultaneously, DMN activity.

Research examples:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S169726002200028X

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0301051112000713















Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Universe's Past: A Portal to Presence!

-
Image
One of my favorite spiritual practices now, portals to presence and wonder actually involves tuning into the past! looking back to experience the now more deeply, in the light of Beings' journey of  becoming, (be)coming all the way to THIS nowness and right hereness  😱 the ground of Being has a past, and a quite extraordinarily EPIC one at that! S hining a light on it reveals the splendor of this moment it has become... can bring you to feeling astonished and deeply moved by the present... looking back to the beginning of the universe, feeling into, visualizing what it ONCE WAS, those early days of the ground of Being beginning its' journey of becoming... becoming cells, atoms, molecules, water and earth, chickens and eggs, mountains and lakes, becoming....HUMAN...becoming ME...my god, the o ne becoming MANY to see what it has become, what it is right NOW, a dimly lit room, dancing and drumming, strangers drawn together to celebrate the staggering mystery of our coinciding li...
Read more

Spiritualizing Trauma Responses - Rupert Spira - Total Dis-embodiment

-
Image
"I s there something we can do to dissolve the belief that ‘I am a body’? A woman says that during meditation she can sense old beliefs and feelings associated with the body start to dissolve, but the old conditioning of believing and feeling solid, dense and limited quickly comes back. Rupert explains that having recognised the felt sense of the body as just a cloud of sensing, once or twice is not enough. It takes time to erode this very well-born habit. These old habits are deeply conditioned in us — we've been practising them for so long. But every time we do go back there we weaken that habit. So keep questioning it by asking yourself, "Is that true? What is my actual experience?" Every time you go back to your actual experience you erode the power of your old beliefs." -Video description from Dissolving the Belief That "I Am a Body" You could actually say that the core messages of modern non-duality which split the non-physical self from the ...
Read more

Exploring Another Side of Nisargadatta

-
     Like many individuals who have delved into contemporary non-dual spirituality, I was once deeply influenced by Nisargadatta Maharajs' unconventional contemporary Advaita Vedanta-derived teachings on liberation via radical self-effacement. Alongside Ramana Maharshi, he is one of the primary influencers of these self-effacement teachings in our present-day Western world, particularly the extremely powerful, most pitfall-laden "direct path" approaches to "enlightenment" that cut out all preparatory stages/safeguards that existed traditionally before attempting to obliterate your sense of self. This is done in favor of a sort of instant enlightenment approach that is understandably attractive to people in the West. Nisargadattas' influence extends beyond strictly Advaita-derived teachings, encompassing the broad range of modern Western amalgamations of Eastern non-dual teachings, which typically mix and match cherry-picked elements of traditions like Advait...
Read more

No Ground for the Groundless

-
Image
You  climbed a ladder to the sky and for a long time, you marveled while gazing down at the world from so high up.  Now that you're ready to come back to the ground, you discover that the ladder beneath you is gone. You're suspended in the air, so you can't even fall. Now you're stuck up here, looking down from the great heights that afforded you a view you'd like to take with you but not be limited to.  I reached out to Stephen, a well-known psychotherapist and esteemed self-negating nonduality teacher, when I was in the throes of a spiritual emergency catalyzed by my ego dissolution path.  I was dis-oriented, disassociated and de-personalized, struggling to shore up a sense of personal agency, embodiment, and most importantly,  to get back a sense of solid ground beneath my feet.  I was especially terrified by what became a harrowing sense of dis-reality both of my own personal identity and in-solidity of the world, because while I'd experienced depersona...
Read more