Mystical experiences, whether through psychedelics or meditation, are not just states of mind — they are the result of intricate physiological processes where the brain, heart, and nervous system align in unique patterns of intensity, revealing the true sense of being.
In the realm of human experience, both science and spirituality increasingly point to the intricate web of connections between our thoughts, feelings, and bodily processes. A recent study explores how the powerful psychedelic DMT induces mystical experiences by creating a rare balance in our nervous system — leading to profound feelings of oneness and transcendence. However, these experiences are not limited to psychedelics alone. Through meditation and present-moment awareness, we can naturally tap into similar physiological states that unlock deeper consciousness, as the body, mind, and nervous system come together in harmony.
Scientists uncover fascinating link between psychedelic experiences and heart activity
A new study published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology reveals a surprising link between mystical experiences induced by the psychedelic compound DMT and specific patterns of heart activity.
DMT (N,N-Dimethyltryptamine) is a powerful, short-acting psychedelic known for inducing intense, non-ordinary states of consciousness. What is interesting is how it brings on this intense, non–ordinary states of consciousness.
DMT brings about a profound experience of oneness, insight, and transcendence, often described as mystical or spiritual in nature. This occurs due to the unique physiological state DMT creates in the body — called “sympathovagal coactivation,” a rare balance between the sympathetic (stress) and parasympathetic (relaxation) nervous systems.
This is what caught my attention: a rare balance between the sympathetic (stress) and parasympathetic (relaxation) nervous systems. They call it a “sympathovagal coactivation,” Are these kinds of experiences that triggers the realisation and awakening processes in the brain-mind. Are all these mystical, spiritual experiences a combination of sympathetic (stress) and parasympathetic (relaxation) nervous system processes in a certain pattern of intensity? They found this relationship via how the heart reacted to DMT.
But the heart is only one of those reactions of a combo of other processes that brings on the mystical, spiritual experience. We talk about oneness with the universe and everything in it, but in us, it is an experience when a combo of processes in the body and nervous system come together. This is what I am fascinated about. Enlightenment would be a similar kind of experience but naturally happening in us to show how we are lined up to the forces within us and external to us when the body-brain-mind comes together in a certain pattern of processes of different intensities. That is how we experience it, and it is a DMT experience in a lab with scientific research that tells us this.
Both DMT and meditation lead to profound spiritual experiences by guiding us through different states of consciousness. The DMT experience, with its rapid induction of physiological changes, offers a glimpse into the deepest levels of awareness, while meditation allows us to slowly and intentionally access the same spaces. What I’ve realized is that we all have the ability to enter these mystical states naturally through understanding and working with the brain-mind spectrum and the physiological processes in the body. So if you say spirituality, understand, spirituality — we all know what that means.