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Enlightenment is the progressive loosening of habitually potentiated predictive models in the brain’s neural network through intentional isolation followed by manipulation of neurotransmitter tone.
Neural Network
Think of the brain as a multidimensional house of cards.
Layer 0 = raw data input: a, b, c, d, e …
ie. light, sound, pressure, chemical
Layer 1 = features / conceptions: A, B, C, D, E …
ie. edge, colour, pitch, tactile patterns
Layer 2 = objects / combinations: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 …
ie. green + shape + texture = leaf
Layer 3 = schemas / abstract conceptions: I, II, III, IV, V …
ie. leaf + wood + height = tree
Layer 4 = self and world models : α, β, γ, δ, ε …
ie. personal identity, worldview, social context
Layer 5 = predictive integration / meta-awareness: ∞
ie. voluntary recruitment of thought, perception and affect
The network is built from the bottom up through learning and experience, primarily mediated through D1-phasic dopamine synaptic strengthening. High-level priors propagate top-down reinforcement of lower layers, binding the tower.
In this way, repetition of words or images - internal or external - reinforce the layers of the tower below. This in turn results in raw sensory input being funnelled into set patterns of thought.
Enlightenment is the process of de-potentiating high-level priors so that they are no longer compulsively activated. This results in all layers remaining accessible yet only being activated when situationally appropriate.
The phenomenology of the stages of enlightenment in the theravāda insight maps correlate to the level of prior being violated. Sotāpanna (Stream-enterer) corresponds to the weakening of an L4 prior - self-construct, ritualistic behavioural patterns. Arahant corresponds to the weakening of L1 priors: edge (luminosity), body map (non-duality), temporality (continuous arising), tactile patterns (pain, affective tone).
Important:
This article is to instigate research into a phenomenon which we evolved alongside but which has been pathologised for profit. I talk of dopamine since it is the easiest neurotransmitter to manipulate and the primary potentiator of synaptic pathways, but other neurotransmitters such as serotonin, acetylcholine, GABA and glutamate play a role in neuroplasticity and network stability. The complexity of the brain is orders of magnitude higher than this description, and the dopamine mechanics listed here are broad-stroke.
Isolation:
In order to de-potentiate loops they first need to be isolated. A loop can be isolated using the modality by which it presents.
Art can isolate image-based networks. Writing can isolate word-based networks.
Speaking can work but is often more effective at isolating the network if done alone, without the burden of having to read the face of a listener.
Isolation is facilitated by dopaminergic regulation. For example, texting yourself while you walk.
You can optimise the process by reviewing your writings, pictures or recordings before bed to engage multimodal re-encoding so that optimisation and pruning can happen during REM/NREM sleep cycles.
Lower level nodes such as concept and affect require high levels of stillness and focus. They cannot be captured in words or images, so meditation is the method for isolation.
Lower level nodes cannot be addressed until higher-level priors have been weakened, or they will feed into the higher level priors and cause activation of the network.
Induction:
Once a network has been identified and isolated, the weakening process is activated using elevated tonic dopamine and D2 signalling.
D1-phasic dopamine is how a network is potentiated; how we learn. D2-tonic dopamine is how things are brought back to parity; how we achieve mental flexibility and un-learn.
For high-level nodes (trauma, self-construct) this can be undertaken through movement-based regulation. This mechanism is mirrored in current MDMA and aripiprazole assisted trauma therapy trials.
For lower level nodes (concepts, affect) there is a necessity for stillness, quiet and non-conceptual meditation.
Meditation becomes a more viable method once the higher level networks have been weakened because they no longer activate a reinforcement pattern.
Note that meditation is not merely dopaminergic manipulation; the factors at play are many and varied. They will be addressed elsewhere.
Destabilisation:
Once a high-level prior has been sufficiently weakened and violated, it will destabilise the rest of network below it.
The removal of the binding idea will expose the conceptions that created it. The house of cards will begin to crumble.
Because of the enmeshed nature of the network, destabilisation of one network can spread to adjacent networks.
The network will attempt to stabilise by increasing phasic dopamine signalling to reinforce or replace the destabilised synaptic pathways.
This increase in phasic dopamine will present as an ‘arising & passing’ event.
The network will proceed to test new routes to stabilisation, resulting in oscillation between confidence and doubt.
New connections are reinforced through D1-dominant phasic dopamine, meaning high levels of creativity, imagination, confidence, and sometimes decoupling from consensus-reality.
The network is then tested for fallacies and redundancies. Errors are identified and doubt arises.
D1-phasic signalling corrects these errors, and the new network is tested again.
Neuroplasticity-suppressing substances can bring short-term stabilisation but this comes at the cost of retardation of network repair; they should be avoided where possible.
Oscillation:
Since the network was self-reinforcing from the top down, the removal of the top level prior will destabilise the layers below it.
These will then either consolidate into a new top layer which is better adapted to the current situation, as in trauma resolution, or it will continue to destabilise, as in enlightenment.
This involuntary destabilisation is what presents as the ‘insight cycle’ in Buddhism.
This manifests as:
Exploratory phase:
high neural activity, new associations, potential behavioural or conceptual ‘experiments’.
Validation phase:
sensory input and prior predictions are compared, errors are corrected, new stable pathways consolidate.
This cycle is reminiscent of bipolar disorder but is in fact a process of neuroplastic adaptation. Treating it with neuroplasticity-suppressing drugs can have disastrous results.
The exploratory phase is easily mistaken for mania because of the expansive, creative, high-energy and reality-decoupled pathways that are being trialled through elevated phasic dopamine.
The validation phase is mistaken for a depressive episode because of the low affect, doubt, anxiety, questioning and general confusion brought about as the brain learns that old patterns of behaviour and thought no longer fit.
If proceeding to lower levels, the cycle will speed up.
A large high-level prior being destabilised will result in large-scale swings which manifest as longer duration cycles of high intensity.
A lower level prior being destabilised will result in smaller scale swings. The confusion and doubt can be equally distressing, but the duration will generally be shorter.
As the priors being destabilised reach L3 and L2 the cycle becomes faster and less destabilising. It is easier to accept that not every tree is the same than it is easier to accept that your lasting self was a mental fabrication.
Eventually the system will reach near-parity, with the cycles themselves dying down and becoming nothing more than a background hum.
Safe context
With the dissolution of maladaptive priors, the brain will use data from its environment to create a new interpretive model for the world.
Whatever information is provided will shape the exploratory phase and modulate the validation phase.
Doing this in an unsafe or chaotic environment will reinforce maladaptive predictions.
Doing it in a safe environment which reinforces ethical thought will result in more positive outcomes.
The new neural layout will become the interpretive model for the external world.
This is the primary reason why destabilisation in a religious context generally results in better outcomes than destabilisation in psychiatric treatment.
Cessation:
Each dismantled predictive model will result in a cessation event.
A cessation event happens when the old network is dissolved and the brain ‘switches track’ to the new network.
This happens because the brain is not a computer and information relay is not instantaneous; there is a blip as the interpretive model is substituted.
This cessation event is followed by the oscillation mentioned above.
Nirodha samapatti is a different phenomenon.
Modalities:
The deconditioning process is the way the brain naturally purges maladaptive learning.
This can be trauma, which can be treated in an isolated manner in trauma therapy.
It can be science, as in a eureka moment when disparate priors weaken and consolidate.
It can be creative output, where a story suddenly finishes itself.
Or it can be enlightenment.
Enlightenment, in this model, can be framed as:
- Reduced top-down rigidity and precision weighting of priors: high-level priors no longer dominate perception compulsively.
- Enhanced meta-awareness: ability to access and modulate predictive networks voluntarily.
- Improved affective regulation: emotional responses are guided by situational data rather than automatic reinforcement loops.
Networks are not destroyed but they are weakened so that they can be more flexibly recruited in a situation-appropriate manner.
Frontoparietal control is increased, the dominance of the default mode network is decreased, and salience networks are modulated.
The result is a mind which is pliant and can be directed at will, rather than one which is stuck in maladaptive thought loops.
This is of particular value to the dysregulated population who have experienced exaggerated learning due to genetic dopamine dysregulation, trauma exposure or past addiction.
In a nutshell: it enables you to view the world as a child but retain the knowledge of an adult.
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