Erik Hoffman - New Brain, New World

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Text Erik Hoffmann, 2012

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The information given in this book should not be treated as a substitute for professional medical advice; always consult a medical practitioner. Any use of information in this book is at the readers discretion and risk. Neither the author nor the publisher can be held responsible for any loss, claim or damage arising out of the use, or misuse, or the suggestions made or the failure to take medical advice.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 978-1-84850-827-9 in print
ISBN 978-1-84850-832-3 in ePub format
ISBN 978-1-84850-831-6 in Mobipocket format

I am sure it wasnt a coincidence that I started writing this book in Goa, India, in January 2007. India and the people of India have given me so much inspiration. I have travelled to many ashrams, talked to many interesting people there and read many books by Indian masters. Thank you so much.

This book is dedicated to my partner, Inger Spindler, who has been invaluable to me in writing this book. She has been my primary discussion partner and supporter from day one and throughout the creation of this book. I have had numerous discussions with her on various subjects from the book. Her input on kundalini has been especially valuable, since she experienced a kundalini awakening at first hand in India in 2006. I have included an extensive interview with her on kundalini awakening and samadhi.

An early version of the manuscript was read, commented on and supported by a Danish colleague, Klaus Gormsen, and by an English friend, Steve Moses. Thank you.

I also want to thank Yatra da Silveira Barbosa, with whom I did an EEG study of ayahuasca in Brazil. I have included an interview with Yatra on ayahuasca and kundalini in the book. Also thanks to the Italian Nandan for her touching story about her loss and grief and her awakening in India.

I appreciate very much that Hay House UK selected my manuscript from many and had the courage and vision to publish it. I especially want to thank the editorial team, Amy Kiberd, Dan Benton and Lizzie Hutchins, for their advice and professional handling of the manuscript.

Also thanks to Danish engineer Per Gaarde-Nissen, who supplied and maintained the portable EEG brain-mapping equipment I used in all the studies described in this book.

When I was 13 years old I tried to stand on my head following instructions from a book I had just read about yoga and meditation. That book was my first encounter with spirituality. I was fascinated by its descriptions of yogis meditating in caves in the Himalayas and experiencing altered states of consciousness. Later, in my late teens, I picked up a book entitled The Book of Life, by a Danish philosopher and mystic called Martinus. This made a strong impression on me and further stimulated my interest in philosophy and psychology. I became insatiably curious to understand how brain functions were related to consciousness.

I started studying psychology at Copenhagen University in Denmark in 1965. After graduating as a master of psychology, I worked at Copenhagen University for some years as an assistant professor of psychology. I did research in psychophysiology and biofeedback, and in 1973 submitted a thesis entitled Biofeedback. Biofeedback is a method that provides you with a signal (usually auditory or visual) informing you of the variations of a specific physiological variable, for example your brain waves. Through a simple process of trial and error, most people are able to learn to control, to a certain degree, a variety of physiological variables, including their brain waves, and this appeared to me to be a fascinating method of studying the relationship between brain activity and consciousness.

In the early eighties I spent some time at Rutgers University in New Jersey as a visiting assistant professor studying psychiatric patients using quantitative EEG (QEEG) methods, i.e. evaluating brain function by recording the electrical activity in the brain. I worked with the late professor Leonide Goldstein, a world-renowned authority on EEG, who taught me a lot and also became a personal friend. Later, in the nineties, I was research director for two years at Dr Arthur Janovs Primal Center in Los Angeles, where I studied the effects of feeling release (primal) therapy on patients brainwave activity.

I remained fascinated by yogic masters and altered states of consciousness, and over the years I became involved in many scientific studies in this area. In Denmark and Sweden I studied the effects of Kriya Yoga meditation, and in Brazil I did a study on the effects of ayahuasca, a mind-expanding substance taken in the form of a herbal tea. In India, I studied brain changes in a group of people following a 21-day course involving, among other things, the transmission of energy (called deeksha or shaktipat), and also had the opportunity to study a person very close to me before and after she had a kundalini awakening, which is a rush of energy surging from the base of the spine all the way up to the brain.

Most recently, in 2001, with my partner, the neurotherapist Inger Spindler, I founded the Mental Fitness and Research Centre (MFRC) in Copenhagen. At MFRC we have worked intensively with children with attention and behaviour disorders and adults with stress problems. In addition, we have conducted what we call high performance training aimed at improving focus, presence and creativity.

This book is, in part, an attempt to summarize my lifelong study of human consciousness. Along the way, I have been inspired by many people. I have visited a number of ashrams in India, including Oshos International Commune in Poona, and the many discourses and writings of Osho have been of great value to me. Contemporary Western philosophers such as Eckhart Tolle and British physicist Peter Russell have also had a great influence on my thinking. If we look to the timeless wisdom conveyed by Eastern masters and some Western writers, I believe we already have all the knowledge we require about the mysteries of consciousness. What we need now is an understanding of how consciousness relates to the brain, and for that we require a lot more research. It is my hope that science will soon be inspired on a larger scale by the wisdom traditions of the world and will use the advanced technology now available to us in the study of human consciousness, thus bridging science and spirit.