A State Most Devoutly To Be Wished For Poem by Denis Mair

The neuroscience of ecstatic states is a deep dive. To speak of it is like having a conversation at the rim of a well. Every generation holds a conversation beside that deep well, in the language of that generation. The well now is as it always has been. Perhaps our generation will develop a new way to talk about it.

Neurons are able to coordinate their impulses into pervasive waves. Sensory neurons link up with pleasure centers to give a sense of visceral well being. The waves are traded among populations of neurons that alternately take on dominant and receptive roles, until the reverberation practically takes over the brain. Then at some point the waves cannot be sustained and amplified further, to the point that the pattern crashes, and for a few moments it unravels in poignant turbulence. Pleasure centers at all levels were pulled into the reverberation, so the pattern's collapse becomes a diffuse tingle. This is life's inbuilt capacity to celebrate itself.

But if the pattern extends into centers of aversion and alarm, then the feeling-tone will be one of ambient fear. There are times when the dominant mood will be a sense of separation, as if one were cut off from every possibility of receiving supportive care from others. Actually all primary feelings can be amplified into diffuse, exaggerated forms, as if the brain is performing the states that it most wants to seek or avoid.