Neural correlates of induced light experience during meditation: A pilot hyperscanning study

Certain individuals during deep meditative state can give out an aura or ‘light, which is perceived by others through some unknown connections, visual, telepathic or other. Despite various anecdotal, historical accounts of such induced light experience (ILE), its underlying neural mechanisms are not known. In this pilot study, we investigated the neural correlates of ILE by simultaneously recording the EEGs of an expert meditation Teacher, who is claimed to elicit ILE, and his Pupil (iV=2) during joint meditation sessions under various instructions, given separately to the Teacher (transmit/do not transmit) and to the Pupil (receive/do not receive) and also during transmit/receive instruction but both wearing goggles, limiting the visual input. We observed a robust increase in the high frequency beta (12-30 Hz) and gamma oscillations (30-70 Hz) in the Teacher’s brain whenever he was instructed to transmit. Electric field tomography analysis localized these effects over a multitude of brain regions including the fusiform gyrus, angular gyrus and the cerebellum. Finally, we found that the Teacher’s and Pupil’s brain responses were synchronized especially in the alpha band (8-12 Hz) during transmit/receive condition, and the information flow was directional, i.e. from the Teacher to the Pupil; interestingly, this enhanced interbrain synchrony disappeared with goggles. These results were interpreted in terms of heightened internally selective attention as manifested by high frequency beta-gamma oscillations and of joint attention as manifested by interbrain alpha synchrony. Altogether, our results provide first neuroscientific evidence underlying the phenomenological experience of induced light.