What if you had magic fingers and could touch a place on a person’s body and make all their pain and anguish disappear? This would be the stuff of legends, myths and miracles! Here’s a research review by Kerry J Ressler and Helen S Mayberg on the modern ability to electrically “touch” the Vagus Nerve.
The article, Targeting abnormal neural circuits in mood and anxiety disorders: from the laboratory to the clinic discusses a number of “nerve stimulation therapies” wherein specific nerve fibers are electrically stimulated to relieve mental anguish associated with (drug) treatment-resistant depression.
Vagus nerve stimulation therapy (VNS) is approved by the FDA for treatment of medication-resistant depression and was approved earlier for the treatment of epilepsy20. … The initial reasoning behind the use of VNS followed from its apparent effects of elevating mood in patients with epilepsy20, combined with evidence that VNS affects limbic activity in neuroimaging studies21. Furthermore, VNS alters concentrations of serotonin, norepinephrine, GABA and glutamate within the brain22–24, suggesting that VNS may help correct dysfunctional neurotransmitter modulatory circuits in patients with depression.
This stuff is miraculous in every sense of the word – to be able to reach in and “touch” the body and bring relief – if not bliss – to individuals who suffer with immense emotional pain. So who is this Vagus nerve anyway? Why does stimulating it impart so many emotional benefits? How can I touch my own Vagus nerve?
The wikipedia page is a great place to explore – suggesting that this nerve fiber is central to the “rest and digest” functions of the parasympathetic nervous system. As evidenced by the relief its stimulation brings from emotional pain, the Vagus nerve is central to mind-body connections and mental peace.
YOGA is a practice that also brings mental peace. YOGA, in so many ways (I hope to elaborate on in future posts), aims to engage the parasympathetic nervous system (slowing down and resting responses) and disengage the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight responses). Since we all can’t have our very own (ahem) lululemon (ahem) vagal nerve stimulation device, we must rely on other ways to stimulate the Vagus nerve fiber. Luckily, many such ways are actually known – so-called “Vagal maneuvers” – such as holding your breath and bearing down (Valsalva maneuver), immersing your face in ice-cold water (diving reflex), putting pressure on your eyelids, & massage of the carotid sinus area - that have been shown to facilitate parasympathetic (relaxation & slowing down) responses.
But these “Vagal maneuvers” are not incorporated into yoga. How might yoga engage and stimulate the Vagal nerve bundle? Check out these great resources on breathing and Vagal tone (here, here, here). I’m not an expert by any means but I think the take home message is that when we breathe deep and exhale, Vagal tone increases. So, any technique that allows us to increase the duration of our exhalation will increase Vagal tone. Now THAT sounds like yoga!
Even more yogic is the way the Vagus nerve is the only nerve in the parasympathetic system that reaches all the way from the colon to the brain. The fiber is composed mainly of upward (to the brain) pulsing neurons – which sounds a lot like the mystical Kundalini Serpent that arises upwards from within (starting at the root – colon) and ending in the brain. The picture above – of the Vagus nerve (bright green fiber) – might be what the ancient yogis had in mind?
some updates:
- here’s a great post on the importance of, and teaching of exhalation
I just thought I’d point out that Taoist yoga (internal alchemy) stimulates the vagus nerve to pulsate on the neck, drawing up more blood into the brain. I have personally gone through this experience, it’s very powerful. The parasympathetic nervous system does activate permenantly and serotonin floods the brain.
What’s worth noting is that eating a bad diet of white sugar and processed salts reverses this phenomena, causing the nerves to start to close up again. When resuming a clean vegan diet without processed foods the nerve reactivates.
There is no need for a simulation device, just follow the instructions in taoist yoga: alchemy and immortality for a permenant result.
What are “chills” and how do they relate to music, Kundalini Tantra and altered states of consciousness? More biological indications possibly associated with Kundalini.
My exploration of this must be somewhat speculative as I am not a trained scientific investigator. I may not be correct in general or detail. These are simply speculations and ruminations at this time and much further cross referencing of available research papers and more physical science needs to be sourced.
Chills is a sensation experienced by many people when listening to music and other events, as described below.
“A cold chill (also known as frisson, or simply thrills or cold chills) is described by David Huron as, “a pleasant tingling feeling, associated with the flexing of hair follicles resulting in goose bumps (technically called piloerection), accompanied by a cold sensation, and sometimes producing a shudder or shiver.” [1] Dimpled skin is often visible due to cold chills especially on the back of the neck or upper spine. [2] Unlike shivering, however, it is not caused by temperature, menopause, or anxiety but rather is an emotionally triggered response when one is deeply affected by things such as music [3], speech [4] or recollection.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_chill
So what’s happening in the brain?
“Music is able to create an incredibly pleasurable experience that can be described as “chills”.[36] Blood and Zatorre (2001) used PET to measure changes in cerebral blood flow while participants listened to music that they knew to give them the “chills” or any sort of intensely pleasant emotional response. They found that as these chills increase, many changes in cerebral blood flow are seen in brain regions such as the amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex, ventral striatum, midbrain, and the ventral medial prefrontal cortex. Many of these areas appear to be linked to reward and motivation, emotion and arousal and are also activated in other pleasurable situations.[36] Nucleus HYPERLINK “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucleus_accumbens”accumbens (a part of striatum) is involved in both music related emotions, as well as rhythmic timing.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_neuroscience_of_music
So we can see that chills are a real physiological response that many people experience and that it is connected with the pleasure generating centres of the brain. There are studies indicating that personality types exhibiting “Openness to Experience” are more likely to experience chills to music.
Elsewhere it is stated that the centres affected by chills are the same as those affected by, food ingestion, sex and drugs like cocaine, and other euphoric inducing substances.
The dopamine cycle of the brain has recently found to be involved in chills, the mesolimbic dopamine system.
“…. music can produce a nice increase in dopamine in the nucleus accumbens. Whether that’s a “high”, is another question. They couldn’t really quantify what kind of a signal they were getting from the dopamine, other than that they got a significant change. Drugs like cocaine produce increases in dopamine in the nucleus accumbens of up to 300% of baseline, and drugs like meth can go even higher than that. Was intense pleasure when listening to music in the same category? Probably not. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t feel good.”
Jan 31 2011 Published by scicurious under Behavioral Neuro
http://scientopia.org/blogs/scicurious/2011/01/31/this-is-your-brain-on-music/
The anecdotal evidence of my own experience and those of others indicate that the answer to the last question above, “Was intense pleasure when listening to music in the same category?” may be, “Yes, under certain circumstances.” The stimulation of the mesolimbic dopamine system through music induced chills may be the part of the physiological and psychological process of Kundalini awakening. Kundalini effects maybe as powerful as cocaine and crystal meth but with no temporary or permanent physical, psychiatric or psychological damage.
An endogenous DMT (N,N-dimethyltryptamine) like substance has also been proposed as an element of mystical states of consciousness involving euphoria and hallucinations or “visions.” This may also be an element of the Kundalini awakening process through chills induced by music. It seems to go back to endogenous serotonin derivatives.
“N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is a potent psychedelic agent found in many plants and animals and is remarkably similar in its molecular structure to the neurotransmitter serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine or 5-HT).”
“In the healthy human, DMT may be involved in the production of the dream visions that are experienced during rapid-eye-movement sleep (REMS; Callaway, 1988). The periodic nature of REMS suggests that dreaming may be the result of a metabolic cycle involving serotonin, melatonin, and other endogenous tryptophan products that include pinoline (an endogenous SSRI and a weak MAOI) and DMT.”
DMT and Human Consciousness, Zevic Mishor, Dennis J. McKenna, and J. C. Callaway
http://www.zevicmishor.com/wp-content/uploads/DMT-and-Human-Consciousness-Altering-Consciousness_Vol2_Ch5-Mishor.pdf
It is recorded that Kundalini awakening may produce chills, and also euphoria and hallucinations (visions), out of body experiences (OBE) and Near Death Experiences (NDE). This was my experience.
However, the results of Kundalini awakening have been noted to challenge the existing world-view of the one who experiences it to the point that integration of the experience afterwards can be difficult. This is also common in OBE and NDE experiences. (Well, if one’s head is full of horrible shit, this might not be a bad thing.)
Philip Ball quotes studies indicating that the likelihood of the experience of music induced chills is not diminished by repeated experience, but may become more likely the more frequently they are experienced. So this would indicate that the experience of chills can be made more likely, at least, in the people who can experience them, by learning.
Kundalini yoga, Kriya yoga, Tantra yoga methods of Kundalini awakening appear to train the yoga practitioner to induce chills in the spine on demand which the literature claim also ultimately induces altered states of consciousness, euphoria, visions, OBE and NDE experiences, and finally Self-realisation or God-realisation.
The chill response to music affects similar parts of the brain as does sex, food and inspiring thoughts. Thus this response would indicate that music is fundamental to our experience and survival as human beings and why all cultures value music. Tantra is the science of using the pleasure response to awaken the Kundalini and would appear to use the same dopamine using parts of the brain in part or whole. Tantra works with the fundamental pleasure drives associated with species survival.
I think the chills response is somehow linked with Kundalini awakening. But it is just a guess.