By Jessie Ayani PhD

The human brain presents a clear map of our evolutionary heritage as well as the best indicator of human potential. The brain is also a frugal gardener, regularly pruning neural pathways that we have laid down but have not used (1).  Functioning pathways are coated with myelin to protect them from the enzymatic pruning. The new frontier in the brain is the prefrontal part of the neocortex (the thinking brain), called the prefrontal lobes. These lobes sit behind the forehead. In recent years, developmental specialists have been noticing some young children sporting visibly prominent prefrontal lobes (prominent foreheads).

These children may be bringing in the next step in evolution. The prefrontal lobes are the brain of the spiritual mental body (upper astral), the layer of our thought fields where we reconnect with higher self and soul. The prefrontal lobes have a great deal to do with inspiration, wisdom, advanced intelligence, but most importantly compassion, love and empathy. Though those advanced children hold a great promise for the future of our species, it is also important to note that, for a long time, we have been religiously wiring up the prefrontal lobes as part of normal development. This wiring anticipates a potential transcendent opportunity right around age 15.

Few of us complete that transcendent step at age 15, evidence of which would be the myelination of the neural pathways within the prefrontal lobes. Instead, the frugal brain begins a pruning process by secreting enzymes that destroy those neural paths, shutting down the prefrontal lobes (use it or lose it economics). Do you remember approaching 15? Often the adolescent is moved to write poetry, or ponder what greatness awaits them in the world. It is very much an age of dreaming. Those are indicators of prefrontal lobe access. So why are there such dismal statistics about the chances of myelinating those all-important neural tracts?

There is a lot of competition for our attention at that age. There is an undercurrent of violence in the culture that is both the principal source of distraction for the adolescent and the product of what Carlos Casteneda (2) described the foreign installation. His teacher, Don Juan, stated that we have two minds, the foreign installation and our true mind. We must choose between them. The culture runs on the foreign installation. In fact we become slaves to it until we wake up. The prefrontal lobes, on the other hand, are the seat of the true mind. Our 15-year-old adolescents are torn between the two minds, and predictably few are able to stabilize their true mind. The status quo does not support it. Those who do make that transition are guided, supported and nurtured by conscious parents who are often part of a conscious community.

I don’t know about you, but when I am confronted with this kind of data, it worries me. The status quo being what it is, it looks like we are headed for extinction – and a great many evolutionary biologists are projecting just that. We have those extraordinary children coming in with prominent prefrontal lobes begging to be nurtured to transcendence. There are the few of us who will or did transcend at 15, and then the majority of us who missed the boat. Does the boat come around again? Can we still make the transcendent step as adults once we wake up to our missed potential? Indeed, we can.

Some recent research shows that the adult hippocampus (a brain organ) is capable of producing new nerve cells from stem cells (3). Potentially, we can still lay down neural tracts, forge pathways into the prefrontal lobes and awaken our potential to live in our true minds at any age. However, that does not apply the typical hippocampus. Typically the functions of the hippocampus, which manage a lot more than neuron production, decrease with age, are detrimentally affected by stress hormones, and are susceptible to negativity in general. What really turns the hippocampus on is non-linear experience – what I call experience in the Web of Life.

Backing up a bit, the right hemisphere of the neo-cortex is our creative, cognitive and imaginative brain. The left hemisphere is the verbal, intellectual thinking brain. It’s been amazingly easy to dominate other species and Mother Earth using the so-called advanced human brain.  Now as we face the possibility of self-destruction, there appears to be little evolutionary advantage to that brain. It seems not to know how to set wise limits. It is imperative that we activate the transcendent prefrontal lobes to rise above the destructive culture that the collective human brain has created and sustained. It is the foreign installation that has created global warming, genocide and starvation, corporate domination, greed, and corruption and so many other end-stage issues that we face right here and now. All of our end-stage issues lie outside the Web of Life.

As a species, we are paying the price for our failure to transcend at adolescence when our physiology was begging us to do so. The potential mental capabilities generated from the prefrontal lobes of the neo-cortex are expansive, connected to all that is, are transcendent and, above all, experiential (non-linear). That untapped part of our brain holds the solutions for living in the Web of Life, as if all things mattered to the whole - and they do. We know they do.

If there is a part of our brain in charge of bliss, it has to be the prefrontal lobes. For the most part, the seduction of recreational drugs, especially for young people, is the promise of bliss, feeling connected, feeling love, and having vision. Those desires are all potential functions of the prefrontal lobe, but the path of drugs offers a fourth dimensional illusion (a conjure of the foreign installation), not an attainable reality. Attainment of higher consciousness is the operative way to re-forge the lost neural pathways of transcendence. It is not something you have to think about, it happens as a matter of course as you attain greater awareness. The door to honest compassion, for example, is built into the spiritual path.

We are hardwired for bliss. The prefrontal lobes have all the unlocked potential for this important ascension step. Making the break with culture is part of the lifestyle change needed to assure higher consciousness. Clearing your emotional and mental bodies is another. So is stimulating the hippocampus through a productive and stress-free life, good organic food, fresh air and sunlight, laughter, friendship, love and joy.

Practically speaking, one of the greatest deterrents to prefrontal awakening for those walking the spiritual path is stress. The stress hormone, cortisol, directly inhibits hippocampus function. Learning to relax, surrender to life, and accept what comes to you as valuable learning (the work) can be combined well with physical body relaxation. Mental relaxation can come, for example, through meditation, music, and time in nature like walks along the ocean shore in the cleansing ionic crash of waves. The nervous system, which can be stretched both by stress and the frequency shifts that come with the spiritual work, needs protein (according to your dietary style) and green and yellow vegetables over carbohydrate and fat rich foods to maintain balance.

If we take good care of our bodies, our bodies will respond by producing all of the natural pharmaceuticals we need in any given moment. These include the neuropeptides of pain relief, warning of danger, as well as bliss. Our bodies have awesome potential once self-mastery is attainted. Every time I read new research that biologically confirms the experience of awareness gained through self-mastery, I imagine my hippocampus jumping for joy!