Bhagavan always told us that the most important thing we can do to assist our own enlightenment process is to heal our relationships.  Now there is physical evidence explaining why...

Diksha and the Hormones of Joy

by Christian Opitz 

Until now, I mostly emphasized the effect of diksha on various brain centers in my writings.  An equally important aspect of the process of awakening the brain is the change in hormone and neurotransmitter production.  I would like to give an overview of some of the significant changes in regards to hormones and neurotransmitters that I have found in people who have been receiving diksha for a while.  First, let’s take a look at some of the important neurochemicals and their effect on our experience of life:

Dopamine:

Produced in the substantia nigra in the mid–brain, this important neurotransmitter is almost always out of balance in modern people.  We need sufficient dopamine to feel alive, vibrant, to be able to concentrate and have good discernment.  Lack of dopamine leads to boredom, depression, brain fog, one merely exists but is not truly alive.  This in turn leads to cravings for dopamine stimulation, mostly through destructive means.  Intense but short–lived dopamine stimulants are, for example, cocaine, amphetamines, junk food, aggressive behaviors and conflicts with other people.  Those suffering from ADD are restless and often have hyperaggressive tendencies because they are desperately trying to stimulate some dopamine production.

Too much dopamine at once leads to a dulling of the dopamine receptors and that in turn has undesirable consequences.   Delusions, including hallucinations that are mistaken for genuine mystical experiences, often go together with prolonged overproduction of dopamine.  People addicted to computer games have similar dopamine imbalances, which shows an interesting correlation between the addictions to virtual realities, whether on a computer screen or on the screen of one’s own mind.  In some people, excessive dopamine can lead to stuttering.  People who stutter usually have twice as much dopamine in their system than average people.

It is easy to see that for a balanced spiritual awakening, we want a consistent level of dopamine without the detrimental effects of extreme highs and lows.  A consistent dopamine production goes hand in hand with awakened frontal lobes, which Bhagavan associates with God–Realization.  Given the fact that dopamine is essential to feel truly alive, it makes sense that we need it to also feel the Source of all life.

Oxytocin:

Oxytocin is the hormone of love, open–heartedness and gratitude.  Happily married people produce more oxytocin, but relationship stress severely decreases it.  Oxytocin is the neurochemical foundation for compassion, for truly caring for others.  When we care for others, we ourselves are rewarded many times over, because oxytocin regenerates the body and induces a very deep sense of well–being.  Love is great health insurance because of oxytocin.  Indifference and cruelty are accompanied by very low levels of this hormone.  I assume that these biochemical facts are one of the reasons behind Bhagavan’s emphasis on setting right relationships.

The production of oxytocin is severely hindered in most people today and this often starts at birth.  In the late 1940s, medicine began to use drugs at birth as if it were some kind of disease. Among those drugs, petocin (synthetic oxytocin) is used to induce contractions and thus birth, on the hospital’s schedule instead of following the natural interaction between baby and mother.  Whenever we receive a huge dose of a synthetic version of a hormone, our receptors are overwhelmed and the body’s own production can be compromised.  If this happens at birth, there can be permanent damage and a life–long pattern of producing too little oxytocin.

It does not help much that the most important bonding phase between mother and child right after birth has become a medical procedure of taking blood, measuring the baby, cutting the umbilical cord too early and not allowing the baby a direct bonding with the mother and thus a gentle entrance into this world.  The combination of petocin and the lack of empathy for the newborn baby in medicalized birth procedures is almost certain to severely compromise oxytocin production.

It is interesting to note that heavy drug use at birth, from petocin to pain killers to even some psychedelic substances that are no longer used, was introduced after WWII.  When the first generation of babies who came into this world on drugs had arrived at young adulthood in the 1960s, they where the first generation to seek a deeper meaning of life through drugs.  I believe the lack of natural oxytocin caused by drug use at the entrance into life can set up a strong recapitulation pattern of seeking life through drugs.

Cortisol:

The opposite of oxytocin, in terms of effects on our life experience, is cortisol, the stress and death hormone.  We need cortisol in life–threatening situations, but, as Dr. Hans Selye discovered, we tend to overproduce it much of the time when there is no threat to survival in sight.  On cortisol, all of life takes on the quality of struggle, including relationships and even the spiritual search.  Cortisol activates the parietal lobes, which are supposed to give us a sense of our physical boundaries.  When overactive, this sense of physical separateness is extended to our general experience of ourselves and we then feel existentially separate.

This is at least part of the reason why Bhagavan emphasizes the deactivation of the parietal lobes.  Cortisol makes us walk around with chronically overactivated parietal lobes.  In that state, we are not able to feel our feelings fully, to embrace ourselves as we are.  Being in the here and now, being in the flow, requires abundant oxytocin, sufficient dopamine and low levels of cortisol.

The Effects of Diksha:

Although it is very difficult to measure hormones and neurotransmitters in the brain directly, electromagnetic signature testing allows for some conclusions about the effects of diksha in this regard.  One of the main effects I have found with people who have been receiving diksha for a year or longer is a regeneration of receptors for both dopamine and oxytocin.  This automatically leads to greater efficiency of these neurochemicals and a decrease in cortisol production.  Diksha can also regenerate the substantia nigra, where dopamine is produced, and this directly shows up in changed electromagnetic brain patterns.

Many times I have observed a natural release of addictive patterns through diksha that were clearly related to low dopamine levels.  Another interesting parameter is the electromagnetic communication between the brain and the heart.  This seems to progressively get stronger in people through diksha and is one of the most important energetic correlation's of the flowering of the heart and true compassion.  In some of the Dasas and in Ron Roth, this connection was off the charts when I measured them.  Oxytocin is the biochemical bridge between the brain and heart.

From the data I have gathered so far, diksha seems to be effective in strongly enhancing oxytocin in the vast majority of people.  I also believe that this is one of the aspects of birth trauma that can be healed through diksha and that this effect makes diksha so worthwhile for children.  Even though children are not supposed to enter into an enlightenment process, growing up with lots of oxytocin will give them a much more beautiful life experience.

Finally, the neurochemical effects of diksha are one reason why other methods people utilize for inner transformation can become so much more effective when people receive diksha.  If someone does not need meditation anymore to lower cortisol, meditation can go to much deeper levels right away.  If emotional or physical healing work is done on a person who already has high levels of oxytocin, the receptivity to receive healing is enhanced.

The synergy of diksha with specific methods of inner transformation is a fascinating subject for more exploration and the role of neurochemicals is essential for the effects such synergies produce.

*    *    *

Christian Opitz is a neurophysicist, biochemist, herbalist and author.  He has developed a new paradigm of healing called Radiant Life that combines whole brain functioning, raw food nutrition, exercise and nature awareness.  Christian has taught in Europe and the United States for the past 15 years.

 Reprinted here with permission of the author.

back to the Articles Directory

back to the top