© UnknownHuman brain receptors
Animal studies conducted at the National Institute on Aging Gerontology Research Center and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, for example, have shown that both calorie restriction and intermittent fasting along with vitamin and mineral intake, increase resistance to disease, extend lifespan, and stimulate production of neurons from stem cells.
In addition, fasting has been shown to enhance synaptic elasticity, possibly increasing the ability for successful re-wiring following brain injury. These benefits appear to result from a cellular stress response, similar in concept to the greater muscular regeneration that results from the stress of regular exercise.
Comment: Training and re-wiring the brain is not all bad. Bio-feedback, forms of meditation, etc. can relieve stress that dealing with our true reality inflicts on us both physically and mentally on a daily basis, just as sleep and proper nutrition can aid health and the immune system. But by that reasoning sleep is also a form of spirituality.
For the researcher, understanding what they are studying and their own assumptions is the first hurdle.
Using brain states, no matter the means by which it is achieved, as a way to not face the the real world right in front of us is nothing more than another mechanism of escape from having to deal with the true reality. What is the difference between this and mind altering drugs as a form of dissociation. Both disconnect us from the here and now. Both act as psychological screens.
Preoccupation that distracts from real live waking discernment is just that - distraction. It re-enforces not seeing the world right in front of us. Distractions that focus away from the real world are equivalent to psychological toxins that we are addicted to.
It keeps us from seeing reality rather than connecting to the divine and participating in creation.