How can you tell if it’s working?

At The New Human University (NHU), we have practices and teachings that promote the awakening of higher consciousness and higher developmental stages.  We can all agree that awakening to higher consciousness will lead to deeper understanding of our mind and spirit.  We can also agree that higher developmental stages — which are correlated with higher values, such as compassion and concern for others — are important, especially in light of current events in early to mid 2020.

But how can you tell the practices and teachings are working?

We do the research

I’m not going to explain everything we’ve done, but we’ve scanned the brains of our students under various conditions, and we tested them for developmental growth.  Then we compared The NHU group with other groups, such as a mixed population of US citizens, and managers from the United Kingdom.

The research continues.  But in this short post, I’ll focus on results related to gamma-band activity in the brain, and to the construct-aware stage of ego development.

Gamma Waves & Soul Awakening

The gamma band frequency is considered to be the fastest brain activity and is correlated with

• attention span [8] (I listed this first to make sure it got attention, ironically)
• cognitive functioning [6]
• learning [5,6]
• memory [6]
• information processing [6]

Basically, gamma-band activity is associated with focused attention. It’s associated with making the brain available to process a stimuli and make it conscious. As stimuli are processed, the brain can continue to process more and more complexity.

So what happens to the gamma-band activity before and after meditation?

Shift in gamma activity to the left hemisphere of the brain after practicing an early form of “Soul Awakening” from The 9 Summits of Transformation

After meditation, gamma-band activity shifts from the right to the left hemispheres.  According to other significant research [1], activity in the left hemisphere of the brain is associated with

• transformational leadership and leadership maturity [3,4]
• higher learning rates [5]
• assimilation of information into a comprehensible whole [6]
• creative combination processes [7]
• attention span [8]

The research indicates that Source Code Meditation awakens the brains capacity for higher functioning.

But so what?  There are plenty of highly functioning people that can’t figure out current events, or that take advantage of chaos.

Ego Development

The way we see ourselves, and the way we understand what our life is about, shifts as we move through developmental stages. Our values, our worldviews, and our sense of self change as we mature from infant, to child, to adult.  In other words, the ego develops over time in stages.  Some stages are more mature than others.  The more mature stages are characterized by increasingly mature values, worldviews, and senses of self.

We evaluated the “ego maturity” of students in The NHU by using validated tests of ego development.  I will focus on the “Construct-Aware” stage of development. According to Susanne Cook-Greuter “The Construct-Aware stage is the first stage that sees through the function of the ego to make us feel safe, important, and permanent.” [2]

Imagine what a highly functioning, construct-aware person — or group of people — could do in terms of resolving global issues.

We compared the results with results from two other groups: (1) general U.S. population and (2) managers in the United Kingdom.  Our research indicates that The New Human University is outweighing both groups at Construct-Aware.

Comparison of Construct-Aware populations for three groups

We also evaluated the brain changes associated with evolving into the construct-aware stage of development and compared it with other stages of development.  Like the results from performing the meditation, we saw a continual increase of gamma-band activity in the left hemisphere of the brain.  Keep in mind all the benefits (see above) associated with activity in the left side of the brain.

EEG scan (gamma band) of a person who evaluated at Construct Aware stage of development.

Comparison of increases and decreases in gamma-band frequencies in the left hemisphere of the brain for people who evaluate at various & distinct stages of development.

It’s working

For the first time in history, we have conscious control over awakening higher functions and higher ego development.

What’s the secret?

There is no secret. But there is a practice and a teaching to it. It’s not magic. It’s science. The answers have been lying dormant within us.  At The New Human University, we’ve got this down to a science, and we’re evolving all the time — literally and figuratively.

The Metamodern Mystery School was designed to create New Humans.   Join us in waking up and growing up!

REFERENCES

[1] Fischer, K. W. (2008). Dynamic cycles of cognitive and brain development: Measuring growth in mind, brain, and education. In A. M. Battro, K. W. Fischer & P. Léna (Eds.). The educated brain (pp. 127-150). Cambridge U.K.: Cambridge University Press

[2] Cook-Greuter, S. (2018) The Construct-Aware Stage of Ego Development and its Relationship to the Fool Archetype. Integral Review, August 2018, Vol. 14, No. 1

[3] Balthazard, P. A., Waldman, D. A., Thatcher, R. W., & Hannah, S. T. (2012). Differentiating transformational and non-transformational leaders on the basis of neurological imaging. Leadership Quarterly, 23(2), pp.244-258. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/usarmyresearch/265

[4] Rook, D., & Torbert, B. (1998). Organizational Transformation as a Function of CEOs’ Developmental Stage. Organization Development Journal, 16(1), pp.11-28. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/254304296_Organizational_Transformation_as_a_Function_of_CEOs%27_Developmental_Stage1

[5] Goldberg, E. (2009). The New Executive Brain: Frontal Lobes in a Complex World. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

[6] Dehaene, S., Sergent, C., & Changeux, J. P. (2003). A neuronal network model linking subjective reports and objective physiological data during conscious perception. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 100(14), pp.8520-8525; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1332574100

[7] Gonen-Yaacovi, G., de Souza, L. C., Levy, R., Urbanski, M., Josse, G., & Volle, E. (2013). Rostral and caudal prefrontal contribution to creativity: a meta-analysis of functional imaging data. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 7, 465. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00465

[8] Mably, A. J., & Colgin, L. L. (2018). Gamma oscillations in cognitive disorders. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 52, pp.182-187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conb.2018.07.009