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Moshe Idel

Kabbalah: A Neurocognitive Approach to Mystical Experiences Hardcover – Illustrated, June 30, 2015

by Shahar Arzy (Author), Moshe Idel (Author)

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In this original study, Moshe Idel, an eminent scholar of Jewish mysticism and thought, and the cognitive neuroscientist and neurologist Shahar Arzy combine their considerable expertise to explore the mysteries of the Kabbalah from an entirely new perspective: that of the human brain. In lieu of the theological, sociological, and psychoanalytic approaches that have generally dominated the study of ecstatic mystical experiences, the authors endeavor to decode the brain mechanisms underlying these phenomena. Arzy and Idel analyze first-person descriptions to explore the Kabbalistic techniques employed by most prominent Jewish mystics to effect bodily reduplications, dissociations, and other phenomena, and compare them with recent neurological observations and modern-day laboratory experiments. The resultant study offers readers a scientific, more brain-based understanding of how ecstatic Kabbalists achieved their most precious mystical experiences. The study further demonstrates how these Kabbalists have long functioned as pioneering investigators of the human self.

Print length

216 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Yale University Press
Publication date

June 30, 2015
Dimensions

8.5 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
ISBN-10

0300152361
ISBN-13

978-0300152364
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"In this thought-provoking book, the authors present compelling evidence that over hundreds of years, a group of Jewish mystics mastered techniques to probe and potentially unlock the secrets of human consciousness, mind and body, sense of self, and ecstatic experiences."—Steven C. Schachter, MD, Harvard Medical School, from the Foreword
-- Steven C. Schachter, MD

“What could be more fascinating, or more challenging, than viewing mystical phenomena – ecstasy, dissociation from the body and dissociations of the mind – through the lens of contemporary neuroscience? Arzy and Idel provocatively bring to the study of mystical experiences a modern understanding of the brain.”—Adam Zeman
-- Adam Zeman

“This well-written and innovative book aims to introduce and specify the value of a more physical, self-centered, and individualized approach to the study of Jewish mysticism. Going beyond a “simple” psychology, to a more contemporary neurocognitive, intra-individual approach to mystical experience, this is a bold and very engaging book that deserves to be applauded and recognized.”—Philip Wexler, Brandeis University
-- Philip Wexler

“An amazing story about the power of mind over body, this book shows how unique Kabbalah mystics achieved a true mastery of mind. It teaches us how mystics gain cognitive control in seemingly uncontrollable mystical experiences.”—Tamir Ben-Hur, Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center
-- Tamir Ben-Hur

About the Author

Shahar Arzy is the director of the Computational Neuropsychiatry Lab at the Faculty of Medicine at Hebrew University, Jerusalem and a senior neurologist at the Department of Neurology, Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center. Moshe Idel is Max Cooper Professor in Jewish Thought in the Department of Jewish Thought at Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and senior researcher at the Shalom Hartman Institute.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Yale University Press; Illustrated edition (June 30, 2015)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 216 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0300152361
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0300152364
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.5 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,316,371 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,780 in Medical Neuropsychology
- #2,867 in Popular Neuropsychology
- #3,000 in Science & Religion (Books)

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Morry Edwards

A Fascinating Area

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 20, 2015

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It is a fascinating area that we now have access to study the brain while participants do different tasks. Buddhist meditators and yogis have been studied for years. It is interesting to see how different meditation practices can affect the brain and which practices are most effective. The language being scientific may be difficult for some and although the book is short in length, it is quite dense.

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Ben Rothke

Interesting book on the connections between Kabballah and neuroscience

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 16, 2015

As I started reading Kabbalah: A Neurocognitive Approach to Mystical Experiences (Yale University Press ISBN 0300152361) by Shahar Arzy, MD and Dr. Moshe Idel, I thought of God and the Astronomers, by the late American astronomer Robert Jastrow. Jastrow concludes his book with the observation that for the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountain of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.

Along the same lines as Jastrow’s statement, Dr. Steven Schachter of the Harvard Medical School writes that this book presents compelling evidence that a group of ancient Jewish mystics mastered techniques to probe and potentially unlock the secrets of human consciousness, mind and body, sense of self and ecstatic experiences. These mystics of ecstatic kabbalah may be considered pioneering investigators of the human self, consciousness and mind.

This fascinating book breaks new ground and approaches Kabbalah from the perspective of the human brain. The authors are colleagues at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where Arzy is the director of the Computational Neuropsychiatry Lab, while Idel is a Professor of Jewish Thought.

The book focuses on ecstatic Kabbalah, the branch of Kabbalah that emphasizes attaining an ecstatic experience via uniting the individual with God through meditating on names of God, combinations of Hebrew letters, and more. It must be emphasized that the ecstatic experience is not that of a Deadhead. Rather, the authors note that the etymology of the word “ecstatic” is the Greek ex-stasis, that is, being out of body.

The early practitioners of ecstatic kabbalah developed complicated techniques of mental imagery, transformation and concentration for bringing about altered states of consciousness. The goal of the book is to decode the neurocognitive mechanisms and processes underlying these mystical experiences.

The book details such ecstatic experiences as autoscopy (seeing double), heautoscopy (seeing a double while being unable to localize the self), out-of-body experiences, and more.

Kabballah and neuroscience may appear to be strange bedfellows; but the authors show their synergies. As a neuroscientist, Arzy uses cutting-edge technology to plum the inner sanctum of the mind and consciousness to explore what an individual’s self is. He does this for scientific reasons: to satisfy curiosity or for medical reasons. The Kabbalist often reaches similar understandings of the mind, but from a very different perspective: he uses mysticism to nullify the self, and create a union between himself and God. Kabbalists were almost exclusively men, hence the male pronoun.

The book makes it eminently clear that simply mapping the brain during a mystical experience has limited value. The authors attempt to use neurological, neurophysiological and neuroimaging data as a platform for supplying an explanatory value to the mystical materials.

The book uses first-person descriptions from Kabbalistic texts and then maps these experiences and techniques. The book then compares these with recent neurological observations and modern-day laboratory experiments.

Towards the end of the book, the authors show how brain scans can be used to map the ecstatic mystical experiences. It’s far too early to fully understand how valuable these scans can be, as they certainly can’t map the metaphysical ecstatic experience.

One of the main subjects is 13th-century Kabbalist Abraham Abulafia. The authors also quote first-person mystical reports from the Ba’al Shem Tov, R’ Chaim Vital, R’ Dov Ber of Mezeritch, R’ Joseph Karo and others. The authors use these first-person accounts based on the texts of medieval Kabbalists, combined them with modern neuroscience in an attempt to identify the brain mechanisms happening during the experience.

While using extrastriate body area (EBA), temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and other scanning techniques, the authors makes it clear that they are not attempting to reduce the Kabbalistic experience to a neurological one. Rather they are attempting to uncover the complexity of the mystical experience by decoding their underlying cognitive mechanisms.

What they have done is brought up the topic, and their desire is that others will perform further research.

This is an interesting book, albeit a woefully short one. At 118 pages, the book only provides a most basic introduction to the topics. For the authors, it’s part of an effort to widen the methodological tools that could be used in understanding the complexities characterizing the experiences in Kabalistic literature. But I found that the briefness on the author’s part left me with a degree of frustration due to the many unanswered questions.

The authors give notice against making any sweeping statements, and suggest that their discoveries may open some aspects of kabbalah to fresh understandings that could produce new perspectives, if done in a cautious manner.

They also write that they adopted a neurocognitive approach in order to analyze a limited set of ecstatic Kabalistic texts, which are very far from identical with the vast kabalistic literature.

A dense and complicated book, the authors have brought the topic to light and are leaving the door open to others to continue this fascinating line of research.

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S. G. Raggett

Interesting subject not properly developed

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 6, 2015

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The initial chapters give an interesting insight into the relationship between Judaism and mysticism. In the centuries around the time of Christ there appears to have been no mysticism in mainstream Judaism. There is some debate as to whether in earlier periods, the Old Testament prophets had experienced altered states. The book might have been enhanced by some discussion of the role of the Essenes and of the early Christians. The failure to do this is symptomatic of a general failure to develop the subject matter fully.

Kabbalah, as a mystical form of Judaism, emerged from about the 13th century. The most informative part of the book deals with the experiences of a range of Jewish mystics through the Middle Ages and into early modern times. The unusual fact here is that many of the experiences are autoscopic, meaning that the person views themselves from outside, but does not feel they are themselves out of their body. Unfortunately, the authors fail to discuss the striking contrast between these experiences, and most other types of altered state, however generated.

The attempt to develop a neuroscientific interpretation turns out to be the least satisfactory part of this work. The authors seems to think that merely summarising some aspects of modern neurpscience, plus a few references to brain regions that might have been involved in the experiences constitutes some kind of explanation. There is little attempt to discuss why the brain should have evolved to support such altered states, and how the activities of mystics would trigger such neural changes.

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