Within prayer and ritual, there are moments when my consciousness shifts deeply.
It is quiet, yet powerful. My body is relaxed, yet my awareness is sharp. Until now, I have described this state with words like “the zone” and “altered consciousness.”
But that was only the feeling inside me.
This time, I had an opportunity to ask a doctor to look at data from my brainwaves and autonomic nervous system. The 20-minute conversation that followed is not a story of science proving what I felt. It is a record in which measurement gave another kind of contour to that feeling.
“The two sides are synchronized”
At the beginning of the recording, the doctor looking at the data used the word “coherence.” He went on to explain that the brainwaves on both sides appeared to be synchronized.
Looking at the autonomic nervous system display, he also pointed out that both the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems were elevated.
The sympathetic nervous system is often associated with activity and tension, while the parasympathetic nervous system is associated with rest and recovery. In that conversation, the state in which both were high was described as “relaxed and focused” and “something like a method for entering the zone.”
Quiet, yet powerful.
Resting, yet awake.
Those words overlapped with what I had felt inside.
What was measured, and what was not
What matters is that this measurement alone did not reveal everything.
In the conversation, I also said, “I do not think the autonomic nervous system and brainwaves tell us everything. This is only one small part.” Brainwaves and the autonomic nervous system can, however, become a language that is easier to share with the general public and with people working in medicine and science.
The device used this time could not measure the gamma waves that interested us. We also spoke about gamma waves in relation to prayer and meditation, but that was a hypothesis that emerged during the conversation, not a measurement result.
We did not record what I was doing during the measurement or how many minutes after the start I entered a particular state. This was not a controlled study, but a single measurement and conversation. I want to preserve that distinction without blurring it.
AI INTERPRETATION
We also asked AI to read it on the spot
Partway through the conversation, we decided to put the measurement information into AI then and there. The detailed “three characteristics” read aloud near the end were not an official diagnostic statement independently prepared by the doctor; they were an interpretation generated by AI from the explanation of the data.
- 01
Both the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems were elevated at the same time
- 02
Bands associated with deep states, such as theta and delta waves, were present while bands related to wakefulness were maintained
- 03
Even when entering a deep state, the overall energy indicator did not collapse significantly
The AI interpreted this as an “integrated pattern” that moves between wakefulness and deeply altered consciousness.
This interpretation is interesting. However, the AI’s text is neither a doctor’s diagnosis nor an academic conclusion. It must be received as a hypothesis about how the data might be read, distinct from the doctor’s direct observations.
Even so, why I was happy
During the conversation, I said this:
I was happy that
— From the 20-minute conversation
being in the zone had been
proven, just a little.
Now, I would choose a slightly more careful word than “proven.”
Rather than being proven, I think what made me happy was seeing the possibility that the state my body had learned over many years was accompanied by measurable changes.
I believe this may not be an ability reserved for a chosen few, but a skill that many people can approach through practice. Prayer, breath, meditation, sound, and creating a space. Rather than locking the wisdom cultivated by traditional cultures around the world inside mystery, I want to look at it carefully, beginning with what can be measured.
Next, toward “a reproducible record”
If I measure again, I want to record on the same timeline when a ritual or breathing practice begins, when I feel my consciousness shift, and when the sound or prayer reaches its peak. I also want to compare the results with a resting state, take multiple measurements, observe changes in real time, and confirm the frequency bands the measuring device can capture.
This is so that one striking graph does not end as a story alone.
Numbers alone cannot determine the meaning of prayer. But numbers can become a bridge that allows people with different worldviews to begin talking with one another.
What I found this time was not an answer.
What was happening inside me, and what could be measured from the outside.
For the first time, the two sat at the same table.