Understanding the Mind of Swamy Ramakrishna Paramhansa

Nobel Prize Winners in Physics 2025 (L-R): John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret, and John M. Martinis

I needed to rethink what I was even looking for when I said I wanted to understand the spiritual mind. - Saraei

Swamy Ramakrishna Paramhansa’s mystical experiences have largely been analyzed using psychoanalytical approaches. However, evidence emerging from quantum physics and neuroscience shows that earlier interpretations, largely based on the psychoanalytical framework, require a re-appraisal, if not complete repudiation. 

What is quantum physics?

In quantum physics, an object (particle) does not exist in the way classical physics observes it, with a fixed physical location. Instead, it exists in many places (multiple states) and is known only by the probability of it being here or there. The object loses its multiple states only when it is measured and collapses into a definite, measurable value (state).

The challenge is that this occurs at sub-atomic levels, but the 2025 Nobel Laureates were able to show quantum effects in larger systems, big enough to be held in one’s hand.

Does the brain rely on quantum phenomena? 

Fatty material surrounds nerves in the brain in the form of a cylindrical sheath. These are called microtubules. Nobel Prize–winning physicist Roger Penrose and anesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff found that quantum waves could pass through these microtubules in the brain. In a recent experiment, scientists in Massachusetts administered anesthesia to rats. They found that rats injected with microtubule-stabilizing molecules remained conscious for a longer time, as compared to non-stabilized rats.

If quantum waves are involved in communication within the brain, then entanglement is possible: when two particles (say, photons) become inextricably linked even across vast distances. A recent study from Shanghai University has found that the human brain exhibits behavior akin to quantum entanglement.

Making the connection to meditation

There is emerging evidence from neuroscience that the brains of proficient meditators show a widespread, uniform increase in connectivity across the brain. Hyperconnectivity is also observed at sleep onset, when consciousness starts to fade away and leads to a subliminal state: something in-between sleep and full wakefulness. 

Many great discoveries and inventions have taken place in this sleep like interruption of waking state; physicist Neils Bohr saw nucleus of atom in this state with the electrons spinning around it like the solar system, and “discovered” the structure of the atom. The Beatles’ song Yesterday was written in such a state.

British psychologist Frederic Myers found that ideas and insights come from a sudden “uprush” of a subliminal mind. In this state, our mental boundaries become permeable for a brief period, leading to the possibility of accessing mystical experiences.  

Therefore, one can propose that with a certain degree of confidence that intensive meditation has the potential to increase connectivity between points in the brain: much more than provided by the regular electro-chemical pathways and quantum entanglement has a role to play in all this. 

This is the subliminal state or a state of hyperconnectivity where the mental state is quietened, conscious mind is softened and mental boundaries become permeable, empowering seasoned meditators to access mystical experiences at will. This provides a richer explanation of the mystical experiences of Swami Ramakrishna Paramhamsa, as opposed to psychoanalytical ones with their inordinate focus on childhood experiences.