The whole of what we know of as modern science is based on the supposition that what we perceive with our brain, through the agency of the five physical senses, enhanced by recording and measuring instruments, is accurate, consistent and complete. Yet the results of the explorations of physics since the beginning of this century into the roots of matter have demonstrated quite clearly that this picture constructed by our brain, which is rooted in the notions of time, space and causality, is far from being complete or accurate. This fact is further emphasized by the enigmas posed by psychic phenomena which seem to defy some of the laws of the physical world as we currently understand them. They also seem to indicate that in some individuals the brain has rudimentary faculties of perception, of a different order than the known ones, that we are only beginning to comprehend.

Yet despite this, very little thought has been given to what possibilities exist for a new picture of reality if our standard sensory input were to be enhanced by the development of additional channels of perception in the brain. The difficulty lies in the fact that, in the same way that it would be almost impossible for a person blind from birth to clearly imagine a multi-colored rainbow in the blue sky, only the direct experience of enhanced states of perception would enable one to give a clear and concise description it is evident that extremely difficult for a person with the normal human perceptions to imagine anything else.

In The Wonder of the Brain, Gopi Krishna has laid out in clear detail what the nature of this elusive but all-important second element of our being is. He discusses at length how it works through the brain to govern the range and limits of what we perceive as reality, how it plays a key role in both the creative and spiritual aspects of our existence and how it is central to the future development of additional faculties of perception in the human brain.

The amazing experiences undergone by Gopi Krishna in the forty-five years prior to the writing of this book have made him uniquely suited to elucidate on the nature of consciousness and how it relates to the brain. As he relates in his autobiography, Kundalini -- The Evolutionary Energy in Man, the prolonged practice of Yogic exercises in intense concentration for seventeen years resulted in the sudden unleashing of energies in his body which led, over a period of many years, to a radical and permanent transformation in the very way in which he perceived the phenomenal world. The only way that he could explain this profound alteration in his consciousness was to assume that it was the functioning of a new channel of perception in his brain. He devoted the rest of his life to studying this budding faculty in himself, documenting its existence as shown in the writings and utterances of the mystics of all the major spiritual traditions of the world and encouraging scientific research into the biological and physiological aspects of the experience so that it could be understood in terms of our present level of scientific development.

As a result of the heightening of his perceptive faculties through this process of transformation, Gopi Krishna was drawn irresistibly to the conclusion that the radically different mental states that he was experiencing were the direct result of changes occurring in his brain and nervous system. But, as he points out in this book, most of the investigations that have been done so far into heightened awareness, paranormal faculties of mind and spiritual experience leave the brain entirely out of the picture, as if mind has an existence which is entirely independent of the physical organ. It is this fatal flaw in reasoning, he insists, that has prevented any major progress from being made in the exploration of these phenomena.

On the other hand, he emphasizes that although the use of the exact scientific method has allowed us to make great strides during the last few centuries in furthering our understanding of the physical universe, its application to the study of mind has also made comparatively little progress. The main stumbling blocks to this approach have been the insistence on the part of many honest investigators that the only possible explanation for consciousness is that it is a result of neuronal activity in the brain and the assumption that the intellect is the only faculty that the human brain possesses to explore reality. But the failure of this method to explain many of the amazing capabilities of the mind in purely materialistic terms is bringing about a trend toward acceptance of the proposition that that a different approach must be taken in the investigation if definitive progress is to be made.

It is here that the theories of Gopi Krishna play a crucial role. If, as he suggests, there is an evolutionary process at work in the brain and nervous system which is bringing about the development of higher faculties of perception, and the existence of a mechanism responsible for this process, or even the energy that it uses, can be verified, a new direction for the investigation of mind will have been firmly established. A sound and logical theory which postulates the development of a new channel of cognition in the brain, which could be verified in the not too distant future if a serious effort were to be made by dedicated researchers, is something that should not be idly dismissed.

The verification of the existence of such a faculty would necessarily lead to a revolution in our basic concepts of what the physical world is and how consciousness relates to it. It is to be hoped that the scientific community will have the foresight to recognize the importance of such a theory and the courage to be willing to expand the frontiers of our knowledge in new and as yet unknown directions. A step in this direction might be the beginning of a whole new phase in our understanding of the nature of our relationship to the universe.