Quoted from:
http://www.wiredtowinthemovie.com/mindtrip_xml.html
Have you noticed how active the temporal lobes are on diagrams depicting Hertz power observable in EEG scans during the phase state? These brain regions are majorly implicated in hearing, semantics (could play a strong role in semiotics when it comes to dreaming), memory (especially long-term), comprehension, and, in part, processing vision.
During normal dreaming, temporal lobe activity is relatively low which could explain why we can be chased by a two-headed monster and believe that it is really happening. Logic has gone right out the window. But, in the phase (even if you don't know that you are in it as in the case of false awakenings or even upon an intentional entry when you are still trying to figure out if the environment is real), the temporal lobes are abuzz with activity.
Full comprehension and hence the logical conscious awareness are operational in the phase. You can recognise the anomalies to be anomalies. A three-headed being would make you have a "aha" moment: "I'm in the phase..."
Furthermore, the temporal lobe gyruses seem to play their role in processing complex vision - such as the fusiform and the parahippocampal - one for "faces" and the other for "scenes"...to make a very interesting observation.
The parahippocampal plays a key role in memory retrieval and encoding (manipulating, shaping, making associations). This region of the brain "lights up" when we are exposed to images of places (landscapes, rooms, cities etc.). Have a lucid dream about flying over a city like New York or even Darth Vader's Death Star and you can be sure that this area will be teeming with activity.
Other regions of the temporal lobe can tell us a lot when searching for those answers that may explain why certain experiences in the phase can influence our behaviour in wakefulness. These answers may indeed lie in the realm of cognitive neuroscience. Here's an except from my blog which is a good example of how the phase can change our mood and influence our behaviour:
"I thanked the hooded angel, who incessantly threw his immaculate fruit at me, and returned to wakefulness with a sense of exultation and a head that buzzed with electrical activity. I felt exhilarated, refreshed, and my muscles no longer ached. My impression was that the phase had revitalised me and I thank my anecdotal angel for his blessing. Even breakfast tasted better!"
That morning, I was so happy with having just had a lucid dream that I had done myself a bowl of porridge!! I haven't made porridge or had it in ages but I was so exhilarated that, just doing anything was fun!!! And it tasted great too. I had porridge again the following day and I can tell you that it wasn't the same and I found it tedious making it!!!
Within the medial temporal lobes (involved in learning), lie the hippocampi, which aid the function of memory, behaviour and spatial awareness. The rest of the cerebral cortex, and you can see this for yourselves in the EEG diagrams that Michael Raduga provides in SOBT, plays a part during the phase too, but not to the same extent that the temporal lobes do. These areas, during the phase state, are more than awake!!
Source of neurological information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temporal_lobe
Also, this is interesting about Temporal Lobe Epilepsy:
"As Eve LaPlante discusses in her book, Seized, the intense emotions, sensory experience including vibrancy of colors, and particular mental state provoked by temporal lobe abnormalities may have contributed to the creation of significant works of art."
"By presenting subjects with neutral, sexually arousing and religious words while measuring GSR, Ramachandran was able to show that patients with TLE showed enhanced emotional responses to the religious words, diminished responses to the sexually charged words, and normal responses to the neutral words. These results suggest that the medial temporal lobe is specifically involved in generating some of the emotional reactions associated with religious words, images and symbols."
"Cognitive neuroscience researcher Michael Persinger asserts that stimulating the temporal lobe electromagnetically can cause TLE and trigger hallucinations of apparent paranormal phenomena such as ghosts and UFOs. Persinger has even created a "God helmet" which purportedly can evoke altered states of consciousness through stimulation of the parietal and temporal lobes. Neurotheologians speculate that individuals with temporal lobe epilepsy, having a natural tendency to experience states of consciousness such as euphoria or samādhi, have functioned in human history as religious figures or shamans."
Quoted from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temporal_lobe_epilepsy