As part of a Stanford course called Hacking Consciousness, Dr. Fred Travis gave a talk on brain physiology and development, neural plasticity, and the way the brain is changed by experiencing pure consciousness. He then explores how this leads to the ability to support Cosmic Consciousness or Self Realization.
There are a number of details here that may surprise you, like how every experience changes the brain. He rather quickly goes over a number of technical details like mylenation but the main points should be easily grasped.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlxGBZifk6k
I’ve talked about his research prior here. In the talk, he mentions the different types of meditation and their effects which I wrote up on Choosing a Meditation. And another related article was published on Stages of Development and EEG.
As he notes, the brain does not create consciousness but the structure can be habituated to better support it’s clarity.
Dr. Travis was my brain physiology prof in grad school.
Davidya