Scientific Research on Human Brain

Modern Scientific Research on Human Brain Sensitivity to Orientation in Space; Scientific Evidence in favor of VASTU Principles:

          Recent research in modern science has now confirmed the ancient understanding that our brain is sensitive to orientation, position, and direction in space. Scientists can now measure very accurately how well the brain is functioning under different conditions.

This research shows that the firing rate of specific neurons in the thalamus changes in proportion to both the angular velocity and the direction in which the head moves. The scientists conclude that the brain can keep up with the absolute direction in which the head is pointing as the subject moves from place to place. Likewise, neurons in thehippocampus are found to be sensitive to position (with reference to direction) in space. When one is facing East, the brain physiology functions differently than facing North, South, or West.

       The conclusion is that the power of thoughts and the quality of thoughts is influenced by the direction one is facing. One’s sense of direction gets confused in daily life when one lives in a building with wrong orientation, not built according to Vastu Shastra, resulting in potential physiological, psychological and behavioral imbalances of all kinds and strain.

This alteration influences every aspect of brain functioning and the entire physiology. This natural tendency of the brain to function with reference to direction is what Vastu advocates to take into account when designing living structures. It says that the entrance to a sound Vastu structure faces because this direction has the very desirable influences of enlightenment, affluence and fulfillment. The other three cardinal directions also have their corresponding influences. The West direction for example has the influence of poverty and lack of vitality and creativity. The North direction has the influence of prosperity and happiness and the South direction has the influence of negativity, problems and suffering.

Modern Neuro-Science and benefits of Vedic Architecture; Scientific Principles Confirming the Need for Proper Orientation of Buildings:

         Much like a compass keeps track of our heading relative to a global reference frame (absolute North), there are neurons in the brain that keep track of the direction that an animal is facing within an environment. These ‘head direction’ neurons provide an internal sense of direction that, unlike a Global Compass, can change when an animal moves between environments (Taube, 1998). (www.sciencedirect.com Volume 127, Issue 2, 20 October 2006, Pages 239-242)

The principle of constructing buildings according to the principles of Vastu, Indian Vedic Architecture, is borne out by both the ancient Vedic Literature and the modern scientific research on brain functioning. (Refer to ‘Progress in Neurobiology’ 13 (1979): 419–439; ‘Journal of Neuroscience’ 15 (1995): 6280–6290; and 'Processing the Head Direction Cell Signal: A Review and Commentary', ‘Brain Research Bulletin’ 40 (1996): 477–486.)

In addition, it should be noted that the knowledge contained in the Vedic Literature is far more complete, scientific, authentic, and reliable than modern scientific experiments, because modern scientific experiments, through their objective approach, can only account for physical, material values, which do not and cannot directly measure the more fundamental performance of intelligence on its own level; the level of Natural Law; the level where the holistic value of Natural Law and the specific value of Natural Law function in unison.