Career
Austin has been an academic neurologist for most of his career, first at the University of Oregon Medical School, then at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He is currently a courtesy professor of neurology at the University of Florida School of Medicine. His research and publications included work in the areas of clinical neurology, neuropathology, neurochemistry and neuropharmacology.
The chief characteristic of this experience was a loss of the sense of "self" which is so central to human identity, plus a feeling that "Just This" is the way all things really are in the world.
While he was on a sabbatical in England, he was waiting for a subway train when he suddenly entered a state of enlightenment unlike anything he had ever experienced. In Austin"s words, "lieutenant strikes unexpectedly at 9 am on the surface platform of the London subway system.
. I wind up at a station where I have never been before..The view includes the dingy interior of the station, some grimy buildings, a bit of open sky above and beyond.
Instantly the entire view acquires three qualities: Absolute Reality, Intrinsic Rightness, Ultimate Perfection."
" With no transition, it is all complete..Yes, there is the paradox of this extraordinary viewing. But there is no viewer.
The scene is utterly empty, stripped of every last extension of an I-Maine-Mine. Vanished in one split second is the familiar sensation that this person is viewing an ordinary city scene.
The new viewing proceeds impersonally, not pausing to register the paradox that there is no human subject "doing" lieutenant
Three insights penetrate the experient, each conveying Total Understanding at depths far beyond simple knowledge: This is the eternal state of affairs There is nothing more to do. There is nothing whatsoever to fear."
Austin writes that when his former subjective self was no longer there to form biased interpretations this experience conveyed the impression of "objective reality.”As a neurologist, he interpreted this experience not as proof of a reality beyond the comprehension of our senses but as arising from the brain itself.
