I'm on my second reading of Steven Hassan's Combatting Cult Mind Control. I'm at the last par. on page 44. It says:
"People indoctrinated to perform excessive(hours-long) meditation or chanting techniques daily can become psychologically and physiologically addicted to the mind control technique. Such mind-stilling generates strong releases of brain chemicals which cause not only a dissociated mental state but also a "high" similar to that created by illegal drugs."
Now, I've never taken any illegal drugs so I have nothing to compare that high to. But I remember, at times, when I was out in the ministry and would show someone a scripture and explain some "bible truth" to them(such as God's name or the condition of the dead) and they would understand it and their face would light up. When I left that householder and told the rest of the car group my experience, I felt what could be described as a "high". I was always told it was holy spirit. It made me want to preach to someone else right away so that I could get that feeling again. It was the only time while I was a jw that I ever got a feeling like that. But I wasn't meditating or chanting. I was simply showing someone a scripture. So what is the psychological or physiological explanation for this?