God as an Event of Consciousness, a Neurophenomenological Definition. Visual Grammar of the Sacred; Phosphenes, Network Dynamics, and Religious Imagery

Sacred and mystical visions across contemplative, religious and psychedelic traditions follow a remarkably consistent inner progression: from simple points of light and geometric forms to complex kaleidoscopic structures, culminating in radiant, formless luminosity. This paper proposes a unified neurophenomenological model showing that this universal sequence is not culturally constructed but arises from intrinsic visual dynamics of the human nervous system. We present a six-phase taxonomy of phosphenes as the innate visual grammar underlying mystical experience. As endogenous visual patterns intensify (Phases 3–6), salience, interoceptive and autonomic systems co-activate, producing the emotion of awe, while Default Mode Network attenuation reduces conceptual control, allowing the luminous field to become experientially dominant. Archetypal figures and sacred agencies emerge as interpretations of luminous structure via innate social-cognitive operators, not as externally imposed metaphysical entities. On this basis, we introduce a novel 21st-century functional definition of God: ‘God is the lawful, awe-evoking configuration of consciousness in which endogenous inner-light dynamics and large-scale network reorganization render the luminous ground of awareness experientially present.’ Rather than a separate being, the divine appears as a self-revealing event of luminous awareness, a neurophenomenological mode of mind in which perception, meaning and emotion converge. This framework generates testable predictions (e.g. geometry precedes symbol, awe covaries with autonomic markers) and offers a biologically grounded yet non-reductive account of why luminous visions and feelings of transcendence appear universally across human history.