http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopi_Krishna_(yogi)
He was a pretty normal guy living a pretty normal life in the 1900's, and in his 30's through meditation he had a textbook enlightenment experience which resulted in a metamorphosis of sorts that he ultimately came to believe was biological / physiological in nature and could be repeated in others. He's one of the first if not the first person to suggest that what we think of as enlightenment is actually a biological event that the human body can perform given the right triggers, rather than simply a different state of mind or frame of thought. This is a revolutionary idea if you think about it; talk about "hacking the brain". The great thing about him is he's very relatable and not aloof, he kept his job as a government clerk and aside from selling a small handful of books, was clearly not interested in making money off his ideas.
He tried for years to raise interest in the scientific community to study the phenomenon, but of course grant money is hard to come by, and doubly hard if you're doing anything remotely unconventional, so his research foundation never took off and he passed away in I think it was 1981.
A lot of people don't know about him, but they've started putting his books on Kindle so you can go check them out. All of them are extraordinary reads, although I'd start with his prose, and then move to his poetry if you're interested in that.
http://www.amazon.com/Gopi-Krishna/e/B00IPU7XD4/ref=sr_ntt_s...