Mind-life continuity: A qualitative study of conscious experience.
Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology December 1, 2017 Inês Hipólito, Jorge Martins
Two main models for understanding natural life—the computational model and the biological organism model—both rely on reductive tools that overlook the phenomenological aspects of experience, such as behavioral tests or neuroimaging. This paper argues that combining Eastern and Western traditions can support a non-reductive study of mind and life. Focusing on first-person experience during cognitive and mental events, the authors treated phenomenal data as essential for studying living beings, aiming to lay groundwork for future third-person research. Using Jhana meditation as an intervention and qualitative assessment, they obtained experiential profiles from subjects' evaluations of their conscious experiences. The results point toward an integrated perspective on mind where neither experience nor external mechanisms are definitive.