The article argues that scientific studies of the self often examine only partial components of self-experience, such as self-identification, self-location, or the sense of existence, making it difficult to understand the self as a whole. The authors propose two theses: ontologically, the self is a sentient entity that bears the feeling of "what it is like to be"; phenomenologically, we do not directly apprehend the self but experience it through the senses of existence, identification, and location. A complete understanding of the self requires including all these components.
All meditation practices, despite their diverse techniques and cultural origins, ultimately guide practitioners toward the same underlying experience: a natural meditative state, described in spiritual traditions as the goal of meditation. The paper argues that while different practices produce distinct physiological and psychological effects, they share a common purpose and endpoint. The authors offer traditional insights to inform future research on meditation and to encourage contemporary researchers to reconsider how they categorize and study these practices.