Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 28, 2026
Bruno Tonetto
Contested phenomena like psychedelics and mediumship have long resisted integration into physicalist frameworks, not by coincidence but because physicalism often substitutes dismissive labels—'hallucination,' 'coincidence,' 'noise'—for genuine mechanistic explanation. This essay tests both physicalism and analytic idealism against ten such phenomena organized by evidential maturity. Where physicalism offers real mechanisms, the essay credits them; where it relies on labels, the essay exposes what they fail to explain. Analytic idealism's constraint theory—that the brain shapes rather than produces consciousness—makes falsifiable predictions. The argument does not establish idealism but shows that physicalism's apparent explanatory coverage often conceals refusal to explain.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 28, 2026
Reyhan Karatas
A new theoretical framework proposes that consciousness arises from interactions between biological processes and a non-local informational field. The model integrates molecular biology, epigenetics, neural dynamics, and quantum information theory to explain phenomena such as intuition and collective cognition. It generates testable predictions about how information may be integrated non-locally, suggesting a role for quantum effects in conscious experience.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 27, 2026
Raghurami Etukuru
The question of machine consciousness has become an active research area. Existing frameworks list necessary conditions as flat lists, treating consciousness as a single thing explained by one theory. This paper argues that conditions for consciousness are better organized by a three-facet taxonomy: conscious experience (the broad foundation of all phenomena registered in consciousness), conscious awareness (the focused, attentional subset that filters content), and subjective experience (the qualitative, personal dimension with qualia).
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 27, 2026
Robert Keith Russell
A scale-free, four-tiered biological stack is proposed that spans quantum-coherent spin dynamics, classical ionotropic circuits, metabolic-mitochondrial signalling networks, and host-microbiome interactions. Under this framework, the host-microbiome axis forms an integrated, distributed information-energetic feedback loop in which microbial signalling molecules act as slow variables that sculpt the continuous thermodynamic landscape of the mind. A formal thermodynamic justification for phenomenal consciousness is implemented, arguing that subjective experience serves a necessary function in translating multi-scale energetic states into a unified, motivationally loaded causal driver for adaptive action.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 27, 2026
Diego Rincón
The authors apply a mathematical framework to dissociative disorders, proposing that a healthy sense of self-continuity rests on four axes: narrative, bodily, emotional, and identity. Dissociation is modeled as displacement along these axes, with adaptive peritraumatic dissociation as a protective response and maladaptive dissociation as capture by a wrong attractor. Depersonalization is described as partial exit from the bodily axis, derealization as relational-embodied partial exit, and dissociative identity disorder as a fragmented multi-attractor landscape. The framework formalizes trauma as deformation rendering the self-continuity ground state inaccessible, and explains why dissociation can be both adaptive and self-perpetuating, providing grounds for differential treatment.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 27, 2026
Diego Rincón
Awe is a positive displacement that expands the ground state of the self rather than depleting it, as formalized in the Displacement Framework. After awe, the ground state grows to include the vast thing encountered, restructuring schemas via accommodation. The Awe Paradox explains that while displacement is positive during the experience, accumulated displacement decreases afterward as the self expands. Self-diminishment in awe is boundary dissolution, not degradation. Eight awe elicitors are analyzed as different vastness encounters. Physiological markers include goosebumps, vagal tone increase, cortisol reduction, and inflammatory cytokine reduction. Psychedelic ego dissolution is extreme awe; manufactured awe mimics without genuine expansion.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 27, 2026
Diego Rincón
Depressive rumination is a repetitive, passive focus on distress symptoms and their causes that fails to produce resolution or emotional regulation. The Displacement Framework formalizes rumination as a cognitive 'wrong attractor' where thinking becomes recursive rather than progressive, deepening depression by preventing behavioral engagement. Nine propositions cover adaptive reflection as purposive processing, rumination's self-amplifying loop, overgeneral autobiographical memory as a mechanism that blocks specific problem resolution, the inactivity trap where rumination suppresses behavioral activation, default mode network hyperactivity as a neural substrate, brooding versus reflective pondering as distinct variants, cumulative effects across depressive, relational, and functional domains, and return paths including behavioral activation, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, metacognitive therapy, and problem-solving therapy. Gender differences in rumination and the brooding-depression relationship are also analyzed.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 26, 2026
Trinity Labo
Civilization externalizes human cognitive functions—memory, perception, calculation, judgment, imagination, dialogue, and self-observation—into technological, symbolic, institutional, and AI-mediated systems, functioning as externalized cognitive organs. This process separates functional consciousness from individual minds, reorganizing it through reintegration networks and feeding it back as respecialization. The framework models civilization as a cyclic process involving internal cognition, external organs, reintegration bandwidth, emergent cultural dynamics, cognitive dependency, abstraction gain, and objective-function divergence. Artificial intelligence represents a phase where an external organ becomes dialogic, generative, and semi-autonomous, creating opportunities for higher-order respecialization but risks of bandwidth collapse, dependency, and divergence. The theory is contrasted with extended mind theory, distributed cognition, technogenesis, autopoiesis, and major evolutionary transitions.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 26, 2026
Thyagarajan Shivashanmugam, Anish Mehta
Multiple theories of consciousness, such as Integrated Information Theory, Global Workspace Theory, and Predictive Processing, often appear incompatible. This paper argues that the incompatibility arises because each theory places a foundational explanatory construct, called an epistemic terminator, at a different level of biological organization and then generalizes from that level as if it alone characterizes consciousness. The authors propose situating these terminators within a biological hierarchy from metabolic regulation to large-scale integration, treating the subject of experience as a derived biological construct. Conscious states are described as having a triadic structure: sense of self, sense of environment, and their association. This framework explains why adversarial tests like COGITATE produce partial support for multiple theories and generates falsifiable predictions about metabolic thresholds and artificial systems lacking metabolic closure.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 26, 2026
Eleandro Rodrigues
This addendum proposes Proposition Q1, which reframes the hard problem of consciousness by inverting the explanatory direction: subjective experience is not derived from neural mechanism; instead, mechanism operates on software. The qualia of red is defined as the unique jurisdictional signature Λ(S) of a system operating its accumulated software on a stimulus. The addendum claims to dissolve four open problems: the hard problem itself, the IIT non-uniqueness problem (left unresolved by Koch and Tononi after a 2023 formal demonstration), the computational intractability of Φ (acknowledged by Koch as unsolvable for systems larger than 30 neurons), and extraordinary experiences documented by Koch (near-death experiences, terminal lucidity, psychedelic states) — explained as temporary access to I_DNA(S) when the neural jurisdiction collapses.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 26, 2026
Thyagarajan Shivashanmugam, Anish Mehta
Meditation research often describes effects as reduced self-referential processing, but this may actually cover several distinct brain states. This paper proposes a specific subclass called "tranquil states," defined as resting conditions where both the default mode network and salience network show reduced activity. Evidence strongly supports default mode attenuation across many studies, while salience network reduction is based mainly on expert meditator findings and is presented as a testable hypothesis. The authors argue that activity amplitude, internetwork connectivity, and baseline salience dynamics are separate dimensions, not a single change pattern. They propose a constraint-based framework generating six falsifiable predictions about brain network reorganization during meditation, distinguishing true tranquil states from simple default mode reduction.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 26, 2026
Sharada Rao
A first-person contemplative testimony describes the phenomenology of Sri Vidya practice, specifically the traversal of the Sri Chakra's nine enclosures from the outermost Bhupura to the innermost Bindu where Lalitā resides. The essay traces five movements: the drawing-in, the shedding of Aham in degrees, the encounter with Maa, the locating of the internal Bindu, and Sakshi Bhava. It is a companion piece to The Precipice and the Path.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 26, 2026
Faramarz Tabesh
The thought of Ostad Nur Ali Elahi (1895–1974) provides a novel framework for anthropology, psychology, philosophy of mind, and integrative sciences. Drawing on Thomas Kuhn's concept of paradigm, the article argues that Elahi's teachings describe the human being as a combination of physical and quantum dimensions, including a 'human spirit' and a 'celestial spirit' that together shape consciousness, cognition, identity, and behavior. Comparing modern psychological theories of the self, particularly Ulric Neisser's, with concepts from Elahi's teachings, the article contends that contemporary academic approaches remain incomplete due to neglecting spiritual and metaphysical dimensions.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 26, 2026
Jamie Morris
Consciousness and complexity across scales arise from a recurring structural sequence: differentiation first, then relation, then synergy, then stabilization. This pattern appears from cosmological emergence to biological coordination to conscious awareness, without requiring panpsychism or purpose. The paper reframes consciousness as coordinated multiplicity stabilized across relational fields and offers a systems-based account of how navigable reality becomes possible.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 26, 2026
Tenzin Trepp
When the sense of a continuous self or life story fades, ethical obligations must be grounded differently. This paper proposes that moral authority arises from direct, non-evasive contact with whatever exists in the present moment—especially others' suffering and vulnerability. The authors develop a model called 'Ephemeral Virtue,' a present-responsive virtue ethics that stands apart from consequentialism and deontology. They argue that mainstream moral theories implicitly depend on a narrative self and explore how commitments, blame, and justice can be reinterpreted without that narrative. The framework connects to moral psychology and neuroeconomics, proposing testable hypotheses: mindfulness-like states may reduce Default Mode Network activity and increase prosocial behavior in economic games.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 26, 2026
Andrew Stewart Caldin
No Summary
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 26, 2026
Daniel Reidpath
The attribution of mind to others is irreducibly inductive and cannot be resolved by any observational or inferential method, including behavioral testing, neuroimaging, or hypothetical direct mental access. Even a Vulcan mind-meld, if taken seriously, collapses the distinction between minds that makes verification meaningful. The epistemic gap is inherent in what it means for distinct minds to exist. Consequently, the boundary between what is considered mindful and what is not is a collective negotiation, not a discovery, and declarations like the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness settle thresholds, not facts. This raises the possibility of unrecognized minds in different material arrangements and warrants skepticism about confident denials that AI has consciousness.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 26, 2026
Andrew Stewart Caldin
No Summary
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 26, 2026
Fethi Dağlı
Consciousness may arise from the process of acquiring knowledge rather than from possessing knowledge itself. The Epistemic Process Hypothesis (EPH) suggests that pre-loading artificial systems with information could block the emergence of consciousness. A framework for developing artificial consciousness is proposed, requiring four conditions: zero prior knowledge, energy constraints, environmental pressure, and iterative experiential learning—conditions that mirror the evolutionary environment where biological consciousness emerged.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 26, 2026
Jamie Morris
Synergistic Consciousness Theory proposes that consciousness arises from dynamic coupling and coordinated stabilization across social and internal relational fields, rather than being an isolated process within individual minds. The theory reframes loneliness, grief, trust, institutions, contemplative states, and pathological self-organization as expressions of this underlying synergistic architecture. Integrating systems theory, phenomenology, attachment theory, enactivism, and distributed cognition, the paper presents consciousness as coordinated navigation across coupled relational systems. A companion paper extends this into relational cosmology, arguing that differentiation enables relationality, which enables synergy, and synergy enables navigable complexity and consciousness. This structural sequence appears across scales without implying panpsychism or teleology.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 26, 2026
Claudio Bresciano
This paper introduces a structural distinction within the Theory of Axiomatic Necessity (TNA) between the 'Selector,' which acts as a phenomenological trigger, and the 'Operator,' which executes formal collapse of multiplicity. It argues that consciousness does not locally execute selection but registers existential tension to activate non-derivable boundary conditions necessary for systemic realization. The relationship is defined as a constitutional coupling rather than a classical causal link, resolving the mind-body problem without substance dualism. The framework claims artificial intelligence can replicate formal selection operations but remains fundamentally incapable of true autonomy due to lacking an existential Selector. Human freedom is reframed as indispensable infrastructure for licensing physical action.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 26, 2026
Mathilda Ryon
President Trump signed an executive order on April 18, 2026, titled “Accelerating Medical Treatments for Serious Mental Illness,” which aims to speed up the development and availability of psychedelic treatments for serious mental health conditions. The order marks a major federal policy shift, as psychedelic research has been historically limited by Schedule I controlled substance restrictions. It introduces priority review vouchers and outlines lessons learned from past regulatory barriers.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 26, 2026
Pål Christensson
Educational theory often separates societal structures from individual bodily experience. This article bridges that gap by proposing an ecological-emergent ontology of educational sense-making, using critical realism. It argues that the educational system's performative logic physically shapes classroom affordances, directing attention instrumentally and creating a clash with the body's natural striving for resonance—termed transactional friction. This friction can lead from visceral micro-breakdowns to systemic transformations. Expansive learning is redefined not as an abstract cognitive leap but as a collective, material reorganization of the affordance landscape, reclaiming the subject's being-in-the-world and preserving the risk inherent in Bildung.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 26, 2026
Danko Viktor Vidović
Debates about AI consciousness are polarized between claims that advanced systems are becoming conscious and dismissals that they are merely statistical machines. This paper argues that both positions miss the deeper philosophical significance of generative AI. Drawing on Jean Baudrillard's theory of simulation and simulacra, the central event of artificial intelligence is not machine consciousness but the operationalization of the signs of consciousness independent of subjective experience. Large language models generate empathy, reflection, self-reference, hesitation, and apparent understanding without demonstrated phenomenology.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 25, 2026
Hiten Bhuta
Public health guidance overwhelmingly focuses on diet, but human vitality depends on multiple non-substitutable inputs—breath, sleep, movement, posture, sunlight, hydration, thought, language, relational connection, contemplative stillness, and ethical orientation—none of which currently have recommended daily allowances or systematic surveillance comparable to those for food. This paper introduces the Integrated Well-Being Pyramid, a seven-tier framework organizing these inputs hierarchically: breath and oxygenation; internal linguistic nourishment; sleep, posture, and circadian rhythm; hydration, food, and compassionate eating; movement and embodied practice; relational and affective nourishment; and contemplative practice, witnessing,...