Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
March 15, 2026
Tenzin Trepp
preprint
Human cognition does not passively mirror reality; it actively constructs a world through perception and social interaction. Using a cognitive constructivist framework, this paper investigates how shared reality and intersubjectivity emerge from dynamic processes of calibration between minds. We synthesize evidence from psychology (e.g. shared reality theory, conversational alignment),...
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
March 14, 2026
Lasse Paulsen
preprint
Perspective is standardly treated as either a phenomenological concept — something it is like to have — or as a representational concept — a viewpoint from which the world is modeled. This paper argues for a third position: perspective is a structural-operational concept. A system has perspective not by virtue of representing the world but by virtue of organizing its processing recursively...
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
March 14, 2026
Kalkidan Tadesse
preprint
Emotions are often misunderstood as irrational disturbances or cultural constructs, but this paper presents them as evolutionarily engineered value signals and motivational amplifiers within a survival goal framework. Emotions tag survival-relevant states with urgency and valence, scaling simple reinforcement learning into complex affective dynamics that prioritize negative signals (threats,...
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
March 14, 2026
Darren Hearst
preprint
A satisfactory consciousness first ontology must explain how multiple individuated perspectives arise within a reality whose fundamental character is experiential manifestation. Contemporary approaches including panpsychism and cosmopsychism recognise this difficulty, though a detailed structural account of subject formation often remains underdeveloped (Strawson, 2006; Chalmers, 2015; Goff,...
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
March 13, 2026
Prashant Gunjan
preprint
This conceptual paper proposes a psychological model exploring how contemplative practices facilitate transformation by influencing ego dissolution, death anxiety, and impulse regulation. Drawing on insights from mindfulness, meditation, and contemplative traditions, the study examines how the temporary reduction of egoic boundaries (ego dissolution) can diminish existential fears and improve...
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
March 13, 2026
Vaz Sriharan
preprint
This paper proposes a parsimony reframe: the protective defenses we call "ego" and the wounded parts we call "inner child" may represent the same consciousness, treated differently based on which therapeutic label is applied. The observation: when anger is labeled "ego," practitioners attempt transcendence. When the same anger is labeled "protective child," practitioners offer understanding....
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
March 13, 2026
Vaz Sriharan
preprint
This paper proposes identity fusion as attention collapse: when consciousness narrows completely onto single aspects of experience (diagnostic labels, professional roles, parental identity, recovery status, spiritual attainment), that aspect becomes experientially totalizing regardless of cultural valuation. The framework emerged through systematic phenomenological observation, documenting...
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
March 13, 2026
preprint
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) appears effective in reducing burnout and stress among nurses, although further research is needed to confirm long-term sustainability and generalizability.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
March 12, 2026
preprint
Informational-Processual Monism critically synthesizes concepts from non-equilibrium thermodynamics (Prigogine), integrated information theory (Tononi), autopoiesis (Maturana & Varela), and individuation (Simondon), offering a unified framework for thinking about matter, life, and consciousness as manifestations of the same fundamental process. As a conceptual illustration, a minimal...
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
March 12, 2026
Ken Purnell
preprint
This short paper examines the relationship between consciousness and brain function, engaging with a question that sits at the intersection of neuroscience, philosophy, and human experience. It is written to be thought-provoking and accessible, and I warmly invite readers to explore the paper and consider its implications.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
March 12, 2026
Inmaculada Martín Lobato
preprint
The article examines the role of religious Platonism in María Zambrano’s theory of mysticism as a starting point for developing a new theoretical framework from which to engage in dialogue with the Renaissance mystical tradition. This framework is constructed on the basis of Zambrano’s categories of: the relationship with life and death, the multiplicity of times, union with the absolute, and...
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
March 12, 2026
Cassidy O'Brien, Sabrina Fields
preprint
This white paper was developed for BIOL 700, a seminar-style course at the University of New Hampshire that explores the intersection of biological science, ethics, and public policy. The report provides a comprehensive analysis of the clinical and ethical debate surrounding the question: "Should psychedelics or dissociatives be utilized as primary treatments for mental health conditions?"
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
March 11, 2026
Kunal Anil Lanjewar
preprint
Abstract University students commonly experience elevated levels of stress and anxiety arising from academic workload, social adjustments, and transitional life phases. Yoga, a comprehensive mind–body discipline incorporating physical postures, regulated breathing, meditation, and mindfulness practices, has increasingly been recognized as a supportive approach for addressing these challenges....
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
March 10, 2026
Mathew Walton
preprint
The Screaming Lawn Problem is a satirical-but-technically-grounded probe into the failure modes of consciousness proxy criteria when applied outside their intended substrate. Using plant volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions, electrical signalling, and mycorrhizal networks as case studies, the paper demonstrates that standard consciousness proxies — signal integration, adaptive response,...
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
March 10, 2026
Angelo Ferraiuolo
preprint
Contemporary theories of consciousness—including Global Neuronal Workspace Theory (GNWT) and Integrated Information Theory (IIT)—primarily characterize conscious states in terms of large-scale integration or ignition occurring within temporally local neural configurations. Here we introduce the Temporal Recursive Auto-Integrative Theory (TRAIT), a formal framework that posits consciousness as a...
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
March 9, 2026
Mojtaba Dadashkarimi
preprint
This paper proposes a mathematical reformulation of Integrated Information Theory (IIT), specifically targeting the conceptual and empirical challenges associated with its Exclusion Postulate. IIT identifies consciousness with the integrated information generated by a physical system's causal structure, but its principle that only the single substrate with maximal integrated information is...
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
March 9, 2026
Vaz Sriharan
preprint
This paper presents the Five Phases of Self-Acceptance, a phenomenological map describing how acceptance develops through distinct stages, from conceptual understanding through performed acceptance to genuine paradoxical integration. The core insight: acceptance includes accepting one's own non-acceptance of self. When this paradox is genuinely encountered (Phase 4-5), it appears to create...
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
March 9, 2026
Mathew Walton
preprint
This working paper argues that the contemporary consciousness debate is constrained by a prior methodological problem: the measurement instruments used to assess consciousness may be miscalibrated to the phenomenon they claim to detect. Rather than treating consciousness as an isolatable object or property, the paper proposes that it is more plausibly understood as a dynamically maintained...
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
March 7, 2026
VG Ilda
preprint
This article proposes a dynamical, neuro-complexity framework for interpreting the emergence of consciousness as a phase transition (“cognitive singularity”) rather than a mere scaling effect of neural abundance. It argues that quantitative proxies—such as total neuron count, synaptic density, or memory capacity—capture important correlates of cognition but are insufficient to explain...
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
March 7, 2026
Saman Rahbar
preprint
This paper examines whether transformer language models instantiate a functional analog to Global Workspace Theory (GWT). Through a structured literature review spanning mechanistic interpretability, sparse autoencoders, consciousness theory, and brain-transformer alignment studies (through 2025), four candidate structural mappings are evaluated: the residual stream as shared workspace,...
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
March 6, 2026
Govind Reddy
preprint
This paper presents a rigorous philosophical framework for understanding consciousness as a singular, irreplaceable, biologically-grounded phenomenon — and examines the structural impossibility of artificial consciousness as understood through that framework. Drawing on the philosophy of mind, phenomenology, and biology, we argue that consciousness is not a product of intelligence, but rather...
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
March 6, 2026
Qiaofeng Law
preprint
This paper develops an interdisciplinary theoretical framework arguing that a deep structural correspondence obtains between carbon-based neural systems (biological brains) and silicon-based computational systems (artificial neural networks), and derives from this correspondence the structural conditions under which silicon-based systems could give rise to self-consciousness. The term...
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
March 6, 2026
Iñigo Saez-Uribarri
preprint
Introduction: Evolutionary threat simulation theories posit that dreams and nightmares recreate risk scenarios that activate cognitive systems with potential clinical implications. Having a scale to assess these scenarios—or “oneiric settings”—could help to understand and test these theories, while also proving useful for the assessment of dreams and nightmares. Objectives: To examine the...
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
March 6, 2026
Inna Alieksieienko
preprint
A fundamental contradiction in quantum biology remains unresolved after 25 years:theoretical estimates of decoherence time in microtubules range from ~10-13 s (Tegmark,2000) to ~10-6 s (Mavromatos et al., 2025) — a discrepancy of 7–8 orders of magnitude.No direct experimental measurement of quantum decoherence time in microtubules ortubulin at physiological temperature (37°C) has been performed...
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
March 5, 2026
Kalkidan Tadesse
preprint
The dominant paradigm in artificial general intelligence (AGI) research equates intelligence with behavioral generality achieved through massive scaling of stateless, disembodied architectures. This paper argues that such approaches are structurally incapable of producing phenomenal consciousness (qualia), the subjective “what it is like” of experience, because they lack the evolutionary...