Zygon
December 3, 2025
Antonino Raffone, Angela Tagini, Narayanan Srinivasan
36 citations
Mindfulness is the mental ability to focus on the present moment with nonjudgmental awareness, cultivated through meditation practices originating in eastern spiritual traditions. This article examines the relationships among mindfulness, meditation, and the cognitive neuroscience of attention and awareness. Mindful awareness is linked to distributed attention, phenomenal consciousness, and momentary self-awareness, supported by cognitive psychology and neuroscience findings. An integrated neurocognitive model is proposed, highlighting the key role of the prefrontal cortex in these processes.
Zygon
December 3, 2025
Niels Henrik Gregersen
5 citations
Deep incarnation, the idea that the divine became fully embodied in Jesus, can be enriched by modern information science. Early cosmic Christologies, such as those of the Cappadocian fathers and Bonaventure, already blended form and matter in ways that anticipate an informational worldview. Three hypotheses link deep incarnation with information: mass, energy, and information are equally fundamental causes; transformation requires communication, which requires information; and informational structures enable information capture, communication, and transformation, which illuminate the organismic depth of incarnation. At the level of life, embodied cognition and emotion become relevant for understanding the concrete incarnation in Jesus of Nazareth.
Zygon
December 3, 2025
Ann Taves
2 citations
Owen Flanagan's *The Really Hard Problem* continues a tradition, exemplified by William James, of addressing spiritual meaning outside organized religion. Both philosophers argue that the sciences of the mind do not threaten meaning or human growth. James used the subconscious to bridge science and religion, persuading readers of a transcendent 'More'; Flanagan uses a scientific understanding of transcendence to advocate for a naturalistic spirituality, or 'Less'. The author finds Flanagan's attempt to link psychological and sociocultural levels via transcendence scientifically premature but argues that his naturalistic spirituality raises definitional questions scholars of religion must take seriously.
Zygon
December 3, 2025
John A. Teske
1 citation
The cognitive sciences contribute to the religion-and-science dialogue through three narrative perspectives—first, second, and third person—which correspond to consciousness, relationality, and healing. First-person accounts are crucial for understanding subjective experience and neurophenomenology, despite their epistemic limits and indirect causal role in behavior. Second-person perspectives highlight empathic, embodied relationality that supports an externalist account of mind, as increasingly evidenced by social neuroscience. Third-person accounts reveal us/them distinctions that can fuel dangerous tribalisms, threatening an interdependent world. The paper argues for awareness of these perspectives to foster healing.
Zygon
December 3, 2025
Michael James Winkelman
A novel approach to spiritual experiences uses self-worth as a conceptual bridge, but faces validity challenges. Resolving the ontological status of spirituality and the soul requires first addressing epistemological questions about the nature of knowledge. Cross-cultural validity for these constructs depends on grounding them in neurophenomenology, neurognostic perspectives, and neurological processes that engage naturalist foundations of religion.
Zygon
June 29, 2026
True freedom and peace arise from radical self-emptying and openness to the divine, not from self-assertion, according to a comparative ontological hermeneutics that places the yogic discipline of prāṇāyāma (breath control) in dialogue with Meister Eckhart's mystical theology of Abgeschiedenheit (detachment) and Gelassenheit (releasement). Prāṇāyāma, grounded in the Yoga Sūtras and Upaniṣadic thought, is interpreted as a transformative discipline aimed at stilling the mind (citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ) and attuning the practitioner to the ground of being. Eckhart's path of detachment unfolds as a participation in trinitarian kenosis. The article correlates these approaches to develop an ontology of relationality—being as self-gift and receptivity—and highlights their therapeutic significance in light of contemporary neuroscience, proposing a contemplative anthropology rooted in silence, love, and divine presence.
Zygon
June 24, 2026
Paul H. Carr
Near-death experiences (NDEs) occur across cultures among people revived from clinical death, regardless of personal beliefs. The experiences of doctors Eben Alexander and Tony Cicoria are highlighted alongside thousands of cases researched by Pim Van Lommel and Jeffrey Long. Van Lommel argues that current medical, philosophical, and psychological views on the brain-consciousness relationship are too narrow for proper understanding, asserting that humans cannot be reduced to their constituent parts. Long studied 834 NDEs and concluded they lead to enhanced belief in divinity and the afterlife, decreased fear of death, and increased compassion.
Zygon
December 3, 2025
Theologies of divine action in nature typically assume physical realism—the view that physical entities and facts are mind-independent and ontologically basic. This article argues that physical realism actually undermines the scientific knowledge theologians seek to engage. Drawing on Howard Robinson's work, the author presents a coherent alternative that denies physical realism. In this account, God's sustaining and governing action in nature operates through the ontological mediation of minds and laws that causally constrain sensations. The proposal also offers a positive research program that incorporates natural science to understand embodiment.
Zygon
December 3, 2025
Current research on strong AI and conscious machines has not yet succeeded, but several lessons can be drawn. Functionalist approaches to consciousness fail to account for the importance of subjective experience and can be misled by how algorithms work and succeed. Authenticity and emergence help distinguish valid from invalid approaches and clarify cases like Sophia or LaMDA where algorithms are considered conscious. Subjectivity and embeddedness are key notions that should lead to re-examining the ethics of decision delegation. Focusing on subjective experience shifts understanding of being human and the image of God, de-emphasizing intellectuality in favor of experience and contemplation over action.
Zygon
December 3, 2025
Human action and experience result from both genes and memes, with consciousness mediating their claims and guiding choices. The ordering and direction of consciousness is therefore important. Sorokin's typology of sensate (materialist, secular) and ideational (spiritual) factors, and their dialectic, is relevant. In the current historical period, sensate factors need dialectical counterbalancing by memes that value spiritual intimations beyond the senses. Approaching the twenty-first century, memes undergirding spirituality will resacralize nature and emphasize human unity with all universal reality in an idea of common 'beinghood.' Spiritual systems must integrate sensate and ideational, reflect the 'flow' state of optimal experience matching skills with challenges, and shift worldview from the human being to the network of beings and its evolution.
Zygon
December 3, 2025
John Calvin Chatlos
A framework of spirituality developed by the author is reviewed, with implications for science, philosophy, and theology. Scientific focus includes the dual process of cognition and its relevance to medicine, psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience, anthropology, evolution, and the inclusion of soul studies. Philosophical discussion addresses values, the Ground of Being, and universal moral values, challenging the naturalistic fallacy of is-ought. Theological implications cover the Veil of Illusion, mystical experience, transcendence versus immanence, the causal joint problem, a Faith Process, a proposed field of applied spirituality, and the nature of soul. A common discussion across disciplines is the role of ontology and a worldview requiring disciplinary agreement.
Zygon
December 3, 2025
A growing controversy over whether data that challenge the Mind/Brain Identity theory require extending the mind beyond the brain is examined through the lens of second-century Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna. The disputes share an underlying form: arguments over where to draw the line between intrinsic and relational causal powers. Nagarjuna's middle way between eternalism (mind as permanent substance) and nihilism (mind has no intrinsic existence) parallels a possible argument for the Hypothesis of Extended Cognition. Accepting that neither the brain nor any single physical item is identical to the mind need not lead to the conclusion that the mind does not really exist. Nagarjuna held that the mind has conventional reality—it exists even without a sharp border between mind and world.
Zygon
December 3, 2025
A thought experiment explores whether moral principles can be understood as analogous to cosmic order, drawing on quantum physics, neuroscience, and philosophy. The authors propose three speculative ideas: an ontological realm of nonmaterial forms (the One) that underlies all empirical reality, a neurological hypothesis that the human brain can detect potentiality waves in this cosmic field, and a moral proposal that such communication can guide ethical action. From this cosmic order, simple rules of well-being emerge that align with traditional moral teachings but resemble Aristotle's eudaimonia and Kant's highest good. Morality is presented as a tacit, nonempirical form that actualizes through consciousness, offering guidance without coercion.
Zygon
December 3, 2025
The concept of Akasha, often translated as ether, has historically bridged quantum theory, metaphysical spirituality, and Indian-inspired philosophy. This article traces the relationship between speculative scientific communities and alternative religious groups, particularly those influenced by Theosophy, that have used Indian concepts and terminology. It argues that Akasha-as-ether operates to connect gross matter, including the individual mind, with a subtle material and transpersonal mind, offering a version of panpsychism that supports a coherent quantum monism.
Zygon
December 3, 2025
Panspiritism is a philosophical approach proposing that mind or spirit is fundamental in reality, not a byproduct of matter. The article outlines its core principles, tracing connections to Eastern thought and distinguishing it from panpsychism, idealism, and theism. It examines the mind-matter and mind-brain relationships and the emergence of mind from a panspiritist viewpoint, and discusses how mystical experiences relate to this framework. The author suggests that panspiritism can clarify phenomena that seem anomalous or problematic under materialism.
Zygon
December 3, 2025
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) offers a framework for understanding mindfulness that may help science and religion researchers study mental health. In TCM, heart Qi manages the body's connection to time and space; when the ability to be present is disrupted, heart Qi becomes blocked, leading to mental illness or neurological disorders. Mindfulness is seen as a nonphysical phenomenon (Qi) that directly affects physical systems, producing empirical data that can be tracked and treated through TCM. This perspective provides a new paradigm for investigating mindfulness and the brain, addressing the mind/body problem that makes quantifying mindfulness's physical effects difficult.
Zygon
December 3, 2025
The extended mind thesis proposes that cognitive processes can extend beyond the brain and body into the environment. This article introduces a symposium that explores the suggestive connections between this thesis and religious thought. Essays by several philosophers present diverse perspectives on how the extended mind might relate to religious cognition, practices, and experiences, examining implications for understanding belief, ritual, and the nature of the self.
Zygon
December 3, 2025
Recent efforts by theologians to align their discipline with empirical science have become outdated. Just as theologians reached a tentative agreement with secular thinking, the concepts of mystery once guarded by religious thinkers have been taken up by cosmological models in the new physics. This paper examines revolutionary developments in quantum physics over the last decade, pointing to an imminent convergence between scientific and religious concepts within a larger framework called synholism, derived from Friedrich von Weizsäcker. It also explores theoretical implications of hypotheses in high-energy physics such as cosmic consciousness and multiple universes.
Zygon
December 3, 2025
Buddhist meditation enhances mental and volitional control, but the central dynamic of the path is better understood as a process of habituation. This involves not only dis-identification from mental and emotional content, as commonly emphasized in modern mindfulness or insight (vipassanā) meditation, but also a transformation of the heart through complementary psychological and somatic qualities associated with calm abiding (samatha) and concentration (samādhi), as emphasized in the Pali Nikāyas and commentaries.
Zygon
December 3, 2025
Brain research is beginning to produce concrete evidence that mental discipline and meditative practice can change the workings of the brain and allow practitioners to achieve different levels of awareness, as measurable in reaction times to stimuli. This section of articles addresses recent developments in this area, covering a wide array of questions with widespread implications, arguing for the richness of the meditation domain.
Zygon
December 3, 2025
Empathy and interpersonal understanding are fundamentally extended bodily activities rather than purely internal mental processes. The two dominant models—theory theory and simulation theory—both assume understanding happens inside the head. Drawing on the extended mind thesis, this analysis argues that much social understanding occurs outside the head, supported by narratives of individuals with Moebius syndrome, a condition involving bilateral facial paralysis that impairs expressive ability. A Zen Buddhist ethics of responsiveness helps articulate the practical significance of this body-based account of empathy.
Zygon
December 3, 2025
Established religions bridge everyday secular life with the numinous experience of the holy. Powerful emotions drive cultural expressions of archetypes in art, sport, and technocracy. Neuroendocrine triggers during bonding moments like mother-infant or adult attachment activate lifelong ties. The left cortex's cultural canon contrasts with the intuitive right brain. Brainstem switches alternate between the left's cool, extraverted drive for control and the right's warm attachment and dreaming sleep. Psychic trauma impairs flexibility, leading to alexithymic blindness to emotions and archetypes, resulting in substance abuse and narcissistic overemphasis on control.
Zygon
December 3, 2025
Cognitive science of religion identifies cognitive mechanisms that generate religious beliefs. Some argue these mechanisms debunk folk theism. Common responses rely on distinctions between proximate/ultimate explanations and specific/general religious beliefs, but these have drawbacks and fail to preserve folk theism. Drawing on philosophy of mind and the problem of mental causation in nonreductive physicalism offers a way to preserve folk theism without rejecting the causal premise of the debunking argument or undermining cognitive science of religion.
Zygon
December 3, 2025
This article argues that Owen Flanagan's neurophysicalism, despite his critique of the new mysterians, itself entails a form of mysterianism and fails to ground human mentality within physicalism. Flanagan attempts to reconcile spirituality with a physicalist ontology by deriving an account of the good life from science. The critique shows that Flanagan does not establish consistency between ethical normativity and physicalism, so another form of mysterianism emerges within this normative mind science.
Zygon
December 3, 2025
Buddhist meditation can be taxonomized into five classes based on the psychological or somatic function targeted: emotion-centered (samatha), consciousness-centered (reduction or obliteration of ideation), reflection-centered (morality-directed or reality-directed vipassanā), visualization-centered, and physiology-centered. The author argues that claims of meditation as an infallible tool for realizing supreme truth or universal happiness rely largely on a placebo-like crēdō effect. While meditation may benefit mental and physical health and serve as a valuable alternative in life and clinical treatment, it is not a panacea or necessity.