Nondual Awareness and Minimal Phenomenal Experience.
Zoran Josipovic, Vladimir Miskovic
Frontiers in Psychology 2020 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.02087 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Consciousness-as-such Lucid nrem sleep Minimal phenomenal experience Nondual awareness |
| Citations | 67 |
| Key points | Proposes that consciousness-as-such is a unique, non-representational type of awareness that cannot be adequately specified by the two-dimensional model of consciousness or by minimal phenomenal experiences. |
Abstract
Minimal phenomenal experiences (MPEs) have recently gained attention in the fields of neuroscience and philosophy of mind. They can be thought of as episodes of greatly reduced or even absent phenomenal content together with a reduced level of arousal. It has also been proposed that MPEs are cases of consciousness-as-such. Here, we present a different perspective, that consciousness-as-such is first and foremost a type of awareness, that is, non-conceptual, non-propositional, and nondual, in other words, non-representational. This awareness is a unique kind and cannot be adequately specified by the two-dimensional model of consciousness as the arousal level plus the phenomenal content or by their mental representations. Thus, we suggest that to understand consciousness-as-such, and by extension consciousness in general, more accurately, we need to research it as a unique kind.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mechanisms of mindfulness | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action From a Conceptual and Neural Perspective | 2011 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART): a framework for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness | 2012 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cited by 41
- Self-Boundary Dissolution in Meditation: A Phenomenological Investigation. Brain Sciences June 21, 2021
- Defining Transformative Experiences: A Conceptual Analysis Frontiers in Psychology June 24, 2022
- Consciousness Without Content: A Look at Evidence and Prospects. Frontiers in Psychology August 7, 2020
- The Phenomenology of “Pure” Consciousness as Reported by an Experienced Meditator of the Tibetan Buddhist Karma Kagyu Tradition. Analysis of Interview Content Concerning Different Meditative States Philosophies June 17, 2021
- Suspending the Embodied Self in Meditation Attenuates Beta Oscillations in the Posterior Medial Cortex. Journal of Neuroscience June 26, 2024
and 36 more in the library
Cites 29
- Attending to the present: mindfulness meditation reveals distinct neural modes of self-reference Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience August 13, 2007
- Are There Levels of Consciousness? Trends in Cognitive Sciences April 22, 2016
- Psychedelics, Meditation, and Self-Consciousness Frontiers in Psychology September 4, 2018
- Neural correlates of nondual awareness in meditation. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 2014
- Assessing sleep consciousness within subjects using a serial awakening paradigm Frontiers in Psychology 2013
and 24 more in the library