Is meditation the royal road that leads to pure consciousness?
Filozofija i Društvo 2025 DOI: 10.2298/fid2504865l (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Meditation Mysticism |
| Keywords | Contemplation Context archaeology Consciousness Section typography Empirical research Epistemology Explanatory model Spirituality Religious experience Transcendence philosophy Content measure theory |
| Key points | Argues that the Royal Road Thesis, which claims meditation is the best candidate for researching pure consciousness, is very problematic and should be replaced by a more nuanced approach. |
Abstract
Over the past 30 years, there has been an increasing scientific and philosophical attention to what contemplative and spiritual traditions for millennia have known as pure consciousness, free from concrete empirical content and egoic self-awareness. The article addresses whether meditation is the best candidate for the research of pure consciousness, as Thomas Metzinger claims in his book The Elephant and the Blind. The article calls this the Royal Road Thesis (RRT). The article first critically analyzes the concept of meditation, then uses descriptions of non-meditation to further deconstruct the concept of meditation. A section is devoted to an analysis of Metzinger?s claim that minimal phenomenal experience (and pure consciousness) is not mystical in itself, and finally, this is all interpreted in the context of consciousness culture and spirituality. The article concludes that RRT is very problematic and should be replaced by a more nuanced approach.
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 |