The human default consciousness and its disruption: insights from an EEG study of Buddhist jhāna meditation

The neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) are often studied via task-based experiments, but these recruit one part of the cortical network to investigate another, limiting what they reveal about consciousness itself. The form of consciousness explored in such research is termed the human default consciousness (DCs), everyday waking consciousness. In contrast, states like anaesthesia, coma, deep sleep, or epilepsy show different cortical activity and are involuntary or unconscious. An exception is Buddhist jhāna meditation, which intentionally withdraws from default consciousness to an inward-directed stillness called jhāna consciousness. Default consciousness is sensorily-based, evaluating outer-world information against personal needs, aligning with Buddhist models and active inference theories minimizing free energy.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The “neural correlates of consciousness” (NCC) is a familiar topic in neuroscience, overlapping with research on the brain’s “default mode network”. Task-based studies of NCC by their nature recruit one part of the cortical network to study another, and are therefore both limited and compromised in what they can reveal about consciousness itself. The form of consciousness explored in such research, we term the human default consciousness (DCs), our everyday waking consciousness. In contrast, studies of anaesthesia, coma, deep sleep, or some extreme pathological states such as epilepsy, reveal very different cortical activity; all of which states are essentially involuntary, and generally regarded as “unconscious”. An exception to involuntary disruption of consciousness is Buddhist jhāna meditation, whose implicit aim is to intentionally withdraw from the default consciousness, to an inward-directed state of stillness referred to as jhāna consciousness, as a basis to develop insight. The default consciousness is sensorily-based, where information about, and our experience of, the outer world is evaluated against personal and organic needs and forms the basis of our ongoing self-experience. This view conforms both to Buddhist models, and to the emerging work on active inference and minimisation of free energy in determining the network balance of the human default consciousness.