The Cognitive Neuroscience of Consciousness, Mysticism and Psi
International Journal of Transpersonal Studies 2011 DOI: 10.24972/ijts.2011.30.1-2.11 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Mysticism |
| Citations | 13 |
| Key points | Argues that coherent neural firing and reflexive pathway activation are necessary conditions for neural events to correlate with conscious experience, and that these conditions parallel principles found in Kabbalistic mystical texts, suggesting neural activity may format the brain for consciousness rather than cause it. |
Abstract
The greatest contemporary challenge in the arena of cognitive neuroscience concerns the relation between consciousness and the brain. Over recent years the focus of work in this area has switched from the analysis of diverse spatial regions of the brain to that of the timing of neural events. It appears that two conditions are necessary in order for neural events to become correlated with conscious experience. First, the firing of assemblies of neurones must achieve a degree of coherence, and, second, reflexive (i.e. top-down, or reentrant) neural pathways must be activated. It does not, of course, follow that such neural activity causes consciousness; it may be, for example, that the neural activity formats the brain to interact with consciousness. The latter possibility is suggested by analysis of mystical texts suggesting that coherence and reflexivity constitute the conditions for the influx of “spirit.” Kabbalistic sources, for example, describe a hierarchy of “brains” in the human and divine realms through which the principles of coherence and reflexivity operate. Whilst the ontological assumptions of such a scheme place it beyond the realm of psychology, parallels with the picture deriving from the contemporary cognitive neuroscience of consciousness are striking.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on mysticism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The mystical mind: probing the biology of religious experience | 2000 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Religious and Mystical Experiences as Artifacts of Temporal Lobe Function: A General Hypothesis | 1983 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The Problem of Pure Consciousness: Mysticism and Philosophy | 1993 | Edited collection of essays | |
| Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century | 2020 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mysticism and schizophrenia: A phenomenological exploration of the structure of consciousness in the schizophrenia spectrum disorders. | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cited by 2
Cites 6
- On a confusion about a function of consciousness Behavioral and Brain Sciences June 1, 1995
- Two neural correlates of consciousness Trends in Cognitive Sciences January 13, 2005
- Ayin: The Concept of Nothingness in Jewish Mysticism The Problem of Pure Consciousness March 29, 1990
- A cross-order integration hypothesis for the neural correlate of consciousness. Consciousness and Cognition May 16, 2007
- Separate neural definitions of visual consciousness and visual attention; a case for phenomenal awareness. Neural Networks 2004
and 1 more in the library