Consciousness Studies: The Emerging Military‐Industrial‐Spiritual‐Scientific Complex
Chris Hables Gray
Anthropology of Consciousness March 1, 2007 DOI: 10.1525/ac.2007.18.1.3 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Key points | Argues that consciousness studies is an industry whose technological advances risk instrumentalizing knowledge in ways that could redefine consciousness and enable social control; proposes that conscious awareness of this process, including its guiding metaphors and power dynamics, is necessary to prevent such control. |
Abstract
Consciousness studies is not just an academic field, it is an industry as well with active research programs in medicine, business, and the military. As advancements in technology offer more access to the brain, attempts to instrumentalize the resulting knowledge will shift the very definitions of consciousness. Consciousness of this process is a necessary first condition toward keeping consciousness studies from becoming merely a form of social and individual control. Understanding consciousness studies and such important guiding metaphors as information, and dynamics such as power, is an essential part of this process.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on philosophy of mind, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Psychosis as a state of aberrant salience: a framework linking biology, phenomenology, and pharmacology in schizophrenia. | 2003 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From dopamine to salience to psychosis--linking biology, pharmacology and phenomenology of psychosis. | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How do the brain's time and space mediate consciousness and its different dimensions? Temporo-spatial theory of consciousness (TTC). | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The phenomenology of deep brain stimulation-induced changes in OCD: an enactive affordance-based model. | 2013 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Looking for the Self: Phenomenology, Neurophysiology and Philosophical Significance of Drug-induced Ego Dissolution | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cited by 3
- The Future of a Discipline: Considering the ontological/methodological future of the anthropology of consciousness, Part I† Anthropology of Consciousness March 1, 2010
- Glossolalia influences on stress response among Apostolic Pentecostals 2009
- Communication of the “Objective Reality” as Signal to the Senses in Orchestrated Non-Reductive way Archives in Neurology & Neuroscience July 16, 2019