Witnessing
The MIT Press eBooks February 6, 2024 DOI: 10.7551/mitpress/15196.003.0022 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
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| Key points | The author proposes that "witness consciousness" is a global mode of consciousness rather than a content-specific state, in which reality appears mirrored in an infinite, choiceless, nonconceptual knowing. The author reports that this phenomenon is long discussed in Indian philosophy and explicitly anticipated in Vedic meditation traditions, and describes personal episodes lasting hours, including one lasting half a day during ordinary work, accompanied by clarity and lack of fatigue. |
Abstract
The world reflecting in a mirror without a perceiving observer.[#1735] An impression of " there are impersonal eyes in the room."[#3451] "Witness consciousness" is a global phenomenology.This is to say that the totality of all experiential contents appears as if being observed by something that isn't really an "observer" at all-by a timeless, impersonal, knowing presence.Witness consciousness is our first example of an experience that (as explained in the introduction) is neither content-specific nor simply a "state," but a mode of consciousness-that is, a global way in which real ity appears to us: The world is mirrored in an all-encompassing quality of infinite, choiceless, and nonconceptual knowing.The phenomenon has been known and discussed in Indian philosophy for many centuries, and certain Western schools of meditation in the Vedic tradition (TM) explic itly tell their students to expect the phenomenal quality of "witnessing" as their practice advances, during the daytime as well as during dreamless deep sleep (chapter 20).3389 Since I already have many years of meditation practice behind me, infinity experiences, or the experience that an infinite observer is observing my earthly life, happen to me over and over in daytime consciousness.Waking sleep and conscious dreaming, however, are rather rare.[. ..]Witness consciousness can occur spontaneously and effortlessly, outside of formal practice, and it can last for hours: 1501 I once had another experience that lasted half a day, during the activity.I did my normal work in the office, but at the same time I was a witness to what I was doing.The big advantage of this was that I did not get tired at all.It was as if I was untouchable from the outside.The mind was fully awake and clear.