Prospects of Neuroscience Approaches to the Problem of Consciousness (in Connection with the Growing Global Crisis of Terrestrial Civilization)

Abstract

The global crisis of terrestrial civilization is steadily increasing. A necessary condition for overcoming it is the change in mass consciousness, such negative qualities as irrepressible consumerism, aggressiveness, excessive egoism. As the Dalai Lama emphasizes: “We badly need a fundamental change in human consciousness”. According to him, science is of great importance in solving this problem. In this regard, the results and prospects of modern neuroscience in the study of consciousness, in overcoming the theoretical difficulties that stand in this way are considered. The author proposes an information approach for the theoretical solution of the main issues of the “Consciousness and the Brain” problem and the development of the direction of neuroscience called “Brain Reading” (it deals with deciphering brain codes of psychic phenomena). A necessary condition for these studies is the development of the phenomenology of subjective reality. This involves extensive use of the richest phenomenological and meditative experience of Buddhism. The information approach allows us to theoretically explain the phenomenon of mental causation of the ability to arbitrarily control one’s own consciousness. In this respect, the system of universal ethics, developed by the Dalai Lama, is of exceptional importance. It includes the principles of moral self-perfection, which contribute to “the cultivation of compassion”, “sincere kindness,” and the eradication of “rampant greed and aggression”.