In previous works, we provided empirical evidence and the theoretical foundations for a conceptual dissociation between subliminality, such as purported emotional responses to invisible-imperceptible elicitors, and the intelligent workings of the notion of an unconscious mind, such as involuntary and automatic physiological experiences and behavioural patterns that precede but eventually...
A previous paper by the same author demonstrates that psychedelic medicines differ from intoxicants (khamr) as they do not induce moral impairment or “veil” rational faculties. While unsupervised should remain impermissible due to psychological risks, their therapeutic application may be justified under Islamic law through rukhsa (legal concession). Since psychedelics can mimic neural and...
The nature of consciousness, specifically the state of "pure consciousness"—often characterized in contemplative traditions as a state of awareness devoid of intentional content—has transitioned from a topic of purely philosophical inquiry to a rigorous subject of neuroscientific study. This review synthesizes current clinical and neurobiological research to propose that oxytocin (OT), a...
Embedded Process argues that many debates about mind, experience, and formal representation are distorted by a false choice: either reality is one and a sufficiently strong structural description should eventually capture everything that matters, or experience and lived significance force some kind of dualism or metaphysical split. This paper rejects that choice. The core claim is that reality...
“And while my whole heart and all my desires were engrossed in prayer and heavenly things, suddenly, I know not how, I felt within a symphony of song, and I overheard a most delightful heavenly harmony, which remained in my mind. For straightway, while I meditated, my thoughts were turned into melody of song, and for meditation J, as it were, sang songs. And that music voiced itself even in my...
This paper introduces the C–A Framework, a testable, evolutionary model that distinguishes between consciousness (C) as a baseline capacity for experience and awareness (A) as an emergent, organisation-dependent phenomenon. The framework proposes that awareness arises through an evolutionary progression of increasing organisational complexity and integration, forming a structured continuum from...
This paper introduces the CPA Distinction, a conceptual framework that differentiates between fundamental consciousness (C), proto-awareness (P), and conscious awareness (A) as stages within a hierarchy of increasing representational complexity. The framework proposes that cognitive systems evolve through progressively deeper forms of environmental and self-modelling, moving from basic...
Abstract: This is the foundational synthesis of the Return to Consciousness project. The one thing every investigation of nature presupposes — conscious experience — has for over a century been treated as a byproduct of the things it was used to study. This essay argues that consciousness-first metaphysics — specifically Bernardo Kastrup's analytic idealism — handles the resulting explanatory...
This chapter presents a radically renewed vision of psychiatry and psychology, based on the inclusion of the spiritual, energetic, and transformative dimensions of the human being. The author criticizes the technical-materialist drift of modern neuroscience, emphasizing how Western culture has relegated mystical and spiritual experience to exceptional or pathological phenomena, depriving the...
HealthcareMarch 16, 2026Julie K Staples, Jesse Rice, Kathleen S. Farah et al.
Background/Objective: Mind–body programs teaching mindfulness-based techniques have benefits for incarcerated people, as do programs in which individuals teach yoga to their incarcerated peers. However, there are no studies of comprehensive programs that combine a variety of self-care techniques with group support and enable people in prison to enhance their own well-being and then share what...