The paper argues for an embodied and enactive view of linguistic concepts as a solution to the "scaling up" problem, namely the transition from embodied experience to symbolic and abstract thought. Drawing on phenomenology, neurobiology, conceptual metaphor theory and enactivism, it aims to demonstrate the constitutive role of the body and intersubjectivity in concept formation. Concrete...
Mixed-method studies require adaptation to the era of big data in quantitative research, seeking scalable approaches that can analyze extensive qualitative datasets while preserving the depth and nuance inherent in the study of consciousness on a broader scale. This study aimed to leverage ChatGPT, renowned for its descriptive generation proficiency, to perform a phenomenological analysis. Our...
This study examines the phenomenon of anomalous experiences. The term 'anomalous experience' refers to experiences often described as hallucinations and, more broadly, to the experiential dimensions of what is commonly referred to as psychosis. I present a critical analysis of the dominant clinical conceptualization of anomalous experience, which frames it as a 'pathology of the mind', by...
This prolegomenon sketches issues central to a philosophy of meditation, develops only some of them here, and refers readers to other works where some not covered here are addressed. A complete philosophy of meditation would include accounts of: the differences between meditative practices, states, and traits; religion-based meditative traditions; novel contemporary meditative practices and...
According to the phenomenal intentionality theory (PIT), intentionality is grounded in phenomenal consciousness : the qualitative and subjective character of experience, which makes possible the intentionality of mental states. PIT is in continuity with an approach in philosophy that originated with René Descartes and that is centered on the epistemological primacy of knowledge of one’s...
Despite the fact that humans experience the reality of consciousness first hand, a remarkable paradigm shift within the Western worldview has entrenched the notion of an inverted cognitive order: first we have objects, and only then minds, if we have them at all. How the community of minds developed such a counterintuitive theory, and how this mental product was elevated to the status of an...
In electronic music events, the driving four-on-the-floor music appears pivotal for inducing altered states of consciousness (ASCs). While various physiological mechanisms link repetitive auditory stimuli to ASCs, entrainment-a brainwave synchronization through periodic external stimuli-has garnered primary focus. However, there are no studies systematically exploring the relationship between...
Out-of-body experiences (OBEs) are primarily characterized by the sensation of the self being located outside one's physical body. The complexity of this phenomenon has led researchers to propose various theories to explain it, including physiological, psychological, and non-local consciousness theories. The objective of this study is to directly explore the interpretations of individuals who...
Recent experimental evidence, briefly reviewed here, points to intraneuronal microtubules as a functional target of inhalational anesthetics. This finding is consistent with the general hypothesis that the biophysical substrate of consciousness is a collective quantum state of microtubules and is specifically predicted by the Orchestrated Objective Reduction theory of Penrose and Hameroff. I...
Since the 1930s, researchers have awakened people from different stages of sleep to record what they have experienced. While some aspects, including asking whether participants had dreams or thoughts before awakening, largely remain the same, others, such as the method of awakening, vary greatly. In addition, it is often assumed that the influence of participant characteristics, such as...