The integration of meditation, particularly Buddhist meditation, into psychotherapy, highlighting its potential as a therapeutic tool within clinical and counseling contexts. The primary focus is on two major types of Buddhist meditation: Samatha (tranquility meditation) and VipassanÄ (insight meditation). These practices, rooted in ancient texts like the Sutta Piá¹aka, aim to cultivate...
Contemplative technologies in the form of Buddhist practices that challenge the sense of self and thereby enhance the experience of interrelationality are viable strategies for addressing existential concerns such as the environmental crisis. Much of the existing research on Buddhism and ecology neglects to measure environmentally sustainable behavior or engage with empirical research....
This study explores the profound questions surrounding the pursuit of Nirvana in Buddhism, examining whether it arises from the cycle of rebirth, present suffering, or future pain as depicted in early Buddhist scriptures. It also investigates the potential convergence of Buddhism with existentialism, a philosophy emphasizing individual experience, freedom, responsibility, and life’s inherent...
The B-Man Stra/Tac model is new and comprehensive and intended to replace previous theories of consciousness and the mind. I am confident it is correct, based on the model’s coherence and its explanation of so much of human behaviour. David Chalmers’ idea of the Hard Problem of Consciousness can be considered on two levels, the functional level, why are we conscious, why do we have conscious...
Self-consciousness, the introspection of one's existence and thoughts, represents a high-level cognitive process. As language models advance at an unprecedented pace, a critical question arises: Are these models becoming self-conscious? Drawing upon insights from psychological and neural science, this work presents a practical definition of self-consciousness for language models and refines ten...
Abstract According to Idealism, every fundamental entity is conscious, and moreover every fundamental property is a phenomenal property. The goal of this chapter is to defend “Modal Idealism,” which is the thesis that Idealism is metaphysically necessary. In particular, I give four different arguments for Modal Idealism. First, I argue that, if at least some possible fundamental properties are...
The lecturer puts forward a thesis according to which an evolutionist approach to consciousness can solve its “hard problem” with radical implications for understanding of animal sentience. Taking off from his discovery of blindsight – insentient vision – after removal of the visual cortex in a monkey, named Helen, Humphrey argues that “phenomenal consciousness” is a relatively late...
Understanding neural mechanisms of consciousness remains a challenging question in neuroscience. A central debate in the field concerns whether consciousness arises from global interactions that involve multiple brain regions or focal neural activity, such as in sensory cortex. Additionally, global theories diverge between the Global Neuronal Workspace (GNW) hypothesis, which emphasizes frontal...
This review presents biophysical and quantum physical aspects of informational processes coming from the early evolution till the human brain. Here, the sophistication in the layered cortex architecture as well as the functional orientation of its areas has built nearly “free” zones for associations and connections. With our self-consciousness, a further horizon is reached which represents a...
Abstract The meta-problem of consciousness is the problem of explaining why we believe that there is a hard problem of consciousness. A solution to the former promises to take us one step closer to solving the latter. While many hope for a physicalist realist solution to the meta-problem, I argue that the two prominent physicalist realist positions in the literature, orthodox Russellian and...