June 30, 2023Matt P D Gwyther, Jane E. Aspell3 citations
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Flotation-Reduced Environmental Stimulation Therapy (REST) and mindfulness meditation (MM) are known to induce altered states of consciousness (ASC) and self-consciousness. In this study, we use a phenomenological and predictive processing (PP) framework to compare the interventions alongside the psychedelic experience. Ego-dissolution scores were greater than ego-inflation scores in both...
Substances that change the states of consciousness have been used in the therapeutics of traditional cultures for hundreds of years. In the Western cultural circle, scientific curiosity and hope for a breakthrough in the treatment of various mental disorders constituted the basis of the first wave of research on humans with the use of psychedelics. After synthesizing LSD, psychedelic substances...
Research has shown that experiencing awe can support people’s well-being and enhance their resilience. A secondary phenomenological analysis was conducted of data collected from the Awe Project, a 5-day, online resilience program. Based on the existing literature, which demonstrates that reflecting on positive memories can support individuals’ well-being, a practice during the Awe Project...
Possession trance is an altered state of consciousness resulting from spirit possession, belief in an alien entity residing in the self. Though treated as an individual psychopathological condition in Western medicine, cultural anthropology has long tied possession trance, and trance and possession phenomena in general, to marginalization by increasingly complex and inflexible social...
This chapter introduces the Automated Compression Theory (ACT). ACT holds that when we consider our conscious experience from the first-person perspective, we automatically access compressed information chunks, and this process explains in easy terms the appearances underwriting our hard problem intuitions. ACT is supported by general engineering constraints: any well-built cognitive system...
This chapter lays out in detail the problematic appearances of consciousness requiring explanation. Considerations from pessimists like Chalmers and Joseph Levine are considered, and the chapter distills out the claim that our first-person access seems to put us in direct contact with indescribable, simple properties, properties only contingently connected to the structural, dynamical, and...
This chapter closes off some final worries for the Automated Compression Theory (ACT) approach and further demonstrates how ACT explains our hard problem intuitions. First, the chapter outlines an “ability hypothesis” response to the knowledge argument using ACT resources. The chapter then defuses the worry that any easy explanation of the problematic appearances of consciousness will simply...
Artificial intelligence (AI) can now be found easily in various aspects of human life ranging from computer programs, vehicles and devices. This for some people is quite worrying, but there are also those who consider it as an advance of civilization. AI, which initially only revolved around industrial technological advances, now doubles as part of ontological discussions, especially themes of...
This chapter introduces the debate between explanatory pessimists and optimists on the hard problem of consciousness. Pessimists reject the claim that consciousness can be explained in ordinary scientific terms of structure, dynamics, and function. Optimists accept this claim. The chapter then motivates the optimists’ position by considering the historical success of naturalistic, scientific...
Although panpsychism and pantheism were seen as natural allies in the past, in contemporary philosophy it is widely common to stress differences rather than similarities between them. As a result, only few panpsychists (e.g. so-called cosmopsychists) acknowledge that their view may imply pantheism. In my paper, I argue that at least some popular versions of panpsychism do lead to pantheism. My...