Dissociation refers to a disintegration between psychological elements; common manifestations are embodied in "absorption and imaginative involvement," a propensity for being immersed in a stimulus while oblivious to the environment, and acting without awareness. Trait dissociation was hypothesized to relate to lower EEG signal connectivity, but studies on healthy populations are scarce. The...
This paper aims at juxtaposing the Buddhist notion of enlightenment with the Jungian concept of individuation. It attempts to explore how the dissolving of ego and approaching the subliminal consciousness in the path of self-realization stand parallel to Jung's idea of dismantling one's persona and connecting with the self, respectively. Siddhartha's journey towards enlightenment offers a...
This chapter examines the practices of Buddhist meditation and Raja yoga in New Thought. Leaders of New Thought were first exposed to Buddhism and Vedanta philosophy through the publications of European Orientalists and the Theosophical Society and, later, though personal contacts with Asian Buddhist and Hindu missionaries. In addition to D. T. Suzuki, who helped to spark American interest in...
The paper is divided into four parts. In Part I, I review principle NDE models, important recent research findings and limitations of NDE research I remark on the absence of consensus on an explanatory model of NDEs. Part II begins with an overview of NDE evolutionary thinking up until now. I define an NDE predisposition as a specialized kind of higher cognitive trait and argue that this...
The neuronal connectivity patterns that differentiate consciousness from unconsciousness remain unclear. Previous studies have demonstrated that effective connectivity, as assessed by transcranial magnetic stimulation combined with electroencephalography (TMS-EEG), breaks down during the loss of consciousness. This study investigated changes in EEG connectivity associated with consciousness...
The Turing Machine is the paradigmatic case of computing machines, but there are others such as analogical, connectionist, quantum and diverse forms of unconventional computing, each based on a particular intuition of the phenomenon of computing. This variety can be captured in terms of system levels, re-interpreting and generalizing Newell's hierarchy, which includes the knowledge level at the...
Background Developing and testing methods for reliably assessing states of consciousness in humans is important for both basic research and clinical purposes. Several potential measures, partly grounded in theoretical developments, have been proposed, and some of them seem to reliably distinguish between conscious and unconscious brain states. However, the degrees to which these measures may...
Disturbances in time experience have been argued to play a significant, if not causative role in the clinical presentation of schizophrenia. Phenomenological considerations suggest a fragmented or dis-articulated time experience causing both primary symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions, and self-disorders, as well as an intersubjective desynchronization. We employed content analysis on...
5 “I kind of enjoyed the next few hours till dinner. I was still kind of floating on air” (5: 06) (T29). 6 “I had this awkward weight that I carried around me wherever I went (0: 47) ... Literally I had the sensation of this steal armor that I wore my entire life [that] – chunks of it – were falling off (3: 03)” (T16). 7 “I did immediately following the first session – and in the second and in...
Yoga, meditation, and asceticism have been intimately linked throughout Indian religious history since the early beginnings in the ascetic reformism of India’s “axial age.” Traditional yoga addresses the main concerns of the ascetic reformism and is a practical method to solve the problem of suffering and attain liberation from this world. It primarily refers to the practice of meditation as...