The Neurophilosophy of Awakening: The Witnessing-Space as an Operative Bridge to Resolving the Mind-Body Problem

Summary

Awakening is framed as a process of recognizing reality's structure rather than a final state, marking a transition to meta-awareness. This involves moving from fragmented patterns to an integrated perspective within the 'Witnessing-Space,' which connects philosophy, brain dynamics, and spiritual self-realization. The study suggests that understanding awakening can help address the mind-body problem by revealing how experiences appear phenomenally.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This contribution proposes an ontological interpretation of the "neurophilosophy of awakening" through the lens of enactive inference. Here, awakening is conceptualized not as an elusive, irreversible endgame found in classical Asian traditions, but as a process-oriented recognition of reality's fundamental structure. It marks the spiritual moment when consciousness becomes aware of itself—a transition into meta-awareness. Within the framework of processual perspectivism, the "Witnessing-Space" emerges as the central, metastable configuration of an enactive inference system. We describe awakening as a radical reorganization of this space: a transition from fragmented, affectively dysregulated patterns to an integrated perspective where the system discerns its own generative architecture. The Witnessing-Space thus serves as an operative hinge between process-ontological philosophy, empirical brain dynamics, and the existential dimensions of spiritual self-realization. Ultimately, we argue that the study of awakening provides a heuristic key to resolving the classical mind-body problem by exposing the generative mechanisms of phenomenal appearance.

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