Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
July 14, 2026
Tenzin Trepp
Dissociative substances like ketamine and PCP disrupt the brain's ability to maintain a coherent world-model—the high-level integration that normally binds perception, selfhood, and meaning—rather than merely distorting conscious content. This paper proposes a Cognitive Constructivist framework that classifies altered states by their effects on model dynamics: tightening (anxiety), loosening (psychedelics), and destabilization (dissociatives). Dissociatives weaken long-range neural integration and thalamocortical coordination while preserving basic sensory awareness, leading to experiences of depersonalization and loss of meaning. The authors argue that dissociation superficially resembles mystical pure consciousness but lacks the meta-awareness and integration of genuine contemplative states. Clinically, dissociative interventions like ketamine for depression may work by resetting rigid pathological models, requiring deliberate therapeutic reconstruction of meaning afterward.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
July 10, 2026
Tenzin Trepp
A distinctive form of intersubjective experience called shared minimal-dual awareness (MDA) or the "intercorporeal present" can be jointly enacted by two embodied persons. In this mode, each person's habitual self-narrative falls silent while a mutual salience-space forms between them, without erasing their separateness. This is not mere empathy or coordination but a qualitatively different we-consciousness grounded in ongoing embodied coupling. The authors propose a three-layer taxonomy of we-consciousness: coordination-we, affective-we, and presence-we. They introduce the concept of "resonant alterity" where the other's full alterity is alive yet self-centered narrative does not dominate. The paper sketches a neurophenomenological model predicting that shared MDA correlates with reduced default-mode activity and enhanced inter-brain synchrony in attention and salience networks, and outlines an experimental program using dual-EEG/fNIRS hyperscanning.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 26, 2026
Tenzin Trepp
When the sense of a continuous self or life story fades, ethical obligations must be grounded differently. This paper proposes that moral authority arises from direct, non-evasive contact with whatever exists in the present moment—especially others' suffering and vulnerability. The authors develop a model called 'Ephemeral Virtue,' a present-responsive virtue ethics that stands apart from consequentialism and deontology. They argue that mainstream moral theories implicitly depend on a narrative self and explore how commitments, blame, and justice can be reinterpreted without that narrative. The framework connects to moral psychology and neuroeconomics, proposing testable hypotheses: mindfulness-like states may reduce Default Mode Network activity and increase prosocial behavior in economic games.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
April 17, 2026
Tenzin Trepp
Experiences of 'pure' or non-dual awareness, often celebrated as glimpses of ultimate reality, are better understood as contingent phenomena shaped by trained skills and bodily-attentional dynamics rather than as ineffable metaphysical revelations. Drawing on epistemology, phenomenology, cognitive neuroscience, and contemplative studies, the paper argues these introspective insights constitute procedural knowledge—accessible only through practiced psychophysiological methods—not propositional truths. The authors replace absolutist terms like 'non-dual' with pragmatic labels such as Bare Existence and Bare Awareness, emphasizing grounded, naturalistic origins. They outline how such experiences emerge from specific attentional and bodily conditions, why they resist conventional explanation, and how first-person methods can integrate with third-person neuroscience. The framework demystifies profound contemplative states, making them legitimate for scientific and philosophical inquiry without invoking mysticism.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
April 11, 2026
Tenzin Trepp
A state of consciousness beyond the ordinary subject–object framework can be understood as a self-organizing cognitive event driven by specific introspective parameters, not as an ontological revelation. The authors propose a model (I × F × D ≥ T) where Intensity of attentional engagement, Cycle Frequency of introspective process, and total Duration of practice must reach a threshold for stable reduction of the subject–object structure (groundless awareness) to become likely. Drawing on phenomenology, analytic philosophy, contemplative science, and cognitive neuroscience, the paper reviews empirical meditation research on default-mode network suppression and EEG complexity. It contrasts this process-based, functional approach with traditional mystical metaphysics and explores implications for theories of selfhood and meditation pedagogy.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
March 31, 2026
Tenzin Trepp
Across several philosophical and spiritual traditions—Neoplatonism, Advaita Vedānta, Mahāyāna Buddhism, Taoism, and Kabbalah—reflective inquiry that exhausts the subject–object structure of experience converges on a concept of bare existence, bare presence, or bare awareness at the threshold of the sayable. These traditions display striking structural convergences despite divergent doctrinal content, articulating a minimal-dual consciousness as an introspective limit-concept. The analysis employs phenomenological, metaphysical, and psychological approaches, distinguishing convergent structural insights from divergent metaphysical commitments. The conclusion advocates a pluralistic approach that honors both the shared boundary-experience and the irreducible particularity of each tradition's insights, offering an open cartography of the "unsayable."