Unchosen transformative experiences—those imposed by external circumstances—threaten agency by disrupting core projects, cares, and goals. Drawing on William James's analysis of conversion and Matthew Ratcliffe's account of grief, the author provides a phenomenological analysis of such experiences as restructuring systems of practical meaning. An agent's experience is structured by practically significant possibilities organized around projects and relationships; transformative experiences shift these systems, altering habitual meanings and the relations among projects. Using the enactivist concept of sense-making, the author examines how an agent rebuilds disrupted meaning structures. In precarious conditions, the agent establishes new patterns of bodily and social interaction, altering practical meanings and reconstituting oneself as an intentional agent.
A necessary first step in collaboration between hypnosis research and meditation research is clarification of key concepts. The authors propose that such clarification is best advanced by neurophenomenological investigations integrating neuroscience methods with phenomenological models based on first-person reports. Focusing on absorption, they argue that previous treatments of hypnosis and meditation as equivalent are incorrect, but they can be fruitfully compared when characteristic features of the states are examined. Using the phenomenological and neurocognitive matrix of mindfulness (PNM), they compare focused attention meditation and open monitoring meditation with hypnosis across its dimensions, interpreting empirical research on hypnosis and shedding light on debates about meta-awareness in hypnosis and the role of suggestion in meditation.