Yogic Perception, Meditation and Altered States of Consciousness

This collection of seventeen papers examines meditation and yogic perception from an interdisciplinary perspective, drawing on South Asian, Buddhist, and Tibetan studies, religious studies, philosophy, medieval European history, anthropology, and psychology. The contributions address consciousness, the mind-body relationship, and health. Unlike recent studies that center on natural sciences like quantum mechanics and neurophysiology, this volume uses methods from the social sciences and humanities to understand meditative traditions, particularly those in Buddhism and Hinduism.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The volume presents seventeen papers by different scholars that examine, from an interdisciplinary perspective, questions concerning meditation and yogic perception. The contributions focus on various aspects, such as the nature of consciousness, the relation of body and mind, and health, and bind together the perspectives and approaches of disciplines such as South Asian, Buddhist and Tibetan studies, religious studies, philosophy and the history of philosophy, medieval European history, anthropology and psychology. In contrast to recent interdisciplinary studies on meditation that take the natural sciences as their focal point (notably, quantum mechanics and neurophysiology), this volume uses methods established in the social sciences and humanities as tools for understanding meditative traditions, especially those found in Buddhism and Hinduism.