The Physiology of Meditation and Mystical States of Consciousness

Consciousness, the essence of human experience, remains largely excluded from mainstream life sciences due to the dominant physicalist-reductionist paradigm, which limits researchers to studying only physical or behavioral variables. Despite philosophical and practical challenges, growing public interest has spurred research into altered states of consciousness (ASCs). This survey focuses on physiological studies of meditation, aiming to draw conclusions from existing research on meditating subjects, relate findings to mystical experience, and explore the connection between physical phenomena and subjective conscious activity.

Study at a glance

Abstract

If the proper study of mankind is man, it is a paradox worth pondering that consciousness, the receptacle of all that is truly human, has not yet found a place in the life sciences. This is not to imply that neuroscientists are uninterested in physiological correlates and mechanisms of sleep and wakefulness, or that psychopharmacologists are not intensively investigating psychoactive drugs, and so forth. Rather, the experimentalist feels compelled to limit himself to considering physical or behavioral variables in order to comply with the dominant physicalistreductionist paradigm of modern science. As far as scientific practice is concerned, consciousness is still regarded, at best, as an epiphenomenon. Similarly, if we had a science of consciousness, biochemical, physiological, and behavioral data might appear to it to be epiphenomena, for we have not even an inkling of how physical phenomena are linked to the subjectively manifested activity of consciousness. There is no denying the very real philosophical and practical difficulties impeding the scientific investigation of psycho-physical interactions. But despite these difficulties and the past neglect of the subject, the current unprecedented public interest in the varieties of conscious experience is reflected in a number of research papers and theoretical analyses attempting to deal with physiological correlates of altered states of consciousness (ASCs). This survey is primarily concerned with one subset of this group: studies directed at physiological events during meditation. The specific questions on which I hope to shed some light are: (1) What conclusions can be drawn from existing physiological studies on meditating subjects? (2) How do these findings and other current concepts relate to mystical experience? (3) What, if