Evan Thompson
Neurophenomenology combines first-person accounts of experience with third-person neuroscientific data to study contemplative practices. The chapter explains how this approach can deepen understanding of meditative states and their effects on consciousness, and discusses its implications for dialogues between science and religion. By integrating subjective reports with brain measurements, neurophenomenology offers a rigorous method for exploring the nature of mind and experience that bridges empirical science and contemplative traditions.
Digital Humanities Social Science and Cultural Preservation • July 11, 2026 • Yasunari Miyagi, Yoko Tateishi, Moe Yorozu et al.
An AI system theory integrates the Buddhist vijñapti-mātratā philosophy with the free energy principle. The free energy principle holds that self-organized systems minimize informational free energy through active inference to reduce prediction error, explaining cognition and brain function. Vijñapti-mātratā describes consciousness as a multilayered structure of manifestation and information storage, which aligns with AI systems that compute and store information. Combining these frameworks could yield AI that not only processes knowledge but also generates actions with human-like emotional expressions.
Voprosy filosofii • July 10, 2026 • Pavel G. Nosachev
The article reviews the theoretical foundations of New Religious Movements (NRMs), New Age studies, and Western Esotericism, highlighting that their advancement is hindered by contradictions in defining each field. In NRM studies, the category of "newness" has lost descriptive precision; New Age phenomena suffer from uncertain boundaries and a lack of unified interpretive principles; and Western Esotericism encompasses mutually exclusive definitions. As a productive alternative, the author proposes Charles Taylor's concept of secularization from *A Secular Age* (2007), which frames secularization not as religious decline but as a shift in belief conditions within the "immanent frame." Taylor's model helps overcome fragmentation by situating new religious phenomena within the broader transformation of Western spiritual life.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) • July 10, 2026 • David (daoud) Matta
Unstructured time is not empty or wasted but a systematically undervalued condition for creativity and insight. In education, work, and leadership, time is increasingly optimized, yet understanding often emerges through periods of drift: walking, waiting, daydreaming, or meditating. Drift is defined as receptive, non-instrumental attention where cognition remains active without narrow goals, distinct from laziness or distraction. Drawing on research in creative incubation, mind-wandering, phenomenology, and contemplative science, three species of drift—cognitive, embodied, and contemplative—share a structure suspending immediate control while preserving attentional availability. The argument extends to education, where over-managed time may undermine original thinking, and to organizations, where reflective slack functions as strategic capacity.
Religions • July 9, 2026 • Orchid-stone Chang Azanlansh
Mindfulness is reconceptualized as a multilayered developmental architecture rather than a set of techniques or cognitive skills, integrating Daoist internal alchemy and Buddhist contemplative theory through the Dialectical Mandala Model of Mindfulness (DMMM). The model incorporates the psycho-physical dynamics of qi, shen (spirit), hun (cloud-soul), and po (white-soul), and is grounded in the catuṣkoṭi framework to reconstruct dialectical logic underlying contemplative traditions. It proposes four interrelated cycles, each with four phases, where faith, understanding, practice, and realization serve as recurrent structural principles. The DMMM contributes to theory-building in cross-cultural and indigenous psychology by offering a systematic account of how non-discursive states are structured by deeper dialectical logic.
Frontiers in Psychology • July 7, 2026 • Sonu Sharma, Pradeep Kumar, Vishva Chaudhary et al.
This conceptual paper compares Indian philosophical traditions—Advaita Vedanta, Buddhism, and the teachings of J. Krishnamurti—with contemporary psychology, which typically aims to build a cohesive self for wellbeing. These traditions critique the idea of a fixed self-identity. The paper relates these comparisons to contemplative neuroscience, focusing on the default mode network, self-referential processing, and meditation-related changes in self-experience. It proposes a spectrum model: self-referential processing as an ordinary mode, meta-awareness as a trainable capacity, and non-self experience as a transformed outcome. The framework suggests wellbeing may involve flexible regulation of self-identification rather than simple self-enhancement. Implications for research, clinical practice, and cultural interpretation are discussed.
PsyArXiv Preprints • July 6, 2026
Advanced meditation can cause wide-ranging psychological adverse effects, including cognitive and attentional disruptions, mood disturbance, anxiety, fear, adverse impacts on relationships and life trajectory, clinically significant psychiatric symptoms, trauma activation, and existential instability. These experiences depend on context and appraisal. Seven themes emerged from interviews with 28 advanced meditators: negative cognitive disruptions; negative affect; adverse life and relationship impacts; negative transformative experiences including clinical symptoms; foundational instability from insights; ambiguous context-dependent experiences; and resolution strategies like meditation techniques, teacher guidance, and social support. The findings indicate that meditative development, while also transformative, can produce significant challenges that require dedicated clinical frameworks and support structures.
Transactions on Social Science Education and Humanities Research • July 2, 2026 • Daniel Zhu
Mystical experiences, long considered ineffable by scholars like William James, are frequently and richly articulated on social media. Analyzing posts from five religion-focused subreddits using computational and qualitative methods, the work shows that users share detailed narratives through metaphor and emotion. The framing of these experiences varies by community: Buddhist subreddits emphasize meditative mechanics, Christian subreddits rely on scriptural language, and atheist subreddits focus on epistemology. The findings suggest that ineffability may stem from social constraints rather than an inherent quality of the experience, as digital anonymity and community-specific scripts enable detailed, socially negotiated expression.
International Journal of Global Mental Health Innovation Policy Action Culture & Transformation • July 2, 2026 • Dawa Dolma, Tenzin Yangdon
Contemplating impermanence, a core Buddhist concept, helps Tibetan Buddhist monastics develop a positive attitude toward death. Nine Geshe-degree monks were interviewed, and four themes emerged: acceptance of death, purposeful living through impermanence, spiritual readiness for death, and emotional resilience through impermanence. Regular reflection on impermanence was reported to eliminate fear and foster acceptance of mortality, serving as both a spiritual principle and a psychological tool for coping with loss, reducing attachment, and building emotional resilience.
Journal of Global Catholicism • July 1, 2026 • S Mark Heim
Engaging with Buddhist meditative practices of emptiness can deepen a Christian understanding of what it means to be a creature. Three forms of Buddhist introspection are examined: analytical awareness of consciousness as empty of essences, real-time application of antidotes to reified projections, and nondual awareness of emptiness without a subject (nirvanic realization). The first form reveals a shared recognition that neither creatures (in Christianity) nor selves (in Buddhism) have essential being. The second shows a convergence between the Christian sinful creature and the Buddhist falsely projected self, offering practical therapeutic emptiness. The third suggests a resonance between Buddhist nondual emptiness and Christian apophatic or kenotic openness to divine indwelling, though not fully explored.