Consciousness
How does the inner space of conscious experience relate to the outer world that exists in between us? This is known as the “Mind-Body Problem”, or the “Hard Problem of Consciousness”.
Many perspectives on this relationship have been offered throughout the ages, including:
Idealism: Everything is consciousness. Matter is merely how consciousness appears from the outside.
Panpsychism: Everything is conscious. Consciousness and matter are equally fundamental, they are two aspects of reality.
Biopsychism: All living systems are conscious. The conscious mind is an emergent, systems-level feature of matter when it constitutes a living system.
Zoopsychism: Animals with nervous systems are conscious. A complex computational property of nervous systems, such the broadcasting of information in the brain, creates consciousness.
Our research explores the plausibility of these individual positions and attempts to contrast and synthesise insights from these different perspectives into an overarching framework that can be used to understand the neural correlates of human consciousness.
Contemplative Development
How do contemplative practices work to relieve suffering?
How and why does phenomenology change throughout contemplative development?
Can novel secular practices, based in first-principles, be created in order to help relieve suffering?
How can psychedelic therapy be guided psychologically to achieve maximal therapeutic benefit?
We theorize about the nature of contemplative development and the associated neurobiological changes and test these theories with the tools of experimental neurobiology. We also develop novel practices for the relief of suffering and validate these practices with psychometric and neurobiological approaches.
Suffering and Selfhood
What are the neurobiological mechanisms of the conscious experiences of suffering?
How does the experience of selfhood relate to suffering?
Why is psychedelic- and meditation-induced ego-dissolution therapeutic?
We use computational, neurobiological, and phenomenological approaches to address these questions.
