Dean Cvetkovic - States of consciousness: experimental insights into meditation, waking, sleep and dreams

Dean Cvetkovic 1

(1)

Abstract

The problem of consciousness is mostly regarded as identical to the mind-body problem. According to Chalmers philosophical arguments, the hard problem of consciousness lies in establishing and explaining the link between physical processes and conscious experiences, via psychological processes. A brief history of various theories of consciousness is given and a selection of theories are tested against Zemans three fundamental intuitions and Chalmers controversial zombie argument. The hard problem of consciousness is further described using Levines notion of an explanatory gap between physical matter and conscious experience, through the first and third persons. Various states, contents, levels and processes of consciousness are summarised, including Damasio and Meyers dual perspective for defining consciousness. Tarts three definitions do not entirely describe altered states of consciousness. While the challenge of finding the core function of human and animal sleep remains unknown when tested under the null hypothesis, studies on the neural correlates of consciousness during meditation have revealed neuroplasticity effects. The synchrony of gamma brain oscillations reflecting various styles of meditation or attention, also known as the binding problem, may be related to conscious experiences. This binding problem with gamma brain oscillatory synchronization also arises in relation to sensory awareness or perception, affecting the perception of time and hallucinatory experiences in various disorders of consciousness such as severe schizophrenic and dj vu (in healthy or epileptic) patients. In conjunction with medication treatments, music therapy is often useful in accelerating the healing process in most such disorders of consciousness. It is still unknown how this sensory awareness to music is perceived in medicated patients suffering from disorders of consciousness. More clinically elusive are near death experiences, in which consciousness persists independently of brain function, where there is no scientific basis for such consciousness to exist and no physiological or psychological model that can explain it. Near death experiences can be regarded as a special state of consciousness, which provides further evidence that the consciousness problem may be very close to the mind-body problem that originates in Descartes classic theory of dualism and is transformed into Chalmers contemporary theory of natural dualism. The final section of this chapter offers an overview of all invited chapters.

I know my processes are just electronic circuits, but how does this explain my experience of thought and perception? (Hofstadter , p. 186)