How To 'Measure' A Transcendental Experience
Neuro-theology attempts to explain religious experience, transcendental states, and intangibles like neuroscientific terms. It uses need imaging modalities like PET MRI and other technological actions to study correlations of phenomena with subjective emcees of spirituality and sees to explain these phenomena. Experience ever be objectively ended or measured? Could ence be reduced to neuro-chemistry en measured in micro electron potentials? Perience is essentially a 'qualia Menon. Feelings, experiences and ns vary widely in different people ed to similar sensory inputs. The fa lush green meadow for example city a unique sensation that's ve for each individual. Qualia are entities’ comprised of objective date tagged with a subjective affective component. This affective component draws inputs from the conscious as well as subconscious realms. Whether qualia actually exist is hotly debated and that is largely because they are considered as being an obvious refutation of physicalism. Philosophers often use the term 'qualia' (singular: 'quale') to refer to the introspective, phenomenal aspects of our mental constructs. Qualia are impacted bythe intrinsic neural processing of each subject, and how the individual relates to the physical world. Qualia are in many ways central to a proper understanding of the nature of consciousness, the epicentre of the Cartesian mind-matter duality. Can scientific endeavour ever objectively explain and explore the subjective domain of qualia? The 'Explanatory Gap ‘was a term introduced by philosopher Joseph Levine who addressed the puzzling inability of physiological theories to account for psychological phenomena. Levine's main focus was on consciousness, or 'qualia', our subjective sensations of the world. But the explanatory gap could also refer to mental functions such as perception, memory, reasoning and emotion-and to human behaviour. Imaging modalities could help identify the anatomical locus of a sensory or perhaps even a transcendental experience. It would however have limitations in explaining the unique emotional fingerprint, the subjective perceptive variation generated by the same stimulus in different subjects. Spiritual, transcendental experiences are entirely experiential, and in the realm of qualia. Spiritual masters endeavour to explain these states metaphorically. Experience of an incredible expansive consciousness is made possible when the subject effaces himself totally eliminating subjectivity and the subject-object dichotomy. An experience that is experienced only in the absence of the entity that experience. What happens to the subject during this experience? 'Who' experiences satisfaction after prolonged deep sleep when all the while the Self has lapsed beneath the cognitive horizon? Can consciousness exist fundamentally even in the absence of an objective cognising entity? Is the subject created in consciousness by consciousness rather than consciousness being an epiphenomenon of the subject? Is qualia an objective conscious experience by a subject which is also a construct of consciousness? Is qualia experiencing itself by consciously becoming the subject and object simultaneously? A transcendental state will then be an integration of the experience, experiencer and experiencing. An experience that is experienced in the absence of an experiencer. (The author is a consultant Neurosurgeon)
DISCLAIMER:
The views expressed in the Article above are Deepak M Ranade and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it.
Courtesy: Deepak M Ranade and Speaking Tree ,Times of India
How To 'Measure' A Transcendental Experience
Neuro-theology attempts to explain religious experience, transcendental states, and intangibles like neuroscientific terms. It uses need imaging modalities like PET MRI and other technological actions to study correlations of phenomena with subjective emcees of spirituality and sees to explain these phenomena. Experience ever be objectively ended or measured? Could ence be reduced to neuro-chemistry en measured in micro electron potentials? Perience is essentially a 'qualia Menon. Feelings, experiences and ns vary widely in different people ed to similar sensory inputs. The fa lush green meadow for example city a unique sensation that's ve for each individual. Qualia are entities’ comprised of objective date tagged with a subjective affective component. This affective component draws inputs from the conscious as well as subconscious realms. Whether qualia actually exist is hotly debated and that is largely because they are considered as being an obvious refutation of physicalism. Philosophers often use the term 'qualia' (singular: 'quale') to refer to the introspective, phenomenal aspects of our mental constructs. Qualia are impacted bythe intrinsic neural processing of each subject, and how the individual relates to the physical world. Qualia are in many ways central to a proper understanding of the nature of consciousness, the epicentre of the Cartesian mind-matter duality. Can scientific endeavour ever objectively explain and explore the subjective domain of qualia? The 'Explanatory Gap ‘was a term introduced by philosopher Joseph Levine who addressed the puzzling inability of physiological theories to account for psychological phenomena. Levine's main focus was on consciousness, or 'qualia', our subjective sensations of the world. But the explanatory gap could also refer to mental functions such as perception, memory, reasoning and emotion-and to human behaviour. Imaging modalities could help identify the anatomical locus of a sensory or perhaps even a transcendental experience. It would however have limitations in explaining the unique emotional fingerprint, the subjective perceptive variation generated by the same stimulus in different subjects. Spiritual, transcendental experiences are entirely experiential, and in the realm of qualia. Spiritual masters endeavour to explain these states metaphorically. Experience of an incredible expansive consciousness is made possible when the subject effaces himself totally eliminating subjectivity and the subject-object dichotomy. An experience that is experienced only in the absence of the entity that experience. What happens to the subject during this experience? 'Who' experiences satisfaction after prolonged deep sleep when all the while the Self has lapsed beneath the cognitive horizon? Can consciousness exist fundamentally even in the absence of an objective cognising entity? Is the subject created in consciousness by consciousness rather than consciousness being an epiphenomenon of the subject? Is qualia an objective conscious experience by a subject which is also a construct of consciousness? Is qualia experiencing itself by consciously becoming the subject and object simultaneously? A transcendental state will then be an integration of the experience, experiencer and experiencing. An experience that is experienced in the absence of an experiencer. (The author is a consultant Neurosurgeon)
DISCLAIMER:
The views expressed in the Article above are Deepak M Ranade and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it.
Courtesy: Deepak M Ranade and Speaking Tree ,Times of India