scholarly journals The Path to Contentless Experience in Meditation: An Evidence Synthesis Based on Expert Texts

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toby Woods ◽  
Jennifer Windt ◽  
Olivia Carter
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Research ◽  
Systematic Approach ◽  
Evidence Synthesis ◽  
Mental Content ◽  
Mind Wandering ◽  
Pure Consciousness ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Goal State ◽  
Meditation Technique ◽  
Key Dimensions

In contentless experience (sometimes termed pure consciousness) there is an absence of mental content such as thoughts, perceptions, and mental images. The path to contentless experience in meditation can be taken to comprise the meditation technique, and the experiences (“interim-states”) on the way to the contentless “goal-state/s”. Shamatha, Transcendental, and Stillness Meditation are each said to access contentless experience, but the path to that experience in each practice is not yet well understood from a scientific perspective. We have employed evidence synthesis to select and review 135 expert texts from those traditions. In this paper we describe the techniques and interim-states based on the expert texts and compare them across the practices on key dimensions. Superficially, Shamatha and Transcendental Meditation appear very different to Stillness Meditation in that they require bringing awareness to a meditation object. The more detailed and systematic approach taken in this paper indicates that posturally Shamatha is closer to Stillness Meditation, and that on several other dimensions Shamatha is quite different to both other practices. In particular, Shamatha involves greater measures to cultivate attentional stability and vividness on an object, greater focusing, less tolerance of mind-wandering, more monitoring, and more deliberate doing/control. Achieving contentless experience in Shamatha is much slower, more difficult, and less frequent. The findings have important implications for consciousness, neuroscientific, and clinical research and practice.

scholarly journals Evidence Synthesis Indicates Contentless Experiences in Meditation are Neither Truly Contentless Nor Identical

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toby Woods ◽  
Jennifer Windt ◽  
Olivia Carter
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Studies ◽  
Evidence Synthesis ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Mental Content ◽  
Academic Work ◽  
Mental Images ◽  
Pure Consciousness ◽  
Academic Literature

Contentless experience involves an absence of mental content such as thoughts, perceptions, and mental images. In academic work it has been traditionally treated as including states like those aimed for in Shamatha, Transcendental, and Stillness Meditation. We have used evidence synthesis to select and review 135 expert texts from within the three traditions. In this paper we identify the features of contentless experience referred to in the expert texts and determine whether the experiences are the same or different across the practices with respect to each feature. We identify 65 features reported or implied in one or more practices, with most being reported or implied in all three. While there are broad similarities in the experiences across the traditions, we find that there are differences with respect to four features and possibly many others. The main difference identified is that Shamatha involves substantially greater attentional stability and vividness. Another key finding is that numerous forms of content are present in the experiences, including wakefulness, naturalness, calm, bliss/joy, and freedom. The findings indicate that meditation experiences described as contentless in the academic literature can in fact involve considerable variation, and that in many and perhaps most cases these experiences are not truly contentless. This challenges traditional understandings in academic research that in these so-called contentless experiences all content is absent, and that the experiences are therefore an identical state of pure consciousness or consciousness itself. Implications for neuroscientific and clinical studies and for basic understandings of the practices are discussed.

Mind wandering as data augmentation: How mental travel supports abstraction

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Myrthe Faber
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Data Augmentation ◽  
Mental Content ◽  
Mind Wandering ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Important Addition

Abstract Gilead et al. state that abstraction supports mental travel, and that mental travel critically relies on abstraction. I propose an important addition to this theoretical framework, namely that mental travel might also support abstraction. Specifically, I argue that spontaneous mental travel (mind wandering), much like data augmentation in machine learning, provides variability in mental content and context necessary for abstraction.

scholarly journals Narratives of the mystical among users of psychedelics

2021 ◽  
pp. 000169932098005
Author(s):  
Willy Pedersen ◽  
Heith Copes ◽  
Liridona Gashi
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Research ◽  
Drug Users ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Culturally Specific ◽  
Political Influences ◽  
Perceived Need ◽  
Psychedelic Drug ◽  
Mystical Experiences ◽  
Key Dimensions ◽  
Depth Interviews

We are now witnessing a radical revival in clinical research on the use of psychedelics (e.g. LSD and psilocybin), where ‘mystical’ experiences are at the centre. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 50 psychedelic drug users, we document how they draw on archetypical mystical narratives, comprising three key dimensions: (1) the transcendence of time and space; (2) deep euphoria; and (3) the perception of being at one with ‘a larger whole’. We suggest that the evolving new cultures around the use of psychedelics contain a variety of narratives, with clear roots in traditional mystical thinking. At the same time, these narratives reflect current cultural and political influences, including the narratives of oneness with plants and animals and our perceived need to protect nature. We conclude that the way people experience mystical occasions due to psychedelic use have archetypical patterns, but culturally specific storylines.

scholarly journals Reflections on the TEAM Trial: Why Clinical Care and Research Should be Reconciled

2011 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Raymond
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Research ◽  
Intracranial Aneurysms ◽  
Potential Benefit ◽  
Clinical Care ◽  
Major Change ◽  
Management Team ◽  
Endovascular Management ◽  
Public Agencies ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Unruptured Intracranial Aneurysms

The current clinical and research environment is one that renders any true enquiry into the value of commonly performed surgical acts practically impossible. Drawing from the recent failure of Trial on Endovascular Aneurysm Management (TEAM), a trial on the endovascular management of unruptured intracranial aneurysms, I attempt to identify some principles that sustain the current ways of doing clinical research that have paradoxically become major obstacles to trials that aim to assess the potential benefit or harm due to interventions as currently practiced. Clinical research and practice must coalesce into “clinical care trials” if we are to provide patients with optimal, prudent care in the context of uncertainty. This may require a major change in the mentalities of clinicians, scientists, and patients alike, and the adoption of novel strategies for public agencies to support the integration of clinical research and care.

scholarly journals Supervised transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) at home: A guide for clinical research and practice

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 686-693 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leigh E. Charvet ◽  
Michael T. Shaw ◽  
Marom Bikson ◽  
Adam J. Woods ◽  
Helena Knotkova
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Research ◽  
Direct Current ◽  
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Direct Current Stimulation ◽  
At Home

Visions and Directions

2007 ◽  
pp. 297-312
Author(s):  
Meliha Handzic
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Systematic Approach ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Complete Picture ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Management Concepts ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Theoretical Foundations

The book starts with an introduction to theoretical foundations of knowledge management concepts, proceeds with a series of empirical studies on the role of technology in knowledge management, followed by studies of socially orientated knowledge management solutions. The book ends with the discussion of major issues and challenges for knowledge management research and practice. With its integrated and systematic approach, the book makes a small but important step in helping individuals and organisations to get an objective and complete picture of the role of social and technical initiatives in knowledge management based on formal and sound empirical research. More importantly, the book shows that the impact of various initiatives is highly contingent upon the context in which the knowledge is generated, transferred, and used. This may help managers to choose more suitable solutions to turn their intangible assets into tangible outcomes.

Incentives and Rewards

2007 ◽  
pp. 233-244
Author(s):  
Meliha Handzic
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Systematic Approach ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Complete Picture ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Management Concepts ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Theoretical Foundations

The book starts with an introduction to theoretical foundations of knowledge management concepts, proceeds with a series of empirical studies on the role of technology in knowledge management, followed by studies of socially orientated knowledge management solutions. The book ends with the discussion of major issues and challenges for knowledge management research and practice. With its integrated and systematic approach, the book makes a small but important step in helping individuals and organisations to get an objective and complete picture of the role of social and technical initiatives in knowledge management based on formal and sound empirical research. More importantly, the book shows that the impact of various initiatives is highly contingent upon the context in which the knowledge is generated, transferred, and used. This may help managers to choose more suitable solutions to turn their intangible assets into tangible outcomes.

Mode of Socialisation

2007 ◽  
pp. 208-220
Author(s):  
Meliha Handzic
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Systematic Approach ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Complete Picture ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Management Concepts ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Theoretical Foundations

The book starts with an introduction to theoretical foundations of knowledge management concepts, proceeds with a series of empirical studies on the role of technology in knowledge management, followed by studies of socially orientated knowledge management solutions. The book ends with the discussion of major issues and challenges for knowledge management research and practice. With its integrated and systematic approach, the book makes a small but important step in helping individuals and organisations to get an objective and complete picture of the role of social and technical initiatives in knowledge management based on formal and sound empirical research. More importantly, the book shows that the impact of various initiatives is highly contingent upon the context in which the knowledge is generated, transferred, and used. This may help managers to choose more suitable solutions to turn their intangible assets into tangible outcomes.

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