This volume features a collection of essays on consciousness, which has become one of the hot topics at the crossroads between neuroscience, philosophy, and religious studies. Is consciousness something the brain produces? How can we study it? Is there just one type of consciousness or are there different states that can be discriminated? Are so called “higher states of consciousness” that some people report during meditation pointing towards a new understanding of consciousness? Meditation research is a new discipline that shows new inroads into the study of consciousness. If a meditative practice changes brain structure itself this is direct proof of the causal influence of consciousness onto its substrate. If different states of consciousness can be linked with properties and states of the brain this can be used to study consciousness more directly. If the sense of self is modifiable through meditative techniques and this can be objectively shown through neuro-imaging, this has profound implications for our understanding of who we are. Can consciousness, in deep states of meditative absorption, actually access some aspect of reality which we normally don't? Meditation research can potentially foster us with a new access to the phenomenological method in general. This has even been branded with a new catch-phrase: Contemplative Science. It brings together the most modern neuroscientific approach and the most advanced phenomenological methodology of studying the mind from within, through highly skilled self-observation that has gone through many thousand hours of honing the capacity to look carefully, without distraction. This book addresses these issues by bringing together some of the leading researchers and thinkers in the field. The scope of the volume reaches from first person neuroscience to Indian philosophy, from pedagogic applications to epistemological aspects and from compassion meditation to the study of brain activity.

A renowned philosopher of the mind, also known for his groundbreaking work on Buddhism and cognitive science, Evan Thompson combines the latest neuroscience research on sleep, dreaming, and meditation with Indian and Western philosophy of mind, casting new light on the self and its relation to the brain. Thompson shows how the self is a changing process, not a static thing. When we are awake we identify with our body, but if we let our mind wander or daydream, we project a mentally imagined self into the remembered past or anticipated future. As we fall asleep, the impression of being a bounded self distinct from the world dissolves, but the self reappears in the dream state. If we have a lucid dream, we no longer identify only with the self within the dream. Our sense of self now includes our dreaming self, the "I" as dreamer. Finally, as we meditate—either in the waking state or in a lucid dream—we can observe whatever images or thoughts arise and how we tend to identify with them as "me." We can also experience sheer awareness itself, distinct from the changing contents that make up our image of the self. Contemplative traditions say that we can learn to let go of the self, so that when we die we can witness its dissolution with equanimity. Thompson weaves together neuroscience, philosophy, and personal narrative to depict these transformations, adding uncommon depth to life's profound questions. Contemplative experience comes to illuminate scientific findings, and scientific evidence enriches the vast knowledge acquired by contemplatives.

Neuroscience, Consciousness and Spirituality presents a variety of perspectives by leading thinkers on contemporary research into the brain, the mind and the spirit. This volumes aims at combining knowledge from neuroscience with approaches from the experiential perspective of the first person singular in order to arrive at an integrated understanding of consciousness. Individual chapters discuss new areas of research, such as near death studies and neuroscience research into spiritual experiences, and report on significant new theoretical advances. From Harald Walach’s introductory essay, “Neuroscience, Consciousness, Spirituality – Questions, Problems and Potential Solutions,” to the concluding chapter by Robert K. C. Foreman entitled “An Emerging New Model for Consciousness: The Consciousness Field Model,” this book represents a milestone in the progress towards an integrated understanding of spirituality, neuroscience and consciousness. It is the first in a series of books that are dedicated to this topic.

The Cambridge Handbook of Consciousness is the first of its kind in the field, and its appearance marks a unique time in the history of intellectual inquiry on the topic. After decades during which consciousness was considered beyond the scope of legitimate scientific investigation, consciousness re-emerged as a popular focus of research towards the end of the last century, and it has remained so for nearly 20 years. There are now so many different lines of investigation on consciousness that the time has come when the field may finally benefit from a book that pulls them together and, by juxtaposing them, provides a comprehensive survey of this exciting field. An authoritative desk reference, which will also be suitable as an advanced textbook.

This Handbook provides a comprehensive overview and analysis of the state of the field of the philosophy of meditation and engages primarily in the philosophical assessment of the merits of meditation practices. This Handbook unites novel and original scholarship from 28 leading Asian and Western philosophers, scientists, theologians, and other scholars on the philosophical assessment of meditation. It critically assesses the conceptual and empirical validity of meditation, its philosophical implications, its legitimacy as a phenomenological research tool, its potential value as an aid to neuroscience research, its many practical benefits, and, among other considerations, its possibly misleading interpretations, applications, and consequences. Following the introduction by the editor, the Handbook’s chapters are organized in six parts: • Meditation and philosophy • Meditation and epistemology • Meditation and metaphysics • Meditation and values • Meditation and phenomenology • Meditation in Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian traditions A distinctive, timely, and invaluable reference work, it marks the emergence of a new discipline therein, the philosophy of meditation. The book will be of interest to an interdisciplinary audience in the fields of philosophy, meditation, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, theology, and Asian and Western philosophy. It will serve as the textbook in any philosophy course on meditation, and as secondary reading in courses in philosophy of mind, consciousness, selfhood/personhood, metaphysics, or phenomenology, thereby helping to restore philosophy as a way of life.

Super-charge your brain to gain a huge competitive edge in business and in life Future Brain is the busy professional's secret weapon for boosting mastery, efficiency, and productivity to gain that coveted competitive edge — in business and in life. Designed to be implemented at the individual, team, or organisational level, this in-depth, step-by-step framework leverages neuro-scientific principles to help you develop a solid, habit-changing plan for building and maintaining brain fitness and healthy behaviours. Author Dr. Jenny Brockis will help you develop your thought processes and your regular routine to get more done with less effort and time. Based on the idea of neuroplasticity, these daily practices improve focus, creativity, and effectiveness to help you stay relevant, competitive, and way ahead of the pack. You already have a magnificent brain, but you probably take it for granted; we often develop "survival techniques" that force our brain to work with an incompatible "operating system" in an effort to keep up with the ever-increasing velocity of change and information overload. This book helps you beef up your brain awareness so you can take advantage of the built-in features and native capabilities that make the human brain a truly awesome machine. Reduce stress and avoid stress-related illnesses Foster healthy thinking habits to boost efficiency Build your expertise with renewed focus and stamina Drive innovation through productive collaboration A brain that can change, adapt, lead, and collaborate to operate with a high level of flexibility, agility, and creativity is a brain that will serve you well now and into the future. Future Brain turns neuroscience into actionable steps, helping you to train your brain to achieve high-performance in all areas of life.

Information modeling and knowledge bases are important technologies for academic and industrial research that goes beyond the traditional borders of information systems and computer science. The amount and complexity of information to be dealt with grows continually, as do the levels of abstraction and the size of databases. This book presents the proceedings of the 30th International Conference on Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases (EJC2020), due to be held in Hamburg, Germany on 8 and 9 June 2020, but instead held as a virtual conference on the same dates due to the Corona-virus pandemic restrictions. The conference provides a research forum for the exchange of scientific results and experiences, and brings together experts from different areas of computer science and other disciplines with a common interest in information modeling and knowledge bases. The subject touches on many disciplines, with philosophy and logic, cognitive science, knowledge management, linguistics and management science, as well as the emerging fields of data science and machine learning, all being relevant areas. The 23 reviewed, selected, and upgraded contributions included here are the result of presentations, comments, and discussions from the conference, and reflect the themes of the conference sessions: learning and linguistics; systems and processes; data and knowledge representation; models and interfaces; formalizations and reasoning; models and modeling; machine learning; models and programming; environment and predictions; modeling emotion; and social networks. The book provides an overview of current research and applications, and will be of interest to all those working in the field.