Maharishi Vedic Science Addresses the Hard Problem of Consciousness

Transcription

1 Travis et al. THE HARD PROBLEM OF CONSCIOUSNESS 123 Maharishi Vedic Science Addresses the Hard Problem of Consciousness Frederick Travis Kelly Munly Theresa Olson John Sorflaten Maharishi University of Management This paper considers the impact of deep experiences during practice of the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique on the so-called hard problem of consciousness: Why perceptual and cognitive functions are accompanied by (inner) conscious experience. TM practice appears to isolate self-awareness from the processes and content of experience. This experience of self-awareness, called Transcendental Consciousness, is subjectively characterized by the absence of the framework and content that define waking experiences. Physiologically, it is distinguished by breath quiescence, autonomic orienting, and increases in the frequency of peak EEG power. When self-awareness is combined with perceptual and cognitive processes, through the agency of attention, conscious experience may result. Cortical circuits that may underlie inner self-awareness and the content of experience are discussed. Chalmers (1995) has separated research on the concept of consciousness into two categories research that addresses easy or hard problems. Research into the easy problems of consciousness investigates reportable third-person facts about discrimination, categorization, and reaction to environmental stimuli. By explaining cognitive abilities and functions, this research can explain the performance of cognitive functions. But this research does not address the hard problem of consciousness explaining subjective first-person facts about the Author s Info: Frederick Travis. Maharishi Vedic Science Department, Maharishi University of Management, 1000 North 4th Street, Fairfield, IA 52557; x3319; ftravis@mum.edu. Transcendental Meditation, TM, and Maharishi Vedic Science are registered or common law trademarks licensed to Maharishi Vedic Education Development Corporation and used under sublicense or with permission. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 2003, Select Press, Novato, CA, 415/

2 124 MAHARISHI VEDIC SCIENCE AND ITS APPLICATIONS nature of experience (Nagel, 1974; Velmans, 1997). The hard problem can be phrased: Why are some perceptions, cognitions, and discriminations accompanied by conscious awareness, i.e. why they can be reported (Chalmers, 1996)? The easy problems are in principle addressable within current cognitive and neuroscience research paradigms. They include investigation of (a) the ability to discriminate, categorize, and react to environmental stimuli, (b) the integration of information by a cognitive system, (c) the reportability of mental states, (d) the ability of a system to access its own internal states, (e) the deliberate control of behavior, (f) the mechanics of divided, sustained, and selective attention, and (g) the difference between wakefulness and sleep. The hard problems are difficult because they persist even after all processes and functions have been explained. For instance, in the field of neurobiology, Crick and Koch (1990) theorized that coherent EEG in a band centered around 40 Hz serves to bind sensations into perceptions. Yet, why do these cortical oscillations give rise to consciousness experience? Chalmers (1995) comments: the question of why binding and storage should themselves be accompanied by experience is never addressed. If we do not know why binding and storage should give rise to experience, telling a story about the oscillations cannot help us. In the field of psychology, Baars (1997) proposed a global workspace model of consciousness. In this model, consciousness serves the central function of broadcasting simultaneously to many specialized non-conscious processors. However, this is a theory of cognitive accessibility, which explains how information is widely accessible within a system, as well as a theory of informational integration and reportability. The theory shows promise as a theory of awareness, the functional correlate of conscious experience, but it does not offer an explanation for the hard problem of consciousness. The essence of the hard problem is: What is the nature of inner experience? This can not be investigated in the same way that objects in the world or observable behavior are investigated. Before inner experiences can be investigated, they need to be operationalized reduced to performance on test instruments. For instance, self-actualization is never studied. Rather, scores on the Personal Orientation Inventory (Shostrum, 1964) are measured and compared. The objective research tradition of the West has yielded a highly developed understanding of matter. It has penetrated to the nonmaterial quantum mechanical basis of matter and its interactions (Hawking, Page,

3 Travis et al. THE HARD PROBLEM OF CONSCIOUSNESS 125 & Pope, 1980). Yet our Western scientific tradition is still in its infancy in researching inner subjectivity. It still asks superficial questions about cortical and cognitive mechanisms of experience rather than probing deep into the nature of consciousness underlying cortical and cognitive processing. The subjective traditions of knowledge of the East (e.g. the Vedic, the Buddhist, and the Taoist traditions) have developed systematic meditation techniques to investigate inner experiences. In summarizing these meditation traditions, Shear (1996) observed that they differ in points of philosophy and in meditation practices. However, they share a similar world view, namely that surface phenomenal experiences cover a silent ground of self-awareness that can be directly experienced through meditation techniques. A range of consciousness from discrete, ever-changing contents in consciousness to an inner value of self-awareness has also been discussed by some Western thinkers. Most notably, William James in Psychology, the Briefer Course distinguished between the me and the I. According to James (1962, pg. 189): Whatever I may be thinking of, I am always at the same time more or less aware of myself, of my personal existence. At the same time it is I who am aware: so that the total self of me, being as it were duplex, partly known and partly knower, partly object and partly subject, must have two aspects discriminated in it, of which for shortness we may call one the Me and the other the I...the self as known or the me [is] the empirical ego...the self as knower, or the I [is] the pure ego. In this context, research into the hard problems may probe the I...that which at any given moment is consciousness, and research into the easy problems may probe the me...one of the things that I am conscious of. Can James s I be isolated from the me, and so be investigated? Searle (1992) argues that first-person observation cannot occur one cannot observe one s own experience, because this experience of observing is the experience that is to be observed. In other words, one cannot have two experiences at once that of experiencing and that of observing the experience. Searle (pg. 97) reasoned: Any introspection I have of my own conscious state is itself that conscious state. If the I can be isolated during meditation practice, then investigating the phenomenological and physiological correlates of deep meditation experiences could offer insights into the hard problem. Many researchers have suggested this direction for research. Varela (1996) recommended investigating the structure of human experience. Chalmers

4 126 MAHARISHI VEDIC SCIENCE AND ITS APPLICATIONS (1995, p. 205) observed: When we think and perceive, there is a whir of information processing, but there is also a subjective aspect a reasonable strategy is to isolate this substrate of experience. Shear (1996) observed that only by uncovering the foundational knowledge of matter and consciousness can we fathom the relationships between them. This paper reviews phenomenological and physiological correlates of the deepest state gained during practice of a specific meditation technique, and then considers the impact of this state on the hard problem of consciousness. We chose to investigate experiences during the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique, a technique with its roots in the Vedic tradition of India (Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, 1969). We decided to explore the TM technique for four reasons. (a) There are a large number of individuals practicing the TM technique (over 1,500) living within an hour of the University. They range in age from 10 years to over 80 years of age, with a few months to over three decades of TM experience. (b) TM practice is taught in a standardized way so that all subjects should follow similar procedures during their TM practice. (d) There is a substantial body of psychological and physiological research on TM practice to guide research. (d) The physiology of TM practice is significantly different from eyes-closed rest as reported in a random assignment within-subject study (Travis & Wallace, 1999). In addition, all the authors practice the Transcendental Meditation technique and therefore are familiar with the range of possible experiences during the practice. DESCRIPTION OF THE TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION TECHNIQUE During practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique, attention systematically experiences quieter, more subtler levels of the thinking process, and arrives at the source of thought, in which the experiencer is left by himself without an object of experience, and without the process of experiencing (Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, 1963). This state is called Transcendental Consciousness. The content of Transcendental Consciousness is pure self-awareness the self experiences the self through the self. In this state, the I has become both the subject and object of experience. The three distinct elements of ordinary waking experience (knower, known, and the process of knowing) have become one. Maharishi (1963) explains: When we have transcended the field of the experience of the subtlest object, the experiencer is left by himself without an experience, without an object of experience, and without the process of experiencing. When the subject is left without an object of

5 Travis et al. THE HARD PROBLEM OF CONSCIOUSNESS 127 experience, having transcended the subtlest state of the object, the experiencer steps out of the process of experiencing and arrives at the state of Being. The mind is then found in the state of Being which is out of the relative. (p. 46) If these characteristic elements of experience (the knower, known, and process) can be separated and investigated individually, then conscious experience, which is the unity of these three may be better understood. Specifically, the nature of the knower or the I may be isolated from the known and the processes of knowing during TM practice, and so investigated. PHENOMENOLOGICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL PATTERNS OF TRANSCENDENTAL CONSCIOUSNESS Content Analyses of Transcendental Consciousness Experiences Travis and Pearson (2000) reported a content analysis of Transcendental Consciousness experiences. Fifty-two participants were asked to describe the fine details of their deepest experiences during practice of the TM technique. The participants were asked to use their own words, just as if they were describing the experience of eating a strawberry its sweetness, juiciness, etc. The researchers emphasized that they were interested in what the participants experienced; in how it felt to them, and that they were not interested in other people s descriptions of these experience. The descriptions were analyzed using the guidelines for phenomenological analysis proposed by Hycner (1985). This procedure begins with reading all descriptions many times to get a sense of the whole. Next, units of meaning words or phrases that express a unique and coherent idea are bracketed out. After eliminating redundant units, the remaining units are clustered by explicit and implicit shared meanings, and general themes identified. The final step is to reread the descriptions and tally the occurrence of the themes. This yields the number of participants who included each theme in their descriptions, expressed as a percentage of total participants. Three major themes emerged from the content analysis of these participants descriptions of their Transcendental Consciousness experiences. They were (a) the absence of space, time, or body-sense, (b) peaceful, and (c) unbounded. Time, space, and propioception constitute the framework that give meaning to the changing qualities (color, shape, size, movement, etc.) of waking experiences. The participants descriptions gave insight into their inner experience of Transcendental Consciousness. One participant reported:

6 128 MAHARISHI VEDIC SCIENCE AND ITS APPLICATIONS During meditation, my thoughts become less and less concrete, less and less absorbing, and often my mind becomes completely free of the grip of thinking and planning then I am. It is not an experience, there is nothing I can report about this state. I am completely full, vibrant, and alive, but I am completely still. It s absolute silence. A second participant echoes the difficulty to describe this inner experience with concepts used to describe ordinary waking experiences: Actually it s not that I experience Oh, how great this is!, but it s an inner peace that is very, very nourishing. It s a feeling of freedom, of no restraints. In this state boundaries do not exist. Time has no meaning. Space has no meaning. I feel right at home. It is normal functioning. Everything seems right. The reader may be able to imagine the experience of Transcendental Consciousness. It is an experience of being both the I and the me, both the participant and object of experience. In Transcendental Consciousness, there are no distinctions between subject and object. No contrast to mark the passage of time, to mark distance between objects, to give bounded qualities to the experience. Yet, self-awareness remains participants are awake and can describe the nature of their experience afterwards, i.e. peaceful, unboundedness, or absence of time, space, or body sense. The three distinct elements of ordinary waking experience (knower, known, and process) appeared to have become one pure self-awareness during Transcendental Consciousness. While TM practice is intended to stimulate more frequent occurrences of Transcendental Consciousness, similar experiences have been reported across cultures and across time (Travis & Pearson, 2000). For instance, Wordsworth (1979, pg. 156) described a spontaneous experience in which: That serene and blessed mood, In which the affections gently lead us on Until the breath of this corporeal frame And even the motion of our human blood Almost suspended, we are laid asleep in body and become a living soul; This lucid description of physiological functioning during deep inner experiences foreshadows the empirical correlates of Transcendental Consciousness reported in the next section. Physiological Markers of Transcendental Consciousness Changes in breath rate, skin conductance, and EEG power and coherence have been used as physiological windows into the state of Transcendental Consciousness. Marked slowing in breathing was the first published marker of this experience.

7 Travis et al. THE HARD PROBLEM OF CONSCIOUSNESS 129 Changes in breath patterns. Farrow and Hebert (1982) reported results from a series of experiments in which they correlated incidents of breath quiescence with experiences of Transcendental Consciousness. They defined breath quiescence as any breath period that was more than twice the average breath period during the initial eyes-closed rest period. They observed 161 respiratory suspensions in 28 participants during TM sessions, compared to 19 breath quiescent periods in 23 age-matched resting controls. In a second experiment, they asked 11 participants to press a button after Transcendental Consciousness experiences. Among these participants, 36 of 84 button presses occurred within ten seconds of the offset of a breath quiescent period (64% hits). Badawi, Wallace, Orme-Johnson and Rouzere (1984) replicated and extended these findings. They reported 52 breath quiescent periods during TM sessions in 54 participants, and none in 31 non-meditating resting controls. They then compared EEG, spontaneous skin conductance responses, and heart rate in 11 subjects during 19 breath quiescent periods, and in two comparison conditions: during equal-length periods before and after breath quiescent periods (within participants), and during voluntary breath holding (between participants). Breath quiescent periods were distinguished from the other two conditions by significant decreases in theta power, and significant increases in 0 50 Hz global coherence (all pairs of EEG sites measured), but no consistent differences in spontaneous skin conductance responses or heart rate were observed. Kesterson and Clinch (1989) extensively explored breath patterns during Transcendental Consciousness. They found that many of Farrow and Hebert s and Badawi and colleagues breath quiescent period were actually instances of slow, prolonged inspiration. Both group of researchers had used nasal thermistors that are not sensitive to slow inhalation. The resulting flat thermistor-tracings gave the appearance of suspension of breathing. However, Kesterson and Clinch used a spyrometer, which is sensitive to slow inhalation, and observed slow inhalation. Supporting Kesterson s conclusions, thermistor tracings show an exhale before and after the flat thermistor tracings during Transcendental Consciousness experiences (see the figure in Travis & Pearson, 2000). The simplest explanation for an exhale before and after the socalled breath suspension is that a slow continuous inhalation occurred throughout this period. The possible significance of these breathing patterns is discussed below. Skin conductance responses. A second reliable marker of Transcendental Consciousness is skin conductance responses at the onset of breath changes (Travis & Wallace, 1997). Skin conductance response is

8 130 MAHARISHI VEDIC SCIENCE AND ITS APPLICATIONS the defining marker of orienting attention switching to environmental stimuli that are novel (O Gorman, 1979; Sokolov, 1963) or significant (Maltzman, 1977; Spinks, Blowers, & Shek, 1985). Skin conductance response at the onset of Transcendental Consciousness periods may mark the transition of awareness from active thinking processes to the mental quiescence of Transcendental Consciousness. Increasing frequency of peak EEG power. A third marker, which is less obvious but has been reported by Badawi and colleagues (1984) and by Travis and Wallace (1997), is a trend for the frequency of the peak power in the EEG to increase 0.5 to 1.5 Hz. The frequency of peak power follows fluctuations in alertness. For instance, EEG power is highest in the 1-4 Hz band during deep sleep, and in the 40 Hz band during focused mental activity. The observed increase in frequency of peak power during Transcendental Consciousness suggests increased alertness during this state. EEG coherence patterns have varied in the three studies that have investigated coherence during Transcendental Consciousness. Farrow and Hebert (1982) reported increases in theta coherence at the onset of breath suspension periods that decreased during the breath suspension periods. Badawi and colleagues (1984) did not find significance increases in any individual EEG frequency band (delta, theta, alpha, or beta) during Transcendental Consciousness, but did report significantly higher global coherence between all electrode pairs and in all frequency bands measured (0 50 Hz). However, averaging all values from 0 to 50 Hz includes many frequency bands whose power reflects equipment noise with a few frequency bands with meaningful brain activity (Nunez, 1981). Travis and Wallace (1997) reported high individual differences in coherence, both in frequency and in electrode pair, during Transcendental Consciousness periods in their participants. Further research may clarify the utility of EEG coherence as a marker of Transcendental Consciousness. Discussion of Physiological Patterns During Transcendental Consciousness Physiological patterns during Transcendental Consciousness represent a unique constellation of physiological markers. Slow inhalation has not been reported in normal populations (outside of practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique), and has never been reported in the literature with durations longer than 4-6 secs (Plum & Posner, 1980). The respiratory drive centers responsible for this breathing pattern (the peribrachialis medialis nuclei) are located in the lateral pons of the brainstem along with the raphe and locus coeruleus, responsible for

9 Travis et al. THE HARD PROBLEM OF CONSCIOUSNESS 131 modulating waking and sleeping (Steriade, McCormick, & Sejnowski, 1993), and the REM-on cells, responsible for dreaming (Gilbert & Lydic, 1994; Steriade, Datta, Pare, Oakson, & Dossi, 1990). Slowing of breathing occurs against the background of changing levels of the autonomic nervous system. Prior to Transcendental Consciousness periods, sympathetic activity was low (low skin conductance levels) and parasympathetic activity was high (high respiratory sinus arrhythmia levels) (Travis & Wallace, 1999). At the onset of Transcendental Consciousness periods, bursts are seen in both sympathetic and parasympathetic activity followed by autonomic quiescence during the breath quiescent periods. It is noteworthy that an experience subjectively described as the absence of time, space, and body sense, as unbounded and as peaceful was objectively marked by the virtual absence of breath and by low autonomic activity. This unique constellation of physiological markers suggests that Transcendental Consciousness may be a discrete state that emerges when the processes and contents of experience cease during practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique. SIGNIFICANCE OF TRANSCENDENTAL CONSCIOUSNESS FOR THE HARD PROBLEM OF CONSCIOUSNESS Transcendental Consciousness has distinct physiological and phenomenological correlates. It is a direct experience to be empirically investigated, not merely theoretically debated. Physiologically, Transcendental Consciousness is marked by a breath pattern driven by brain stem nuclei that are silent during the waking, sleeping, and dreaming states. Phenomenologically, Transcendental Consciousness is characterized by the absence of time, space and body sense the absence of the framework that gives meaning to waking experiences. These empirical findings were accompanied by descriptions of Transcendental Consciousness as a state of pure self-awareness. These data suggest that a substrate of human experience exists that is distinct from the processes and contents of experience, which can be experienced in its pure state during practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique. This conclusion is supported by three observations. (a) Transcendental Consciousness appears to exist at the basis of thought activity. Subjects report Transcendental Consciousness during TM practice when mental activities cease. (b) Transcendental Consciousness appears to be a discrete state rather than an altered waking state. It is characterized by unique phenomenological and physiological correlates.

10 132 MAHARISHI VEDIC SCIENCE AND ITS APPLICATIONS (c) Transcendental Consciousness appears to be a fundamental state. It cannot be reduced to more fundamental elements, because it is a state devoid of other elements, being described by the absence of boundaries. These data further suggest that the conundrum of conscious experience may be unraveled by separating the knower from the known and the processes of knowing. If the knower has a status independent from the processes and contents of knowing, as these data suggest, then investigation into the nature of the knower may shed light on what is added when the knower combines with the processes and contents of knowing in the process of experiencing the water. The knower, as experienced during Transcendental Consciousness, is described as pure, self-awareness. When self-awareness converges with perceptual and cognitive processes through the agency of attention, a conscious experience may result. This hypothesized convergence of inner and outer values is supported by the convergence of two different neural circuits to yield reportable experiences, according to neuroscience (Elbert & Rockstroh, 1987). Two Neural Circuits Necessary for Experience Neuroscience has identified both phasic and tonic projections to all cortical regions. This suggests that activity in both these projections are necessary for conscious experience. Phasic projections comprise sensory afferents from the transduction of light, chemical and pressure energy from external objects into reverberating action potentials in thalamocortical circuits (Llinas & Pare, 1991). The resulting spatialtemporal patterns of thalamocortical activation appear to encode specific information about objects and their movement through time and space (Freeman & Skarda, 1985). However, phasic inputs only lead to a consciousness experience if tonic activation (arousal or alertness) is sufficiently high. Cortical tone is governed by afferents from the so called nonspecific nuclei of the thalamus, i.e. the intralaminar nuclei of the thalamus (Baars, 1995; Bogen, 1997), the matrix cells of the thalamus, and by the cholinergic peribrachialis nuclei in the midbrain and pons tegmentum areas (Smythies, 1997). These subcortical structures are elements in a larger cortical-striato-thalamic threshold regulation circuit (Elbert & Rockstroh, 1987). Alexander and colleagues (1986) have detailed six cortico-striato-thalamic feedback loops that control cortical activation levels. Within each loop, the basal ganglia sample ongoing cortical activity and feed this information back into the (nonspecific) thalamocortical circuits, responsible for cortical tone, vigilance and alertness. These threshold regulation circuits keep cortical activation at an optimal

11 Travis et al. THE HARD PROBLEM OF CONSCIOUSNESS 133 not in references level for information processing. For instance, this circuit modulates attention by increasing arousal thresholds, interrupting ongoing information processing and setting the stage for attending to a specific channel of information. These regulatory circuits exhibit features of deterministic chaos generating the diversity of EEG through the interaction of a few self-interacting systems (Elbert & Rockstroh, 1987). In addition to modulating attention during waking processes, Travis and Wallace (1999) proposed that these threshold regulation circuits may also function during practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique. They suggest that frontal areas act like a neural switch to affect a rapid shift of physiological and cortical processing to a more restfully alert state at the onset of TM practice; and that threshold regulation mechanisms maintain this restful state for the duration of the TM session. Threshold-regulation feedback circuits may more generally underlie self-awareness, distinct from the contents and processes of experience. These feedback circuits, also termed reentrant circuits (Edelman, 1974), may merge new information with ongoing cortical activity. This convergence of past and current cortical states may link individual moments of experience into an ongoing stream of consciousness. This self-referral functioning could be the real link between consciousness and brain functioning. Future research could investigate the link between self-referral inner experiences and cortical feedback loops to help illuminate the possible connections between consciousness and matter. Combining the strengths of the research methodologies of the East and West could provide the platform to address the hard question of consciousness.

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