Self-Boundary Dissolution in Meditation: A Phenomenological Investigation

Ohad Nave,Yochai Ataria,Stephen Fulder,Yoav Schweitzer,Fynn-Mathis Trautwein,Aviva Berkovich-Ohana,Yair Dor-Ziderman

doi:10.3390/brainsci11060819

Abstract

A fundamental aspect of the sense of self is its pre-reflective dimension specifying the self as a bounded and embodied knower and agent. Being a constant and tacit feature structuring consciousness, it eludes robust empirical exploration. Recently, deep meditative states involving global dissolution of the sense of self have been suggested as a promising path for advancing such an investigation. To that end, we conducted a comprehensive phenomenological inquiry into meditative self-boundary alteration. The induced states were systematically characterized by changes in six experiential features including the sense of location, agency, first-person perspective, attention, body sensations, and affective valence, as well as their interaction with meditative technique and overall degree of dissolution. Quantitative analyses of the relationships between these phenomenological categories highlighted a unitary dimension of boundary dissolution. Notably, passive meditative gestures of “letting go”, which reduce attentional engagement and sense of agency, emerged as driving the depth of dissolution. These findings are aligned with an enactive approach to the pre-reflective sense of self, linking its generation to sensorimotor activity and attention-demanding processes. Moreover, they set the stage for future phenomenologically informed analyses of neurophysiological data and highlight the utility of combining phenomenology and intense contemplative training for a scientific characterization of processes giving rise to the basic sense of being a bounded self.

Highlights

As a fundamental aspect structuring our conscious lives around a sense of being someone immersed in an external world, it is often argued that the sense of self has a direct bearing on how we understand and study consciousness (e.g., [2,3,4,5])
We addressed the following questions: Are there distinct clusters of qualitatively different “dissolvers” or does the dissolution unfold along a single dimension of depth? What are the meditative techniques or mental micro-gestures [42] contributing to dissolution, and what kind of activity sustains the sense of boundaries (SB)? Are there different varieties of affective experience associated with dissolution and how does affective valence relate to SB alteration? And is the depth of dissolution related to the amount of previous meditation practice? The strategy of the phenomenological investigation in approaching the foregoing questions was to exploit the inherent experiential diversity of our large cohort of meditators, rather than disregard and average it out
These analyses suggested that a large part of the variance in the phenomenological space that characterizes SB dissolution can be subsumed under a single dimension

Summary

Introduction

As a fundamental aspect structuring our conscious lives around a sense of being someone immersed in an external world, it is often argued that the sense of self has a direct bearing on how we understand and study consciousness (e.g., [2,3,4,5]). It persistently defies consensual definition and is notoriously challenging to make scientifically tractable. The pre-reflective self establishes a subtle though ubiquitous dynamic boundary, distinguishing our lived bodies, our actions and our phenomenal interiority from the external world [16]

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Methods

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion