Consciousness Laboratory

The Naropa University Consciousness Laboratory is a training and research facility that fosters a contemplative approach to psychological science. Our mission is to gain greater understanding of human capacities for engaging with awareness, conceptions of experience, and related teaching and learning processes; to contribute new methods for accessing the depth and variety of conscious experience; and to train students at both graduate and undergraduate levels. We aim to conduct research with inquisitiveness, compassion, and a balance of precision and practicality.

We explore functions of awareness that have not been adequately addressed within psychological science along two complementary avenues of investigation. Our Meditation and Contemplative Spirituality Research Program brings to light mindfulness and awareness skills that can be learned. In contrast, our Synesthesia Research Program focuses on an unusual sensory experience that may depend on genetic endowment, and is familiar to only a minority of people. Taken together, these two research programs involve psychological inquiry into awareness, perception, imagery, attention, emotion, and more.

In drawing knowledge and insight from both cognitive neuroscience and contemplative traditions such as Buddhist meditation, the Consciousness Lab provides a unique synergy between modern psychological science and ancient contemplative approaches to understanding mind and spirit.