Marjorie Woollacott and Ben Williams – Lessons from the Nondual Philosophy of Shaivism and Neuroscience
In this webinar Drs. Ben Williams and Marjorie Woollacott explore parallels between theories about the origins of cognitive processes that filter out a broader perceptual awareness in both modern neuroscience and in a medieval Sanskrit text on non-dual philosophy, the Īśvarapratyabhijñākārikā (‘Stanzas on the Recognition of Śiva’). This philosophical work discusses the power of conceptualization or ideation as an essential component of the universal creative process in which all-pervasive consciousness identifies itself with a particular individual/mind-body complex. We show parallels between this framework and research identifying brain networks active in the process of filtering a vast array of perceptual inputs into a narrowly circumscribed sense of subjectivity restricted to the individual body-mind. This process includes the proliferation of mental narratives by which the individual structures their experience of reality. This theoretical exploration will be followed by a discussion of practices that reduce the filtering function of conceptuality in both the text under consideration and in neuro-scientific studies on meditation, as well as other experiences that include expanded and lucid states of awareness.
