CONSCIOUSNESS

5. Experiential Approaches 191
spiritual leader of the Tehor region in Tibet. He represented his region in the presentation of
the long life prayer to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama in 2005. PL7
286 Anxious Consciousness: Anxiousness the Mystical Portuguese Writings of Joanna
de Jesus (1620-1680) Joana Serrado (HDS, Harvard
Divinity School/ University of Groningen, Cambridge, MA)
In this paper I would like to present the concept of “ansias amorozas” (until now) unknown
Portuguese Mystic, Joanna de Jesus and intellectual disciple of Teresa de Jesus. The
relationship established through Joanna and God-Man (God incarnated) makes possible the
discovery of an embodied consciousness. The nuptial element will be studied in a historical
approach (the Cistercians Spirituality) and a philosophical hypothesis of “criture feminine”,
defended by Cixous and Irigaray. How will consciousness develop within the anxiousness of
writing “the body”? What does it mean “razoens amorozas” (loving reasons) in the context of
intersubjective consciousness? Could we even speak of a female mystical consciousness? P5
287 Meditation as First-Person Methodology? Serious Promise, Serious
Problems Jonathan Shear (Philosophy, Virginia Commonwealth
University, Richmond, VA)
The need for systematic first-person methodologies is obvious. Studies of consciousness
require reports of first-person, subjective phenomena as well as third-person, objective correlates.
Without such reports there would be nothing to connect third-person phenomena with
consciousness at all. Yet while we use highly sophisticated third-person methodologies (EEG,
fMRI, neurochemistry, etc.) to identify and study their objective correlates, methodologies
used to study the phenomena of consciousness themselves are largely merely commonsensical
and intuitive. Eastern meditation traditions however have spent thousands of years developing
first-person methodologies designed to enable the mind to become stably attuned to a
completely silent level of inner awareness, and examine the domain of consciousness with
maximum signal to noise ratio and minimum distortion. The existence of such methodologies
and their potential usefulness for consciousness studies is now well known and much discussed.
Associated maps of consciousness, developed empirically by Eastern traditions over
millennia, are much less well known however. The map standardly used by Yoga, Vedanta
and other orthodox Indian traditions, for example, distinguishes six levels. From surface to
depth: senses, discursive thinking, discriminative intellect, pure ego, bliss and pure (qualityless)
consciousness. Conscious content at each level is said to develop through, and depend
on, the deeper ones. If accurate, such maps could prove very helpful both for understanding
consciousness intellectually, and for scientific research. Locating theories and introspective
accounts of philosophers such as Plato, Descartes, Spinoza, Kant, Hume, and Russell onto the
above levels-map, for example, indicates that each philosopher had a specific range of levels
open to his introspective awareness, and suggests why he would favor particular theories, and
find specific problems unresolvable. This also suggests major empiricist-rationalist conflicts
can be resolved empirically?if the map is accurate. And the map?s accuracy could be supported
objectively, if research identified physiological markers of all the levels as reported
by adepts from different traditions, and subsets of the levels as reported by ordinary people,
occurring in the appropriate sequences. Such research may be practical. Traditional identification
of complete respiratory cessation as a physiological marker of the pure-consciousness
level already appears corroborated by laboratory studies of TM meditators. And Lama S.
Rinpoche says that Tibetan Buddhist adepts could maintain experience at each level for this
research. In addition to corroborating the above map, identification of markers for each level
would provide a way to identify adepts capable of acting as reliable research ?instruments?
for a wide range of level-relevant questions in consciousness studies. The potential usefulness
of such traditional, empirically grounded maps is huge. Meditation-related research, however,
faces widespread skepticism from perceptions of bias and vested interest, compounded by
associations with religion and very implausible claims. Even meditation researchers express
such concerns about research on types of meditation other than their own. A formal consortium,
in which teams of researchers with prima facie competing affiliations conduct and