Overview of Consciousness Research

The purpose of this paper is to orient the reader to the contemporary scientific study of consciousness. One of the most noticeable features of research concerning consciousness is that there are three domains of discourse, the physiological, computational and experiential, each with its own methodology, and concerns. While confusion is often expressed about what it is that one is discussing, there are four main categories of definitions of the term consciousness: consciousness is the registration, processing and acting on information; behavioural consciousness is the explicit knowledge of one\u27s situation, mental states or actions as demonstrated by one\u27s behaviour; subjective consciousness is the subjective stream of thoughts, feelings and sensations that occur for a person; and consciousness is the sense of existence of the subject of mental acts. There are also disparate views concerning consciousness that surveys have revealed to be correlated with investigators beliefs about the nature of reality along a material-transcendent dimension. Those with materialist views tend to think that only that which is physical is real and that consciousness is an emergent property of neural or information-processing systems; those with conservatively transcendent views think that there is more to reality than that which is physical and emphasize subjective aspects of consciousness; while the extraordinarily transcendent conceptualize consciousness as ontologically primitive and place importance on self-transformation. An investigator\u27s contention that she has had anomalous experiences appears to incline her toward a transcendent position. The presence of these correlations indicates that research programs concerning consciousness proceed, not in an unbiased manner, but on the basis of personal beliefs about the nature of reality. Can beliefs change in the course of the educational process? Data from 129 undergraduate students indicates that beliefs about consciousness and reality can move in a transcendent direction in classes with an instructor with extraordinarily transcendent beliefs

Intelligence correlates of transcendent beliefs: A preliminary study

In previous research, Barušs and Moore had identified a material-transcendent dimension of beliefs about consciousness and reality that underlies the Western intellectual tradition including the academic study of consciousness. At one pole, materialists believe that reality is entirely physical in nature, whereas those tending toward the transcendent pole believe that reality cannot exhaustively be captured in physical terms. More recently, Jewkes and Barušs had found a number of personality correlates of transcendent beliefs including a tendency toward curiosity and a rational approach to the world [1]. These previous results prompted the present study in which 39 undergraduate psychology students at a liberal arts college were given a measure of beliefs about consciousness and reality, a comprehensive intelligence test, and a personality subtest. Correlations were found among various facets of intelligence, aspects of beliefs, and intellectual curiosity. The results indicate that greater intelligence is associated with transcendent beliefs

Experimental Test of Possible Psychological Benefits of Past-Life Regression

The purpose of this study was to determine whether past-life regression can lead to increased psychological well-being and changes in fundamental beliefs about consciousness and reality among those who are psychologically healthy. Twenty-four undergraduate students each participated in a single guided imagery session in which they were given either a past-life or open suggestion. Participants who were given the past-life suggestion had better scores on some measures of psychological well-being than those given the open suggestion, although post-hoc tests did not reveal any differences in psychological well-being or beliefs between those who actually experienced past-life imagery and those who did not. There was an overall shift for all participants toward more transcendent beliefs as a result of their involvement in the guided imagery sessions. The roles in past-life regression of depth of altered experience and belief in past lives were also examined

Beliefs about Consciousness and Reality: Clarification of the Confusion Concerning Consciousness

There is considerable confusion surrounding the notion of consciousness. This confusion can be partially resolved by clarifying the referents of the word \u27consciousness\u27. Doing so, however, reveals a more insidious problem, namely, the role played by personal beliefs in understanding consciousness. In particular, as revealed by a comprehensive survey, such beliefs range along a material- transcendent dimension, with the choice of notions of consciousness corresponding to materialist, conservatively transcendent, or extraordinarily transcendent positions. Further empirical research has revealed that those with more transcendent beliefs tend to have a more rational and curious approach to the world than those with more materialist beliefs. And, indeed, transcendent beliefs are also associated with greater intelligence. Although the possibility of a developmental sequence from materialist to transcendent beliefs is suggested, given the nature of fundamental beliefs, it does not appear that reconciliation between them is possible. Thus, although the confusion surrounding the study of consciousness can be clarified, the situation giving rise to the confusion cannot be eliminated