Is Meditation the Royal Road that Leads to Pure Consciousness?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.2298/FID2504865LKeywords:
pure consciousness, pure awareness, phenomenology, Metzinger, mystical experience, mysticism, meditation, consciousness, spiritualityAbstract
Over the past 30 years, there has been an increasing scientific and philosophical attention to what contemplative and spiritual traditions for millennia have known as pure consciousness, free from concrete empirical content and egoic self-awareness. The article addresses whether meditation is the best candidate for the research of pure consciousness, as Thomas Metzinger claims in his book The Elephant and the Blind. The article calls this the Royal Road Thesis (RRT). The article first critically analyzes the concept of meditation, then uses descriptions of non- meditation to further deconstruct the concept of meditation. A section is devoted to an analysis of Metzinger’s claim that minimal phenomenal experience (and pure consciousness) is not mystical in itself, and finally, this is all interpreted in the context of consciousness culture and spirituality. The article concludes that RRT is very problematic and should be replaced by a more nuanced approach.
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