Beyond the extra-musical connotations observed in much late eighteenth-century music, pattern recurrence sometimes appears to be associated with a strongly narrative meaning. As an example, certain late works of Beethoven possess a sense of self-'awareness' via self-referentiality. There is the potential for seeing this as the manifestation by music of a degree of independence from the composer's consciousness, one driven (in a view informed by the memetic theory of cultural evolution) by the musical patterns involved. Such music is manifesting a form of agency — a consciousness-of-itself (CoI) — 'reflecting' on its structure and its generative processes in a way that is not strongly evident in earlier musical traditions. The notion of CoI is partly based on Dennett's conception of consciousness as a form of millisecond-level evolution, with evolution, conversely, being a glacially slow form of consciousness. Tying these ideas together, my underpinning question is: how can evolutionary theory and the structural and functional alignments between music and language illuminate our understanding of consciousness? Addressing this question can help illuminate the evolutionary relationships between music and language, the cultural evolution of music, and the nature of consciousness itself.
What is the role of subsonic and low-frequency vibration in consciousness, music, and health? This article draws on neurophysiological, evolutionary, and clinical perspectives to examine the Pacini system — the body's subsonic vibratory perceptual system — and its relation to consciousness studies, music perception, and health and well-being. The Pacini system, while commonly overlooked, is structurally and functionally interlinked with various sensory, emotion, and pain processing pathways, and thereby modulates brain function and overall conscious experience. It also plays a key role in music perception, music stimulation, and treatments that rely on these, due to its sensitivity to lower ranges of the auditory system, including mid to low bass ranges. This paper presents a novel music stimulation treatment called High Amplitude Low Frequency Music Impulse Stimulation (HALF-MIS). HALF-MIS purposefully activates the Pacini system via subsonic and low-frequency vibrations, while also incorporating specifically designed, composed, and produced music that delivers an harmonic sonic experience. We will discuss results and potential mechanisms of action from case studies and ongoing clinical trials of HALF-MIS, which provide promising indications of its efficacy in reducing pain, depression, anxiety, and long COVID-19 symptoms.
David Chalmers proposed a dual-aspect theory of information to tackle the hard problem of consciousness, aiming for a scientific framework. However, this approach retains elements of Cartesian dualism and its principles — structural coherence and organizational invariance — are insufficiently robust to scientifically ground subjective experiences. Chalmers’ reliance on Shannon’s information theory, which superficially addresses information from a naturalistic viewpoint, exacerbates this limitation. To overcome these challenges, J.E. Brenner’s non-standard logic (logic in reality; LIR) offers a promising avenue. LIR provides a formal qualitative description of the relationship between third-person and first-person data, addressing key issues in consciousness research. This logic can underpin a naturalistic philosophy of information, offering a transdisciplinary approach that could furnish new strategies for advancing the science of consciousness. By integrating LIR, researchers might better articulate the logical foundations necessary for a comprehensive understanding of conscious experience within a naturalistic framework.
In this article, we engage three fields of study — peacebuilding, musicking, and consciousness — in order to examine potential contributions of these diverse disciplinary perspectives, considered in conjunction, to our understanding of how musicking might contribute to peacebuilding. We first introduce a new, inclusive theory of peacebuilding which links broader concepts from peace studies to specific kinds of changes in awareness. Following that, we present representative examples of research in peacebuilding practice where musicking has been successfully incorporated. Based primarily on 4E and autopoietic theory, we next examine empathy and identity, considered as two specific aspects of consciousness connected to realizing interdependent relationships. Finally, based on these premises, we argue that musical behaviours are ideally suited to fostering the kinds of changes in our consciousness and relationships conducive to peacebuilding.
Attaining pure consciousness untainted by material afflictions is the ultimate goal of yoga. It is pursued by stilling mental modifications arising from the false identification of consciousness (self) with non-self. Yoga’s eight limbs aim to free the mind from the sway of materiality, transcending misidentification of self with body. In contrast, perceiving the biological body as inherently limited, transhumanism seeks to enhance the human condition through the extensive use of technological breakthroughs, sometimes extending to proposals of mind-uploading and non-biological embodiment. Despite their divergent approaches, both traditions prioritize consciousness and self-transcendence, making a comparative study significant for reimagining consciousness, identity, and selfhood. Adopting a comparative philosophical approach based on classical texts and contemporary research, this study examines the conceptual mapping of self-transcendence in both traditions. It argues that while both systems seek to transcend biological limitations, their views of selfhood, consciousness, and embodiment diverge at the level of metaphysical commitments. This study underlines the need for a critical cross-disciplinary approach in contemporary consciousness studies, where technology-based human enhancement programmes intersect significantly with the traditional self-realization pursuit.
This paper contributes to recent efforts to mine Vedanta for a more complete and cogent theory of the nature of consciousness and a solution to the mind-body problem. Various non-dual interpretations of Vedanta share the idea that the sole existent is Consciousness3 and offer more or less detailed descriptions of the structural dynamics of that Consciousness including how it assumes myriad limited perspectives localized within a matrix of other limited perspectives. Here, we add two crucial ideas that fill gaps left by other recent theories grounded in Vedanta and resolve outstanding issues in those endeavours. The first is that the universal Consciousness experiences all of its manifestations as none other than itself, thus avoiding any debilitating cognitive dissonance from the limited, incompatible per-spectives of limited subjects. Second, before assuming those perspect-ives, Consciousness imagines all possible subjects in all natural and logically possible universes, their orderly mutual relationships and transformations. The elements of those virtual universes are potential objects for every limited perspective thus providing something object-ive that is nonetheless perceived as other than Consciousness but is more than solipsistic qualia. The idea of virtual worlds also preserves the integrity and value of scientific insight into the structural dynamics of the phenomenal world.
This study utilizes qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to examine the experiences of 19 individuals who reported undergoing kundalini awakenings, as documented through open-source questionnaire data from an online kundalini awakening support community. Key findings reveal that confusion after a kundalini awakening is linked to the intensity of the dark night of the soul and difficulties integrating one’s former life with new spiritual insights. Notably, heightened intensity and integration challenges create greater potential for confusion, particularly when a structured spiritual practice is absent. Moreover, while supportive communities offer guidance, they may inadvertently contribute to integration challenges by shaping individuals’ unique experiences, emphasizing the importance of solitary time for self-reflection. This study contributes to the field of spiritual awakenings by highlighting the roles of community, solitude, and spiritual practice in navigating post-awakening integration, suggesting that structured practices and balanced social interactions are key for effective adaptation to transformative spiritual shifts.
In this time of ecological crisis, it is essential to recognize the conceptual framework that has facilitated the expropriation of the non-human world. Mind–body dualism must be held accountable for justifying a hierarchy of values that placed the immaterial soul and culture over and against the material body and nature. Today panpsychism is the most promising philosophy to provide a cure for these pathologies of western dualism. Matter has thus come to be understood as possessing the very mental properties attributed in modernity to the soul. In this article I will draw out the religious implications of such a panpsychist position, since the reanimation of matter intrinsic to ecological panpsychism is inspired by a resacralization of the sentient Earth. Whether we adopt a panentheist or a pantheist position, both of these panpsychist religions express a cosmic vocation in transforming worship of God into care for our awe-inspiring planet.
Non-reductive functionalism holds that qualia are distinct, non-physical properties that are caused by functional properties. This view violates the plausible principles that (i) mere dispositional properties lack independent causal relevance, and (ii) convention-dependent properties lack causal relevance. David Chalmers’ main arguments for the view rest on his dancing qualia and fading qualia thought experiments. But in each argument, at least one of two premises is implausible, depending on whether we take qualia to be epiphenomenal or not.
The term ‘near-death experience’ (NDE) refers to particular encounters reported by individuals who have been revived from the brink of death. The narratives provided by such individuals exhibit a core set of characteristics that are consistent across diverse populations. Although this suggests that NDEs may offer valuable insights into our understanding of the world, many scientists hold the view that NDEs do not provide genuine insight into reality. What underlies this scepticism? Two answers might be given. Either they question the authenticity of these experiences, or they contend that there is nothing theoretically new that remains for which NDEs are evidence. In this paper, we argue that none of them has been the case. We initially demonstrate that these phenomena meet the standards that science typically considers essential for being an explanandum. For the rest, the philosophy of science can offer valuable assistance. According to the version of scientific realism proposed by Lipton and Bird, unless we have the best explanation of an explanandum, we fail to understand it. Therefore, our task is to scrutinize the proclaimed scientific theories explaining NDEs and see if any of them is the best. To this aim, after explicating Bird’s and Lipton’s criteria of the best explanation, we show that none of the explanations put forth in the literature satisfy the criteria. This shows that science can claim neither to be explaining NDEs nor understanding them. This diagnosis also leads to an important philosophical result. As science fails in explaining and understanding NDEs, we remain unjustified in describing them within scientific metaphysics. That being the case, metaphysical debates in this particular field remain within ordinary philosophy.
Music therapy for autism has historically been guided by a 'pathology paradigm' that aims to normalize autistic people in line with neuronormativity. The neurodiversity movement has initiated a paradigm shift towards more neuro-affirming practices. However, music therapy would benefit from a more robust theoretical grounding to guide this neuro-affirming transition. We address this gap by putting forward an enactive account of autistic musical engagement — grounded in the neurodiversity paradigm — that avoids pathological framing. Drawing on first-person reports from recent qualitative studies, we discuss how autistic people use music in everyday life for emotional regulation, identity construction, and social connection, while also noting how music can sometimes clash with autistic sensory sensitivities and agency. From this enactive perspective, autistic styles of musical engagement are revealed not as a set of symptoms to be managed but as vital dimensions of sense-making. We conclude by deriving some core principles to guide the development of neuroaffirming music therapies and inclusive live music events, creating spaces for autistic flourishing.
Instability appears to be a key symptomatic feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD); subjects commonly exhibit affective dysregulation, an unstable sense of self, and instability in their interpersonal relationships. To conceptualize how trauma plays a key role in generating instability, I propose that the persistent activation of 'traumatic imprints' involves distortions to central elements of what Shaun Gallagher (2024) terms 'the self-pattern'. Since music therapy can tap into the embodied, affective, prereflective, and cognitive processes that comprise the self-pattern, it holds great potential to foster a more stable sense of self. I examine how instrumental improvisation, in particular, can target narrative processes of the self-pattern by allowing subjects to explore their life story and make sense of painful memories. I then discuss how joint improvisation with a therapist has potential to target intersubjective processes of the self-pattern, which can help subjects with BPD to build their capacities for co-regulation and for navigating misattunements in social interaction.
Integrated information theory (IIT) is celebrated for its formal modelling of consciousness. But drawing on the framework of formal-material ontology, this paper argues that IIT fails to take the qualitative or ‘material’ dimensions of experience into consideration, providing us with a formal skeleton devoid of flesh and blood. Through cases of the natural colour system and the quality space of pain, the research highlights what kinds of material research could be complementary and beneficial to IIT’s formal approach.
In his recent critique of well-established simplified comparisons between the human mind and AI, Alva Noë encourages us to 'rage against the machine' (Noë, 2024). In this article, I build on Noë's timely encouragement, and sketch perspectives from both music studies and enactivist philosophy in order to interrogate what musicking might add to the debate. As a case study, I explore the recent public discourse surrounding the AI-band The Velvet Sundown and consider the implications — mental health related and ethical — of engaging with AI-generated music. I draw on current scholarship on musical creativity and AI to discuss the possibilities and limitations of creative agency in AI, laying the foundation for why human creative agency should be regarded more valuable than the artificial creativity that AI offers. I also discuss some ethical implications of sharing agency with AI, suggesting that we should continue to foster attunement to our creative agency and capabilities, as empowered but also vulnerable musicking human agents. I argue that musicking offers an enactive entanglement through which we are granted an opportunity to embrace risk, resist rules, and learn new modes of orientation and reorientation that serve as empowering tools for navigating our way through the resistant path to being human.
Drawing on reflections on two case stories from music therapy, we will develop several suggestions about relationships between musicking, selfhood, and mental health. The first case story is about Fred, a young man who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. The second is about Frida, an adult woman diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. There are substantial differences between their situations and medical conditions, but their experiences of music therapy have some shared characteristics, such as how their relationships to themselves and the world have been affected positively, in what we describe as a journey of embodied selfhood through musicking. We explore ways to theoretically frame the similarities in their music therapy experiences. The framework used when developing the theoretical argument is enactive cognitive science. Fred's and Frida's stories, as well as an emergent body of scientific work, indicate that musicking in music therapy could work as a 'laboratory' for future examinations of how implicit body memory, intercorporeality, rhythm, and synchrony are central to the development of higher social and cognitive processes associated with consciousness and mental health. Based on this, we have identified a range of possible areas of future research and theory development.
When people sing together, they are likely to experience a sense of enhanced closeness. This study explores the extent to which that feeling of closeness is affected by how in tune singers are with each other. Pairs of same-sex strangers (N = 162) with a broad spread of backgrounds and singing abilities either sang a familiar song together ('Happy Birthday') on first encounter or played a cooperative card memory game. Both activities resulted in an enhanced sense of connection between participants even though the singing bout (at ca. 30 s) was significantly shorter than the card game. The quality of joint singing (in terms of fit between participants' tuning) did not significantly influence its bonding effects, suggesting that the social effects of singing can be independent of its quality. Singing together may be of more significance as a social act than as an appealing sound.
A study of participants attending public concerts that staged classical and contemporary chamber music had the goal to analyse the associations between self-reported experiences and physiological responses, hence addressing a core question of embodied cognition. A sample of 690 participants was recruited, whose physiological signals were recorded with wearable sensors during concerts. After the concerts, music segments were individually presented to participants. The segments were excerpts selected from the concert just attended. Eight segments were shown to each participant in a stimulated-recall procedure, and the participant's experiences of the music in the segment were obtained using rating scales. Cardiac, respiratory, and skinconductance responses were found linked with varying aspects of segment experience. Experiences of beauty and high valence of aesthetic emotions were associated with sympathetic activation and attenuated parasympathetic activation. We discuss the implications of empirical mind–body–music findings within the philosophy of mind and assess their compatibility with materialist, dualist, and emergentist conceptions of the mind–body debate and the science of consciousness.
This paper explores musical improvisation as a recoverysupportive intervention for individuals with severe mental illnesses like schizophrenia. Using phenomenological and enactivist theories of agency, it examines how shared musical engagement can foster trust, resonance, aesthetic distance, perceptual presence, and a renewed sense of agency despite disruptions in self-experience. Through case studies of two participants in improvisational music groups, the paper shows how structured interactions create empathic, 'anti-anxiety' spaces that promote social connectedness and existential empowerment. Our findings suggest that arts-based interventions can serve as relational 'empathic spaces' that mitigate disturbances in self and other experience — challenges central to schizophrenia — supporting personal recovery beyond symptom reduction. This approach highlights the role of embodied, participatory processes in fostering resilience and well-being, emphasizing the need for further research to systematically evaluate and expand arts-informed mental health care.
Micro-phenomenology, a research method dedicated to the study of lived experience, starts from the observation that a large part of it ordinarily remains invisible, concealed by tensions directed towards its objects. After describing the techniques used by the method to loosen these tensions, the article presents a surprising result: this gesture tends to soften or ‘subtilize’ the structures that characterize our ordinary experience, in particular the separation between a subject pole and an object pole that usually appears essential to it. In other words, the very process of becoming aware makes the dual structure of ordinary experience more subtle. The correlate of this result is that this dual structure is not simply given, but created and sustained from moment to moment by usually unnoticed micro-tensions — a process that micro-phenomenology allows us to investigate. Exploring this double process leads to what we describe as a ‘dynamic’ ontology.
