About the event
Title: Unusual Spontaneous Experiences: Their Phenomenology and a Multi-Dimensional Framework of Spontaneous States
Abstract: In this presentation, I set the groundwork for a phenomenological multidimensional framework of spontaneous experiences aiming at situating spontaneous phenomena across the sleep-wake cycle that have received less attention in the current literature, such as out-of-body experiences, sleep paralysis, void dreams and experiences, states of sensory deprivation, meditative states, mystical states, and hypnosis. The goal of this framework is to show how such forms of experiences can be linked to other more typical forms of spontaneous states like mind wandering and dreaming across five phenomenological dimensions: Self-revelation, Sense of Embodiment, Temporal Extension, Inner Attention, and Complexity of the Content. Moreover, I examine how such a framework can be applied to a live debate on the nature of a particular sort of spontaneous experience, the clear light sleep. This experience, largely described in contemplative traditions like Tibetan Buddhism, has been recently targeted as a potential instance of the minimal phenomenal experience, the simplest form of conscious experience. As such, this sort of spontaneous experience has the potential to shed light on the nature of the mind and the study of consciousness. However, while the state of the clear light sleep has been widely described in contemplative traditions, there is still an important lack of research and consensus about how we should understand such an experience. Here, I take the state of the clear light sleep to show the explanatory value of the multidimensional framework I put forward. I will show how this framework can provide a more accurate description of a phenomenon that has not been captured otherwise in the literature.
If you would like to attend the event virtually by Zoom please contact Drew Johnson at Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas.