Building a Science of Consciousness

Join us for an in-depth discussion that bridges computational and implementation perspectives on the mind, grounding the Qualia Research Institute (QRI) from first principles for those already somewhat familiar with the philosophy of mind. Filmed after a QRI meetup in Berlin, this conversation between QRI collaborator Libor Burian and Andrés Gómez Emilsson provides an overview of our research and methodologies.

Normally in meditation we are focused on what IS in experience, but to be able to notice the absence of phenomena is key as well! Where there once were qualia, now there aren’t - what does that reveal to us about their nature?Roger Thisdell guides a meditation starting with a taste session on the major ingredients which make up our experience. Then after paying attention to these components, we deliberately try to not pay attention to them. What we find is the move to let go of paying attention to anything is a universal move - no matter the object of attention - how convenient!The ability to take attention off of more and more aspects of experience is an essential skill which eventually culminates in the ability to not pay attention to time,space and consciousness, resulting in cessation.For more guided meditations by Roger, check out his Patreon page where he releases a new guided meditation, on a variety of techniques, every week: https://www.patreon.com/rogerthis

In this guided meditation, our invited facilitator, Wystan, leads participants through meticulous body scanning techniques designed to cultivate an acute consciousness of the immediate present. Transitioning seamlessly from body scanning to methods of introspection, and further incorporating the nuanced technique of finger-following to “spread out the vision”, Wystan imparts a spectrum of methodologies that promise to augment the meditative practice of individuals across all levels of expertise.For more content from Wystan Byant-Scott, see his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@wystantbs488/videos

Metta is a Pali word that can be translated as benevolence, friendliness, or good will. It is a key state of mind for meditative practice; it has the capacity to heal, invigorate, and center the mind.The majority of guided Metta meditations emphasize the ways in which you can trigger this state of mind with semantic content and imagery. For example imagining a loved one, a pet, or even a beautiful scene, and tuning into the feeling of friendliness that such an image sparks.In this meditation we instead emphasize the phenomenal character of Metta as a way to develop it, establish it, and understand it deeply. For example, we discuss how one can use different varieties of attention in order to kindle this feeling. We also tune into one’s intentions and background mood in order to nudge the mind towards Metta. More so, we carefully study how technical phenomenological features such as rhythm, wave envelope, and energy affects the quality and intensity of Metta.May this meditation be of benefit to sentient beings!Relevant Links:Metta Practice, and a few things about Piti (Instructions), by Rob Burbea (https://dharmaseed.org/talks/60871/)Guide to Writing Rigorous Reports of Exotic States of Consciousness (https://qri.org/blog/rigorous-reports)Guided Meditation: The Varieties of Attention (https://youtu.be/YYSkKgwH4Bg?si=okgPbqKSGt8MvIHq)Buddhist Annealing: Wireheading Done Right with the Seven Factors of Awakening (https://qualiacomputing.com/2021/04/04/buddhist-annealing-wireheading-done-right-with-the-seven-factors-of-awakening/)Metta: The Fabric Softener of Reality (https://youtu.be/SN-Wfk8bYo0?si=jpSS3lYSvOR6V-7P)

In this guided meditation, we delve into the phenomenology of various conceptions of personal identity. Specifically, we observe the experiential nuances of believing that we are individual souls (Closed Individualism), that we are a single universal consciousness (Open Individualism), that we represent ephemeral moments of experience (Empty Individualism), and that we encompass all these identities concurrently (Goldilocks Zone of Oneness).As with the "The Phenomenology of Ontology" meditation, our objective here is to discern the qualities of experience that shape a specific worldview. In essence, the phenomenology of personal identity is a pivotal subject for any holistic consciousness research initiative, regardless of the metaphysical veracity of these perspectives. The capacity of these conceptions to modify experiential attributes—such as refining internal boundaries or amplifying the choppiness of sensations—underscores the importance of this topic for both phenomenological and scientific exploration.More so, many exotic states of consciousness involve implicit alterations to our conceptions of personal identity. Therefore knowing how to detect the experiential features that make these beliefs feel more or less plausible is essential to successfully navigate exotic states of consciousness without compromising one’s epistemology.Relevant Links:Ontological Qualia: The Future of Personal Identity (https://qualiacomputing.com/2015/12/17/ontological-qualia-the-future-of-personal-identity/)For more extensive definitions, see the Glossary of the Qualia Research Institute (https://qri.org/glossary)Guided Meditation: The Phenomenology of Ontology (https://youtu.be/QRExq_sf6No?si=G1cA1b0fAaE1oGjP)

There are many spiritual and yogic practices that utilize “elemental” objects of meditation. For example, the guided meditation by Michael Taft called “Five Elements Meditation” (link below) centers the mind around mental formations evocative of earth, water, fire, air, and space. Alas, it is natural to be skeptical of the value of these practices on the basis that science has shown that the universe is made up of particles, forces, and fields, and not the traditional elements of ancient ontologies.Nevertheless, within the paradigm of Qualia Mastery in meditation, we affirm the significance of specific states of consciousness, irrespective of the techniques used to induce them. Adhering rigidly to a modern scientific worldview might, in fact, impede one's engagement with such meditative practices. Engaging fully with a meditation that posits, for instance, fire as a fundamental entity, can often yield richer results when one genuinely subscribes to the idea. Continual internal rebuttals, such as "fire isn't foundational; electrons are!" can inhibit deep immersion into these states.So how can we rescue what is valuable from this style of meditation without having to buy into an implicit “elemental ontology”? Here is where the relevance of “self-organizing principles” comes into play. Namely, where we realize that the nervous system is capable of instantiating a cornucopia of diverse self-organizing principles that are used to render one’s inner world-simulation. Thus, when you imagine and embody “the element of fire” you are, in a way, instantiating a collection of self-organizing principles that roughly emulate the behavior of fire. Therefore, we can use a more generalized conception of “elemental meditation” as a window into these self-organizing principles. This is what this meditation does.Relevant Links:Five Elements Meditation by Michael Taft (https://www.youtube.com/live/p_1BPl39orA?si=uyF-hcVoDKp3IWgW)Digital Sentience Requires Solving the Boundary Problem, where the computational properties of self-organizing principles are discussed (https://qri.org/blog/digital-sentience)

It is often said that one of the most important meditative skills that one can cultivate is the practice of letting go. This means letting go of attachments, of cravings, of a sense of identity, and the need for things to be anything other than what they are. However, in practice doing this is more difficult than it sounds; we have a habit of holding tight to much more than we require for optimal wellbeing.This guided meditation emphasizes two key aspects of letting go. Namely, (1) tactical methods for letting go, such as the judicious use of unusual varieties of attention, higher order equanimity, imaginal practices, and precise technique (such as rhythm and timing). And (2) the fact that letting go can be practiced in much deeper ways and with a much wider scope than is usually realized. In particular, letting go can take place in the visual, tactile, auditory domains, in addition to the spacious, cognitive, spiritual, and intuitive levels of the mind.We conclude this meditation by listening to meditative music with the goal of experiencing it with complete equanimity and acceptance and putting our letting go techniques to practice:“936Hz Pineal Gland Activation Solfeggio Meditation w/ Binaural Beat frequencies” (https://youtu.be/3h2mJnvRbZ8?si=5puO7FnxNsT_wqz8)

This meditation explores the phenomenology of absorption into Platonic objects. We delve into what it feels like to imagine, embody, and generate the sense of knowing of classic geometric and mathematical constructs.One of the main takeaways from this meditation is that we can attune to the difference between (1) how we render a particular instance of a Platonic object and (2) the sense of knowing and existence of that object that arises as we do so.That is, (1) emphasizes the specific point of view from which a Platonic object (say, a cube) can be apprehended. Each point of view gives rise to, in a way, a completely different experience (cf. Borges’ Funes the Memorious). Namely, the experience of rendering such an object from that particular point of view, with all of the sensory and qualitative features that come along with it. In contrast (2) points to that which remains the same across all of these points of view. Namely, the ways in which holding these objects in one’s attention keeps aspects of our experience invariant (such as the intuitions and resonances that come with each particular Platonic object).In addition, we also explore how the geometry of attention affects one’s valence and sense of ease, with the goal of naturalizing “Sacred Geometry” for the cultivation of Qualia Mastery.Relevant Links:On Dark Rooms, Jhanas, Ecstasy, and the Symmetry Theory of Valence (https://qualiacomputing.com/2021/10/31/on-dark-rooms-jhanas-ecstasy-and-the-symmetry-theory-of-valence/)Guided Meditation: The Varieties of Attention (https://youtu.be/YYSkKgwH4Bg?si=okgPbqKSGt8MvIHq)

Expansion and contraction are the subtlest distinguishing features of experience. This meditation on expansion and contraction, given by Roger Thisdell, is a guide for finding and synchronizing to the oscillatory nature of experience at different levels, and then realising the co-dependence on one another in order to exist. Where there is expansion there is contraction and vice versa. By having sufficient energy in the mind and being able to widen the ‘aperture’ of our present moment perception it is possible to notice contraction within attention, and expansion within awareness (and vice versa) at the same time!For more guided meditations by Roger, check out his Patreon page where he releases a new guided meditation, on a variety of techniques, every week: https://www.patreon.com/rogerthis

In this meditation, Roger Thisdell guides us in a meditation of somatic scanning up and down the body using concurrent waves of awareness that pass through one another. We are trying to balance both the sense of grounding, stability with the sense of wakeful, levity.By the end of the meditation, the goal is to isolate and metacognize the sense of ‘becoming’ within experience, and notice that this signal is always presenting itself. We may question, if everything seems like it’s always ‘becoming’ (but never fully become), then what significance does this have with the goal of trying to have ‘arrived’ somewhere?For more guided meditations by Roger, check out his Patreon page where he releases a new guided meditation, on a variety of techniques, every week: https://www.patreon.com/rogerthis

Paper: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2023.1233119/full The boundary problem is related to the binding problem, part of a family of puzzles and phenomenal experiences that theories of consciousness (ToC) must either explain or eliminate. By comparison with the phenomenal binding problem, the boundary problem has received very little scholarly attention since first framed in detail by Rosengard in 1998, despite discussion by Chalmers in his widely cited 2016 work on the combination problem. However, any ToC that addresses the binding problem must also address the boundary problem. The binding problem asks how a unified first person perspective (1PP) can bind experiences across multiple physically distinct activities, whether billions of individual neurons firing or some other underlying phenomenon. To a first approximation, the boundary problem asks why we experience hard boundaries around those unified 1PPs and why the boundaries operate at their apparent spatiotemporal scale. We review recent discussion of the boundary problem, identifying several promising avenues but none that yet address all aspects of the problem. We set out five specific boundary problems to aid precision in future efforts. We also examine electromagnetic (EM) field theories in detail, given their previous success with the binding problem, and introduce a feature with the necessary characteristics to address the boundary problem at a conceptual level. Topological segmentation can, in principle, create exactly the hard boundaries desired, enclosing holistic, frame-invariant units capable of effecting downward causality. The conclusion outlines a programme for testing this concept, describing how it might also differentiate between competing EM ToCs.

In this guided meditation, Andrés will take you through QRI's recent work, focusing on two key aspects:The Thermodynamics of Consciousness: This part of the meditation will explore how energy flows from various sources such as sensory stimulation, valence, attention, surprise, and the background noise signature. This energy is directed towards the bound field of consciousness, which is then shaped via the energy sink landscape of symmetry and recognition. Finally, the processed consciousness exits through motor action or what is referred to as "outer field radiation."The Ecosystem of Agents: Drawing a parallel to next-token prediction engines like GPT-4, this part of the meditation will explain how our minds work similarly, where existing constraints help resolve ambiguity in our experiences. To make accurate predictions of the world, our minds simulate agentive behavior because the world is full of agents. To achieve this, "subagents" are created to play the role of agentive forces, which can be predicted to ensure safety.Throughout the meditation, you will explore a series of strategies to deal with these subagents and harmonize them within a healthy and wholesome ecosystem of friendly subagents that help each other in beautiful ways. Some of these strategies include:Improving the training data for subagents.Guiding lost subagents to a pool of love to re-absorb them.Cultivating good vibes as a base to provide evolutionary selection pressures for friendly agents to arise.Emphasizing equanimity and metta to reward clean intentions rather than flattery.Exploring different network structures for agents that are more easily manageable.By engaging in these practices, you can create a harmonious and beneficial ecosystem of subagents within your mind.

Without making any ontological, philosophical, or metaphysical assertions or assumptions, we acknowledge that the experience of the divine and the concept of "God" can have a significant impact on the human soul. Therefore, exploring this phenomenon is crucial for obtaining a comprehensive and direct understanding of consciousness.In this guided meditation, Andrés will lead you through an exploration of various conceptions of the divine without favoring any particular one. The central question guiding this exploration is: what is the experiential essence of inhabiting a world in which God is perceived in different ways? Rather than pursuing a specific dogma, we engage in an open-ended exploration of the divine to foster Qualia Mastery*. This approach is termed "Open Sourcing God," where individuals are not reliant on external interpretations or rules to access their own understanding of the divine.The diverse conceptions of the divine that will be explored include Chaos, Ingroup, Hierarchy, Creator, The Law, Archetype, Replication, Dynamics, Life, Energy, Coincidence and Synchronicity, Love, Compassion, Witness, Consciousness, Awareness, Oneness, Axis of Annealing, and Valence.

In this guided meditation, Andrés will lead you through a series of exercises that illustrate harmonic resonance in the energy body. Subsequently, excess energy will be channeled into high-valence tactile sensations (resembling Piti), which can serve as a potential foundational practice for the 1st Jhana.The meditation primarily focuses on the inner and outer "feel" channels of the (see, hear, feel) X (inner, outer) formulation of the "factorization experience," as introduced by Shinzen Young in his Unified Mindfulness framework. When necessary, feel free to use the inner and outer "see" channel for support, but keep the "feel" channel as the primary point of focus. During this meditation, we will explore the following types of oscillations:On/offLeft/rightTop/bottomFront/backExpand/contractToroidal flow (up, down, both at once)Checkerboard patternZebra patternHomogenous attention in spaceSpace qualities: solid, liquid, magnetic, viscosity, gaseous, plasmaPleasure, joy, peaceLaminal flow and energy management techniquesPrior to attempting this meditation, it is advisable to listen to the guided meditations on Energy, Attention, and Valence from the Qualia Mastery series.

In this guided meditation, Andrés will lead you through a diverse array of potential high-valence states of consciousness, often referred to as phenomenal "heaven worlds."The concept of "meditation calisthenics" draws inspiration from calisthenics exercises, which involve minimal equipment and target all muscle groups in the body. In the context of meditation, "meditation calisthenics" means engaging in various meditative approaches to keep all your "meditation muscles" in shape. Specifically, "high-valence calisthenics" pertains to the practice of exploring every form of positive valence state of consciousness that can be attained without external aids, such as chemical substances, sensory stimuli, or situational factors.During this guided meditation, we will explore high-valence configurations of "see, hear, feel" (both inner and outer experiences), artistic states of consciousness, social mindsets, metta (loving-kindness), the state of "cosmic party mode," the realms of insight, intellectual understanding, realization, and refined and purified high-valence states (Jhanas).We will conclude the meditation by dedicating these beautiful qualities of the mind for the benefit of all beings, wishing infinite bliss for everyone.

In this guided meditation, Andrés will assist you in exploring how attention constructs local binding connections between phenomenal features, and how the flow of attention and awareness can be likened to the graph algorithm called PageRank.Topics covered in the meditation include:Reviewing the nature of attention: what you pay attention to becomes stronger, gets locally bound, and connects to what you were paying attention to right before.Noticing local binding in the experiences of See, Hear, and Feel (both inner and outer).Cross-modal coupling: employing the divide and conquer technique to prevent negative valence and the coherence technique to enhance positive valence.Understanding the oscillatory complementarity between awareness and attention.Recognizing how objects of perception can act as witnesses and witnessed elements of a scene.Exploring hybrid attentional modes.Investigating chains of witnessing and Nth-order intentionality.Examining the concept of PageRank applied to attention.Delving into space witnessing space.These techniques and insights are valuable additions to your Qualia Mastery* toolkit.

In this guided meditation, Andrés will walk you through various methods to modulate the "energy parameter" of experience, which serves as a fundamental component of the Neural Annealing framework in the nervous system. The Neural Annealing approach explores how appropriately defined energy impacts internal representations, aids in solving constraint satisfaction problems, and has the potential to lead to sustainable high-valence states of consciousness by reducing internal stress.During the meditation, we will explore different sources of energy, including:(a) Sensory input (b) Pleasure and pain (c) Attention (d) SurpriseAdditionally, a wide range of techniques for building, managing, and skillfully deploying energy will be discussed and practiced.Enjoy this transformative experience!

In this guided meditation, Andrés will lead you through a transformative journey that includes the following elements:A factorization of experience into three main channels with their corresponding inner and outer versions: "see," "hear," and "feel."Utilizing your energy body as an antenna capable of perceiving both shapes and frequencies of internal representations, exploring the duality between form and vibration in the phenomenal world.Understanding symmetry and smooth geometry as the fundamental basis for valence.Recognizing consonance, dissonance, and noise as tools to assess the valence of our world-simulation.Learning a variety of practical strategies to address phenomenal dissonance effectively.Enjoy this profound exploration!Relevant links/references:High-Valence Meditation - https://qualiacomputing.com/2021/12/03/high-valence-meditation/Michael Johnson's Principia Qualia - Introduction to the Symmetry Theory of Valence, valence structuralism, and qualia formalism - https://opentheory.net/principia-qualia/The Consonance Disonance Noise Signature framework first introduced by Andrés Gómez Emilsson in Quantifying Bliss - https://qri.org/blog/quantifying-blissThe Symmetry Theory of Valence (@The Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London) - https://youtu.be/tSPZ4xt5f2kNeural Annealing by Michael Johnson - https://

In this guided meditation, Andrés will take you on a journey to explore the different ways of believing in various ontologies.Without making any definitive claims about the nature of reality, you will delve into the phenomenology of ontology. This involves exploring what it feels like to inhabit a phenomenal world where the fundamental building blocks of reality are perceived in distinct ways.One essential insight you will gain is the realization of how different facets of your experience can solidify and rigidify an ontology. For example, in the "dualism" ontology where both matter and mind coexist, you may notice how this can trigger the feeling of being encased or trapped within your body. However, through attentive observation, you can recognize that this sense of confinement arises from somatic feelings that render the experience in a particular way, rather than it being an inherent truth.Throughout the meditation, you will explore various ontologies, including:(1) Dualism: The coexistence of mind and matter. (2) Trinitarianism: The interplay of matter, consciousness, and space. (3) Atomism: The understanding that matter is composed of atoms, and the exploration of potential holism or binding. (4) Jain ontology: The existence of approximately nine fundamental kinds of ontological building blocks of reality, including space, time, dynamism, atoms, soul, and "karma particles." (5) Monism: The belief that everything is qualia, awareness, information, algorithms, computation, belief, or a social construction (Strong Tlon Hypothesis). (6) Ontologies of infinities. (7) Ontologies of Zero: Delving into David Pearce's Zero Ontology, where the existence of "zero information" implies the coexistence of all mutually-consistent universes of bound qualia.The exploration of the last ontology, Zero Ontology, is particularly powerful, as it can lead to the "rainbow God" phenomenology, where all flavors of qualia converge and "cancel each other out." This experience is closely related to the phenomenology of 5-MeO-DMT and the formless Jhanas.May all who engage in this meditation benefit from its profound insights!

This is a guided meditation provided by Andrés in order to enrich one's conception of the nature of "attention". Attention is typically thought of as a fuzzy "spotlight" that redirects cognitive resources to a region of one's experience. But this is just one of many varieties of attention. In fact, many changes to one's state of consciousness have very little to do with changes to perceptual features like color, brightness, auditory pitch, tactile sensations, or the texture of thought. At times, one can tell that one's state of consciousness has changed dramatically and yet it is very hard to pin-point exactly what that change consists of. In many of those cases, that's because the change is primarily attentional. Thus, learning about alternative modes of attention is an important tool to enable higher quality phenomenological reports and replications. It has the added bonus that knowing a broad range of attentional modes can radically enhance one's meditation practice. Join us in this guided meditation to get acquainted with a much broader set of attentional modes.