Many people meditate to reduce stress, become happier, or develop the ability to handle the day-to-day vicissitudes of life. However there are also reports, ranging from anecdotal to extensively documented, of meditation practice outcomes that go much deeper: to what is called "awakening" or "enlightenment." For these outcomes, meditation is a well-known method, but not the only possibility. Awakening experiences have also been reported in contemplative prayer, Sufi whirling, psychedelic therapy, near‑death events, post-traumatic growth following ordinary life crises, and even spontaneously, attributable to no proximate cause.
Currently, there are copious religious writings and increasing numbers of secular anecdotal reports about sudden or gradual transformative experiences that resulted in increased well being, a closer relationship with the world, increased feelings of connectedness with others, and other similar outcomes.
A precise and nuanced definition of the term "awakening" or “enlightenment” has been debated for millennia. Here we humbly offer a provisional definition of awakening as: a persistent and fundamental change in the moment-to-moment experience of the sense of self that correlates with perceptual and psychological changes, which result in reduced suffering and greater wellbeing.
While contemplative wisdom traditions have been conducting awakening-focused first person experiments for thousands of years, a small number of neuroscientists and psychologists have been scientifically investigating contemplative practices and processes for several decades. Due to the efforts of those researchers and organizations, contemplative science is now an established subfield, with approximately 2000 papers published each year.
However, awakening science has not experienced the same amount of attention or growth, and the extant handful of publications aiming to understand awakening typically use euphemistic language such as “self-transcendence” or “expert practitioners.”
Many academic researchers are currently aware of the valuable potential knowledge to be gained in awakening research, and are technically able to research it, but have been blocked from investigation due to a combination of cultural and resource constraints.
At present, the science of awakening represents a clear example of a consciousness frontier that is highly important, likely tractable, and significantly neglected. A comprehensive science of awakening would include investigation of its neurobiological mechanisms, construction of a map, or maps, of its stages, and the most effective methods for cultivating it. Eventually, a field of awakening science could aim to identify the psychological, environmental, and lifestyle factors that contribute to its occurrence, as well as investigate whether there is one universal awakening process or multiple paths with different characteristics. Insights could also be gleaned for issues we currently have little to no data on, such as how to address ‘dark nights of the soul’ and the common lifestyle changes, psychological shifts, and integration processes that are reported to follow awakening. Awakening science would not replace or displace established wisdom teachings and techniques, but instead increased understanding and augment the teachings of these practices with further knowledge. Ideally, new research findings from academic studies would be used to inform practice trajectories and retreat pedagogy, eventually resulting in an informed “personalized medicine” approach to awakening.
In our first year at The Consciousness Foundation, we seek to move the Overton window on awakening inside of academia by engaging in field building around A Science of Awakening. Our hope is that the outcome of this effort will coalesce and facilitate a rigorous field of research that ultimately empowers anyone who wishes to embark on a pursuit of awakening.