Thank you for writing about this. It’s a tremendously interesting issue.
I feel qualitatively more conscious, which I mean in the “hard problem of consciousness” sense of the word. “Usually people say that high-dose psychedelic states are indescribably more real and vivid than normal everyday life.” Zen practitioners are often uninterested in LSD because it’s possible to reach states that are indescribably more real and vivid than (regular) real life without ever leaving real life. (Zen is based around being totally present for real life. A Zen master meditates eyes open.) It is not unusual for proficient meditators to describe mystical experiences as at least 100× more conscious than regular everyday experience.
I’m very curious about the issue of what it means to say that one creature is “more conscious” than another—or, that one person is more conscious while meditating than while surfing Reddit. Especially if this is meant in the sense of “more phenomenally conscious”. (I take it that you do mean “more phenomenally conscious”, and that’s what you are saying by invoking the hard problem. But let me know if that’s not right). Can you say more about what you mean? Some background:
Pautz (2019) has been influential on my thinking about this kind of talk about ‘more conscious’ or ‘level of conscious’ or ‘degree of consciousness’. Pautz distinguishes between many consciousness-related things that certainly do come in degrees.
On the one hand, we have certain features of the particular character of phenomenally conscious experiences:
Intensity level (193)
A whisper is less intense than a heavy metal concert; faint pink is less intense than bright red. And of course, certain pleasures and pains are more intense than others
Complexity level
The whiff of mint is a ‘simpler’ experience than visual experience of a bustling London street
Determinacy level
A tomato in the center of vision is represented more determinately than a tomato in the periphery
Access level
If you think that things can be more or less ‘access’ of phenomenal conscious experiences, then there might be some experiences that are not accessed, versus those that are fully accessed—e.g. something right in front of you that you are paying full attention to.
And then there is a ‘global’ feature of a creature’s phenomenal consciousness:
Richness of experiential repertoire: the ‘number’ of distinct experiences (types and tokens) the creature has the capacity to have (194). Adult humans probably have a greater richness of experiential repertoire than a worm (if indeed worms are phenomenally conscious).
In light of this, my questions for you:
Along which of these dimensions are you ‘more’ conscious when meditating? Would love to hear more. (I’m guessing: intensity, complexity, and access?)
Do you think there is some further way in which you are ‘more conscious’, that is not cashed out in these terms? (Pautz does not, and he uses this to criticize Integrated Information Theory)
Finally: this post has inspired me to be more ambitious about exploring the broader regions of consciousness space for myself. (“Our normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different.” -William James). And for that, I am grateful.
Though I wrote “while meditating”, that language is misleading. The effects persist after meditation. They are often most salient immediately after meditation since, while meditating, I am too focused on meditating to appreciate the effects.
When I have a consistent mediation practice, I am more conscious along the intensity, complexity and access dimensions. I feel more conscious along the experiential repertoire too, but that might be more subjective. What do you mean by “determinacy”? I don’t understand your definition.
I would be surprised if there weren’t other ways I am more conscious after meditation that isn’t included under your terms, but this is a notoriously difficult experience to describe.
Thank you for writing about this. It’s a tremendously interesting issue.
I’m very curious about the issue of what it means to say that one creature is “more conscious” than another—or, that one person is more conscious while meditating than while surfing Reddit. Especially if this is meant in the sense of “more phenomenally conscious”. (I take it that you do mean “more phenomenally conscious”, and that’s what you are saying by invoking the hard problem. But let me know if that’s not right). Can you say more about what you mean? Some background:
Pautz (2019) has been influential on my thinking about this kind of talk about ‘more conscious’ or ‘level of conscious’ or ‘degree of consciousness’. Pautz distinguishes between many consciousness-related things that certainly do come in degrees.
On the one hand, we have certain features of the particular character of phenomenally conscious experiences:
Intensity level (193)
A whisper is less intense than a heavy metal concert; faint pink is less intense than bright red. And of course, certain pleasures and pains are more intense than others
Complexity level
The whiff of mint is a ‘simpler’ experience than visual experience of a bustling London street
Determinacy level
A tomato in the center of vision is represented more determinately than a tomato in the periphery
Access level
If you think that things can be more or less ‘access’ of phenomenal conscious experiences, then there might be some experiences that are not accessed, versus those that are fully accessed—e.g. something right in front of you that you are paying full attention to.
And then there is a ‘global’ feature of a creature’s phenomenal consciousness:
Richness of experiential repertoire: the ‘number’ of distinct experiences (types and tokens) the creature has the capacity to have (194). Adult humans probably have a greater richness of experiential repertoire than a worm (if indeed worms are phenomenally conscious).
In light of this, my questions for you:
Along which of these dimensions are you ‘more’ conscious when meditating? Would love to hear more. (I’m guessing: intensity, complexity, and access?)
Do you think there is some further way in which you are ‘more conscious’, that is not cashed out in these terms? (Pautz does not, and he uses this to criticize Integrated Information Theory)
Finally: this post has inspired me to be more ambitious about exploring the broader regions of consciousness space for myself. (“Our normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different.” -William James). And for that, I am grateful.
Though I wrote “while meditating”, that language is misleading. The effects persist after meditation. They are often most salient immediately after meditation since, while meditating, I am too focused on meditating to appreciate the effects.
When I have a consistent mediation practice, I am more conscious along the intensity, complexity and access dimensions. I feel more conscious along the experiential repertoire too, but that might be more subjective. What do you mean by “determinacy”? I don’t understand your definition.
I would be surprised if there weren’t other ways I am more conscious after meditation that isn’t included under your terms, but this is a notoriously difficult experience to describe.