Perspectives on mystical union from philosophy, psychology and neuroscience.

Wed, October 16
6:30-8:00pm

Anecdotal reports of contemplative experiences often describe a sense of unity that transcends self-object dichotomy and subsumes the multiplicity of phenomena in a unified field of awareness/consciousness. This talk will explore different perspectives on nonduality. The neuroimaging data will be discussed in light of experiential meditation, and the different models for the neural correlates of nondual awareness will be presented, including the recent research from our lab at NYU (Josipovic et al., 2012; Josipovic, 2013).

Zoran Josipovic, PhD, is the director of Contemplative Science Lab, Psychology Dept., NYU, and adjunct assistant professor for cognitive and affective neuroscience. He is the founding director of Nonduality Institute, Woodstock, NY. His research interests are states of consciousness cultivated through contemplative practice, what these states can tell us about the nature of consciousness and its relation to authentic subjectivity, and the relevance they have for understanding the global and local organization in the brain. Zoran is a long-time practitioner of meditation in the nondual traditions of Dzogchen, Mahamudra and Advaita Vedanta.