Book Review: J. P. Das,Consciousness Quest: Where East Meets West: On Mind,Meditation,and Neural Correlates

A few weeks ago, the following conversation took place between my 4-year-old daughter, Anushka, and me.

Anushka: ‘Mama, does a lion know that it is a lion?’

Me (visibly surprised by this profound question from a 4-year-old): ‘How would you know that you are you?’

Anushka did not pause to reflect. She seemed to have spent some time contemplating this question. She said, ‘I can recognize myself in the mirror. I can feel myself alive. Can a lion recognize himself in the mirror? Does he know that he is he and not another?’

Me: ‘Yeah, and what about dolphins, plants, and rocks? Can they know themselves?’

Anushka: ‘I don’t know, but I don’t think so. Lions and dolphins have feelings. I can see it in their eyes. But do they know themselves?’

Me: ‘I can’t say I know the answer, Anushka. That is a mystery, indeed. But what made you think of this question?’

Anushka: ‘Oh…I wonder if people would be cruel to animals and plants if they thought they were just like them…’

After which the conversation turned to animals and plants and Anushka’s aspirations to be the mother of all animals. Coincidently, I had been reading J.P. Das’ Consciousness Quest: Where East Meets West during that time. My mind was engrossed with the incredible ideas emerging from the book. One such idea concerns the evolution of consciousness. Does everything from the inanimate to the animate have consciousness in some form? I began to wonder what the inner life of my 4-year-old is. As an adoring mother, I marvelled at her ability to express the feeling of feeling herself from the inside. Consciousness is so obvious to even a 4-year-old! On the other hand, should we accept the strange and unsettling claim by prominent scientists like Daniel Dennett and Patricia Chruchland that there is nothing unique about consciousness? We do not really have an inner life. We are no more than brilliant robots. In fact, very soon our smartphones will be programmed to have consciousness. Neuroscience will eventually explain that consciousness is not a thing by itself; it is just different brain states. Profoundly disturbing propositions, you might say.

The first line of Das’ Consciousness Quest (Preface and Acknowledgments) is a meaningful one: ‘Consciousness must remain as a mystery as there is nothing to explain it.’ Questions such as these that straddle the border between science and philosophy cannot be approached by scientific methods alone. I believe this to be one of the most significant conclusions and contributions of the book. The book, first and foremost, is a serious attempt to make psychological science more inclusive, interdisciplinary, integrative of divergent worldviews and paradigms and culturally relevant.

To those with the taxonomic bent of mind, the contents of the book may appear heterogeneous—ranging from Indian Theories of Mind, Cognitive Processing Models, and Materialism and Behaviorism in Eastern Philosophy and Western Psychology. I resisted the temptation to categorise the 15 chapters of the book because connections are more important than disjunctions in the circuitry of the imagination. Professor Das elaborates, with the artistry, freedom and flexibility of a raaga rendition, how consciousness might emerge, where (if anywhere) it might be located in the brain, what it could mean to be conscious from a Vedantic, Buddhist and a Western philosophical perspective, whether there are levels of consciousness, and how consciousness might manifest itself materially. All these topics are studied to focus on the question of where Eastern contemplative philosophies might coincide with Western science and philosophy. Every single chapter is a treasure trove of insightful reviews spanning literature from different disciplines, traversing diverse epistemologies and cultures and bridging multiple levels of analysis from cellular to cultural. Very few books are appropriately broad gauged and precise at the same time—Consciousness Quest is one of those uncommon books.

Instead of summarising the contents of the chapters, my review focuses on the most thought-provoking and intriguing contributions of the book. One central theme that runs through all 15 chapters is that because consciousness is not observable, it is not amenable to scientific methods of inquiry alone. Building on Verela, Freeman, Thompson, Damasio, Simon, Polanyi, Rao, Schrodinger and others’ work, Das takes a non-dualistic, non-reductive approach to the study of consciousness. The study of consciousness requires the integration of phenomenological analysis with research on neural correlates of experiences of different forms of consciousness. With this thesis articulated in Chapter 1 (Introduction) and more forcefully in Chapters 12 (Materialism and Behaviorism in Eastern Philosophy) and 13 (Material Basis of Consciousness), Das goes on to explore what we may learn from Eastern philosophy, specifically the Vedantic, Upanishads and Buddhist traditions about the direct (first person) experience of consciousness.

In an effort to bridge the objective–subjective divide—that consciousness can exist as such without the need for an object—Das elaborates on the concept of consciousness through Indian theories of mind. In Chapters 2 (Concepts of Consciousness and Indian Theories of Mind) and 4 (Experience of Consciousness: Eastern Phenomenology), Das compares and contrasts various types, states and experiences of consciousness to the states of wakefulness, dream, sleep and hypnosis. Chapter 4 provides fascinating account of the paranormal experiences of mystics like Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Chapters 7 (Foundations of Mindfulness) and 8 (Interpretations of Mindfulness) provide an in-depth account of another form of consciousness— mindfulness (dhyana or meditative concentration) from the Buddhist and contemporary Western perspectives.

Chapters 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 are substantively ‘where East meets West’. In these chapters, Das reconnoitres the intersections between Eastern philosophy and Western psychology and philosophy. Chapter 3 (Cognition, Neuropsychology, and Consciousness) focuses on the frontal lobes and their linkages to the states of hypnosis and meditation. Chapter 5 (Explanations from Neuroscience) is a review of the neuroscience literature on the experience of consciousness and the limitations inherent in understanding/explaining consciousness through bottom-up approaches—neurons upwards. Chapter 6 (Consciousness and Meditation: At the Intersection of Eastern Traditions and Neuroscience) explicitly addresses the synergies and overlaps between Eastern philosophy and neuroscience, with special attention to meditation. For example, the chapter presents an overview of Raffone, Tagini and Srinivasan’s (2010) integrated neurocognitive model of mindfulness, attention and awareness. The chapter also explores how phenomenology (both empirical and analytical) can illuminate the study of introspective states and contemplative reflection.

Chapters 9 through 13 further explore points of synergy between Western and Eastern epistemologies. Chapter 9 (A Comparison of Two Cognitive Processing Models: The Abhidhamma and PASS) compares Das’ own theory of intelligence—Planning, Attention, Simultaneous and Successive Processing (PASS) with a Buddhist model of cognition—Abhidhamma. Chapter 10 (Contemporary Western Research: From Julian Jaynes to Eckhart Tolle) is an outstanding review of contemporary Western research on consciousness from Julian Jaynes’ classic book, published in 1976—The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, to Eckhart Tolle’s—A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose (2005, 2006) and how these researchers have been influenced by Eastern philosophies. This leads well into the next chapter that provides more evidence of the overlap between Western and Eastern philosophy concerning the question of mind–body duality. For instance, the chapter traces the intersection between Sri Aurobindo’s notion of consciousness in dynamic systems to theories of dynamic neural networks. Das concludes, based on his review of the literature that current discussions of mind–body problem appear to tilt towards the view that there is no duality. The experience of consciousness is shaped by culture and the environment and is a creation of the individual’s mind.

Chapter 12 (Materialism and Behaviorism in Eastern Philosophy and Western Psychology) is one of the most informative chapters, in my opinion. It explores the materialist basis of Buddhist philosophy. According to Buddhist philosophy, the self and consciousness have evolved from the material base of the body. The chapter reviews the work of materialists/behaviourists such as Thorndike, Pavlov, Vyogotsky, Luria, Watson and Skinner. Although Watson and Skinner rejected the study of consciousness, Das explains why Pavlov’s interest in hypnosis and the influence of language on human thinking are closely related to study of consciousness. Similarly, Vyogotsky’s research on free will integrates Pavlov’s work on conditioned reflexes and Freud’s theory of the ego and id. Luria’s research on the neurophysiological structure of consciousness integrates mind and matter. Chapter 13 (Material Basis of Consciousness) extends the earlier philosophical chapters on the material basis of consciousness and the neuropsychology of consciousness. Das concludes forcefully that consciousness cannot exist without a functioning brain and its source lies in the sociocultural history of the individual. Once again, Das rejects the reductionist view that emotions, knowledge, motivation can be reduced to neural activity.

This brings us two the last two chapters—Origins and Uses of Consciousness (Chapter 14) and Hard Problems: Legacy of Ancient Times (Chapter 15). These are the most poetic and delightful chapters in the book. Das elegantly incorporates Tagore’s poetry and humanistic literature throughout the volume. Das asks then ‘What is consciousness for?’ The answer is expressed adroitly in these lines ‘…we can indeed counteract the afflictive emotions such as violence and sadism by empathy, self-control, morality, and reason, with the help from evolution, thus awakening the better angels in our nature. It’s what consciousness is for’ (p. 22). And so it is fitting that we circle back to my 4-year-old’s yearning for more compassion among her fellow beings for plants and animals that must be conscious in some form.

The book ends with a ‘brief comment and a contrary view’ by Anne Dietrich (American University) who thinks consciousness is not a hard problem at all! Consciousness can be computed, so any computational system (such as, computers, the Internet and our smartphones) can do it. A handful of neuroscientists, like Dietrich, believe that consciousness can be ‘solved’ but we must be willing to accept the profoundly unsettling conclusion that computers and the Internet might soon become conscious too. Some claim that since we do not know how the brains of mammals create consciousness, there is no logical reason to assume that it is only the brains of mammals that do so—or even that consciousness requires a brain at all. And then there are other thinkers like Colin McGinn and American philosopher, Josh Weisberg, who raise the defeatist possibility that humans are constitutionally incapable of ever solving the hard problem. Hopefully, Das’ Consciousness Quest: Where East meets West addresses and even resolves some of these questions from Eastern philosophical perspectives. Perhaps this book will make at least some hard-nosed empiricists more comfortable with the synthesis of science and Eastern contemplative philosophies without abandoning their belief in the natural sciences or scientific methods.

I read Consciousness Quest as a social scientist with very little knowledge of the academic study consciousness, but a keen interest in the implications of socio-technical change on our capacity to self-reflect, contemplate and introspect. How do our current environments facilitate or hinder our ability to cultivate consciousness? Therefore, I approached the book with the simple question—How might the study of consciousness inform current discourses on the cultural reverberations of digital technologies? The permeable and fluid pervasive computing environments of our technological society and the array of behavioural demands they create dramatically change the socio-physical context of face-to-face interactions. According to Kenneth Gergen, in these permeable and micro-fragmented contexts, we are in a constant state of poly-consciousness in which multiple relationships and settings can be the focus of one’s attention at any given time regardless of location or context. Networked technologies (smartphones, tablets and laptops with Wi-fi connectivity) are distinctive in that they enable us to be in a persistent state of ‘absent presence’ or a state of split consciousness in which one is physically and perceptually present but immersed in a technologically mediated world of elsewhere. We learn from Das’ book that attention is crucial for exercising self-reflection and cultivating the capacity for self-realisation. Are we looking at a dystopian future—the hopelessness of a transhuman world with a society bereft of purpose in an infantile quest for pleasure and distraction? Will an adult Anushka be asking her phone how it knows that it knows?

Consciousness Quest is a fascinating read. Das provides an incomparable foundation for discourse and empirical research on Eastern phenomenology and the scientific study of consciousness. All the information one could possibly require to embark on the cross-disciplinary and cross-paradigmatic study of consciousness can be found here. I would be very comfortable assigning the book as required reading in my graduate classes on ‘Philosophy of Science’ and ‘Integrative Sciences’. Most significantly, Das writes remarkably eloquently and humanely. May the many intense and intriguing ideas in the book take you places you may never have dreamed of.