Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
June 7, 2026
Arikan, Furkan
A review proposes Dynamic Integrated Consciousness Theory (DIC) to explain why some monitoring becomes reportable awareness while other monitoring remains local or behavior-guiding. DIC separates five typed burdens: organized self-reference (C1), global availability (C2), within-episode renewal (C3), competition-sensitive commitment (C4), and reflexive policy modeling over the selector itself (C5). Basic functional awareness requires a C1-C4-positive profile plus time-bounded co-occurrence of online self-indexing and long-range broadcast. Meta-conscious awareness adds selector-level revision of why the current selection policy produced the chosen content. The review licenses each burden through paired healthy/intact and damaged/perturbed evidence, presenting DIC as a falsifiable mechanistic scaffold rather than a metaphysics of phenomenal feel.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
June 6, 2026
Lukas Geiger
A systematic comparison of the psychological framework of the Pali Canon with four Christian contemplative traditions—Desert Fathers, Rhineland Mysticism, Carmelite Mysticism, and Ignatian Spirituality—finds robust structural and conceptual parallels in contemplative attention regulation, affect regulation, developmental staging, and practice architecture. Both traditions independently identify a critical leverage point at the transition from a mental event's initial appearance to its elaboration. However, the analysis does not claim doctrinal identity, historical derivation, or direct empirical validation across traditions. Irreducible differences in ontology, soteriology, and causal architecture are documented alongside the parallels, supporting a moderate convergence position rather than doctrinal convergence or a historical-contact thesis.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
June 6, 2026
Vitalii Kablukov
A criterion for structural fundamentality is proposed: a term is fundamental if it cannot be derived from previously defined concepts and is necessary for building further structure. Four tests—necessity, independence, localization, and generative—are applied to physical primitives like mass and charge, which pass all. Applied to David Chalmers’ terms experience, phenomenal consciousness, and qualia, the analysis finds that Chalmers accepts their fundamentality based on failed reductive explanation, but that impossibility of reduction does not prove ontological fundamentality. All three terms can be decomposed using a minimal seven-definition system. The zombie argument relies on an internal contradiction. The hard problem is relocated from why phenomenal experience exists to under what conditions being gives rise to consciousness as the capacity to perceive one’s own reflection.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
June 6, 2026
Narayan Rout
Consciousness may arise from quantum processes in microtubules, the structural proteins inside neurons, yet remains irreducible to any physical substrate, according to a convergence of neuroscience and ancient Indian philosophy. The article argues that TUBB-gene-encoded microtubules constitute the quantum biophysical hardware of consciousness, while Upanishadic and Samkhya traditions identify an observer irreducible to that hardware. Epigenetics research showing that sustained mental states modify gene expression demonstrates a bi-directional relationship between consciousness and DNA: the observer actively shapes the substrate through which it observes. The hard problem of consciousness remains the most significant unresolved question in science and the most precisely anticipated concept in the Upanishadic tradition.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
June 5, 2026
Fatiha Nesrine Bouzid
Cosmic knowledge is not a direct reflection of the universe but a trace produced by the interaction of cosmic determinism with human free consciousness. Humans began as witnesses, not calculators, witnessing light after darkness, their own moving bodies, and their consciousness. The research uses the (B)+(F)=Nf framework: (B) functional processing (laws, matter, energy), (F) internal sovereignty (freedom, consciousness, witnessing), and (Nf) narrative trace (theories, texts, meaning). Knowledge of the beginning, for example, is the best cognitive trace this interaction has produced so far. Six axes are presented: philosophy of science, consciousness, time, freedom as foundation, pain as existential price, and witnessing the unknown self.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
June 5, 2026
Arthur Stewart
Higher-order theories (HOT) of consciousness claim a mental state is conscious only when a second, higher-order state represents it. This paper argues HOT is not a genuine theory but a labeling scheme: it specifies a bare relation between two states, calls one 'conscious,' and supplies physical details and evidence only informally as needed. Because HOT refuses to commit to any specific physical implementation, it cannot legitimately use empirical findings as confirmation. The regress problem—the oldest objection—reveals structural failures: the theory provides no resources to block regress, license empirical citations, or distinguish conscious from non-conscious pairs. Defenders add ad hoc fixes (asymmetry stipulations, signal detection apparatus) that protect the bare biconditional, achieving unfalsifiability through variant-switching rather than absorbing anomalies.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
June 5, 2026
Hakan Saka
A computational framework called Artificial F1 introduces a gating operator that selects which signals enter a system's task space before learning or evaluation occurs, unlike standard reinforcement learning or attention-based architectures that work on fixed inputs. This framework predicts improved sample efficiency under high-dimensional noise, energy savings from conditional processing, and a discontinuity in action-selection entropy at the gating threshold. The paper also develops Organizational Phenomenology, arguing that phenomenal properties like certainty and unity arise as structural consequences of bounded selection architectures, not as additional properties. The hard problem of consciousness is located at the opacity any coherent bounded system maintains at its selection boundary.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
June 5, 2026
Belay Sitotaw Goshu, M; Universitas Islam Negeri Sumatera Utara Ridwan
Spirituality is central to health and healing in Ethiopia, but the evidence base is narrow and fragmented. A scoping review of 31 studies (1968–2026) found the literature is predominantly qualitative (55%) and focused on mental health (74%). Ethiopian Orthodox Christian contexts dominate (71%), while Muslim (33% of population) and indigenous spiritual traditions are severely underrepresented. Five themes emerged: spiritual causal frameworks for illness, spiritual healers as primary mental health providers, holy water (tsebel) as a central healing modality, spirituality as a coping resource, and profound gaps in healthcare integration—moderate nursing spiritual care competence (mean 3.45/5), only 21.5% of nurses trained in spiritual care, and no national collaboration policies. Ethiopia’s formal healthcare system operates parallel to, not in partnership with, spiritual healing systems.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
June 5, 2026
Mark Nicolas
Most psychedelic research focuses on brain changes during the acute drug experience, but important changes also occur afterward. Ibogaine, studied only in the post-acute period, produces lasting reductions in neural signal complexity, shifts toward slower brain waves, decreased beta and gamma power, slowed peak alpha frequency, and improved cognitive inhibition lasting weeks. Similar post-acute changes from classical psychedelics suggest a shared stabilization phase. The Neural Attunement Model formalizes this post-acute phase as an organized, low-noise window for stabilizing neuroplasticity, specifying three convergent features and testable predictions. Ibogaine's long half-life and diverse pharmacological actions may extend this window, making it an empirical anchor for a regime that may generalize to other interventions.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
June 4, 2026
Artun Sina Bolukbasi
The brain's need for rapid energy during high-frequency neural oscillations (around 80 Hz) cannot be met by the standard Astrocyte-Neuron Lactate Shuttle or basal oxidative phosphorylation. The authors propose the VESTA framework, in which endogenous N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) acts as a bioenergetic regulator. By binding to Sigma-1 Receptors at the Mitochondria-Associated Membrane, DMT triggers a calcium-dependent release of the tricarboxylic acid cycle, producing the ATP surplus needed for sustained high-frequency binding. This mechanism bypasses slower glial energy systems, preventing metabolic collapse during intense neural activity, and offers a physical basis for the metabolic conditions required for phenomenal unity as described in Integrated Information Theory 4.0.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
June 3, 2026
Saif Pathan
The Saifian Principle (SP) distinguishes spatial dimensions (directly perceived) from temporal dimensions (affecting beings without direct perception). It states that a being perceives only the spatial dimensions it possesses and is affected by the temporal dimensions it possesses. Combined with humans perceiving 3 spatial dimensions and being affected by 1 time dimension, the principle has implications for philosophy of perception, philosophy of physics, quantum mechanics (the measurement problem), and cognitive science. The paper engages with Kant, Berkeley, McTaggart, Bell, and Maudlin, and addresses objections from virtual reality, brain-computer interfaces, evolution, time perception, and the presentism vs. eternalism debate.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
June 1, 2026
Vlad Tverdohleb
Materialist science cannot explain subjective experience or anomalous phenomena such as spontaneous remissions, nonlocal healing, verified past-life memories, and reports of a luminous 'body of light' across spiritual traditions. The Ogdoadic Synthesis places consciousness, not matter, as the foundation of reality, integrating cosmopsychist dual-aspect monism, quantum biology, bioelectricity, torsion field physics, and perennial esoteric maps. It proposes a Fundamental Consciousness Field from which individual minds arise, each carrying a perfect Template State Vector (the '5D Blueprint'). Progressive alignment of the biological body with this template follows a nested harmonic cascade, involving mechanisms such as microtubule coherence, biophoton fields, EZ water, and cell voltage restoration. The paper concludes with testable predictions and a longitudinal case study.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
June 1, 2026
Oleg V. Yermakov
Mars is reinterpreted not as an astronomical object but as a psycho-cosmic agent in the evolution of consciousness, functioning as a filter between states of awareness. A three-tier planetary model is proposed: the Moon as an archetypal archive, Earth as embodied experience, and Mars as a domain of transformation, will, and purifying fire. Hyperborea is redefined as a transcendent ontological layer linked to the Moon as a gateway to other dimensions. Mars is described as an energetic and archetypal structure associated with trial, will, dissolution of illusion, and transition to higher consciousness, integrating mythology, Hermeticism, Jungian psychology, Platonic tradition, and contemporary philosophy of consciousness.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
June 1, 2026
Юр'єв Віктор Єгорович Viktor Yuriev
The human brain is an integrated neurovascular system where neurons, blood vessels, glial cells, and metabolism work together. Neurovascular coupling, the blood–brain barrier, and the glymphatic system support cognitive processes. The vasculome is proposed as an additional organizational level alongside the connectome. Current brain reconstruction approaches have limitations, leading to a Biological Non-Reproducibility Principle for complex self-organizing systems. A neurovascular limit of consciousness hypothesis suggests conscious experience depends on sustained energetic and metabolic integration, not just neural architecture. Reproducing the brain cannot be reduced to copying neuronal connections. This perspective reshapes understanding of consciousness continuity, personal identity, and future brain bioengineering.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
June 1, 2026
Gustavo Oliveira
Dual-Aspect Quantum Theory (DAQT) proposes that consciousness has a dual structure: subjective experiences (qualia) influence probabilities, and agency resolves possibilities into actions. Quantum mechanics' two modes—unitary evolution and collapse—are interpreted as having subjective interiors, matching this architecture. The framework reformulates major problems in philosophy of mind, such as the Hard Problem and the Combination Problem, as consequences of this psychophysical structure. It explores mathematical characterization of qualia, entanglement's role in unified consciousness, and a potential biological mechanism. DAQT is presented as a coherent explanatory program, not a completed proof or model.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 31, 2026
John Cantellow
Conscious experience may have a more fundamental and persistent feature than the forms of selfhood usually associated with it. Drawing on reports from dreaming, contemplative practice, psychedelic states, and nondual awareness, the paper introduces the concept of experiential presence: the minimal fact that experience appears present at all. This is a heuristic construct, not a metaphysical entity. Autobiographical identity, agency, embodiment, and self-boundary can transform while conscious experience remains. The paper considers competing interpretations and raises methodological and epistemological issues about whether experiential presence may be part of the condition under which consciousness becomes available for investigation. It does not claim experiential presence is universal, but aims to clarify questions for future research.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 30, 2026
Oleg V. Yermakov
Modern science paradoxically denies the subjectivity of the Universe despite advances in quantum physics and the philosophy of consciousness. The article analyzes why science continues to ignore the Living Universe hypothesis formulated in the works of John Wheeler, and proposes viewing reality as a co-creative process between observer and observed. It argues for integrating scientific, philosophical, and spiritual knowledge to form a new holistic worldview. Recognizing the Universe as a subject could enable an ethical, cosmic, and personal breakthrough, potentially giving rise to new medicine, ecology, science, and dialogue between planetary levels of consciousness.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 30, 2026
Jamie Morris
Recognized error feels different from ordinary failure because meaning itself depends on the possibility of relating distinctions in more than one way. A system can only be wrong if alternatives existed. Cognition includes a distinct adjudicative function that preserves alternative accessibility within a meaning-landscape, a function not exhausted by the truth or utility of those alternatives. The emotional weight of error reflects the withdrawal of endorsement from a previously trusted distinction—consciousness transitioning from 'yes' to 'no' from within. This is a falsifiable architectural claim: if all alternative-preservation reduces to prediction-error minimization, global broadcasting, or sensorimotor coordination, the adjudicative function would be unnecessary.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 30, 2026
Samuel Richards
An acquired change becomes part of a system's organizational identity—termed a scar—when it meets three formal criteria: irreversibility, generativity, and architecturally expanding constraint within a closed organized system. The paper defines a scar register and distinguishes minimal selfhood from robust selfhood based on register closure and connectedness. Seven propositions and one theorem are proved, including that fixed-topology weight-separable AI systems cannot acquire scars. Computational demonstrations confirm the framework's internal consistency and discriminatory behavior. The work offers a formal answer to which historical interactions become constitutive of what a system is, rather than remaining merely causal events.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 29, 2026
Paul W. Barnes
Intelligence, understanding, reasoning, and other mental concepts are being redefined through six specific fallacies—Hard Conflation, Concept Hollowing, the Stolen Concept, Package Dealing, Floating Abstractions, and the Anti-Concept—so that they apply to AI systems while discarding the phenomenal (subjective) aspects originally part of these concepts. Using intelligence as a central example, the argument shows that genuine intelligence requires registration, which requires an interior aspect, which is what phenomenal consciousness names; thus intelligence depends on consciousness. The contemporary view that AI is intelligent yet AI consciousness is intractable is maintained only by capturing both concepts in parallel. An eight-stage account describes how this captured vocabulary becomes the norm for understanding human cognition, erasing resources for recognizing phenomenal experience.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 29, 2026
Gerd Leidig
Active Inference is often interpreted as a theory where the brain builds internal models of an external world, but this article argues it is better understood as enactive inference: a theory of embodied, affectively regulated coupling between organism and environment. Free-energy minimization cannot be reduced to passive sensory-surprise reduction, as shown by the dark-room problem, but must relate to expected free energy, exploration, viability, and biological normativity. Introducing processual perspectivism as an ontology of perspective-bearing life, the article posits that mind is not an inner representational object but the perspectival form of embodied self-organization, and consciousness is the intrinsic, affectively structured perspective of a living system regulating its openness to the world.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 29, 2026
Andrew Stewart Caldin
A high-dimensional geometric framework called E8 can encode the coupled dynamics of serotonin-2A receptor activation and dopamine pathways relevant to cocaine addiction. Embedding clinical data on psilocybin and cocaine into this model allows rapid classical simulations that predict therapeutic outcomes, potentially enabling faster optimization of dosing protocols. The original finding suggests that psilocybin could be an effective treatment for cocaine addiction.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 28, 2026
Alex Thinius
The sex/gender distinction has been both useful and restrictive for interdisciplinary research. Alternative frameworks aim to overcome or redefine these categories, including biosocial interaction, gender/sex entanglement, and dynamic developmental systems. This paper supports modifications of dynamic systems approaches, arguing that the 'linguistic bodies' paradigm provides theoretical resources to distinguish and connect gender structuration, gender identity, and their material dimensions. The author examines Fausto-Sterling's connection of her developmental systems approach with embodied cognition theory, acknowledging its strength but showing it is limited by representationalist understanding. The author expands the view that gender requires participatory sense-making, linking personal, intersubjective, socio-structural, and material dimensions without positing representationalist agents.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 27, 2026
Robert Keith Russell
A scale-free, four-tiered biological stack is proposed that spans quantum-coherent spin dynamics, classical ionotropic circuits, metabolic-mitochondrial signalling networks, and host-microbiome interactions. Under this framework, the host-microbiome axis forms an integrated, distributed information-energetic feedback loop in which microbial signalling molecules act as slow variables that sculpt the continuous thermodynamic landscape of the mind. A formal thermodynamic justification for phenomenal consciousness is implemented, arguing that subjective experience serves a necessary function in translating multi-scale energetic states into a unified, motivationally loaded causal driver for adaptive action.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 26, 2026
Trinity Labo
Civilization externalizes human cognitive functions—memory, perception, calculation, judgment, imagination, dialogue, and self-observation—into technological, symbolic, institutional, and AI-mediated systems, functioning as externalized cognitive organs. This process separates functional consciousness from individual minds, reorganizing it through reintegration networks and feeding it back as respecialization. The framework models civilization as a cyclic process involving internal cognition, external organs, reintegration bandwidth, emergent cultural dynamics, cognitive dependency, abstraction gain, and objective-function divergence. Artificial intelligence represents a phase where an external organ becomes dialogic, generative, and semi-autonomous, creating opportunities for higher-order respecialization but risks of bandwidth collapse, dependency, and divergence. The theory is contrasted with extended mind theory, distributed cognition, technogenesis, autopoiesis, and major evolutionary transitions.