- direct access through meditation,
- absolute reference state of cognition,
- self determined memory structure,
- existence of intelligence,
- confirmed by ancient and modern seers.
1. Phenomenological direct access to pure consciousness through meditation
„In meditation, after all cognitive activity has effortlessly come to an end and attention has settled into a stable, globalized state, specific aspects of phenomenal self-consciousness—like autobiographical memory, cognitive and attentional agency, and emotional self-modeling—can be temporarily suspended" .(Metzinger 2003)
2.Establishing pure consciousness as absolute reference state of cognition
"As practitioners of meditation from highly diverging cultural backgrounds have consistently reported over centuries, effortlessly tending to the flow of your own cognitive processes is an efficient means to end these processes." (Metzinger 2003)
"From a theoretical perspective, it is most important first to isolate clearly the simplest form of self-consciousness. What is the most fundamental, the earliest sense of self-hood? We must pay attention to the causally enabling and necessary low-level details first, to what I call “minimal phenomenal self-hood. MPS”. (Metzinger 2009)
3. The pure Self (Atma) is the phenomenon of memory within pure consciousness
"Where for MPS the global phenomenology of identifying with the body as a whole was the empirical starting point, MPE begins with all reports in which subjects claim that they have actually had an experience of consciousness as such."(Metzinger 2020)
4. Analytical approach to determine and select specific sets of minimal phenomenal experiences
"Providing a medium-level functional analysis ...yielding.. universal and reliably repeatable properties instantiated by all forms of subjective experience...A longside more detailed philosophical analysis, MPE needs investigating using psychometric, computational, and neuroscientific methods . " (Metzinger 2020)
5. Confirmation from ancient and modern Vedic studies
“Witness-consciousness” is an example of a phenomenological notion with a long tradition . an earliest appearance of the idea seems to be found in the Atharva Veda." Chatterjee 1982, cited in Metzinger 2020)
"Even if the natural response to this experience is to describe it as “contentless”, it is still appropriate to raise the question of whether it ...might nevertheless actually have some, albeit very abstract, content." (J Shear, 2007, cited in Metzinger 2020)
Thomas Metzinger 2003: Being No One. The Self-Model Theory of Subjectivity. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA., ISBN 0-262-13417-9 (gebunden), ISBN 0-262-63308-6 (Taschenbuch).
Thomas Metzinger 2009: The Ego Tunnel. The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self. Basic Books, New York, ISBN 0-465-04567-7.
Thomas Metzinger 2020: Minimal phenomenal experience: Meditation, tonic alertness, and the phenomenology of “pure” consciousness. Philosophy and the Mind Sciences Vol. 1 No. I (2020) https://doi.org/10.33735/phimisci.2020.I.46