Avi Loeb states:
'The Council under my leadership includes the following members: I was tasked by the White House, AARO, ODNI, the FBI, and the Intelligence Community to lead and assemble a team of scientists and experts for a new UAP Science Advisory Council. '
@MatthewSacchet There's vector cancellation when all possible perspectives on a sense object are taken, implying perceptions result from a relative lack of perspectives.
Bodily awareness during advanced meditation: what happens and how should we study it?
Announcing our new preprint: "Bodily Awareness in Advanced Meditation: A Three-Level Model of Interoceptive, Schematic, and Pacificatory Changes," now available on PsyArXiv.
During advanced concentrative absorption meditation jhāna (ACAM-J), practitioners report experiences ranging from intense somatic rapture to the complete absence of bodily awareness. These are among the most radical alterations in embodied experience documented in science and are rare outside of experimental, pathological, and drug-induced experiences. Yet existing frameworks typically study these changes as a component of "self-dissolution" or embodied selfhood rather than investigating bodily awareness on its own terms.
In this new paper, we argue that changes in bodily awareness during advanced meditation should be studied in their own right, rather than primarily through the lens of the self. We propose a three-level model distinguishing interoceptive changes, body-schematic changes, and pacification—the progressive to complete phenomenological absence of bodily awareness. Drawing on phenomenological reports from jhāna practice manuals and emerging neuroimaging evidence from studies of ACAM-J, we argue that these are dimensions of variation that may have similar markers yet remain conceptually distinct. Such a conceptualization allows us to highlight fine-grained phenomenological changes as they manifest across eight stages of concentrative absorption and varying depths of practice. By studying bodily awareness outside of self-centric models, we can highlight, conceptualize, and measure changes in bodily awareness without resolving complex questions about the nature of selfhood.
One key insight from this work is that these dimensions are conceptually distinct and likely partially dissociable. In the emerging science of advanced meditation, studying dimensions of bodily awareness independently from the self thus promises to inform more precise phenomenological description. Further, it opens new empirical questions about the structure and plasticity of body representation across altered states of consciousness.
Gratitude to first author Jes Golden @jesology for leading this project, and to our collaborator Terje Sparby @terjesparby, as well as to the contemplative practitioners whose sustained practice continues to inspire and inform this research.
Please share if you find this meaningful—this work depends on the insights, wisdom, and exchange of our global community.
Full preprint in comments. ⤵️
May this work benefit many 🙏
🚨 JUST IN - The White House’s UAP Science Advisory Council members have been announced:
Dr. Avi Loeb — Harvard theoretical physicist, founder of the Galileo Project, former chair of Harvard's astronomy department, and bestselling author of Extraterrestrial, tapped to lead the new UAP Science Advisory Council appointed by the White House, AARO, and ODNI.
Dr. Regina Sarmiento — Galileo Project researcher whose work focuses on AI-assisted data analysis and management, joining the council to apply machine-learning techniques to UAP data.
Prof. Garry Nolan — Stanford pathology professor and molecular biologist, co-founder of the Sol Foundation, bringing expertise in molecular biology and materials science to anomaly investigations.
Dr. Tim Gallaudet — oceanographer and former Acting NOAA Administrator and Rear Admiral, contributing oceanographic expertise to the council's analysis of maritime UAP encounters.
Dr. Jennice Vilhauer — Los Angeles psychologist, developer of Future Directed Therapy and author of Think Forward to Thrive, joining to study the psychological impact of potential disclosure on the public.
Prof. Matthew Szydagis — physicist specializing in instrumentation and detector technology, appointed to lead instrumentation and data-collection methods for the council.
Dr. Devesh Nandal — researcher in numerical analysis and astrophysics, recruited to apply computational modeling techniques to UAP phenomena.
Prof. Peter Skafish — cultural anthropologist and co-founder of the Sol Foundation with a PhD from UC Berkeley, author of Rough Metaphysics, bringing an anthropological lens to how humans might interpret nonhuman intelligence.
Dr. Michael Shermer — founder and publisher of Skeptic magazine, longtime science communicator known for applying critical-thinking and anomaly-investigation methods, including a public wager with Loeb over alien-technology disclosure.
Dr. Richard Cloete — Galileo Project postdoctoral fellow trained at the University of Cambridge, specializing in AI-driven data analysis tools, appointed to the council to lead data analysis and AI methodology.
Dr. Omer (Eldadi) — specialist combining data management, AI, and human psychology, appointed to handle the council's data infrastructure and the human-factors side of UAP reporting.
The other day I was asked by an Administration official what my priorities would be for release of UAP information. I replied as follows:
1) UAP Space Data
UAP detected in space, either in orbit or entering and departing the Earth’s atmosphere. I believe we have such data yet nothing of this kind has been released. We have numerous systems performing space surveillance, including the world’s most powerful radars. The power, sophistication and range of those systems leads me to believe they must inevitably collect and track UAP.
2) Satellite Data
This is another category of UAP data that has not been released to date. I’ve seen some of this imagery and what I’ve seen was impressive. Although typically highly classified, under present circumstances, with pressure from the White House, it may well be possible to release some or all of this overhead UAP data.
3) UAP Data from the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System
The old Ballistic Missile Early Warning System has been continuously updated since the end of the Cold War to its current condition. These are believed to be the most powerful emitters on the planet. Further, numerous UAP encounters have clearly occurred within their areas of coverage. For example, during the Nimitz incident numerous UAP were descending from roughly 80,000 ft to 20,000 feet, in mere seconds, for several days, directly in front of the powerful strategic radar at Beale Air Force Base. Yet, none of this data has been released. Data from each of these systems could appreciably add to our knowledge of the UAP phenomenon.
I’m hoping they have the latitude and determination needed to come clean with this information.
A leading scientific UFO conference is landing in Toronto, Canada this summer... Learn more about about the @ExploreSCU event and read my interview with former Pentagon insider, UAP disclosure advocate & keynote speaker @ChrisKMellon via @CTVNews 👉https://t.co/dmsF7C05Ra🍁❓👀🔍
Held in Canada for the first time, the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies’ (SCU) seventh annual conference will take place in Toronto between July 24 and 26, with Mellon delivering a keynote address on the first night. Founded in 2017, the SCU is a non-profit group dedicated to applying an academic lens to this seemingly strange subject.
https://t.co/vGmPcuJSzA
CTV freelance journalist Daniel Otis (@dsotis) sat down with Christopher Mellon (@ChrisKMellon) to discuss his keynote appearance this July in Toronto at @ExploreSCU.
https://t.co/NcxaUQUz29
Looking forward to joining the media panel at the @ExploreSCU conference from July 24–26 in Toronto.
The conference will feature keynote speakers including Christopher Mellon, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, alongside leading UAP scientists.
This Is incredible
I checked the NOAA data from last night and sure enough a massive storm front split in two over DC
The storm hit us in Harpers Ferry and as it made its way to DC parted in the middle sparing the city from the storm allowing the event to take place
I am deeply honored to serve the White House, AARO, ODNI & the FBI at getting to the bottom of the UAP files.
@ProfAviLoeb is the right person to head the UAP Science Advisory Council because he strikes the right balance between naive gullibility & dogmatic skepticism as Carl Sagan noted in the epigram of my 1st book, Why People Believe Weird Things:
Openness is not a weakness. It’s a quietness. Even if there is agitation, there can be inner quiet. In quietness, you’re not fighting the agitation. You’re not trying to smash it down, to stomp on it by saying, “This shouldn’t be here.
Who will cry for the world
And shed the tears
Of personal and collective suffering
If not you and I
For those who are still angry
Cannot yet open
To embrace their grief.