Research
M3CS applies philosophical and scientific rigour to provide new answers about consciousness, contemplation and their relation to each other. The Centre is a vibrant research hub for a new generation of interdisciplinary academics, fostering new global collaborations.
Representative publications from the M3CS team since the Centre's inception in 2021. See also our individual pages for full publication lists.
We aim to have a bustling and broad-ranging portfolio of research projects, publications and grants, building the Centre’s identity as an innovator in the consciousness and contemplative studies field. We are quickly forging international recognition for innovative research in this interdisciplinary area.
Our research increasingly reflects the distinctive M3CS focus on the connections between consciousness, contemplation, and action. Several compelling lines of inquiry are emerging:
Do we act more morally after meditating? One of M3CS’s programs is Mindfulness for Wellbeing and Peak Performance greatly enjoyed by Monash students and staff and numerous participants worldwide. But does it also foster self-compassion and prosocial attitudes? Professor Craig Hassed and a M3CS team provides positive evidence in the peak journal Mindfulness. At the same time, we must consider the question, “Do contemplative practices make us more moral?” A M3CS-Harvard paper coming out in the influential journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences argues that we need to carefully consider how that question is asked, showing that for mindfulness the answer is indeed mixed.
What does it mean to act if you don’t have a self? Buddhist monastics undertake a lot of vows but how can they commit themselves to these many actions, given they also believe there is no permanent self? A M3CS-Cornell team uses decision theory to answer this question, in the prestigious journal Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. Relatedly, what could it mean to be a selfless mind? Can such an entity have a sense of agency? Professor Monima Chadha’s impressive book with Oxford University Press provides a new and exciting treatment of this question, focusing on Abhidharma Buddhist philosophy.
Why would meditation relate to action, if the practice is about doing nothing? Dr Toby Woods and Dr Jennifer Windt, collaborating with a team from University of Melbourne, ask in Mindfulness if stillness meditation, which is all about complete stillness, as well as Thai Forest mediation, is really experienced as empty. Reporting from 160 meditators, they find that the experiences are not in fact the states devoid of all content as classically conveyed. This work is continuing with a large controlled trial, where Dr Woods reports: “We are seeking to find out how ‘do nothing’ meditation impacts meditators’ minds and bodies in the early stages of practice. We compare ‘do nothing’ meditation with a focused attention technique. So far I have conducted 150 one-hour testing sessions. Preliminary analysis indicates participants in both practices have highly positive and calming experiences. The next step will be to gauge the impact of increasing the amount of silence in the sessions.”
What do we consciously experience, when in deep mediation? Dr Mark Miller is working with researchers from McGill (CA) University exploring the neurobiology and phenomenology of advanced meditation states. Dr Miller reports: “We use state-of-the-art neuroimaging, neurocomputational frameworks, and qualitative techniques. The team is collaborating with advanced meditators from diverse backgrounds, including North America and various Asian monastic contexts (Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos), encompassing both Buddhist and Christian practitioners. The preliminary findings are already showing intriguing information about the brain's activities during deep states of concentration, like 'jhana' and prayer.”
Is contemplation one thing, and decision and action another? Several M3CS teams approach this question by probing computational processeses in the brain. The role of action in contemplation and wellbeing is modelled with active inference, a cutting edge approach integrating action and experience. An account of resilience has already appeared, and student-led working models are written for optimism and gratitude, flexible learning, meta-awareness in focused attention meditation, and the defabrication of experience in deep meditation. This points to a distinctive integrated account of consciousness, contemplation and action. Professor Hohwy has completed a book manuscript elucidating these notions under the concept of self-evidencing.
How does action impact what we consciously see? The M3CS node in the large INTREPID Adversarial Collaboration consortium on consciousness is testing the theory that active inference is necessary for consciousness - which implies that changing active inference through contemplation can change consciousness. Promising pupil dilation results in a visual illusion were presented at The Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness (NY). Here, ‘Adversarial Collaboration’ aspires to advance science and avoid polarisation. This aspiration is in need of a rigid analysis method, which our team have developed, soon to be available to the broad scientific community.
Several further projects speaking to consciousness, contemplation and action are well underway, with advanced data collection for projects on the difference between dignity and respect, on retaliation and moral emotion, on trust and character, on how we judge the mindfulness of each other’s actions, on derealisation, and on dreams and mindwandering.
M3CS partners with several organisations for research projects. Please contact us if your organsation have aligned interests or projects.