Travis et al.

THE “HARD” PROBLEM OF CONSCIOUSNESS 123

Maharishi Vedic Science Addresses the

“Hard” Problem of Consciousness
Frederick Travis
Kelly Munly
Theresa M. Olson
John W. Sorflaten
Maharishi University of Management

This paper considers the implications of experiences during practice of

the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique on the so-called “hard”
problem of consciousness: Why perceptual and cognitive functions are
accompanied by (inner) conscious experience. TM practice leads to the
experience of self-referral awareness—silent, pure consciousness with-
out customary processing and content. Pure consciousness is described
as silent, unbounded, and by the absence of time, space and body sense.
Physiologically this experience is associated with high EEG coherence,
breath quiescence, autonomic orienting, and increases in the frequency
of peak EEG power. Pure consciousness may be a foundational state that
adds the quality of “conscious” to experience when it combines, through
the “beam” of attention, with perceptual, cognitive and affective pro-
cesses.

Chalmers (1995) has separated research on the concept of con-

sciousness into two categories—research that addresses easy or hard
problems. Research into the “easy” problems of consciousness investi-
gates reportable “third-person” facts about discrimination, categoriza-
tion, and reaction to environmental stimuli. By explaining cognitive
abilities and functions, this research can explain the performance of
cognitive functions. But third-person research does not address the
“hard” problem of consciousness—explaining subjective first-person

Author’s Info: Frederick Travis, Maharishi Vedic Science Department, Maharishi Univer-
sity of Management, 1000 North 4th Street, Fairfield, IA 52557; (641) 472-7000 x3319;
email ftravis@mum.edu.
®Transcendental Meditation, TM, and Maharishi Vedic Science are registered or common
law trademarks licensed to Maharishi Vedic Education Development Corporation and
used under sublicense or with permission.

Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 2005, 17, 123-135.

©2005 Select Press, Novato, CA, 415/209-9838.
124 APPLICATIONS OF MAHARISHI VEDIC SCIENCE

facts about the nature of experience (Nagel, 1974; Velmans, 1997). The
hard problem can be phrased: Why are some perceptions, cognitions, and
discriminations accompanied by conscious awareness, i.e. why they can
be reported (Chalmers, 1996)?
The “easy” problems are in principle addressable within current
cognitive and neuroscience research paradigms. They include investiga-
tion of (a) the ability to discriminate, categorize, and react to environ-
mental stimuli, (b) the integration of information by a cognitive system,
(c) the reportability of mental states, (d) the ability of a system to access
its own internal states, (e) the deliberate control of behavior, (f) the
mechanics of divided, sustained, and selective attention, and (g) the
difference between wakefulness and sleep.
The “hard” problems are difficult because they persist even after all
processes and functions have been explained. For instance, in the field of
neurobiology, Crick and Koch (1990) theorized that coherent EEG in a
band centered around 40 Hz serves to bind sensations into perceptions.
Yet, why do these cortical oscillations give rise to conscious experience?
Chalmers (1995) comments:
… the question of why binding and storage should themselves be
accompanied by experience is never addressed. If we do not know
why binding and storage should give rise to experience, telling a
story about the oscillations cannot help us.
In the field of psychology, Baars (1997) proposed a “global
workspace” model of consciousness. In this model, consciousness serves
the central function of broadcasting simultaneously to many specialized
non-conscious processors. However, this is a theory of cognitive acces-
sibility, which explains how information is widely accessible within a
system, as well as a theory of informational integration and reportability.
The theory shows promise as a theory of awareness, the functional
correlate of conscious experience, but it does not offer an explanation for
the hard problem of consciousness.
To solve the hard problem, we need to explore the nature of inner
self-awareness independent of the processes and content that we are
aware of and which define our waking stream of consciousness. As
science uses instruments to explore deep into material objects, so we
need technologies of consciousness to explore deep within individual
awareness.
The objective research tradition of the West has yielded a highly
developed understanding of matter. It has penetrated to the nonmaterial
quantum mechanical basis of matter and its interactions (Hawking, Page,
& Pope, 1980). Yet our Western scientific tradition is still in its infancy
 Travis et al. THE “HARD” PROBLEM OF CONSCIOUSNESS 125

in researching inner subjectivity. It still asks superficial questions about

cortical and cognitive mechanisms of experience rather than probing
deep into the nature of consciousness underlying cortical and cognitive
processing.
The subjective traditions of knowledge of the East (e.g. the Vedic,
the Buddhist, and the Taoist traditions) have developed systematic
meditation techniques to investigate inner experiences. In summarizing
these meditation traditions, Shear (1996) observed that they differ in
points of philosophy and in meditation practices. However, they share a
similar world view, namely that surface phenomenal experiences cover a
silent ground of self-awareness that can be directly experienced through
meditation techniques.
A range of consciousness—from discrete, ever-changing contents
in consciousness to an inner value of self-awareness—has also been
discussed by some Western thinkers. Most notably, William James in
Psychology, the Briefer Course distinguished between the me and the I.
According to James (1962, pg. 189):
Whatever I may be thinking of, I am always at the same time more
or less aware of myself, of my personal existence. At the same time
it is I who am aware: so that the total self of me, being as it were
duplex, partly known and partly knower, partly object and partly
subject, must have two aspects discriminated in it, of which for
shortness we may call one the Me and the other the I...the self as
known or the me [is] the empirical ego ...the self as knower, or the
I [is] the “pure ego.”
In this context, research into the hard problems may probe the I—
“...that which at any given moment is consciousness,” and research into
the easy problems may probe the me—”...one of the things that I am
conscious of.”
Can James’s I be isolated from the me, and so be investigated?
Searle (1992) argues that first-person observation cannot occur—one
cannot observe one’s own experience, because this experience of ob-
serving is the experience that is to be observed. In other words, one
cannot have two experiences at once—that of experiencing and that of
observing the experience. Searle (pg. 97) reasoned: “Any introspection I
have of my own conscious state is itself that conscious state.”
If the I can be isolated during meditation practice, then investigating
the phenomenological and physiological correlates of deep meditation
experiences could offer insights into the hard problem. Many research-
ers have suggested this direction for research. Varela (1996) recom-
mended investigating the structure of human experience. Chalmers
(1995, p. 205) observed: “When we think and perceive, there is a whir of
126 APPLICATIONS OF MAHARISHI VEDIC SCIENCE

information processing, but there is also a subjective aspect… a reason-

able strategy is to isolate this substrate of experience.” Shear (1996)
observed that only by uncovering the foundational knowledge of matter
and consciousness can we fathom the relationships between them.
This paper reviews phenomenological and physiological correlates
of experiences during practice of the Transcendental Meditation tech-
nique, a technique with its roots in the Vedic tradition of India (Maharishi
Mahesh Yogi, 1969), and then considers the implication of these experi-
ences on the hard problem of consciousness. We chose to investigate
experience during TM practice for four reasons. (a) There are a large
number of individuals practicing the TM technique (over 1,500) living
within an hour of the University. They range in age from 10 years to over
80 years of age, with a few months to over three decades of TM
experience. (b) TM practice is taught in a standardized way so that all
subjects should follow similar procedures during their TM practice.
(c) There is a substantial body of psychological and physiological
research on TM practice to guide research. (d) The physiology of TM
practice is significantly different from eyes-closed rest as reported in a
random assignment within-subject study (Travis & Wallace, 1999). In
addition, all the authors practice the Transcendental Meditation tech-
nique and therefore are familiar with the range of possible experiences
during the practice.

DESCRIPTION OF THE
TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION TECHNIQUE
During practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique, atten-
tion systematically experiences quieter, more subtler levels of the think-
ing process, and arrives at the source of thought, in which “…the
experiencer is left by himself without an object of experience, and
without the process of experiencing” (Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, 1963).
This state is called Transcendental Consciousness. The content of Tran-
scendental Consciousness is pure self-awareness—the self experiences
the self through the self. It is a state of pure self-awareness. The three
distinct elements of ordinary waking experience (knower, known, and
the process of knowing) have become one. Maharishi (1963) explains:
When we have transcended the field of the experience of the
subtlest object, the experiencer is left by himself without an
experience, without an object of experience, and without the process
of experiencing. When the subject is left without an object of
experience, having transcended the subtlest state of the object, the
experiencer steps out of the process of experiencing and arrives at
 Travis et al. THE “HARD” PROBLEM OF CONSCIOUSNESS 127

the state of Being. The mind is then found in the state of Being
which is out of the relative. (p. 46)
Like a scientist’s microscope, TM practice systematically leads to
the experience of pure self-awareness—the knower by itself without the
customary contents (known) and processes of experience. Examining
the knower independent of its constant involvement in planning, percep-
tion, and behavior, gives insights into the dynamics of conscious experi-
ence. The subjective and objective correlates of the experience of pure
self-awareness are reported next.

PHENOMENOLOGICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL PATTERNS

OF TRANSCENDENTAL CONSCIOUSNESS

Content Analyses of Transcendental Consciousness Experiences

Travis and Pearson (2000) reported a content analysis of Transcen-
dental Consciousness experiences. Fifty-two participants were asked to
describe the fine details of their deepest experiences during practice of the
TM technique. The participants were asked to use their own words, just as
if they were describing the experience of eating a strawberry—its sweet-
ness, juiciness, etc. The researchers emphasized that they were interested
in what the participants experienced; in how it felt to them, and that they
were not interested in other people’s descriptions of these experiences.
The descriptions were analyzed using the guidelines for phenom-
enological analysis proposed by Hycner (1985). This procedure begins
with reading all descriptions many times to get a sense of the whole.
Next, units of meaning—words or phrases that express a unique and
coherent idea—are bracketed out. After eliminating redundant units, the
remaining units are clustered by explicit and implicit shared meanings,
and general themes identified. The final step is to reread the descriptions
and tally the occurrence of the themes. This yields the number of
participants who included each theme in their descriptions, expressed as
a percentage of total participants.
Three major themes emerged from the content analysis of these
participants’ descriptions of their Transcendental Consciousness ex-
periences. They were (a) the absence of space, time, or body-sense,
(b) peaceful, and (c) unbounded. Time, space, and propioception consti-
tute the framework that give meaning to the changing qualities (color,
shape, size, movement, etc.) of waking experiences.
The participants’ descriptions gave insight into their inner experi-
ence of Transcendental Consciousness. One participant reported:
During meditation, my thoughts become less and less concrete,
less and less absorbing, and often my mind becomes completely
free of the grip of thinking and planning—then I am. It is not an
128 APPLICATIONS OF MAHARISHI VEDIC SCIENCE

experience, there is nothing I can report about this state. I am

completely full, vibrant, and alive, but I am completely still. It’s
absolute silence.
A second participant echoes the difficulty to describe this inner
experience with concepts used to describe ordinary waking experiences:
Actually it’s not that I experience ‘Oh, how great this is!’, but it’s
an inner peace that is very, very nourishing. It’s a feeling of
freedom, of no restraints. In this state boundaries do not exist. Time
has no meaning. Space has no meaning. I feel right at home. It is
normal functioning. Everything seems right.
The reader may be able to imagine the experience of Transcendental
Consciousness. It is being awake in the midst of silence. There is no
contrast to mark the passage of time, to mark distance between objects,
to give bounded qualities to the experience. Self-awareness remains—
participants are awake and can describe the nature of their experience
afterwards, i.e. “peaceful,” “unboundedness,” or “absence of time, space,
or body sense.” During Transcendental Consciousness, the three distinct
elements of ordinary waking experience (knower, known, and process)
appeared to have become one—pure self-awareness.
While TM practice is intended to lead to frequent occurrences of
Transcendental Consciousness, similar experiences have been reported
across cultures and across time (Travis & Pearson, 2000). For instance,
Wordsworth (1979, pg. 156) described a spontaneous experience in
which:
That serene and blessed mood,
In which the affections gently lead us on—
Until the breath of this corporeal frame
And even the motion of our human blood
Almost suspended, we are laid asleep
in body and become a living soul;
This lucid description of physiological functioning during deep
inner experiences foreshadows the empirical correlates of Transcenden-
tal Consciousness reported in the next section.
Physiological Markers of Transcendental Consciousness
Changes in breath rate, skin conductance, and EEG power and
coherence have been used as physiological “windows” into the state of
Transcendental Consciousness. Marked slowing in breathing was the
first published marker of this experience.
Changes in breath patterns. Farrow and Hebert (1982) reported
results from a series of experiments in which they correlated incidents of
breath quiescence with experiences of Transcendental Consciousness.
They defined breath quiescence as any breath period that was more than
twice the average breath period during the initial eyes-closed rest period.
 Travis et al. THE “HARD” PROBLEM OF CONSCIOUSNESS 129

They observed 161 respiratory suspensions in 28 participants during TM

sessions, compared to 19 breath quiescent periods in 23 age-matched
resting controls. In a second experiment, they asked 11 participants to
press a button after Transcendental Consciousness experiences. Among
these participants, 36 of 84 button presses occurred within ten seconds of
the offset of a breath quiescent period (64% hits).
Badawi, Wallace, Orme-Johnson and Rouzere (1984) replicated and
extended these findings. They reported 52 breath quiescent periods
during TM sessions in 54 participants, and none in 31 non-meditating
resting controls. They then compared EEG, spontaneous skin conduc-
tance responses, and heart rate in 11 subjects during 19 breath quiescent
periods, and in two comparison conditions: during equal-length periods
before and after breath quiescent periods (within participants), and
during voluntary breath holding (between participants). Breath quies-
cent periods were distinguished from the other two conditions by signifi-
cant decreases in theta power, and significant increases in 0–50 Hz
global coherence (all pairs of EEG sites measured), but no consistent
differences in spontaneous skin conductance responses or heart rate
were observed.
Kesterson and Clinch (1989) extensively explored breath patterns
during Transcendental Consciousness. They found that many of Farrow
and Hebert’s and Badawi and colleagues’ breath quiescent period were
actually instances of slow, prolonged inspiration. Both group of re-
searchers had used nasal thermistors that are not sensitive to slow
inhalation. The resulting flat thermistor-tracings gave the appearance of
suspension of breathing. However, Kesterson and Clinch used a
spyrometer, which is sensitive to slow inhalation, and observed slow
inhalation. Supporting Kesterson’s conclusions, thermistor tracings show
an exhale before and after the flat thermistor tracings during Transcen-
dental Consciousness experiences (see the figure in Travis & Pearson,
2000). The simplest explanation for an exhale before and after the so-
called breath suspension is that a slow continuous inhalation occurred
throughout this period. The possible significance of these breathing
patterns is discussed below.
Skin conductance responses. A second reliable marker of Transcen-
dental Consciousness is skin conductance responses at the onset of
breath changes (Travis & Wallace, 1997). Skin conductance response is
the defining marker of orienting—attention switching to environmental
stimuli that are novel (O’Gorman, 1979; Sokolov, 1963) or significant
(Maltzman, 1977; Spinks, Blowers, & Shek, 1985). Skin conductance
response at the onset of Transcendental Consciousness periods may
130 APPLICATIONS OF MAHARISHI VEDIC SCIENCE

mark the transition of awareness from active thinking processes to the

mental quiescence of Transcendental Consciousness.
Increasing frequency of peak EEG power. A third marker, which is
less obvious but has been reported by Badawi and colleagues (1984) and
by Travis and Wallace (1997), is a trend for the frequency of the peak
power in the EEG to increase 0.5 to 1.5 Hz. The frequency of peak power
increases with increasing levels of alertness. For instance, EEG power is
highest in the 1-4 Hz band during deep sleep, and in the 40 Hz band
during focused mental activity. The observed increase in frequency of
peak power during Transcendental Consciousness suggests increased
alertness during this state.
EEG coherence patterns have varied in the three studies that have
investigated coherence during Transcendental Consciousness. Farrow
and Hebert (1982) reported increases in theta coherence at the onset of
breath suspension periods that decreased during the breath suspension
periods. Badawi and colleagues (1984) did not find significance in-
creases in any individual EEG frequency band (delta, theta, alpha, or
beta) during Transcendental Consciousness, but did report significantly
higher global coherence—between all electrode pairs and in all fre-
quency bands measured (0–50 Hz). However, averaging all values from
0 to 50 Hz includes many frequency bands whose power reflects equip-
ment noise with a few frequency bands with meaningful brain activity
(Nunez, 1981). Travis and Wallace (1997) reported high individual
differences in coherence, both in frequency and in electrode pair, during
Transcendental Consciousness periods in their participants. Further re-
search may clarify the utility of EEG coherence as a marker of Transcen-
dental Consciousness.
Discussion of Physiological Patterns During
Transcendental Consciousness
Physiological patterns during Transcendental Consciousness repre-
sent a unique constellation of physiological markers. Slow inhalation has
not been reported in normal populations (outside of practice of the
Transcendental Meditation technique), and has never been reported in
the literature with durations longer than 4-6 secs (Plum & Posner, 1980).
The respiratory drive centers responsible for this breathing pattern (the
peribrachialis medialis nuclei) are located in the lateral pons of the
brainstem along with the raphe and locus coeruleus, responsible for
modulating waking and sleeping (Steriade, McCormick, & Sejnowski,
1993), and the REM-on cells, responsible for dreaming (Gilbert &
Lydic, 1994; Steriade, Datta, Pare, Oakson, & Dossi, 1990).
Slowing of breathing occurs against the background of changing
levels of the autonomic nervous system. Prior to Transcendental Con-
 Travis et al. THE “HARD” PROBLEM OF CONSCIOUSNESS 131

sciousness periods, sympathetic activity was low (low skin conductance

levels) and parasympathetic activity was high (high respiratory sinus
arrhythmia levels) (Travis & Wallace, 1999). At the onset of Transcen-
dental Consciousness periods, bursts are seen in both sympathetic and
parasympathetic activity followed by autonomic quiescence during the
breath quiescent periods. It is noteworthy that an experience subjectively
described as ‘“the absence of time, space, and body sense,” as “un-
bounded” and as “peaceful” was objectively marked by the virtual
absence of breath and by low autonomic activity. This unique constella-
tion of physiological markers suggests that Transcendental Conscious-
ness may be a discrete state that emerges when the processes and
contents of experience cease during practice of the Transcendental
Meditation technique.

IMPLICATION OF TRANSCENDENTAL CONSCIOUSNESS

FOR THE HARD PROBLEM OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Transcendental Consciousness has distinct physiological and phe-
nomenological correlates. It is a direct experience that results when the
customary processes and content of waking experience are transcended.
Physiologically, Transcendental Consciousness is marked by a breath
pattern driven by brain stem nuclei that are silent during the waking,
sleeping, and dreaming states. Phenomenologically, Transcendental Con-
sciousness is characterized by the absence of time, space and body
sense—the absence of the framework that gives meaning to waking
experiences. These empirical findings were accompanied by descrip-
tions of Transcendental Consciousness as a state of pure self-awareness.
These data suggest that a substrate of human experience exists that is
distinct from the processes and contents of experience, which can be
experienced in its pure state during practice of the Transcendental Medita-
tion technique. This conclusion is supported by three observations.
(a) Transcendental Consciousness appears to exist at the basis of
thought activity. Subjects report Transcendental Consciousness
during TM practice when mental activities cease.
(b) Transcendental Consciousness appears to be a discrete state
rather than an “altered” waking state. It is characterized by
unique phenomenological and physiological correlates.
(c) Transcendental Consciousness appears to be a fundamental
state. It cannot be reduced to more fundamental elements,
because it is a state devoid of other elements, being described
by the absence of boundaries.
132 APPLICATIONS OF MAHARISHI VEDIC SCIENCE

These data further suggest that the knower has a status independent
from the processes and context of knowing. The knower, as experienced
during TM practice, is a state of consciousness described as silent,
unbounded, and outside of time and space. When this state of conscious-
ness converges with perceptual and cognitive processes through the
mechanism of attention, then a conscious experience results.
Two Neural Circuits Necessary for Experience
This hypothesized convergence of inner and outer values is sup-
ported by the convergence of two different neural circuits to yield
reportable experiences, according to neuroscience (Elbert & Rockstroh,
1987). Neuroscience has identified both phasic and tonic projections to
all cortical regions. This suggests that activity in both these projections
are necessary for conscious experience. Phasic projections comprise
sensory afferents from the transduction of light, chemical and pressure
energy from external objects into reverberating action potentials in
thalamocortical circuits (Llinas & Pare, 1991). The resulting spatial-
temporal patterns of thalamocortical activation appear to encode specific
information about objects and their movement through time and space
(Freeman & Skarda, 1985). However, phasic inputs only lead to a
consciousness experience if tonic activation (arousal or alertness) is
sufficiently high.
Cortical tone is governed by afferents from the so called nonspecific
nuclei of the thalamus, i.e. the intralaminar nuclei of the thalamus
(Baars, 1995; Bogen, 1997), the matrix cells of the thalamus, and by the
cholinergic peribrachialis nuclei in the midbrain and pons tegmentum
areas (Smythies, 1997). These subcortical structures are elements in a
larger cortical-striato-thalamic threshold regulation circuit (Elbert &
Rockstroh, 1987). Alexander and colleagues (1986) have detailed six
cortico-striato-thalamic feedback loops that control cortical activation
levels. Within each loop, the basal ganglia sample ongoing cortical
activity and feed this information back into the (nonspecific) thalamo-
cortical circuits, responsible for cortical tone, vigilance and alertness.
These threshold regulation circuits keep cortical activation at an optimal
level for information processing. For instance, this circuit modulates
attention by increasing arousal thresholds, interrupting ongoing infor-
mation processing and setting the stage for attending to a specific
channel of information. These regulatory circuits exhibit features of
deterministic chaos—generating the diversity of EEG through the inter-
action of a few self-interacting systems (Elbert & Rockstroh, 1987).
Travis and Wallace (1999) proposed that these threshold regulation
circuits may also function during practice of the Transcendental Medita-
 Travis et al. THE “HARD” PROBLEM OF CONSCIOUSNESS 133

tion technique. They suggest that frontal areas act like a “neural switch”
to affect a rapid shift of physiological and cortical processing to a more
restfully alert state at the onset of TM practice; and that threshold
regulation mechanisms maintain this restful state for the duration of the
TM session.
Threshold-regulation feedback circuits may more generally under-
lie self-awareness, distinct from the contents and processes of experi-
ence. These feedback circuits, also termed reentrant circuits (Edelman,
1974), may merge new information with ongoing cortical activity. This
convergence of past and current cortical states may link individual
moments of experience into an ongoing stream of consciousness. This
self-referral functioning could be the real link between consciousness
and brain functioning.
Future research could investigate the link between self-referral
inner experiences and cortical feedback loops to help illuminate the
possible connections between consciousness and matter. Combining the
strengths of the research methodologies of the East and West could
provide the platform to address the hard question of consciousness.

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