{"id":6630,"date":"2026-02-06T13:06:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T13:06:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/allhere.org\/?p=6630"},"modified":"2026-02-09T13:10:02","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T13:10:02","slug":"meditation-self-consciousness-and-mixed-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allhere.org\/ja\/updates\/meditation-self-consciousness-and-mixed-reality","title":{"rendered":"Meditation, Self-Consciousness, and Mixed Reality"},"content":{"rendered":"

EPFL x All Here
\nScience Paper published in\u00a0NeuroImage.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

We are pleased to share a significant scientific publication on meditation within the Mixed Reality Meditation Platform, titled:<\/p>\n

\u201cMeditation in the Third-Person Perspective Modulates Minimal Self and Heartbeat-Evoked Potentials.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

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How Neuroscience and Technology Are Shaping the Future of Inner Experience<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In recent years, meditation has moved from the margins of spiritual practice into the center of scientific inquiry. What was once primarily explored through introspection and tradition is now being studied using the most advanced tools of neuroscience, brain imaging, and immersive technology. A recent scientific publication marks an important milestone in this evolution, demonstrating how mixed reality can be used not only to guide meditation but also to rigorously investigate its effects on the brain and the sense of self.<\/p>\n

This publication represents the culmination of a multi-year collaboration between academic neuroscience and a technology-driven meditation platform, offering new insight into how meditation alters self-consciousness and bodily awareness. More broadly, it reflects a growing movement to bridge ancient contemplative traditions with modern scientific and technological innovation.<\/p>\n

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The Origins of a Shared Vision<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The story begins in 2021, when Professor Olaf Blanke<\/a> from the Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience at EPFL and \u30a8\u30eb\u30ad\u30f3\u30fb\u30d9\u30c3\u30af<\/a>, founder and president of All Here, came together to explore a shared question: what is the nature of the self, and how can it be studied, trained, and transformed?<\/p>\n

From a scientific perspective, Professor Blanke\u2019s laboratory has long been recognized as a leader in the study of self-consciousness. His research has examined how the brain constructs the sense of self, body ownership, and spatial perspective\u2014often through experimental manipulations such as out-of-body experiences and bodily illusions.<\/p>\n

From the contemplative side, Erkin Bek comes from a deep meditation background rooted in classical yoga theory & practice, particularly the Raja Yoga tradition informed by the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. In this framework, the \u201cself\u201d is not a by-product of perception but the central object of inquiry. Meditation, in this view, is a systematic exploration of self-awareness, identity, and consciousness itself.<\/p>\n

Although these perspectives emerged from very different traditions, they converged around a common intention: to turn attention inward toward a Self inquiry rather than pursuing outward attention and expressionism, and to understand how Self-experience arises, shifts, and while bodily boundaries dissolve.<\/p>\n

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Designing a New Kind of Meditation Platform<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Early discussions quickly moved beyond theory. Both collaborators recognized that immersive technologies\u2014particularly virtual and mixed reality\u2014could offer an unprecedented way to explore self-experience.<\/p>\n

Unlike traditional screen-based interfaces, virtual reality can directly manipulate perspective, embodiment, and spatial presence. This opens the door to meditation experiences that are not merely guided by imagination, but actively shaped through perceptual and bodily cues.<\/p>\n

Out of this realization emerged a bold ambition: to design a technology-powered meditation platform capable of generating novel meditative states, and to study those states using rigorous neuroscientific methods.<\/p>\n

To support this ambition, All Here and EPFL formalized a three-year collaborative research agreement. The program officially launched in 2022, marking the beginning of an intensive interdisciplinary effort spanning neuroscience, extended reality, biomedical engineering, and contemplative practice.<\/p>\n

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Building the Research Team<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

A dedicated research team was assembled to carry out the project under the direct supervision of Professor Blanke and his deputy, Bruno Herbelin<\/a>, in close partnership with Erkin Bek.<\/p>\n

Three postdoctoral researchers formed the core of the effort:<\/p>\n