Consciousness Studies

Anaplastic Astrocytoma (AA) is a relatively rare cancer, and is associated with a median life expectancy of 3 years after conventional therapy. Complete cure of the highly infiltrative AA is uncommon, and reports of positive outcome in cases of partial resection of AA are rare. Further, integrative approaches to the management of AA remain underexplored. This paper contributes to the limited literature in this domain by presenting a case that was successfully treated through integrative conventional and Ayurvedic interventions. A patient diagnosed with AA in the left parieto-occipital lobe underwent partial lesion resection followed by post-operative radiation and chemotherapy. The patient was given a conservative post-surgical life expectancy of two years, and was referred to an Ayurveda hospital for further treatment. The Ayurvedic intervention was focussed on redressal of radiation and chemotherapy side-effects, improvement of quality of life, and improving the patient’s strength and immunity. Following this novel integrative model of care, the patient was able to resume all personal and professional routines, and a contrast MRI revealed absence of residual lesion allowing the patient to outlive his initial prognosis by several years till date. We posit that the findings of this report merit further examination in the interest of potential improvements to existing models of care.

Currently, there is a paucity of clinical trial designs that comprehensively evaluate the efficacy of most complementary and alternative systems of medicine (CAMs) like Ayurveda. Several factors such as complex interventions, individualized therapy, etc., make designing Ayurveda clinical trials challenging. The prevalent randomized control trial (RCT) designs largely involve symptomatology/pathology-based recruitment and standardized interventions in carefully monitored trial environments. The present paper critically reviews the suitability of the dominant RCT model to Ayurveda and argues for newer, more sensitive trial models including modified RCTs and other clinical trial designs. It also explores the merits of a non-hierarchical approach to clinical evidence generation

Anaplastic Astrocytoma (AA) is a relatively rare cancer, and is associated with a median life expectancy of 3 years after conventional therapy. Complete cure of the highly infiltrative AA is uncommon, and reports of positive outcome in cases of partial resection of AA are rare. Further, integrative approaches to the management of AA remain underexplored. This paper contributes to the limited literature in this domain by presenting a case that was successfully treated through integrative conventional and Ayurvedic interventions. A patient diagnosed with AA in the left parieto-occipital lobe underwent partial lesion resection followed by post-operative radiation and chemotherapy. The patient was given a conservative post-surgical life expectancy of two years, and was referred to an Ayurveda hospital for further treatment. The Ayurvedic intervention was focussed on redressal of radiation and chemotherapy side-effects, improvement of quality of life, and improving the patient’s strength and immunity. Following this novel integrative model of care, the patient was able to resume all personal and professional routines, and a contrast MRI revealed absence of residual lesion allowing the patient to outlive his initial prognosis by several years till date. We posit that the findings of this report merit further examination in the interest of potential improvements to existing models of care.

Anthony Cerulli’s The Practice of Texts is a much needed book at a time when Ayurvedic education in India is receiving particular academic and policy scrutiny. In particular, it offers novel insight into the nature of modern Ayurvedic ‘gurukulas’ and the unique roles they serve, as fluid spaces within which ‘neo-traditions’ of Ayurveda evolve and are transmitted from practicing vaidya-gurus to students. It also masterfully reinterprets and transforms the very notion of the classical Ayurvedic text from a bounded, static re-telling of history, to a ‘fluid and conversational resource’ (pp. 40) that is a ‘field of knowing on which (the) vaidya-guru coordinates (her) interactions with patients (and students) (pp. 87)’. It is written with great nuance, both in terms of factual accuracy as well as anecdotal richness, and offers to the reader a rare and expansive presentation of the larger historical, political, and pedagogical frameworks within which the Ayurvedic gurukula exists and functions, in contemporary South India.

This study examines how ecological systems contribute to notions of well-being in two Indic healing traditions– Āyurveda and the Māvilan healing traditions. We focus on the ecological place (or eco-place) as a living and dynamic space within which cultures of knowledge emerge, and healing identities become constructed, fostering multiple somatic, psychological, social, and spiritual correspondences between its human and other-than-human members, and through which a variety of well-being experiences emerge. Three lenses are used for this purpose (i) a narrative ecology of healing, (ii) agentic herbs and co-creative healing, and (iii) healing of natural ecological systems. For the first, the concept of narrative ecology is examined, alongside how healing knowledge emerges in both Āyurveda and the Māvilan healing traditions from human and other-than-human understandings of the world; for the second, we examine how, despite significantly differing engagements with forest ecosystems, the notion of plant-agency can recast healing as a co-creative process in both traditions. For the third, we explore ideas regarding other-than-human illness and therapeutics in Āyurveda and the Māvilan healing traditions.

In this study, we examine three different conceptions of self within the Caraka Saṃhitā (CS), a classical Sanskrit Āyurveda text, based on three interrelated notions of suffering, well-being, and the nature of the self’s agentic pursuit of remedy. These are—(i) the phenomenal self, (ii) the expansive self, and (iii) the transcendental self. The phenomenal self-in-the-world encompasses its existence across a single lifetime, and as the embodied, agentic self of the ‘sufferer in the here-and-now’, it is the primary subject of the CS. The temporally expansive self is conceived of in relation to the self’s experiences of disease, illness, and well-being as a result of karmic consequence and is therefore expansive (extends beyond the temporal bounds of a single lifetime). It experiences multiple embodied phenomenal subjectivities across an iterative temporal continuum. The ‘transcendental self’, although also temporally expansive, is the unchanging, eternal core of all ‘being’, the seer of all actions, the ‘knowing’ of which is ultimate well-being, and as such, implies the cessation of karmic valence.

In this study, we examine three different conceptions of self within the Caraka Saṃhitā (CS), a classical Sanskrit Āyurveda text, based on three interrelated notions of suffering, well-being, and the nature of the self’s agentic pursuit of remedy. These are—(i) the phenomenal self, (ii) the expansive self, and (iii) the transcendental self. The phenomenal self-in-the-world encompasses its existence across a single lifetime, and as the embodied, agentic self of the ‘sufferer in the here-and-now’, it is the primary subject of the CS. The temporally expansive self is conceived of in relation to the self’s experiences of disease, illness, and well-being as a result of karmic consequence and is therefore expansive (extends beyond the temporal bounds of a single lifetime). It experiences multiple embodied phenomenal subjectivities across an iterative temporal continuum. The ‘transcendental self’, although also temporally expansive, is the unchanging, eternal core of all ‘being’, the seer of all actions, the ‘knowing’ of which is ultimate well-being, and as such, implies the cessation of karmic valence.

The role of ecology in shaping notions of well-being in indigenous healing traditions is often overlooked in contemporary well-being discourse. This study examines how ecological systems contribute to notions of well-being in two Indic healing traditions– Āyurveda and the Māvilan healing traditions. We focus on the ecological place (or eco-place) as a living and dynamic space within which cultures of knowledge emerge, and healing identities become constructed, fostering multiple somatic, psychological, social, and spiritual correspondences between its human and other-than-human members, and through which a variety of well-being experiences emerge. Three lenses are used for this purpose (i) a narrative ecology of healing, (ii) agentic herbs and co-creative healing, and (iii) healing of natural ecological systems. For the first, the concept of narrative ecology is examined, alongside how healing knowledge emerges in both Āyurveda and the Māvilan healing traditions from human and other-than-human understandings of the world; for the second, we examine how, despite significantly differing engagements with forest ecosystems, the notion of plant-agency can recast healing as a co-creative process in both traditions. For the third, we explore ideas regarding other-than-human illness and therapeutics in Āyurveda and the Māvilan healing traditions.

Notions such as śūnyata, catuskoti, and Indra’s net, which figure prominently in Buddhist philosophy, are difficult to readily accommodate within our ordinary thinking about everyday objects. Our thorough elaboration of the parallels between Buddhist philosophy and category theory can facilitate better understanding of Buddhist philosophy, and bring out the broader philosophical import of category theory beyond mathematics.

While the diverse contemplative techniques are employed across a plethora of traditions around the world, contemplative research over the years has not reflected this variety. Despite growing interest in research on meditation, studies in contemplative science have largely focused on a narrow selection of practices (e.g., mindfulness, compassion, etc.) and traditions (i.e. Buddhism, Transcendental Meditation etc.). By choosing this topic, we hope to broaden the scope of contemplative science.

We define consciousness as the category of all conscious experiences. This immediately raises the question: What is the essence in which every conscious experience in the category of conscious experiences partakes? We consider various abstract essences of conscious experiences as theories of consciousness.

In the present paper, our aim is not to discover the findings of modern physics in Vedanta or to show how modern physics can also be claimed as “spiritual”. On the contrary, an attempt has been made to critically analyse the claims of convergence between the concept of “Quantum Vacuum” and “Alayavijnana” in Yogacara Buddhism. 

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