Adventures in Awareness Ruben Laukkonen: Meditation and the cessation of consciousness
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Jul 5, 2025 Ruben Laukkonen, a cognitive scientist and neuroscientist specializing in meditation and consciousness, dives deep into the intriguing concept of cessation in meditation. He discusses its unique impact on consciousness, contrasting it with states like deep sleep. Ruben also explores the relationship between neuroplasticity, learning, and meditation, revealing how these practices can reshape our understanding of reality. With a blend of scientific inquiry and personal experience, he encourages listeners to embrace the evolving nature of awareness and the quest for deeper insights.
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Unique Nature of Meditative Cessation
- Meditative cessation is a unique, intentional stopping of all conscious experience without retrospective awareness.
- It often leads to profound clarity, openness, vitality, and compassion upon resuming consciousness.
Brain Predictive Mechanisms Persist
- Cessation does not turn off basic automatic brain prediction mechanisms entirely.
- Predictive brain activity remains largely intact during meditative cessation state experiments.
Cessation Shows Broad EEG Power Reduction
- EEG power shows significant reduction across many frequency bands during deep meditative cessation compared to wakefulness and sleep.
- Cessation is physiologically active despite neural activity reductions.
