Research

To realize the full potential of contemplative science, CCR is developing a research program that treats professional contemplatives, active at our land centers, not as mere participants in neuroscientific protocols but as scientific colleagues who can produce unique forms of empirical evidence, which can be integrated with the traditional third-person methods of science.

The Pilot Study will last 45 months and involve 20 participants, using both phenomenological and electrophysiological methods to examine the experiences of contemplatives engaged in full-time, long-term meditation retreat. This study embraces CCR’s novel approach to data collection: first-person data (e.g. reflective journal-writing), second-person data (e.g. recorded observations by teachers and technicians), and third-person data (e.g. psychological questionnaires and EEG brainwave recordings during meditation). This approach will identify consistent evidence within each method but also convergent evidence across methods. This integration of evidence will likely help identify connections between consciousness and various physical processes, with potential implications for the mind-body problem in neuroscience, the measurement problem in quantum mechanics, and a variety of research questions related to health and well-being.

The Sixfold Matrix of Mental Balance is the conceptual framework that guides CCR research work. CCR conducts mental-balance research, applying methods for cultivating genuine well-being based on contemplative insight across the entire spectrum of mental health by measuring hyperactivity, deficit, and dysfunction across six dimensions: conation, ethics, attention, cognition, emotion, and spirituality. Conation, a volitional capacity foundational to human experience, is an under-researched field of psychology that CCR prioritizes as crucial to understand more deeply.

Acknowledging the often disparate worldviews and motivations associated with the world’s scientific and contemplative traditions, CCR develops a Code of Ethics that offers practical guidelines for ensuring that collaboration between practitioners of these traditions remain safe and mutually respectful, honoring all participants’ potential for making genuine discoveries that can be evaluated via intersubjective critique.

CCR is also currently developing a micropublication system through which contemplatives can document, share, and publish their discoveries, bringing their work into active conversation with other research literature and developing an enduring corpus of contemplative insight for analysis.