I finally got around to reading a paper I ran across a while ago, which showed that a lesser-known form of Buddhist meditation produces a variety of striking EEG features that are reminiscent of — but different from — EEG activity normally associated with sleep, coma, and seizures.
I don’t claim to have understood all of it, and I can’t comment on the author’s speculations about consciousness, and how this research fits into existing frameworks re: the neural correlates of consciousness, because I haven’t read enough on the topic, but I found the description of the magnitude of change in EEG activity — which the subjects were able to produce at will, and without apparent loss of consciousness or lucidity — really fascinating!
Perhaps this research could be replicated with an OpenBCI, or could form a starting point for neurofeedback for Jhāna meditation (if using neurofeedback to get into such unusual states would be safe or advisable).
