Can silence teach us lessons about consciousness? This question will bring together meditation teachers, philosophers, neuroscientists, psychologists, and science communicators on June 26 and 27 in Gran Canaria for the Second Annual Conference on Spirituality and Neuroscience, dedicated this year to the theme “Peace and Silence.” Far from being an exclusively spiritual concern, the issue is now engaging a growing number of researchers who are exploring the relationships between contemplative practices, non-ordinary states of consciousness, and psychological well-being.
In an era marked by overstimulation, constant acceleration, and fragmented attention, the interest in silence is more urgent than ever. In fact, both scientific research and various contemplative traditions agree that the ability to observe one’s own experience with attention and depth plays a fundamental role in mental health and the construction of meaning.
Since time immemorial, monasteries, philosophical schools, and spiritual traditions across different cultures have devoted enormous effort to understanding what happens when the mind ceases to relentlessly pursue thoughts, memories, and expectations. In recent decades, neuroscience has begun to address some of these same questions using a different language: that of brain imaging, experimental psychology, and the study of non-ordinary states of consciousness.
When the brain stops talking about itself
One of the most influential findings in contemporary neuroscience revolves around the so-called “default mode network” (DMN), a set of brain regions that becomes more active when attention is not focused on a specific task and the mind drifts toward self-referential thoughts, autobiographical memories, or projections about the future.
The default mode network includes structures such as the posterior cingulate cortex and the medial prefrontal cortex, regions linked to the construction of narratives about oneself and to various forms of self-referential processing. Several studies have documented changes in the activity of this network during deep meditative states. Strikingly, research conducted with classic psychedelic substances has also described comparable alterations.
In 2015, a team led by Fernanda Palhano-Fontes published a functional magnetic resonance imaging study that examined the brain activity of participants with prior ayahuasca experience. The results showed a significant decrease in activity in key regions of the DMN, along with changes in the network’s functional connectivity patterns. The authors proposed that ayahuasca induced a temporary modulation of brain circuits associated with self-referential processing.
Those findings helped establish a line of research that continues to grow. The goal is not to locate a hypothetical “center of the self” in the brain, but rather to understand how certain experiences temporarily transform the processes through which people construct their sense of identity.
Meditation and psychedelics
The possibility that certain contemplative practices and some psychedelic-induced states share partial mechanisms of action has sparked considerable scientific interest over the past decade. One of the most cited studies in this field comes from the team led by Lukasz Smigielski, which in 2019 published two complementary articles, in NeuroImage and Scientific Reports, based on the same five-day intensive mindfulness retreat with 38 experienced meditators. Under a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled design, a portion of the participants received psilocybin.
The researchers observed a deepening of the meditative experience, greater intensity in ego-dissolution experiences, and specific changes in brain networks related to self-referential processing. Some of the positive psychological changes described by the participants persisted four months after the experience.
Other studies have explored the relationship between ayahuasca and mindfulness-related abilities. Soler and colleagues observed that a single ayahuasca session was associated with changes in mindfulness-related variables, while subsequent studies compared repeated ayahuasca sessions with standard mindfulness training programs.
However, these results do not allow us to equate meditation with psychedelics. Both paths respond to profoundly different contexts, practices, objectives, and traditions. What the scientific evidence suggests, for now, points to possible convergences in certain cognitive and experiential processes, not to an equivalence between phenomena. Caution is especially important in a field where enthusiasm often runs ahead of conclusions.
Beyond the brain
Contemporary research on consciousness is undergoing a significant transformation. Moving away from exclusively biological perspectives, an increasing number of researchers are recognizing the importance of psychological, social, and cultural factors in shaping human experience.
In the realm of traditional medicines, this issue takes on particular relevance. For decades, ICEERS’ scientific work has helped highlight the importance of context in understanding experiences associated with ayahuasca and other traditional practices. Concepts such as cultural systems of meaning, prior preparation, intention, accompaniment, and post-experience integration play a role as significant as the pharmacological effects of the substances involved.
From this perspective, neuroscience provides valuable information, but it does not fully capture the phenomenon it seeks to describe. Understanding human transformation requires simultaneously addressing neurobiological correlates, subjective experience, interpersonal relationships, and the cultural frameworks that enable the interpretation of lived experience.
Perhaps that is why the questions arising from the dialogue between meditation and non-ordinary states of consciousness go far beyond the confines of the laboratory. How is identity constructed? Why do certain experiences bring about lasting changes in one’s self-perception? What role do silence, attention, and contemplation play in these processes?
A necessary dialogue to quiet the mind
These questions are precisely the focus of the Second Annual Conference on Spirituality and Neuroscience, which will bring together voices from diverse disciplines in Gran Canaria to reflect on the role of silence and peace in contemporary human experience.
Participants include Master Dokushō Villalba, a leading figure in Zen Buddhism in the Spanish-speaking world; philosopher Mónica Cavallé, who specializes in wisdom philosophy and dialogue between wisdom traditions; neuropsychologist Domingo Quintana; psychologist and researcher Laura Tolbaños; and science communicator J. Q. Arosa, whose work explores the relationships between neuroscience, psychology, and consciousness.
The program will combine lectures, meditative experiences, roundtable discussions, open forums, and artistic presentations, such as a performance by the group Hawā, which blends Arabic music and Sufi poetry. The event will also feature Igor Domsac, communications coordinator at ICEERS, whose participation will help broaden the conversation on the relationships between science, subjective experience, the construction of meaning, and personal transformation.
Beyond the differences between disciplines, traditions, or conceptual frameworks, this gathering stems from an underlying intuition: some of the most important questions of our time may not require more speed, information, or stimuli, but rather, precisely, more silence. As the French scientist and philosopher Blaise Pascal argued, “all of humanity’s problems stem from the human being’s inability to sit still, alone and in silence, in a room.”
Photo by Boba Jovanovic on Unsplash.