First-person reports of phenomenological states are the starting point for phenomenology (including Buddhist phenomenology) and the scientific study of consciousness. The vipassana meditation technique, including the Open Monitoring meditation and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), both of which are secularized versions of vipassana, are reliant on the reliability of First-person reports of phenomenological states. Nonetheless, the veracity of first-person reports of phenomenological states has been subject to question from scientific as well as philosophical quarters since the turn of the twentieth century. The aim of this project is to show that Buddhist philosophy of consciousness can substantially contribute to the contemporary debate on the reliability of introspection. Another, equally important, aim is to leverage contemporary philosophy and neuroscience research to develop a scientifically better grounded Buddhist theory of consciousness. I believe that both scientific research and Buddhist philosophy stand to gain much from this interaction.
