Plenary Panel: “Starting from Experience: Neurophenomenology and the Vision of Mind and Life Europe”

Research on contemplative practices and their larger context can take various pathways, but as a methodology, one key method is neurophenomenology, an approach that fully acknowledges the mutual importance of an account of experience from within experience, along with measures, such as behavioral data and brain imaging, that purport to stand outside experience.  Developed especially by scholars and scientists from Europe, this approach reflects a larger vision of how to engage in contemplative research. Inspired by the methodological, scientific and philosophical underpinnings of neurophenomenology, this larger vision of contemplative research lies at the heart of Mind and Life Europe (MLE).  This panel explores the crucial role that an interdisciplinary research community plays in contemplative research, and how perspectives emerging from enactive and systems-based approaches to the study of mind, body and society are central to the ethos for this work. Leaders in the MLE community will reflect on the process of building this type of research community, and the specific case of neurophenomenology will be explored in the context of ongoing, empirical studies.