Pure Consciousness Event (PCE)

Human mind has the default tendency of associative thinking, mind-wandering with or without awareness which results into enormously complex stew of thoughts, feelings, sensations, wants, snatches of pains, drives, daydreams, and consciousness itself, more or less aware of it all (Forman, 2010). Meditationists practice clearing this clutter and reaching to a stage of experiencing inner silence which has been termed as the pure consciousness event (PCE). Pure Consciousness Event lies at the core of mystical experience (Forman, 1990). The assumption that mystical realization is an experiential phenomenon is reflected throughout contemporary scholarship (Woodhull, 2013). However, perenneliasts do not claim that all mystical experiences are same.

Perhaps we can sometimes train our minds to achieve a unique state of “mental latex” such that we become aware of a “pure” conscious state (Gennaro, 2008). The question arises how to experience this extra-ordinary content? According to Brazdau (2013), being conscious is when the scanner involves attention and gets content. Thus, after reaching the stage of nothingness, one can reach the stage of pure consciousness through attention and can experience the content. Higher the consciousness level, higher is the abstraction observation. The hypothesis can be stated that one can have mystical experiences with extra ordinary content through attention and by raising the level of consciousness.

Universal Consciousness Realization Postulate -Beyond HOT and PCE

Further, it is stated in Universal Consciousness Realization Postulate, that an experience can consist of a larger variety of content, i.e. not just thoughts (defined here as actually “hearing” words “in the head”), but also images, mystic name and accompanying instrumental musical sound (divine sound) through rigorous training and practice under the guidance of and adept or mentor(Satsangi, 2010). This is where the ideas converge solving the mystery of content of PCE. This postulate is beyond HOT and emphasizes on experiences more than the higher order thoughts.

Mystical Experiences: Scientific

It is possible to experience one’s own conscious states through varied procedures but difficult to examine or observe the conscious states of others (Searle, 1998). But the fact that the consciousness of others is unobservable does not by itself prevent one from developing a scientific account of consciousness (Searle, 1998). For example, electrons, black holes, and the Big Bang theory are not observable by anybody, but that does not prevent their scientific investigation (Searle, 1998). Such an event can be determined by first person approach. Also, PCEs might often occur when the subject is alone, so pragmatically we’d like not to have to refer to 3rd-person accounts to identify an event that is defined 1st-personally (Schlosser, n.d.). The subject has to be accurate and honest, precise in reporting phenomenologically sleep-signals not occurring. Varela (1998) suggests that phenomenological approach is grounded in the exploration of experience but if one does not cultivate the skill to stabilize and deepen one's capacity for attentive bracketing and intuition along with the skill for illuminating descriptions, no systematic study can mature. Thus, mysticism can be studied from