Vladimir Miskovic was formerly Assistant Professor of Psychology and Integrative Neuroscience at Binghamton University (SUNY) and a research scientist at X: The Moonshot Factory, previously known as Google X. Since 2023, he has been exploring monastic life in the contemplative community at New Skete Monastery in Cambridge, New York.
Steven Jay Lynn was Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Binghamton University (SUNY), where he directed the Laboratory of Consciousness, Cognition, and Psychopathology. He was the Founding Editor of the journal Psychology of Consciousness. His nearly two dozen books have been translated into more than twenty languages.
What’s the big idea?
A cutting-edge neuroscientist and a leading clinical psychologist challenge the materialist view of consciousness by integrating neuroscience with insights from mystical traditions like Buddhism, Vedanta, and Christian mysticism. Exploring altered states—such as dreams, meditation, hallucinations, and ego death—they reveal a richer understanding of the mind beyond a purely biological perspective. Ultimately, Dreaming Reality argues for a more expansive and compassionate model of consciousness that transcends the limitations of scientific reductionism.
Below, co-authors Vladimir Miskovic and Steven Jay Lynn share five key insights from their new book, Dreaming Reality: How Neuroscience and Mysticism Can Unlock the Secrets of Consciousness. Listen to the audio version—read by Vladimir—in the Next Big Idea App.
1. Exploring the two sides of reality: consciousness and the brain.
Your defining feature isn’t something you can see or touch; it’s the invisible magic of your lived experience. From the moment you’re born to your final breath, your life unfolds as a rich stream of sensations, thoughts, feelings, memories, and dreams. The most fascinating part? It’s all deeply subjective. While your physical body is measurable and occupies space, much of what you experience relates to biological processes. However, the true essence of your inner world—like the fleeting spark of a thought or the delicate hue of an emotion—defies direct measurement. Even if your skull were transparent and we could observe your brain flicker and hum with activity, we’d never truly see your inner reality: the thought itself, the feeling in its raw, unfiltered form.
Materialism, the idea that everything boils down to physical processes, claims that reality works bottom-up, with matter as the fundamental cause of everything. In its strictest form, materialism insists that any psychological experience (say, a feeling of joy) can be fully explained as a physical state in your brain. But here’s the irony: in reducing everything to neurons and molecules, materialism leaves out the most central part of consciousness—the experience itself. Your “inner universe” of thoughts and emotions is just as real as the electrical signals firing in your brain.
In our book, we challenge this strictly materialist view. Why? Because it splits reality into fragments, ignoring the fact that it’s a unified whole. Reality isn’t just about what’s observable on the outside; it’s also about what you feel and experience on the inside.
We advocate for a perspective known as dual-aspect monism, which views reality as a multidimensional braid—two strands intricately woven together. One strand represents the outer, visible world of measurable phenomena, while the other embodies the inner, invisible realm of subjective experience. Neither strand can be reduced to the other; they are two perspectives on the same reality.
Think of flipping a coin. You can only see one side at a time—heads or tails—but the coin itself is always both. Now imagine standing on a quiet beach, watching the sunrise. One perspective might examine what’s happening in your nervous system as you soak in the scene—your brainwaves, the way your pupils adjust to the light, the hormones that fire as you feel awe. But that perspective can’t capture what you’re actually experiencing: the way the dawn’s colors hit you, the memories they stir, the emotions they evoke. Both perspectives—the external and the internal—are needed to understand the moment fully.
Our book explores this dual reality. We dive into both the neurobiological processes and the phenomenological, or lived, experience to uncover how humans perceive the world. By combining these perspectives, we aim to unlock deeper truths about what it means to experience life, how these experiences are constructed, and how they shape our understanding of ourselves and the universe.
2. What can mystical traditions teach us about human consciousness?
Bringing together modern brain science and a deeper, more expansive understanding of human experience and consciousness is no small feat. Materialist views, which often dismiss the subjective nature of consciousness, have kept us from truly grasping the richness and range of what it means to experience life.
“These aren’t just spiritual practices—they represent a sophisticated body of psychological knowledge.”
On the other hand, mystical traditions have spent centuries diving into the heart of human experience from the inside out. Through practices like deep silence, stillness, focused attention, and self-withdrawal, they’ve developed tools to explore the roots of consciousness. These aren’t just spiritual practices—they represent a sophisticated body of psychological knowledge, offering detailed maps of the mind across different states of awareness. Ignoring this wealth of insight would mean overlooking some areas where modern scientific models of consciousness fall short.
Instead of getting bogged down in the metaphysical or theological claims made by these traditions, we focus on something more universal: the points where their insights align with modern neuroscience. By comparing the “outside-in” view of the brain provided by cutting-edge science with the “inside-out” explorations of contemplative practices—especially those from Buddhism, Christianity, and Vedanta—we can uncover new ways to understand consciousness.
This dialogue between neuroscience and contemplative traditions paves the way for a more optimistic approach: neuro-phenomenology. By bridging the gap between the inner realm of subjective experience and its material foundations, we can enhance our understanding of how we perceive ourselves and the world, providing a more comprehensive view of what it means to be human.
3. Your experiences of self and world are not what they seem.
Most of us don’t spend much time questioning the deeper mechanics of our everyday experiences. For instance, when you’re walking down the street and observing people, objects, and places, it’s natural to accept it all at face value—this is simply “how things are.” You perceive yourself as a separate entity navigating a world that appears objectively real, where people, objects, and events inherently possess qualities like “good” or “bad.” The world feels like a stage, solid and indisputable, where you play your part. In doing so, you often become immersed in the constant flow of perceptions, thoughts, and feelings, rarely pausing to consider how all of this truly works.
Modern neuroscience challenges this “naive realism” and presents a far more intriguing view of reality. Research indicates that the brain is not merely a passive receiver of information; it operates as a highly sophisticated “virtual reality” generator, shaped by both genetics and life experiences. Researchers like Thomas Metzinger and Anil Seth describe our waking life as similar to “controlled hallucinations” or “online dreaming.” Even our sense of self—that feeling of being a distinct individual—is not a fixed entity but rather a construction, enriched by inputs from the brain’s verbal systems, sensory experiences, and raw emotional states.
“Our waking experiences often carry an illusion of solidity that is equally deceptive.”
Interestingly, these modern scientific insights align with ancient wisdom from mystical traditions, which have long taught that what we perceive as “ordinary” waking consciousness is, in fact, dream-like. These traditions suggest that our experiences are filtered through automatic, self-centered perspectives that often result in unnecessary mental suffering. Just like in a dream, where everything feels real at that moment, our waking experiences often carry an illusion of solidity that is equally deceptive.
Our book explores the transformative shift in understanding that occurs when we recognize that our experiences are actively constructed by the brain and mind as they interact with the world around us. This perspective opens up profound questions about the relationship between the self, the world, and the roots of consciousness itself.
We also dive into non-ordinary states of consciousness—like those induced by psychedelics, sensory deprivation, lucid dreaming, meditation, contemplative prayer, or episodes of “ego dissolution.” These altered states break through the surface of everyday awareness, offering glimpses into the deeper layers of consciousness that shape how we experience reality. By stepping outside the default waking state, we can start to unravel the foundations of the world we take for granted and discover how fluid, dynamic, and interconnected it truly is.
4. Realms of reality.
Modern neuroscience describes consciousness as a kind of “virtual reality” system—an ever-evolving model of self and world that updates continuously based on new information. These mental models create what phenomenologists call a lifeworld: an immersive and often unnoticed frame that shapes how we experience everyday life. Everything in this lifeworld feels subjectively true and real to us. However, the accuracy of these predictive models varies. They can either align closely with reality or significantly distort it.
For instance, if you hear the sound of running water while asleep, your brain may incorporate it into a dream, transforming it into an image of paddling a canoe down a stream. This represents a relatively loose, dream-like “hallucination” of reality. Similarly, in waking life, perceiving others through a “me versus them” lens can create a polarized and distorted experience—essentially a less obvious but still uncontrolled hallucination. These distorted models can lead to unnecessary suffering.
On a larger scale, maladaptive models of self and the world can trap individuals in cycles of depression, anxiety, or existential despair. These “second-order” models are primarily automatic and involuntary distortions of reality. However, they obscure a more fundamental, “first-order” reality—a deeper, clearer layer of experience that is less filtered and more directly connected to what is.
Human beings naturally get tangled up in their thoughts, feelings, and sensory experiences, which creates layers of “veils” between the everyday mind and this deeper reality. Contemplative practices aim to thin these veils, gradually dissolving the mental and emotional clutter that clouds our perception. Over time, and with consistent practice, these efforts can help individuals tune into an omnipresent, unfiltered “first-order” reality. This is often described as the experience of non-duality in mystical traditions—a state where the usual boundaries between self and world dissolve.
“Maladaptive models of self and the world can trap individuals in cycles of depression, anxiety, or existential despair.”
Interestingly, modern neuroscience is beginning to explore these states, drawing connections between contemplative experiences and measurable changes in the brain. Neuroscientific studies suggest that advanced contemplative practices can lead to significant reorganizations in brain activity, reflecting deeper shifts in consciousness.
Our work synthesizes insights from both domains: the contemplative stages described by mystical traditions and the latest neuroscientific research on how the brain changes with practice. As neuroscience ventures further into realms that contemplative masters have studied for centuries, we find ourselves on the brink of a new era—one that deepens our understanding of human consciousness and its vast potential.
5. Transformation of the brain and mind.
The growing conversation between neuroscience and contemplative traditions opens the door to more expansive and hopeful ways of understanding consciousness. Across various mystical traditions, a defining feature of profound experiences is the sense of touching a deeper reality—a “first-order” reality—marked by interconnectedness, kindness, and compassion. What’s fascinating is that modern research suggests even a single moment like this can be transformative, acting as a catalyst for healing and personal growth.
By studying these states and what they reveal about human potential, science can avoid the pitfalls of reductionist theories that risk veering into nihilism. Instead, blending scientific knowledge with contemplative practices’ participatory and unitive wisdom offers a more holistic, non-reductionist view of consciousness. This approach values both the objective lens of science and the deeply personal, experiential insights gained through contemplative exploration.
One of the most exciting insights from contemplative traditions is their demonstration of how attention can be shaped and directed to alter not only how we think but also how we feel, perceive, and experience our lifeworlds. Harnessing attention in these systematic ways can even change our brains. These practices show that consciousness isn’t static or trapped in “virtual reality” models shaped solely by genetics or past experiences. Instead, consciousness has an incredible capacity for growth, healing, and transformation.
This journey of transformation doesn’t just enhance daily life. It also addresses the big questions we all face: how to find meaning, how to come to terms with mortality, and how to feel connected to something larger than ourselves. As science continues to engage with these deeper dimensions of existence, we stand on the brink of a new understanding, one that honors the mysterious, multi-dimensional nature of human consciousness and its endless potential.
To listen to the audio version read by co-author Vladimir Miskovic, download the Next Big Idea App today:
