Buddhist practices and training genuinely enable individuals to achieve a unique state of consciousness. The meditation practice known as “tukdam” (post-mortem meditation) is particularly promising as a subject of scientific study.
This perspective was shared by Konstantin Anokhin, Director of the Institute for Advanced Brain Studies at Moscow State University, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and neurophysiologist, in an interview with RIA Novosti.
Tukdam is a state in which a person’s body does not decompose for several days or even weeks, despite the cessation of heartbeat and circulation. Buddhists explain this phenomenon by suggesting that a subtle level of consciousness remains in the body. They refer to it as the “mind of clear light,” which prevents the dying body from decaying. Meanwhile, the grosser levels of consciousness (conceptual thinking, sensory perception, etc.) cease to function. Buddhists assert that this subtle consciousness subsequently transitions into a new body, signifying reincarnation.
However, scientists cannot rely on faith, Anokhin noted. The altered states of human consciousness achieved through meditation need to be understood and explained from a scientific standpoint, he said.
The dialogue between leading Russian specialists in the study of the brain and human consciousness and Buddhist scholars began in 2017. That year, the “Nature of Consciousness” conference was held in Delhi, attended by the 14th Dalai Lama. In 2019, a project was launched to study meditation and altered states of consciousness in Tibetan Buddhist monasteries located in India. Since 2022, such studies have also been conducted in monasteries in Nepal.
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