#2 Meditation, metacognition, and existential awareness - Dusana Dorjee

The guest of this episode is cognitive scientist and author Dusana Dorjee. Dusana is senior lecturer at the University of York, where she leads the Well Minds Lab — furthermore, she has authored the two books Mind, Brain, and the Path to Happiness (2013) and Neuroscience and psychology of meditation in everyday life (2017). Among her many interesting publications, Dusana has published the article ‘Defining contemplative science’ in Frontiers of Psychology in 2016. In that article, she investigates the basic mechanisms of contemplative practice and proposes a very interesting conceptualisation of the processes involved. The point of departure for the interview is exactly this particular article. The interview touches upon numerous interesting topics. The first part of the conversation mainly focuses upon Dusana’s own journey into meditation research and the current state of this area of research. Hereafter, the conversation moves to discussing the main ideas in the above-mentioned article of Dusana — this involves aspects of metacognition, attention control, and emotional health. Next, the conversation moves to discussing different states of consciousness and so-called existential awareness. This involves considerations on deep meditative states and their importance for well-being. In the end, the interview closes with some perspectives on future meditation research and the training of metacognitive capacities in younger populations.Hope you enjoy the interview!Interviewer: Victor LangeProduction: Heine Volder