Title: “Abhinavagupta’s Panentheism in Dialogue with Contemporary Neuroscience: Vimarśa and Integrated Information Theory (IIT)”.

Presenter: Loriliai Biernacki, PhD, Professor, Department of Religious Studies, University of Colorado Boulder

Abstract: This chapter offers a comparative assessment of the 11th century Hindu philosopher Abhinavagupta’s nondualist Tantric panentheism, the Pratyabhij.ā, or Recognition philosophy in relation to a contemporary, currently popular neuroscientific theory addressing the relation between the mind and the body, Integrated Information Theory (IIT 3.0). Drawing on earlier work pointing to the logical similarities IIT 3.0 bears to Abhinavagupta’s 11th century model of panentheism with regard to the idea of information as something which is both material and mental, this chapter extends this analysis to the question of how it is that things and entities are classified as sentient or not. While much of Indian philosophy engages with the concept of consciousness, often writ in large and abstract terms, as cit, or samvit, this chapter suggests that Abhinavagupta’s articulation of consciousness as vimarśa may be better suited as a concept for determining the status of sentience. This analysis of Abhinavagupta’s panentheism, particularly with the concept of vimarśa, brings to the forefront a crucial and often somewhat overlooked premise underlying IIT 3.0’s ontological framework: the implicit and requisite assumption of subjectivity within materiality.

Bio: Loriliai Biernacki is Professor in Religious Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her research interests include medieval Sanskrit texts, Indian philosophy, and the interface between religion and science. She is currently working on neuroscientific models of body-mind connection, including Integrated Information Theory (IIT). Her first book, Renowned Goddess of Desire: Women, Sex and Speech in Tantra (Oxford, 2007) won the Kayden Award in 2008. She is co-editor of God’s Body: Panentheism across the World’s Religious Traditions (Oxford 2013).  Her most recent work, The Matter of Wonder: Abhinavagupta’s Panentheism and New Materialism (Oxford 2023) is on the writings of the medieval Indian philosopher Abhinavagupta and their relevance for a contemporary understanding of mind in relation to materiality.