Why the study of the mind and consciousness has evaded science

I am writing a series of articles ahead of the upcoming seminar on consciousness and intelligence, “Will AI Become Conscious?” on Sunday, August 23. In my previous posts on LinkedIn, I pointed out that the study of the mind has largely eluded a complete scientific explanation because neural correlates—measurable brain processes that accompany a mental event while it is occurring—do not by themselves capture the first-person experience of that mental state. Consciousness itself has also eluded a complete scientific explanation because consciousness, commonly defined in contemporary philosophy as first-person subjective experience, cannot itself be captured through objective observation, which is the principal tool used by science.

Vedānta’s approach

Vedānta, on the other hand, uses a different technique to study the mind and understand the nature of consciousness. It does so through direct self-enquiry, using a mind that is sufficiently stilled through techniques of Yoga. Vedānta says that through this process of self-enquiry, the working of the mind is made clear. And most importantly, one also arrives at the conclusion that the entity called consciousness (which is the real “You”) is different from the mind and the body.

The fundamental texts for Vedānta are the Upaniṣads, which, as I mentioned in the previous post, are regarded in the Vedāntic tradition as revelations experienced by sages in deep meditation and as not having individual human authorship (the image on the left side of the figure below). Because they are revelations, they tend to be a little abstruse in their nature. It required explanatory texts such as the kārikās of Gauḍapāda and the commentaries and prakaraṇa-granthas associated with Ādi Śaṅkarācārya, over a thousand years ago, to explain their contents using logic to lay people like us. We will get a glimpse of that logic in this article with respect to the nature of consciousness.

Definition of Consciousness in contemporary philosophy and in Vedānta

Contemporary philosophy defines consciousness as first-person subjective experience—“I am feeling,” “I am tasting,” and so on. Vedānta goes a step further and defines consciousness as the self-revealing awareness in which all these feelings themselves are known. This is a profound thought because what it reveals is that “matter is known in consciousness.” This profound revelation has significant implications for the question of AI becoming conscious, or in other words, AI becoming sentient. We will see this in detail during the seminar on August 23, 2026.

Advaita Vedānta, or the non-dual interpretation of Vedānta, which will be the focus of this seminar, defines consciousness as the only true underlying substratum of the universe, with even matter appearing in consciousness, just like dreams appearing in the mind of the dreamer. This has conceptual resonances with quantum physics, which challenges some classical intuitions about matter and measurement. These resonances should not, however, be taken to mean that quantum mechanics proves the claims of Advaita Vedānta. A future article will cover the resonances between Advaita Vedānta and quantum physics, but for the current purpose we will restrict the discussion of consciousness to sentient beings.

Nature of Consciousness 

It is important to note that the word “nature,” rather than “properties,” is used in relation to consciousness. This is because a property belongs to something that you, the subject, perceive in an object. However, consciousness, being ever the subject, cannot itself be observed as an object; therefore, traditional Vedānta does not describe it through observable properties. Instead, it uses words such as sat (existence) and cit (consciousness) to point to its nature. For example, in the sentence “I am tall,” “tall” is a feature of the body and not of the consciousness that experiences the body and the outside world through the body. Therefore, with respect to consciousness, only the phrase “I am” remains.

The following are five aspects of consciousness in relation to the body and the mind that are commonly described in Vedānta, in the words of my teacher, Swami Paramarthananda Saraswati:

1) Consciousness is not a product, part, or property of the body;

2) Consciousness is an independent entity which pervades and enlivens the body; 

3) Consciousness is not limited by the boundaries of the body;

4) Consciousness survives even after the fall of the body;

5) The surviving Consciousness is not accessible to us, not because it is absent, but because there is no medium for its manifestation.

Next, we will use some logic to illustrate Vedānta’s conclusion that consciousness, as ever the subject, has to be unchanging. This has far-reaching consequences.

The use of classical logic (nyāya) to illustrate that Consciousness has to be unchanging

In deep meditation, when thoughts in the mind became less frequent, the ṛṣis who gave us the Upaniṣads observed the mind as clearly distinct from the observer that is able to witness the origin, presence, and passing away of a thought or feeling in the mind. Therefore, they called this consciousness sākṣī-caitanyam, or witnessing consciousness. They also used words such as nirvikāraḥ and avyayaḥ for this consciousness, meaning “unchanging” and “imperishable,” respectively. This distinguishes it from the physical body, called śarīram—“that which decays”—and hence changes.

Now, we will get a glimpse of classical logic (nyāya) to show that consciousness, which is always the subject, has to be unchanging. It is worth noting at this point that even though the mind behaves like an empirical subject with respect to the objects of the world, it is an object to consciousness by virtue of being observed. This distinction between the mind, the object, and consciousness, the subject, is especially clear in deep meditation, as described above.

Now, suppose you say that this consciousness which observes the mind changes. Then, to know that it changes, one would need another consciousness, because change has to be known as an object. An object requires a subject. Thus, if consciousness itself changes, another consciousness would be required to perceive that change. This leads to an infinite regress. Therefore, Vedānta concludes that consciousness is the unchanging reference.

We will see the implications of consciousness being the unchanging reference in the universe, according to Advaita Vedānta, in the seminar on Aug. 23, 2026, from 9:00–10:30 AM Pacific time.