Liberating Mind at Death: Ontological Realities and Discourses with Science in Tibetan Tukdam Post-death Meditative State

Over the last several decades, the Dalai Lama has championed the preservation of Tibetan cultural heritage and the endowments it offers the global community in greater mental health, well-being and sustained happiness through its rich contributions in contemplative thought and practice. In this effort, he has actively supported and engaged in collaborations with scientists to investigate physiologic and psychologic changes that these contemplative practices engender in order to provide evidence of their benefits and encourage greater integration of practices supporting happiness and well-being globally. He has framed such initiatives under a paradigm of universal responsibility to support greater global wellness, and a commitment to uncovering the truth of such determinants through rich conversations across different intellectual traditions, epistemological angles, geographic populations and cultural frameworks. One of the phenomena that has gained particular attention is that of tukdam (Tib., thugs dam), a meditative state achieved at the time of death in which the practitioner gains ultimate realization into the nature of mind. In this practice, the practitioner also suspends the normal chronology of physiologic processes at the time of death, including postponing rigor mortis, putrefaction and decay for up to three weeks, and maintaining a suppleness and radiance to the skin and complexion. This special issue will explore this phenomena through epistemic biocultural anthropological angles that investigate different approaches, methodologies and assumptions in the research on tukdam. These different approaches draw from constituencies situated within neuroscience, biomedicine, biocultural, medical, and psychological anthropology, STS, and religious studies fields, as well as those from Buddhist, Tibetan medical and Tibetan cultural communities. Paper contributions look at how a research team on which each of the contributors have served explores a uniquely cultural approach to death and dying, the way it informs understandings of normal death processes, the nature of mind, and its potential applications to wider populations and aims on the dying process. The papers highlight the competing truths, ontological realities and epistemological methods that these multidisciplinary investigations uncover in conceptualizations of an ideal death, a life well-lived, the persistence of mind and valuing cultural heritage and ‘responsible’ investigations in biocultural collaborations. Since this collection of submissions draws upon the ongoing research of the foremost multidisciplinary teams and researchers engaged in the study of tukdam, this special issue illuminates a set of distinct lenses presenting how the collaborative team explores points of intersection between scientific research on tukdam and the Tibetan lay and religious contexts in which tukdam plays an important structural role in shaping local paradigms and perspectives on wellness, health, and end-of-life care. Each contribution offers different angles probing the questions: to what degree are the distinct groups of collaborators—neuroscientists, human biologists, forensic scientists, Tibetan medical physicians and Buddhist monastics—in this research asked to respond, reflect, and incorporate different modes of evidence underlying or contrary to their ontological and epistemological perspectives? What can this research tell us about contexts in which we might investigate the potential of the mind to disassociate from the brain, and who benefits from such investigations?