The debate addresses the tension between the authenticity of spiritual experience and its increasingly powerful technological mediation in the field of mental health. The backdrop for this discussion is the growing trend of medicalizing existential issues and the risk of reducing a person to a set of neural data. The research question centers around the question: can conscious stimulation of mental states (Alpha, Theta) using BCIs lead to a lasting and authentic change in ethical attitudes? The discussion contrasts a personalist perspective, emphasizing the dignity and agency of the person, with a technocratic approach focused on cognitive optimization.
Methodologically, the study draws on differential diagnosis to distinguish spiritual crises from psychopathology. Special attention is given to virtual reality (VR) as a potential “laboratory of conscience,” raising the question of whether simulated moral experiences preserve the ontological integrity of human action and its transformative dimension.
The results of the discussion will allow for the formulation of ethical postulates for medical technology designers and therapists, that spirituality cannot be reduced to an inducible algorithmically state of consciousness but must be understood as a process grounded in intentional and ethically significant action.
The interdisciplinary significance of the meeting is manifested in the dialogue and integration of ethics, cognitive science, philosophical anthropology, neuropsychology, and clinical neurotherapy in the service of protecting human subjectivity in an increasingly immersive digital environment. The final conclusions will demonstrate the potential of technology as a tool supporting individual guidance in the process of self-regulation and self-mastery, while simultaneously preserving the primacy of freedom of will.