Neurophenomenology Satellite Meeting

Laying down a path while walking: Thirty Years of Neurophenomenology

The year 2026 will mark the 30th anniversary of Francisco J. Varela’s seminal paper, “Neurophenomenology: A Methodological Remedy for the Hard Problem”, which laid the foundations for a revolutionary research program in consciousness science braiding subjective experience with neuroscience.

This two-day satellite workshop (July 4–5, 2026), taking place in Varela’s homeland, will honour the occasion by bringing together cognitive science, neuroscience, psychology, anthropology, and philosophy, to look back on 30 years of neurophenomenological research and outline emerging directions in the field.

We invite submissions that contribute to a deeper understanding of combining lived experience with third person methods in the study of consciousness, with a special emphasis on methodological standards, multimodal data integration, experiential rigor, and empirically grounded approaches. We foster submissions that critically engage with the progress, challenges, and future directions of neurophenomenology.

In the spirit of the neurophenomenological tradition, the satellite will include guided experiential sessions interwoven with the scientific program. These structured sessions will invite participants to engage directly with methods such as micro-phenomenology, attentional training, and interoceptive tracking, with the aim to cultivate a shared experiential ground to complement methodological and theoretical discussions in an embodied fashion.