The experiential self state as affective salience: A dual-self states framework for consciousness and self-transcendence

This article proposes a dual-self states framework in which reflective and experiential modes of consciousness are understood as dynamic configurations along a processing continuum. The reflective self state corresponds to narrative, denotational, and self-referential consciousness underpinned by default mode network activity. The experiential self state is characterised as an affective-salience mode of perspectival awareness, anchored in salience network hubs (particularly the anterior insula and anterior cingulate cortex), which integrate interoceptive and exteroceptive signals into a coherent, non-propositional sense of being-here-as-subject, accompanied by sustained, non-reflective meta-awareness. Within a predictive processing framework, the experiential self state corresponds to a configuration in which the precision-weighting of high-level self-referential priors is reduced and a broader range of affective and bodily signals shapes conscious experience, a shift governed by dopaminergic, noradrenergic, and serotonergic mechanisms. This characterisation carries direct implications for individual differences in traits such as mindfulness and absorption, and for conditions involving dysregulated salience processing. The framework further proposes that self-transcendent experiences, including absorption, meditation, awe, and mystical or religious experience, are best understood as expressions of the experiential self state, and serve as theoretical and empirical testing grounds for the framework’s core claims.