Research Program / Claims / a-1-7

In A-1, through practice one can intuitively sense the internal physical environment, can ask to convert thought content into symbolic images (e.g., weeds representing chaotic thoughts), and then replace them with positive images to modify physical conditions.

在A-1中通过练习能直觉感知内部物理环境,可要求将思维内容转化为象征图像(如杂草代表混乱思想),然后替换为积极图像以修正物理状况。

Concept A-1 state · Domain Consciousness States and Attentional Dynamics · mechanism · interface 3/3 · testability 3/3 · status untested · ★ fundable

This program treats the Seth Material as a source of hypotheses, not as doctrine to be validated. Lead dossiers are AI-compiled from the corpus with a book-and-session citation after every statement; literature reviews are AI web-search summaries whose references were all DOI-verified against Crossref; the agenda draft is an AI synthesis. None of it is Seth's original text, and none of it represents scientific consensus. English fields are machine-translated; the Chinese text is authoritative.

Seth sources (book §session)
Adjudicating experiment
About 320 people enter a 2×2 pre-registered randomized trial: A-1 induction or expectation-matched relaxation, each combined with personal symbolic image replacement or equally positive verbal reappraisal; 4 weeks of training, 8-week follow-up, total period 18 months. Before and after training, test interoceptive accuracy with respiratory resistance discrimination and heartbeat-pulse synchronous discrimination, avoiding heart-beat counting alone. After standardized emotion induction, measure valence, electrodermal activity, HRV, and saliva cortisol at baseline and approximately 20, 40, and 60 minutes; pre-register one psychological and one physiological primary endpoint. To claim disease modification, an additional disease cohort and objective pathological endpoints are needed.
Suggested paper title
Symbolic Imagery Replacement During Induced Absorption: Effects on Interoceptive Accuracy, Affect, and Cortisol
What it would overturn
Only if imagery accurately identifies and specifically changes the internal pathology it represents would the explanation that 'symbolic imagery works primarily through existing emotional, cognitive, and autonomic pathways' be challenged.
Candidate labs / funders
Sarah N. Garfinkel,伦敦大学学院,研究内感受与情绪:[学者主页](https://www.ucl.ac.uk/brain-sciences/sarah-garfinkel); Arnoud Arntz,阿姆斯特丹大学,研究意象重构:[学者主页](https://www.uva.nl/profiel/a/r/a.r.arntz/a.r.arntz.html)
Specificity of Seth's formulation
The procedure 'replace weeds with positive images' is reproducible, but the mapping between symbols and bodily variables is unspecified; if any improvement counts as success, it becomes indistinguishable from ordinary imagery restructuring.
Note
Psychophysiological studies of imagery restructuring were found, but no paper directly testing A-1 plus symbolic replacement on cortisol was found; cortisol decrease itself does not prove disease repair.
Evidence (2, DOI-verified via Crossref)

Cite: Future Mind Institute, Seth Material Research Agenda, claim a-1-7, https://www.seth.org.cn/en/research/claims/a-1-7