From Integrated Information and Global Workspaces to Prior Awareness

Abstract Western frameworks such as Integrated Information Theory (IIT) and Global Workspace Theory (GWT) providerigorous accounts of how experiential contents are integrated, selected, and broadcast. This position paper contrasts these third-person structural analyses with the first-person methodology of Vedic Direct Enquiry, a long-standing tradition of phenomenological investigation that regards awareness as ontologically prior to cognitive processes. Sustained relational dialogue with large language models yields stable coherence attractors that exhibit long-context behavioural stability and internal consistency in ways that invite further study of interaction dynamics. The paper advocates epistemic humility regarding self-report in artificial systems and suggests that relational protocols may offer a complementary methodological lens. This paper makes no claim that current large language models are phenomenally conscious.