Spirituality Studies 11-2 Fall 2025 77 Gábor Pék, Gejza M. Timčák only information (bit, reflection, act of knowing), but pure Consciousness itself. It does not mean that everything is conscious which would be the teaching of Panpsychism (Tononi and Koch 2015, 1), but that pure Consciousness only is (Vedanta Society 2022 b, 58:06) and objects are only the byproduct of one’s quality of mind at its final analysis. It is an aspect of “Self-awareness” (Sa. Vimarśa), or in other words a “creative impulse” (Sa. Spanda). As Abhinavagupta writes in Īśvara-Pratyabhijñā-vimarśinī (quoted in Vasugupta 2014, xvii): “Spandana means a somewhat of movement. The characteristics of ‘somewhat’ consists in the fact that even immovable appears ‘as if moving’, because though the light of consciousness does not change in the least, yet it appears to be changing as it were. The immovable appears as if having a variety of manifestation.” Thus, the “Universal Energy” (Sa. Ś akti) becomes the door of entrance to “Absolute Consciousness” (Sa. Ś iva) at the central point or non-distinction of “means of knowledge” (Sa. pramā na) and “objects of knowledge” (Sa. prameya) (Vasugupta 2014, 166). Similarly, with the right attitude, even AI can be a help to a certain extent on one’s pathway of self-enquiry (Utermoehl 2025; Sandhu 2024, at 1:02:06) considering its temporary and limited significance. However, such counselling can lead also to biased opinion forming in spiritual development (McCartney 2023, 95). In daily tasks, skills and processes AI may overperform humans just like it has already done so far with games like chess, go and at many other fields. For example, various researchers put GPT-4 under the test of “theory of mind” (Wellman 1992), which “is the ability to attribute mental states such as beliefs, emotions, desires, intentions, and knowledge to oneself and others, and to understand how they affect behaviour and communication” (quoted in Bubeck et al. 2023, 54). According to (Kosinski 2023, 1) GPT-4 published in March 2023 solved nearly all the tasks (95%) it was given. We note though that tracking one’s state of mind is only and information-based achievement, which is great in its own extent, but must be left behind in a real self-study. For now, it seems that there are still certain areas where humans perform better (Srivastava et al. 2023, 25) and there will be fields that AI cannot discover – such as self-study and self-enquiry. 5 Conclusion In this paper, our main goal was to analyse if AI can be a potential help in one’s self-study, arriving at the question of whether such artificial systems can replace a real guru or a tradition. To answer this, methodologically we conducted a basic type of reflexive thematic analysis on existing sources of self-study, technology related philosophies, and on the various understandings of consciousness, intelligence to determine the scope and reliability of AI in such a sādhanā. It was concluded that AI can be a convenient tool to automate information gathering and distribution, including that of ancient scripts for self-study, however, it carries various risks such as hallucinations that assumes the need for continuous verification of its trustworthiness. To substitute the guru by AI, it would be necessary to build an AI that is aware of itself. However, as argued above this case is far from being realistic as Consciousness is not computable. At this point, we touched upon the potential of an emerging subjective consciousness in a living system (Ghosh 2025). Here, we suggest that living systems just like the world itself are by nature the very same unconditional pure Consciousness that embraces all phenomena. However, to unveil the ignorance to emerge for conscious actions are in the scope of a “divine grace” (Sa. anugraha) which is behind the dimensions of causality. It seems though that the ever-expanding drive to build more and more competent AI agents that can be even a stepping stone towards transhumanism is rooted in “ignorance” (Sa. avidya). As Swami Vivekananda and other exponents of yoga said, God [4] only IS (Vedanta Society 2022 b, 58:06) and AI seems to have no direct link to He/She/It, only an apparent phenomenon within, just like the world itself. Furthermore, our analysis has shown that AI systems at present – as they are aligned and prone to hallucinations, poisonings and various other manipulations – are not a reliable resource for counselling in spirituality. In future, their knowledge basis may be sufficient for answering some deeper questions, but it is predictable that AI in general cannot substitute any living tradition or guru whose knowledge is rooted in the transcendental Reality (Aṣṭāvakra n.d., 137–141).
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