did consciousness evolve? Assuming that some species (e.g. humans) have consciousness and others (e.g. redwoods or mushrooms) do not, what problem(s) did consciousness evolve to solve? From a biological and evolutionary viewpoint, and regardless of which species have consciousness (or to what degree), this question of the adaptive function(s) of consciousness is central. Nonetheless, the...
AbstractI concur with Merker and colleague's critiques, suggesting that hypotheses about the evolutionary function of consciousness can help address them. Brains are parallel systems that function to compute possible actions and predict outcomes. I hypothesize that a core function of consciousness per se is the global feedback of information about those actions actually executed, supporting...
Exposure to repetitive drumming combined with instructions for shamanic journeying has been associated with physiological and therapeutic effects, such as an increase in salivary immunoglobulin A. In order to assess whether the combination of repetitive drumming and shamanic instructions is specifically associated with these effects, we compared the effect of listening to either repetitive...