Consciousness and Cognition
August 1, 2019
Michael Lifshitz, Michiel van Elk, T M Luhrmann
162 citations
A general tendency called 'absorption'—the capacity to become deeply immersed in sensory and imaginative experiences—underlies a broad proclivity for spiritual experiences. People high in absorption readily sense supernatural presences, receive messages from God, and feel self-transcendence, awe, and wonder. High scorers on the Tellegen Absorption Scale report vivid experiences such as hearing God's voice during prayer, intense mystical states from psychedelics or placebo brain-stimulation, and strong feelings of presence and transcendence when encountering natural beauty, virtual reality, or music. Absorption appears to intensify inner and outer sensory experience, blending prior expectation with novel engagement, making imagined things feel more real.
Psychopharmacology
March 7, 2020
Jay A. Olson, Léah Suissa-Rocheleau, Michael Lifshitz et al.
148 citations
A placebo can produce psychedelic-like experiences in some people when the setting and expectations are carefully arranged. In a 4-hour group study with music, colored lights, and visual projections, 33 students took a placebo described as a psilocybin-like drug. Many reported no changes, but others showed effects as strong as those from moderate or high psilocybin doses. Most (61%) verbally reported some effect, such as seeing paintings move or reshape, feeling heavy, or experiencing a "come down" and then another "wave." Context and expectations can mimic psychedelic effects even without the drug.
Review of Philosophy and Psychology
January 1, 2022
Maxwell J D Ramstead, Anil K. Seth, Casper Hesp et al.
75 citations
A version of neurophenomenology is presented that uses generative modelling techniques from computational neuroscience and biology to formally model descriptions of lived experience from the phenomenological tradition (e.g., Husserl, Merleau-Ponty). The approach, called computational phenomenology, is situated within the broader project of naturalizing phenomenology. Philosophical objections to that project are evaluated, and the generative modelling framework is reviewed. The approach differs from previous uses of generative modelling for consciousness by constructing computational models of inferential or interpretive processes that best explain particular kinds of lived experience.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
July 18, 2023
Nicolas Garel, Julien Thibault Lévesque, Dasha A. Sandra et al.
29 citations
Past environmental exposures can significantly shape psychedelic drug experiences and their therapeutic outcomes, a concept the authors call 'imprinting.' In a clinical trial of ketamine for treatment-resistant depression, two patients' subjective experiences were altered by the type and amount of digital media they consumed in the days before treatment: higher media exposure reduced mystical and emotional qualities of the ketamine experience, overriding standard intention-setting practices and changing therapeutic results. Eight additional patients spontaneously reported past environmental exposures manifesting as visual hallucinations during ketamine sessions. Similar imprinting effects appear in historical reports of other psychedelic drugs and in dreaming. The authors propose expanding the contextual model of psychedelic action to include imprinting, which may help clinicians and researchers better understand these drug effects.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
January 1, 2013
Michael Lifshitz, Emma P Cusumano, Amir Raz
28 citations
Hypnosis can rapidly and dramatically alter subjective experience with just a few words of suggestion, unlike contemplative practices requiring lengthy training. Individuals highly responsive to hypnosis can quickly manifest atypical conscious experiences and override deeply entrenched processes, offering new ways to suspend habitual attention and achieve refined meta-awareness. Hypnosis research also illuminates how suggestion, expectation, and interpersonal factors shape experience beyond hypnotic procedures. Incorporating hypnosis into neurophenomenology could help bridge subjective experience with third-person scientific approaches to the mind.
Nature Medicine
June 3, 2025
Chloé Pronovost-Morgan, Kyle T. Greenway, Leor Roseman et al.
26 citations
A Delphi consensus study with 89 experts from 17 countries identified 30 extra-pharmacological variables that are important or very important for reporting the setting in psychedelic clinical trials. These variables, forming the ReSPCT guidelines, cover physical environment, dosing session procedure, therapeutic framework and protocol, and subjective experiences. The findings reveal significant ambiguities in current conceptualizations of set and setting. The guidelines provide a new standard for designing and documenting contextual factors in psychedelic research.
Oxford University Press eBooks
April 5, 2018
Michael Lifshitz, Eli Oda Sheiner, Laurence J. Kirmayer
22 citations
Classic serotonergic psychedelics such as psilocybin, LSD, and ayahuasca can induce potent alterations in cognition and perception. The chapter reviews research through cultural neurophenomenology, which traces how neurobiology and sociocultural factors interact to shape experience. Scientific study of psychedelics is rediscovering their potential to promote creative insight, evoke mystical experiences, and improve clinical outcomes. Neuroimaging experiments have begun to unravel the influence of psychedelics on large-scale connectivity networks of the human brain. Culture and context constrain the flexible cognitive states brought about by psychedelics, suggesting that seemingly spontaneous psychedelic thought patterns reflect a complex interaction of biological, cognitive, and cultural factors—from pharmacology and brain function to ritual, belief, and expectation.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2023
Karin Cinalioglu, Paola Lavín, Magnus Bein et al.
21 citations
A randomized controlled trial will test whether virtual-reality-guided meditation is feasible and acceptable for reducing stress, anxiety, and depression in older adults. Thirty community-dwelling adults aged 60 years or older with moderate stress will be randomly assigned to either an eight-session VR meditation program or a waitlist control group. Sessions last 15 minutes and occur twice weekly for four weeks, offered at home or in a hospital. Outcomes include perceived stress, anxiety, depression, sleep quality, quality of life, and mindfulness skills, measured before and after the intervention. Qualitative interviews will capture participants' experiences. The trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT05315609).
PsyArXiv
February 23, 2021
Maxwell James Ramstead, Anil K. Seth, Casper Hesp et al.
21 citations
preprint
A new approach called computational phenomenology uses generative modeling techniques from computational neuroscience to study conscious experience. The paper reviews efforts to naturalize phenomenology, addresses philosophical objections, and explains how generative models can simulate the inferential processes underlying specific types of lived experience. This differs from prior uses of generative modeling for consciousness by focusing on modeling the interpretive process that best accounts for particular phenomenal experiences.
Transcultural Psychiatry
October 1, 2022
Gabriella Gobbi, Antonio Inserra, Kyle T. Greenway et al.
9 citations
Psychedelics have been used by human societies for over 3000 years, primarily in religious and healing contexts. Recent research shows promising clinical benefits for some psychiatric disorders, but applying these consciousness-altering substances outside their traditional sociocultural settings raises concerns. The therapeutic mechanisms of psychedelics depend not only on neurobiology but also on psychological, social, and spiritual processes. Therefore, physicians and psychotherapists need training to guide patients through the experience, promoting positive outcomes and addressing side effects. Psychedelic therapies may lead to a new psychiatric paradigm integrating psychopharmacological, psychotherapeutic, and cultural interventions.
Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology
March 1, 2025
Danny Diep, Sara de la Salle, Julien Thibault Lévesque et al.
8 citations
Ketamine's subjective effects have been interpreted in three major ways since its 1962 synthesis: as dissociative, dream-like, or psychedelic, depending on the clinical context and dose. Biomedical frameworks often label its effects as dissociative or psychotomimetic, while psychedelic paradigms highlight potential therapeutic benefits. Factors such as language, dose, and environmental setting influence both the drug's effects and treatment outcomes. The authors argue that ketamine is best understood as a chameleon whose effects shift with context, rather than a tiger to be tamed. A nuanced, interdisciplinary approach is needed to maximize its clinical potential.
American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council
December 1, 2024
Josh Brahinsky, Jonas Mago, Mark Miller et al.
5 citations
Buddhist Jhāna meditation and Christian speaking in tongues, despite appearing very different, share key phenomenological features. Interviews with experienced practitioners in the USA reveal a dynamic interplay between focused attention, aroused joy, and a sense of letting go or release crucial to both practices. The paper theorizes that these shared features engage an autonomic field built through a spiral between attention, arousal, and release (AAR), analyzed through sensory gating and predictive processing theories of brain function.
Neurosci Conscious
February 19, 2026
Valeria Becattini, Michael Lifshitz, Mark Miller
1 citation
The article proposes that body-scan meditation, a practice of systematically attending to different parts of the body, can lead to a dissolution of bodily boundaries—a sense of the body's limits becoming less distinct. It uses predictive processing theory, which frames perception as the brain's active inference about sensory input, to explain how such meditation might reduce the precision of predictions about bodily states. By learning to attenuate or down-weight these predictions, practitioners may experience a blurring of the self-other boundary. The account integrates philosophical and neuroscientific perspectives to describe how meditative training can reshape the sense of bodily self.
June 5, 2025
Valeria Becattini, Michael Lifshitz, Mark Miller
1 citation
preprint
Focused attention on the body, as in meditation, usually heightens sensation, but deep practice can paradoxically dissolve the sense of bodily boundaries—a phenomenon called bhaṅga. This paper resolves the paradox using the Predictive Processing framework, arguing that the body-scan technique, from Theravada Buddhism, enhances the precision of low-level predictions about somatosensory signals, which attenuates those signals and diminishes perception of the body's boundaries. The authors describe the technique, its phenomenological outcomes, and the attentional processes involved, concluding that this attenuation may contribute to well-being and offer therapeutic applications for conditions like addiction and emotional dysregulation.
The Oxford Handbook of Psychedelic, Religious, Spiritual, and Mystical Experiences
June 20, 2024
Josh Brahinsky, Michael Lifshitz, Tanya Marie Luhrmann
1 citation
Working back and forth between neuroscientific methods and ethnographic phenomenology can inspire new ways of thinking. A neurophenomenological project investigated the evangelical Christian practice of speaking in tongues. After several years of ethnographic participant observation in tongues-speaking churches and careful interviews with tongues-speakers, the researchers developed a neuroimaging experiment to capture what they heard. Their interdisciplinary approach revealed shifts in the experience of speaking in tongues, which they call "dropping in." Combining ethnographic phenomenology and neuroscience brought a deeper understanding of tongues prayer in unexpected ways.
May 29, 2019
Michael Lifshitz, Matthew D. Sacchet, Julia M. Huntenburg et al.
1 citation
Major depressive disorder involves abnormal communication between large-scale brain networks. A randomized, active-controlled trial tested whether mindfulness-based therapy could alter resting-state functional connectivity in clinically depressed patients. A brief, clinically effective mindfulness intervention functionally decoupled top-down control regions from brain areas involved in sensory, affective, and attentional processing. These findings identify specific neural targets of mindfulness training, offering new insight into how this therapeutic approach works.
arXiv (Cornell University)
May 15, 2026
Jonas Mago, Edmundo Lopez-Sola, Jakub Vohryzek et al.
States of consciousness with minimal phenomenal content, such as those induced by certain meditation practices, show increased brain entropy similar to high-content psychedelic states, challenging the Entropic Brain Hypothesis that links entropy to phenomenal richness. The Complex Brain Hypothesis resolves this by proposing that brain complexity, not entropy, better indexes the richness of experience. Complexity is modulated by the grain of inference the brain uses to resolve uncertainty: fine-grained inference loosens constraints and proliferates content, as in psychedelic states; coarse-grained inference simplifies experience into contentless awareness, as in minimal phenomenal experiences. Both regimes can elevate entropy but differ in phenomenology and perturbational signatures, refining the Entropic Brain Hypothesis and highlighting minimal phenomenal experiences as a test case for computational theories of consciousness.
Neuroscience of Consciousness
January 1, 2026
Jonas Mago, George Deane, Lars Sandved-Smith et al.
People under the influence of psychedelics often report encountering autonomous entities such as spirits, elves, or ancestors. A neurocomputational model, grounded in the active inference framework, explains these experiences by proposing that psychedelics reduce the predictability of sensory perceptions, leading the brain to interpret both internal and external perceptions as coming from non-self agents. The model synthesizes earlier theories including the entropic brain model, computational accounts of felt presence, and sensory attenuation theories of self-other discrimination. It aims to account for how the brain supports entity encounters and for the diversity and similarity of these experiences across cultural contexts.
arXiv (Cornell University)
November 26, 2025
Jonas Mago, Josh Brahinsky, Mark Miller et al.
During a 10-day retreat, ten experienced meditation practitioners showed that neural dynamics can be volitionally shifted toward a critical regime—a state between order and chaos that supports flexible yet stable information processing. Compared to regular mindfulness of breathing, a refined state of meditative absorption called jhana produced pronounced sensory fading, slower respiration, higher neural signal diversity, reduced chaoticity, and enhanced mismatch negativity amplitude over frontocentral sites. Spectral analyses revealed a flatter aperiodic component and reorganization of long-range temporal correlations. These findings suggest that criticality is a candidate neurophysiological marker of absorptive, minimal-content experiences.
Religions
November 10, 2025
Nathan E. Fisher, Elisabeth Irvine, Michael Z. Yonkovig et al.
Energy-like somatic sensations in the body are commonly reported across Abrahamic contemplative traditions, not only in Buddhist and Yogic contexts. In interviews with 30 practitioners and 30 teachers from Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions, 40% of practitioners and 43% of teachers reported such experiences. These sensations varied widely in intensity and emotional tone, interpreted either as expected signs of spiritual progress or as surprising events. Participants blended metaphors from multiple traditions and mixed spiritual with psychological explanations. Compared to earlier research on Western Buddhists, both commonalities and differences emerged. The findings suggest these experiences arise from a complex interplay of cultural frameworks, attention, and bodily processes.
arXiv (Cornell University)
March 21, 2016
Kieran C. R. Fox, Matthew L. Dixon, Savannah Nijeboer et al.
Different styles of meditation produce distinct patterns of brain activity. A meta-analysis of 78 functional neuroimaging studies (31 experiments, 527 participants) found that four common meditation styles—focused attention, mantra recitation, open monitoring, and compassion/loving-kindness—reliably activate and deactivate different brain regions, with suggestive differences for three others (visualization, sense-withdrawal, and non-dual awareness). Some areas like the insula and anterior cingulate cortex are recruited across multiple techniques, but convergence is the exception. Medium effect sizes for activations (d = .59) and deactivations (d = -.74) suggest practical significance. The findings support the neurophysiological dissociability of meditation practices while highlighting methodological concerns.
Frontiers in Psychology
April 26, 2023
Bassam Khoury, Viktoriya Manova, Lena Adel et al.
A proposed theoretical model suggests that mindfulness meditation training improves interpersonal relationships by increasing self-awareness, self-regulation, and prosociality, which in turn enhance the quality of interactions and socioemotional support provided to others. Better support then boosts the recipient's emotion regulation. A study protocol aims to validate this tri-process model using a multiphasic longitudinal design with 640 participants randomized into 480 dyads. The work has theoretical and social implications for developing more effective interpersonal mindfulness programs.
Schizophr Bull
February 1, 2023
Tanya M Luhrmann, Ben Alderson-Day, Ann Chen et al.
In communities where hearing voices is common and expected, people are taught cultural models to identify and explain voice-like events. These communities share common features: they teach discernment to accurately identify the legitimate voice of a spirit or being, and they use two methods to enable experiencing spirits—trained attention to inner experience and repeated speech to the invisible other. The ability to hear spirits becomes more skilled with practice, and what is heard becomes clearer over time. Despite shared cultural ideas, individual variation in experience exists, some possibly reflecting psychotic process. Voice-like events may be shaped by cognitive expectation, trained practice, and an experiential pathway.
International Journal of Yoga
January 1, 2022
Marim Ibrahim, Joseph Therriault, Vasavan P Nair et al.
A pilot randomized-controlled trial tested whether Kundalini yoga could protect the aging brain. Eleven healthy older adults who had never meditated were randomly assigned to either a Kundalini yoga program or a psychoeducation comparison. Brain scans taken before and after 12 weeks showed a significant increase in right hippocampal gray matter volume only in the yoga group. The finding suggests that Kundalini yoga may have neuroprotective effects for older adults, though the small sample limits generalizability.
Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience
January 1, 2022
Magnus Bein, Myriam Lesage, Elena Dikaios et al.
Late-life depression affects up to 18% of older adults and is linked to elevated dementia risk. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) may help treat depressive symptoms and cognitive deficits in this population, but a definitive randomized controlled trial has not yet been conducted. This protocol describes a multi-site blinded trial comparing MBCT to an active control, a Health Enhancement Program, in 213 patients with late-life depression. Changes in depression severity, processing speed, executive functioning, and brain biomarkers will be assessed at baseline, post-intervention (8 weeks), and 26 weeks after baseline. The study will evaluate MBCT's potential to improve depression, cognitive impairments, and neurobiological markers.