Journal of Sleep Research
August 1, 2026
Nicola De Pisapia, Erdem Taskiran, Stefano Mastino et al.
Lucid dreaming, defined as the experience of becoming aware of dreaming while dreaming, offers a unique window into a state of consciousness characterised by a blending of the sensory vividness of REM sleep with the self-awareness of wakefulness. While past functional imaging has shed light on the neural activity supporting lucid dreaming, the structural brain correlates of lucid dream...
Rosmini Studies
July 30, 2026
Nicola De Pisapia
This essay explores the possibility of an integrative dialogue between contemporary cognitive neuroscience and the philosophical thought of Antonio Rosmini, focusing on the nature of consciousness. Drawing from neurophenomenology and theories of subjective experience, the analysis highlights conceptual parallels with Rosmini’s notion of fundamental feeling, proposing a non-reductionist,...
Virtual Worlds
June 25, 2026
Nicola De Pisapia, Andrea Polo, Andrea Signorelli
Immersive virtual environments are increasingly investigated as tools capable of modulating conscious experience, yet the specific contribution of graded immersion to altered states of consciousness (ASC), time perception, and cognition remains unclear. The present study examined how different levels of immersion during videogame play influence subjective experience and post-experience...
April 16, 2026
Nicola De Pisapia
preprint
Consciousness science has made substantial progress in studying how perceptual contents become conscious, yet it has paid comparatively little attention to a broader question: what makes an experiential world feel real? This article treats the sense of reality as a distinct explanandum, understood as the pre-reflective way in which a current world is experienced as present, coherent,...
The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology
2026
Nicola De Pisapia
Mindfulness refers to a family of contemplative practices and states related to the cultivation of awareness, presence, and equanimity. Originally rooted in Buddhist traditions, mindfulness has undergone a significant transformation as it entered Western psychological discourse, particularly within cognitive, neuroscientific, educational, and clinical frameworks. This chapter explores the...
Frontiers in Psychology
April 25, 2025
Antonio Metastasio, Elisabeth Prevete, Sofia Venturini et al.
8 citations
Introduction Considering the increasing evidence supporting psilocybin’s efficacy in therapeutic settings, it is essential to deepen our understanding of its subjective meanings and effects to enhance its integration into psychotherapy. Current knowledge is primarily based on psychometric assessments or unstructured personal reports, leaving a gap in the qualitative analysis of subjective...
Applied Sciences
December 19, 2024
Nicola De Pisapia, Gabriele Penazzi, Ignacio Ibarra et al.
2 citations
This study explores the use of immersive Virtual Reality (VR) cave environments to investigate hypotheses concerning altered states of consciousness, creativity, and flexible thinking in archaeological contexts. Building on the premise that ancient humans used caves as sites for rituals involving altered consciousness, we recreated a virtual cave environment to simulate these experiences and...
Front Psychol
July 15, 2022
Gabriele Penazzi, Nicola De Pisapia
16 citations
Hypnosis and meditation share phenomenological and neurophysiological features, and their comparison is a topic of growing interest in the scientific literature. In this article, we review a classification of these two kinds of non-ordinary states of consciousness, and discuss the studies that directly compare them. Some findings seem to suggest that hypnosis and meditation are distinct...
Frontiers in Psychology
2022
Nicola De Pisapia, Martina Dall'Avanzi
Examination of conscience (EC) is a contemplative practice that consists in examining daily the actions performed during the day (evening examination, immediately before going to bed) and the actions to be performed on the coming day (morning examination, immediately after sleep). While research on contemplative practices such as mindfulness has seen a large increase of studies in recent years,...
Nicola De Pisapia, Maria Laura Mencaroni, Giulio Velardo et al.
preprint
Rhythmic auditory stimulation has long been used across cultures to induce altered states of consciousness (ASC), yet its phenomenological and physiological correlates remain incompletely characterized under controlled laboratory conditions. Here, we investigated whether drumming-derived rhythmic auditory stimulation reliably induces ASC and how stimulus structure and individual expertise shape...