July 1, 2026
Ari Brouwer, Charles L. Raison
preprint
This paper explores whether some religious and spiritual experiences (RSEs) associated with depression resemble hypomania/mania. Content analysis and phenomenological analysis were used to characterize first-person RSE reports associated with depression (N = 249). Findings reveal that some RSEs that follow depression are characterized by long-duration states (lasting days to weeks) of positive...
June 21, 2026
Ari Brouwer, Charles L. Raison
preprint
This paper examines first-person experiences of demons, devils, and Satan contained in the Alister Hardy RERC database of religious and spiritual experiences (RSEs). Word frequency analysis, content analysis, and phenomenological analysis are used to characterize the features of demonic experiences and how they relate to psychopathology and religious/cultural affiliations. Results show that...
npj Mental Health Research
February 7, 2025
Ari Brouwer, Joshua K Brown, Earth Erowid et al.
5 citations
Psychedelic therapy has the potential to become a revolutionary and transdiagnostic mental health treatment, yielding enduring benefits that are often attributed to the experiences that coincide with peak psychedelic effects. However, there may be an underrecognized temporal structure to this process that helps explain why psychedelic and related altered states of consciousness can have an...
Pharmacology Research & Perspectives
August 1, 2024
Ari Brouwer, Robin Carhart-Harris, Charles L. Raison
5 citations
It is a paradox that psychotomimetic drugs can relieve symptoms that increase risk of and cooccur with psychosis, such as attention and motivational deficits (e.g., amphetamines), pain (e.g., cannabis) and symptoms of depression (e.g., psychedelics, dissociatives). We introduce the ideas of psychotomimetic compensation and psychotomimetic sensitization to explain this paradox. Psychotomimetic...
Religion Brain & Behavior
July 11, 2024
Ari Brouwer, Charles L. Raison, F. Leron Shults
3 citations
Fruitful comparison of psychedelic, spiritual, and psychotic experiences requires a degree of phenomenological nuance. Some shared features of these phenomena, such as encounters and communications with supernatural entities, are obfuscated by scientific and clinical terminology. Other supposed distinctions are based on an atemporal view of dynamic experiences. In Section 2 of this...
Research Square (Research Square)
February 23, 2024
Ari Brouwer, Joshua K. Brown, Earth Erowid et al.
5 citations
Abstract Psychedelic therapy has the potential to become a revolutionary and transdiagnostic mental health treatment, yielding enduring benefits that are often attributed to the experiences that coincide with peak psychedelic effects. However, there may be an underrecognized temporal structure to this process that helps explain why psychedelic and related altered states of consciousness can...
Religion, Brain & Behavior
November 24, 2023
Ari Brouwer, Michael J. Winkelman, C. Raison
6 citations
ABSTRACT The cross-cultural practice of shamanism reflects an innate capacity for altered states of consciousness (ASC’s) that are elicited by stress, deliberately sought in shamanic rituals, and associated with psychopathology. Shamanic sickness, animal transformation, and death-rebirth experiences specifically resemble psychotic experiences. The triggers of shamanic and psychotic experiences...
Journal of Psychopharmacology
April 1, 2021
Ari Brouwer, Robin Lester Carhart-Harris
147 citations
This paper introduces a new construct, the ‘pivotal mental state’, which is defined as a hyper-plastic state aiding rapid and deep learning that can mediate psychological transformation. We believe this new construct bears relevance to a broad range of psychological and psychiatric phenomena. We argue that pivotal mental states serve an important evolutionary function, that is, to aid...
Ari Brouwer, Robin Carhart-Harris, Charles L. Raison
preprint
It is a paradox that psychotomimetic drugs can relieve symptoms that increase risk of and cooccur with psychosis, such as attention and motivational deficits (e.g., amphetamines), pain (e.g., cannabis) and symptoms of depression (e.g., psychedelics, dissociatives). We introduce the ideas of psychotomimetic compensation and psychotomimetic sensitization to explain this paradox. Psychotomimetic...