The scientific interest in spirituality has increased in recent years, paralleled by promising findings on the effects of spiritual experiences induced by psychedelics substances (PS), in the treatment of psychiatric disorders. However, these experiences may also bring challenges, depending on a variety of non-pharmacological variables. This article argues that an undiscerning use of PS to...
The aim of this article is to envisage possible commonalities between shamanic rituals, incubation, meditation, lucid dreaming, and hypnosis – a well validated therapeutic tool, though misunderstood in the past and still underused. The topic is endowed with huge epistemological implications, calling for a transdisciplinary and transcultural approach, in order to properly understand the...
The topic of resilience is of paramount importance. Although the term resilience was coined in the fields of physics and engineering, its use has spread to the fields of social sciences, biology, psychology, and psychiatry, as well as to the industry. Moreover, the term is now endowed with a wide range of meanings. The topic of resilience plays a central role in all critical life events. It is...
The aim of this paper is to describe some ostensibly odd, Non-Ordinary-Mental Expressions (NOMEs), that have been considered implausible, illusory or hallucinatory phenomena, possible symptoms of disorders of the neurological or psychological functioning. They include a large variety of phenomena, encompassing hearing voices, seeing presences, communication with non-incarnated entities...
Abstract This contribution to the science of consciousness aims at comparing how two different theories can explain the emergence of different qualia experiences: meta-awareness, meta-cognition, the placebo effect, out-of-body experiences, cognitive therapy, meditation-induced brain changes, etc. The first theory postulates that qualia experiences derive from specific neural patterns, and the...
The topic of multiple personality, redefined as Dissociative Identity Disorders (DIDs) in the DSM-5, is an intriguing and still debated disorder with a long history and deep cultural and epistemological implications, extending up to the idea of possession. Hypnosis is an appealing and valuable model to manipulate subjective experience and get an insight on both the physiology and the...
Inducing out-of-body experiences in hypnosis (H-OBEs) offers an almost unique opportunity to investigate them under controlled conditions. OBEs were induced as an imaginative task in a resting condition (I-OBE) or in hypnosis (H-OBE) in a group of 15 high hypnotizable subjects. A 32-channel EEG was recorded, and the spectral power and imaginary coherence of each frequency band and each couple...
In this article, we report some excerpts from the writings of Dr. A.M., an adult female, regarding the knowledge she acquired during the regular mystical experi- ences she has been having since April 2014. This case is exceptional for multiple reasons. First, she experienced this particular state of consciousness without any associated medical or neurological illnesses. Second, these...
The Self is an interdisciplinary topic encompassing neuroscience, psychology, philosophy and anthropology. Despite the wealth of data available on the topic, its definition remains elusive, while its meaning overlaps with terms such as consciousness, Ego and I, and so has created more confusion and redundancy rather than clarity. Its study is also endowed with deep epistemological and...
Hypnosis and meditation, as a whole, form a heterogeneous complex of psychosomatic techniques able to control mind and body regulation. Hypnosis has been pragmatically used for limited therapeutic targets, while Eastern meditation has much wider philosophical and existential implications, aiming for a radical liberation from all illusions, attachments, suffering and pain. The available data on...
In this essay, we will support the claim that at the current level of scientific advancement a) some first-person accounts cannot be reduced to their third-person neural and psychophysiological correlates and b) that these first-person accounts are the only information to reckon when it is necessary to analyse qualia contents. Consequently, for many phenomena, first-person accounts are the only...
Consciousness has been one of the most important and tantalizing issues ever since the origin of philosophy and medicine. The concept of consciousness and the so-called "hard problem" (i.e., the mind-brain relationship) are highly complex topics that have yet to be elucidated, involving the realms of both science and philosophy with profound epistemological implications. In the lively debate on...
During the last decades an increasing interest has developed in the so-called altered state of consciousness (ASCs); among these, near-death experiences (NDEs) are one of the most intriguing and debated examples. NDEs are deep and universal experiences with a clear phenomenology and incidence, while some of their features challenge the current views of human consciousness (focused on neural...
Science exists to refute dogmas; nevertheless, dogmas may be introduced when undemonstrated scientific axioms lead us to reject facts incompatible with them. Several studies have proposed psychobiological interpretations of near-death experiences (NDEs), claiming that NDEs are a mere byproduct of brain functions gone awry; however, relevant facts incompatible with the ruling physicalist and...
Inducing out-of-body experiences in hypnosis (H-OBEs) offers an almost unique opportunity to investigate them in a controlled condition.OBEs were induced as imaginative task in resting conditions (I-OBE) or in hypnosis (H-OBE) in 15 high hypnotizable subjects. A 32-channel EEG was recorded and the spectral power and imaginary coherence were calculated. At the end of each session, the...
Aim of this theoretical paper is to review the ontological status of so-called altered states of consciousness, suggesting a revision of their common interpretation as abnormal, or anyway less-than-normal conditions. The term Non-Ordinary Mental Expressions (NOMEs), is described and emphasized as a new conceptual tool allowing a more comprehensive interpretation of the varieties of the normal...