Non-ordinary experiences such as hearing voices, losing control over one's body or mediumship/possession, are observed across cultures. However, there is a notable lack of instruments specifically designed to measure these experiences from a subject-centered, culturally sensitive perspective, with existing measures offering limited coverage ofexperiences that may be particularly salient for...
Nonordinary experiences (NOEs) that are subjectively marked as unusual or special have important implications for our understanding of consciousness but are challenging to quantify. Estimates of their prevalence vary widely across disciplines and research traditions, and the reasons for this variation remain unclear. We address this discrepancy in a series of six studies. In study 1, we...
Humans spend a substantial share of their lives mind-wandering. This spontaneous thinking activity usually comprises autobiographical recall, emotional, and self-referential components. While neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that a specific brain "default mode network" (DMN) is consistently engaged by the "resting state" of the mind, the relative contribution of key cognitive components...