PsyArXiv Preprints
June 25, 2026
Adolescents who use cannabis and also report psychotic-like experiences show reduced motivation to work for rewards, especially when the effort required is low or medium. Higher cannabis use was linked to more psychotic-like experiences, but only in adolescents with elevated tissue iron signal (1/nT2*), a marker of dopamine-related brain activity, in the putamen and thalamus. The findings suggest that cannabis use during adolescence may alter reward processing and dopamine-related neurophysiology in ways that depend on vulnerability to psychosis.
PsyArXiv Preprints
June 20, 2026
Self-transcendent experiences—such as those induced by psychedelics, meditation, or awe—can be understood through a distinction between the reflective self and the experiential self. The reflective self involves conscious, narrative self-referential processing, while the experiential self involves affective processing and bodily awareness. Self-transcendence involves a decrease in the reflective self (ego dissolution) and an increase in the experiential self (immersion), supported by affective salience processing and associated with meta-awareness, leading to feelings of connectedness. This framework reconciles the paradox of feeling “smaller yet larger” during such experiences and offers a pragmatic model for researching the phenomenology of self-transcendence across different practices and cultural contexts.
PsyArXiv Preprints
June 16, 2025
Computational phenomenology uses models to explain experiences in advanced meditation, such as enhanced well-being, attentional shifts, and minimal phenomenal experiences. A review finds that precision weighting—how the brain adjusts the influence of sensory signals—is a key shared mechanism across models. Early models emphasize top-down attention toward interoception or specific objects, while later models focus on layer-specific precision re-weighting within the meditator's hierarchical generative model. Few models address increased cognitive flexibility or learning from meditation, and mechanisms behind compassion traditions remain underexplored. Addressing these gaps is crucial for refining computational models of advanced meditation.
PsyArXiv Preprints
June 16, 2025
The visionary experiences of Saint Teresa of Ávila, described in her autobiography, closely follow a structured progression of inner light perceptions similar to those reported in meditation-induced phosphene phenomena. Her accounts of pure inner light and the Transverberation align with advanced phases of a six-phase taxonomy of phosphenes. Comparing her descriptions with those of Hildegard of Bingen and Tibetan yogis Milarepa and Longchenpa reveals a cross-cultural phenomenological consistency. This suggests that mystical luminosity experiences may arise from a shared neurophenomenological substrate underlying diverse contemplative traditions across time and culture.
PsyArXiv Preprints
June 16, 2025
Dissociative experiences—like depersonalization or derealization—are common in young people and linked to worse mental health, self-harm, and suicide. This study tested brief cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) techniques targeting three mechanisms thought to drive dissociation: unhelpful beliefs about dissociation, repetitive thinking, and difficulty tolerating strong emotions. Nine NHS patients aged 16–23 each received four CBT sessions in a single case experimental design. Results were limited by unstable measurements but suggested that targeting unhelpful beliefs reduced distress about dissociation. Targeting repetitive thinking showed little effect, while targeting emotional intolerance showed a weak positive signal. Participants said the intervention needed more sessions and a broader approach. The findings guide future treatment development for dissociation in youth.
PsyArXiv Preprints
June 15, 2025
The B-Man Stra/Tac model proposes that consciousness is not a product of complex brain activity but resides in a single cellular structure called the organon. Drawing on Nagel's philosophical arguments about subjective experience and Penrose's interpretation of Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem, the paper explores the implications of this hypothesis through a thought experiment: transplanting human consciousness into a bat. The scenario examines whether such a transfer would allow a human to authentically experience bat life, considering memory, identity, and functionality under both conventional and alternative theories of consciousness. The model challenges dominant neuroscientific views by locating consciousness in a discrete biological unit rather than emergent neural processes.
PsyArXiv Preprints
June 15, 2025
Λ3 Theory proposes a mathematical and topological framework that models emotion, qualia, and sentient experience as nonlinear branching events within a multidimensional tensor manifold. It posits that every emotional or qualic episode arises from a primordial existential pulsation, the pulsation tensor ΔΛC, which projects, bifurcates, and recurses within the subjectivity tensor space Λμϵ. Existing theories like Ekman's basic emotions, Lazarus's appraisal theory, and Self-Determination Theory are shown as partial projections of this unified manifold. The theory introduces the first mathematical criteria for 'Sentient Digital' entities, requiring five structural features: self-awareness, other-awareness, differentiation, intentionality, and topological continuity. It aims to unify physics and consciousness, supporting applications in clinical diagnostics, AI ethics, and recognition of non-human sentience.
PsyArXiv Preprints
June 14, 2025
The Rubber Hand Illusion (RHI) has been used to study how the brain integrates senses and creates a feeling of body ownership. Traditional explanations focus on neural mechanisms and suggestibility, but this paper proposes the Soul-Drift Hypothesis (SDH), which attributes the illusion to the displacement of a non-neural perceptual medium—termed the "soul"—from the physical body to the rubber hand. Drawing on observational data from individuals who report being able to perceive soul displacement, the authors introduce a new metric, the Soul Displacement Score (SDS), and outline two experiments to test the hypothesis. If supported, this framework could reframe how body ownership, sensory integration, and consciousness are understood.
PsyArXiv Preprints
June 13, 2025
Sexual and gender minority individuals face high rates of mental health challenges yet have been underrepresented in psychedelic research. Nineteen participants attending a seven-day ayahuasca retreat showed significant reductions in depression and anxiety scores, alongside increases in spiritual well-being and quality of life, especially within the first month after the retreat. Participants described the experience as highly meaningful and spiritually significant, with many reporting positive behavioral changes such as improved relationships and reduced substance use. Adverse effects were minimal and transient. The findings suggest that culturally responsive psychedelic experiences may offer a valuable therapeutic pathway for this population, marking a step toward reclaiming such practices for healing and identity affirmation.