PsyArXiv
March 18, 2026
preprint
A novel experimental protocol, the Causal Architecture Discrimination Protocol (CADP), is proposed to distinguish between two competing theories of consciousness: those that attribute causal power to the intrinsic properties of a system and those that attribute it to the organizational structure of that system. The protocol leverages differences in how these accounts predict the causal effects of interventions on a system's components. By specifying a concrete experimental design, the paper aims to provide a method for empirically testing these foundational metaphysical claims about the nature of consciousness, moving the debate beyond purely theoretical arguments.
PsyArXiv
March 18, 2026
preprint
This theoretical paper argues that free will can be investigated through an integrated first- and third-person approach by combining mental agency, phenomenology, and irruption theory. The authors propose that these three ingredients provide a framework for studying volitional action without reducing it to either subjective experience alone or external observation alone. The paper contends that irruption theory, which examines how novel actions emerge from prior conditions, bridges phenomenological accounts of agency with neuroscientific data. The argument suggests that free will is not an illusion but a phenomenon requiring multi-level analysis.
PsyArXiv
March 17, 2026
preprint
Non-ordinary states of consciousness (NOSCs) entered through psychedelics, breathwork, hypnosis, or other means show therapeutic promise for improving well-being and reducing psychopathology. While research has mapped the central nervous system dynamics behind these states, the role of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) remains largely unexplored. Growing evidence suggests the ANS mediates processes linked to NOSCs, including emotional regulation, interoception, and cognitive function. This review proposes a framework where inducing physiological stress within a conducive context supports NOSC emergence, and the coexistence of high arousal and relaxation—sympathetic and parasympathetic tone—characterizes peak NOSCs. Understanding ANS dynamics may allow safer induction, optimized therapeutic impact, and real-time physiological monitoring of these states.
PsyArXiv
March 15, 2026
preprint
The text explores the intersection of advanced meditation, sleep, and consciousness science, arguing that meditative states and sleep are not mutually exclusive but can coexist, offering a new frontier for understanding consciousness. It suggests that advanced practitioners may maintain awareness during sleep, blurring the line between waking and sleeping states. This integration challenges conventional models of consciousness and sleep, proposing that meditative practices can alter sleep architecture and lead to unique states of conscious sleep. The work calls for further empirical research to investigate these phenomena and their implications for neuroscience and psychology.
PsyArXiv
March 8, 2026
preprint
Advanced meditation practices can lead to psychological adverse effects, including challenging, unpleasant, and negative experiences. The authors argue for recognizing these potential harms to ensure safe dissemination and practice. They review existing evidence on such experiences, emphasizing the need for better understanding, screening, and support for practitioners. The paper calls for integrating awareness of adverse effects into meditation research, teaching, and clinical applications to mitigate risks and promote safety.
PsyArXiv
February 27, 2026
preprint
A new questionnaire, the Six-Dimensional Visual Hallucination Questionnaire (6D-VHQ), was developed to systematically measure the content of visual hallucinations induced by psychedelics and stroboscopic light. The tool assesses six dimensions of visual experiences, providing a standardized method for quantifying and comparing hallucinatory content across different induction methods. This allows for more precise characterization of visual phenomena in research settings.
PsyArXiv
February 27, 2026
preprint
The Altered States Database (ASDB) is an open-access collection of psychometric questionnaire data on subjective experiences during pharmacologically and non-pharmacologically induced altered states of consciousness. Updated annually, the current update adds data from 2025, sourced from a systematic literature review following PRISMA guidelines. Screening 578 items yielded 32 journal articles, mostly reporting on the Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ30) and the Altered States of Consciousness Rating Scales (11-ASC, 5D-ASC). The ASDB now includes data from 36 pharmacological and 18 non-pharmacological consciousness-modifying techniques, encompassing 289 journal articles and 836 datasets from 29,287 participants. The database is freely accessible online.
PsyArXiv
February 8, 2026
preprint
Young children commonly report non-ordinary experiences such as extra sensory perceptions, out-of-body experiences, and self-transcendence, reflecting relational, pre-linguistic, and weakly individualised forms of consciousness. This paper integrates qualitative studies of children's experiences with an eight-dimensional model of altered consciousness, identifying phenomenological parallels between childhood experiences and adult altered states of consciousness, including vivid imagery, bodily dislocation, self-boundary dissolution, timelessness, heightened affect, and altered cognitive control. The authors propose that early transcendental modes of awareness may form an experiential template that mimics adults' pursuit of altered states through meditation, psychedelics, sensory deprivation, and spiritual practices, highlighting the need for systematic developmental and neuro-phenomenological research.
PsyArXiv
February 8, 2026
preprint
Experienced meditation practitioners who have used psychedelics describe how meditation practices can serve as preparation for psychedelic experiences. They report that skills such as focused attention, emotional regulation, and non-judgmental awareness help them navigate challenging psychedelic states and integrate insights afterward. The practitioners emphasize that meditation cultivates a mindset of openness and equanimity that can enhance the therapeutic potential of psychedelics. The findings suggest that combining meditation with psychedelic use may support more meaningful and less distressing experiences, though the study does not test causal effects or compare outcomes across groups.
PsyArXiv
January 24, 2026
preprint
State Space Theory (SST) proposes that consciousness arises from the brain's ability to reconstruct the dynamics of its own neural activity through hierarchical delay coordinate embedding—a process where recurrent cortical circuits use time-delayed signals to build internal models. Gain modulation determines which reconstructions achieve system-wide influence, and SST identifies these dynamics with consciousness itself, not merely as correlates. The theory maps major cognitive theories onto this architecture: parallel embedding engines correspond to competing drafts, global broadcasting reflects gain-amplified propagation, and the attention schema emerges as a higher-order reconstruction. SST generates falsifiable predictions about perceptual dynamics and temporal vulnerability windows, offering a computational foundation that grounds existing theories mechanistically.
PsyArXiv
January 18, 2026
preprint
Consciousness research has become contentious, with adversarial collaborations and open letters labeling some theories as pseudoscience, making investigation difficult. The author argues that the hard problem of consciousness and related questions may not be well-posed. A more precise approach is proposed: rather than defining consciousness with strict statements, researchers should examine its physical and conceptual constituents. This shift aims to clarify common queries about the source and emergence of conscious experience.
PsyArXiv
January 15, 2026
preprint
Floatation-REST, a non-pharmacological therapy involving neutral buoyancy and reduced sensory input, induces altered states of consciousness characterized by oceanic boundlessness, disembodiment, unity, and spiritual-type experiences—termed “aquahenosis.” In a randomized controlled feasibility trial with 75 treatment-seeking adults with anxiety and depression, six sessions of Floatation-REST increased interoceptive awareness of cardiorespiratory sensations and produced these altered states more than a zero-gravity chair condition. Effects were strongest with longer, flexible sessions. Experiential profiles overlapped with those from psilocybin and ketamine on boundary-dissolution dimensions, identifying Floatation-REST as a tractable method for inducing specific altered states linked to positive affective change.
PsyArXiv
December 29, 2025
preprint
A new self-report questionnaire, the Out-of-Body Level of Experience Scale, was developed and initially validated to measure the depth or intensity of out-of-body experiences. The scale was constructed based on phenomenological features of such experiences and tested for psychometric properties. Results indicated that the scale has good internal consistency and convergent validity with related measures, suggesting it is a reliable tool for assessing out-of-body experiences in research contexts.
PsyArXiv
December 16, 2025
preprint
A two-week meditation practice, whether focused on the body to a low or high degree, does not improve people's ability to sense their own heartbeat while at rest.
PsyArXiv
December 12, 2025
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The field of consciousness research lacks conceptual clarity because theories define consciousness in incompatible ways and lack clear success criteria. This arises from insufficient pragmatic pressure: theories are rewarded for explaining 'consciousness-as-such' rather than solving concrete problems. A pragmatic shift is proposed: focus on models that advance well-defined objectives, remaining neutral about metaphysical commitments. Analogies from stock-market trading and the history of science, such as Newtonian mechanics and relativity offering incompatible yet functional pictures of space and time, suggest that ontologically pluralist frameworks enable genuine progress.
PsyArXiv
December 5, 2025
preprint
Integrated Information Theory (IIT) makes experimental predictions about consciousness. The theory proposes that consciousness corresponds to a system's integrated information (phi), and it generates specific, testable predictions about which physical systems are conscious and under what conditions. These predictions can be empirically evaluated using neuroimaging and other methods.
PsyArXiv
December 1, 2025
preprint
Engaging in contemplative monastic debate practice is associated with improved emotion regulation and altered emotional experience. Practitioners show greater cognitive reappraisal and reduced expressive suppression compared to non-practitioners, suggesting that this structured, dialogic form of contemplation may enhance emotional flexibility.
PsyArXiv
November 28, 2025
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The paper argues that computational irreducibility—the inability to shortcut certain processes—provides a framework for understanding free will that avoids both determinism and indeterminism. It suggests that conscious agents experience themselves as making choices because the computational processes underlying decision-making cannot be predicted or simulated in advance, even in principle. This creates a phenomenological sense of agency and openness that is compatible with underlying physical laws. The argument draws on concepts from Stephen Wolfram's computational universe to reframe the free will debate, proposing that irreducible computation in neural systems gives rise to the lived experience of freedom without requiring metaphysical libertarianism.
PsyArXiv
November 17, 2025
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The paper proposes a theoretical framework called Awareness-First Theory, which argues that awareness is a fundamental aspect of reality, not derived from physical processes. It contends that this approach can unify coherence, physics, inference, and phenomenology within a variational framework. The authors propose that by treating awareness as primary, they can address longstanding problems in philosophy of mind and theoretical physics, such as the hard problem of consciousness and the interpretation of quantum mechanics. The theory suggests that physical laws and subjective experience both emerge from a deeper principle of variational inference.
PsyArXiv
November 17, 2025
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This paper presents a micro-phenomenological investigation of signal-verified lucid dreams, analyzing detailed accounts from experienced lucid dreamers. The study examines the subjective experience of becoming lucid within a dream, focusing on the transition from non-lucid to lucid states. The findings describe a characteristic sequence of experiences, including a moment of critical reflection, a shift in the sense of reality, and the emergence of metacognitive awareness. The analysis identifies common features such as a feeling of strangeness, a sense of clarity, and the deliberate testing of the dream environment. The work contributes to the understanding of lucid dreaming as a distinct state of consciousness and provides a detailed phenomenological framework for its onset.
PsyArXiv
November 17, 2025
preprint
When spatial attention is withdrawn, the subjective experience (qualia) of geometric shapes collapses, meaning people lose the detailed felt sense of those shapes. However, the qualia of faces remain intact even without focused spatial attention, suggesting that faces are processed differently and may have privileged access to conscious awareness.
PsyArXiv
November 14, 2025
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Research on the neural basis of consciousness has relied heavily on human studies, but available techniques in humans cannot probe neuron- and circuit-level mechanisms. Animal experiments, especially in rodents, can overcome this limitation by combining large-scale neuronal recordings with causal manipulations like optogenetics. Rodents cannot verbally report subjective experiences, but behavioral indicators of consciousness are reliable across species, and the range of rodent behavioral tests has expanded. This chapter reviews recent advances in rodent consciousness research, emphasizing how microcircuit-level studies can expand theoretical frameworks. The authors argue that rodent experiments should become a standard tool in consciousness science, complementing human studies.
PsyArXiv
November 14, 2025
preprint
The paper proposes a mathematical framework for understanding the quality of conscious experience (qualia) using principal bundle geometry, a concept from theoretical physics. It argues that the structure of qualia can be understood through the symmetries of a principal fiber bundle, where the base space represents the physical states of a system and the fibers represent the possible qualities of experience. The authors suggest that the specific quality of a conscious experience corresponds to the geometric structure of the connection on this bundle, offering a formal way to relate subjective experience to physical processes without reducing one to the other.
PsyArXiv
November 11, 2025
preprint
A new non-verbal tool, the Meditation Pictographic Scale (MPS), reliably measures subjective experiences during meditation without relying on verbal self-reports. Developed through a first-person phenomenological approach, the MPS was validated across four phases including interviews and a randomized controlled trial with 373 adults comparing three meditation practices (breath counting, loving-kindness, decentering) and an active control. Psychometric analysis showed the MPS detected meditation-induced changes, with items clustering into positive, negative, and distortion-related experiences. The scale demonstrated stable psychometric properties and sensitivity to specific practices, offering a novel method for studying meditation states and altered consciousness.
PsyArXiv
October 27, 2025
preprint
Psychedelic-assisted therapies are often explained through the 5-HT2A receptor, but evidence of GABAergic deficits in conditions like depression, PTSD, and addiction suggests a broader mechanism. A chemist proposes that modulation of inhibitory circuits acts as a necessary gate, converting temporary 5-HT2A activation into lasting effects. Evidence includes coordinated GABA-glutamate changes in the prefrontal cortex, critical-period reopening lasting 2 days to 4 weeks beyond receptor occupancy, and GABAergic deficits in target disorders. Predictions include that GABA changes should correlate with network and gamma changes, that enhancing GABA_A activity after the acute phase should shorten plasticity windows, and that baseline GABA levels may predict treatment response. The hypothesis would be challenged if no such correlations appear.