ExploreSeptember 1, 2026Maryanna Klatt, Elizabeth Palmer Kelly, Odysseas P Chatzipanagiotou et al.
Background The operating room (OR) is a high-stress, time-constrained environment where team focus is critical to patient safety. Mindfulness-based interventions can improve stress and attention, but their duration often limits integration into the surgical workflow. We evaluated the acceptability and initial perceptions of a brief, 1-minute mindfulness exercise delivered to the surgical team...
ExploreAugust 23, 2026Siddhant Nikam, Nimisha S Narayan
Patients undergoing Still Point induction via compression of the fourth ventricle (CV4) in cranial osteopathy commonly report a distinctive quality of profound mental quiet, described as qualitatively different from ordinary relaxation. Cranial osteopathy, however, entered a prolonged crisis of scientific credibility once controlled work indicated that its founding construct, the Primary...
Contemporary approaches to emotional healing have predominantly emphasized cognitive and top-down processes. However, many traditional healing systems across cultures have long recognized the primacy of embodied, somatic experience in the restoration of well-being. This Perspective proposes a reversed paradigm: that feeling differently leads to thinking and reacting differently. Somatic...
The educational system in most cultures today uses the materialist or reductionist worldview as its basis for generating and sharing knowledge. This worldview understands materiality as a fundamental characteristic of the universe, with subatomic particles being the foundation of reality, and consciousness being solely a product of brain activity. In this article, we propose that an alternative...
The COVID-19 pandemic catalysed widespread psychological distress, daily disruptions, and pervasive uncertainty. This paper presents a narrative inquiry exploring a personal spiritual journey with Raja Yoga meditation, initiated via an online course during the pandemic lockdown. The account investigates the interconnected roles of spiritual knowledge, meditation practice, and selfless service...
Near-death experiences (NDEs) are lucid events that some people have suddenly experienced in the face of imminent death. Often having been declared clinically dead, they recover with memories of emotions, images, or voices after a resuscitation process. The purpose of this study is to examine an Argentine sample of NDEs and compare individuals who experienced various NDE traits that occurred...
• Power animal journeying fosters uncovering hidden inner resources in psychotherapy. • It enhances self-understanding, emotional processing, and meaning-making. • It may deepen the therapeutic alliance between client and psychotherapist. • Power animal journeying requires proper integration of the experiences in the client. • It is risky for clients with psychotic disorder, paranoid...
BACKGROUND The purpose of this study is to explore ways in which interpersonal mindfulness and other foundations of healing are manifested during the TCM encounter and how they may affect the practitioner-patient relationship and support health equity and quality of life. METHODS US-based TCM practitioners with the following licenses-L.Ac., O.M., C.H.,-were recruited to participate in a 45-min...
Explore2026Nachum Plonka, Scott Davies, Mike Atkinson et al.
The Global Consciousness Project 2.0 (GCP 2.0) is an initiative investigating the relationship between human consciousness and the behavior of the project's random number generators (RNGs). This was explored via a series of meditation workshops led by Dr. Joe Dispenza with between 1000-2200 participants. They are run almost monthly and include meditative practices and 3 separate Coherence...
Online mindfulness may be an effective non-pharmacological mental health intervention. To evaluate the effectiveness of an online mindfulness platform in ameliorating anxiety, depression, and stress in patients with chronic diseases. In this randomized controlled study, 97 patients were enrolled and randomly assigned to either the online intervention group (N = 47) or the control group (N =...
Loneliness is a prevalent concern among young adults, with prior research indicating mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) may help mitigate the effect. This study aimed to investigate the effects of online MBIs in alleviating loneliness in university students, with a specific focus on comparing mindful stretching with or without a mindful breathing component. The study employed a mixed-method...
ExploreJune 4, 2025Jenny Moix, Samantha Baldaccini, Marta Isern
Despite the growing body of scientific research on Out of Body Experiences (OBEs), a scoping review has not yet been conducted. A search was conducted across six databases. Studies published between 1987 and 2024 were included, resulting in the selection of 87 publications. The analyzed factors included deliberate inducing, predisposing, precipitating, consequential, phenomenological, and...
This Reflection piece offers eight insights that have been gleaned from enlightened masters related to the nature of consciousness, awareness and experience. These insights are elucidated in ways that can help in the evaluation of the usefulness of our values and beliefs, and how these dictate the way we respond to our life experiences. In this way the essay points to the importance of...
Explore2025João Francisco Pollo Gaspary, Alfred Lee Edgar, Fernanda Peron Gaspary et al.
Ancestral healing rituals have long been embedded in cultural traditions as symbolic practices. However, emerging evidence suggests these rituals may act as structured behavioral interventions capable of eliciting adaptive physiological responses. This study proposes a translational reinterpretation of ancestral healing rituals through the lens of contemporary redox biology, systems physiology,...
Explore2025Anne Kennard, Jennifer Clinkenbeard, Erin Gillespie et al.
To evaluate how a year-long Contemplative Medicine Fellowship impacts physician burnout, moral injury, work-life integration, meaning, capacity for compassion, and professional resilience. A pre-post survey observational study using a combination of validated survey tools and questionnaire items authored by the research team. The New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care (NYZC), an educational...
Just as the brain of Albert Einstein is studied in an attempt to understand human intelligence or the bodies of elite athletes are examined to improve muscle strength, the study of people who claim to have spiritual experiences could enrich the investigation of the brain-mind relationship. Although mediumship with deceased people is widely extensively studied in spiritual experiences, we...
The purpose of this study was to deepen our understanding of the phenomenon of long-term transformational effects of near-death experiences (NDEs). Participants included 834 individuals who had experienced NDEs. We compared their responses with those of 42 individuals who had faced life-threatening situations (LTEs) without experiencing NDEs, aiming to discern whether transformations could be...
Singing bowl sound meditation is an ancient practice that has been used for centuries in Tibetan and Buddhist cultures as a form of healing and relaxation. The practice involves the use of singing bowls, which produce a soothing sound believed to have a powerful effect on the body's energy system, helping to balance the chakras and promote healing. Over the years, several studies have been...
Near death experiences (NDEs) can occur during life-threatening events. In this article, we present preliminary findings from a case study series. We highlight experiences of children that are synchronous with the basic elements of near death experiences (NDEs) and discuss how children describe their own experiences. Children reported unsolicited NDE type experiences that included out of body...
Health care providers (HCP) experience high stress and burnout rates. Mindfulness Based Interventions (MBI) with biofeedback may help improve resiliency but require further research. Aims were to evaluate changes in sleep patterns, nocturnal physiology, stress, mood disturbances, and perceived experience with biofeedback during the Mindfulness in Motion (MIM) intervention. Data from 66 HCP were...
Psychedelic-assisted therapy studies suggest that the induction of "mystical experiences" combined with psycho-therapy is a possible intervention for psychiatric illness. Advanced meditation may induce powerful experiences comparable to psychedelics. We investigated effects of an intensive meditation practice called Fire Kasina. Six individuals completed a retreat, and participated in an...
Qigong is a mind-body exercise that originated in China and is often described as a form of meditation or movement therapy. While the existing literature has investigated the impact of Qigong exercises on trait anxiety in outpatients, there is limited research on their influence on state anxiety in inpatients. This study examined the effect of Qigong exercise on state anxiety levels of...
Increasing numbers of research studies have offered evidence regarding awareness of verified events during near-death experiences (NDEs) occurring during cardiac arrest and severely impaired brain function. The prevalence of patients reporting core NDEs under these conditions is reported as 10-12 %. One question that is often asked is why this percentage is low. Though it may be hypothesized...
The phenomenon of near-death experience (NDE) is attracting a growing attention among researchers of various fields. In this study, we looked at NDE from a cognitive perspective to find out how NDE events are embodied when people recall and describe them. We examined the descriptions of a group of people talking about what they had experienced in the state of NDE. Based on the...