Psychiatry
July 6, 2026
Rehana K Naik Olson, Lawrence Wichlinski
Neuroplasticity refers to the tendency of the nervous system to change structurally and functionally due to experience. The adult visual cortex was historically presumed rigid and unchangeable. However, recent research has identified residual neuroplasticity in the visual cortex extending into adulthood, which may be mediated by environmental factors including visual deprivation. Eagleman and...
Psychiatry
2010
Nirit Soffer-Dudek, Golan Shahar
General sleep-related experiences (Watson, 2001), including special dream states such as elevated dream recall, nightmares, hypnagogic hallucinations, flying dreams, and waking dreams, have been shown to be associated with life stress and psychopathological distress (Soffer-Dudek & Shahar, 2009). In this study, we attempted to examine these associations within the context of terror-related...
Psychiatry
December 1, 2005
Jon A. Shaw
13 citations
The phenomenology of mystical experiences has been described throughout all the ages and in all religions. All mystical traditions identify some sense of union with the absolute as the ultimate spiritual goal. I assume that the pathway to both theistic and secular spirituality and our readiness to seek a solution in a psychological merger with something beyond the self evolves out of our human...
Psychiatry
1998
R Levin
In order to explore the proposed relationship between nightmare occurrence and schizotypy, 30 frequent-nightmare subjects (at least one occurrence per week) and 30 low-nightmare controls, all of whom were female college students, were compared on several converging measures of schizotypal signs and behaviors. Consistent with previous research, frequent nightmare subjects demonstrated greater...
Psychiatry
November 1, 1993
Bruce Greyson
52 citations
Near-death experiences are profound subjective events frequently reported by individuals who have come close to death. They are of importance to mental health professionals, not only because they often happen to patients under our care, but because they have been reported to produce widespread and long-lasting changes in values, beliefs, and behavior that dramatically affect the experiencers'...
Psychiatry
February 1, 1992
Bruce Greyson, Nancy Evans Bush
226 citations
Most reported near-death experiences include profound feelings of peace, joy, and cosmic unity. Less familiar are the reports following close brushes with death of experiences that are partially or entirely unpleasant, frightening, or frankly hellish. While little is known about the antecedents or aftereffects of these distressing experiences, there appear to be three distinct types, involving...
Psychiatry
May 1990
R J Castillo
From a review of the literature on meditation and depersonalization and interviews conducted with six meditators, this study concludes that: 1) meditation can cause depersonalization and derealization; 2) the meanings in the mind of the meditator regarding the experience of depersonalization will determine to a great extent whether anxiety is present as part of the experience; 3) there need not...
Psychiatry
May 1, 1986
L S Benjamin
The study of sequences in the stream of consciousness during patient free association and self observation has long been held by psychoanalysts to be a major part of successful psychotherapy. Yet there have been essentially no methods for rigorously quantifying and studying the dynamic relations implied by the sequencing of patient verbalizations. The present paper proposes that Structural...
Psychiatry
November 1, 1982
Glen O. Gabbard, Stuart W. Twemlow, Fowler C. Jones
Considerable confusion exists in the psychiatric literature concerned with states of consciousness in which there is an altered perception of the mind/body relationship; related but different terms are often used interchangeably, with a lack of definitional rigor. The purpose of this paper is to bring clarity to this group of related phenomena by differentiating out-of-body experience (OBE)...
Psychiatry
November 1, 1981
M G Kenny
34 citations
"Multiple personality" remains surrounded with a halo of the occult, and, as a rare exotic, fits uneasily into the framework of modern psychotherapy. Yet, the spirit-possession phenomena which it so closely resembles are widely distributed and commonly reported; and therefore, from the comparative perspective of anthropology, the truly interesting question is not why it occurs at all but why it...
Psychiatry
August 1, 1980
Russell Noyes
172 citations
(1980). Attitude Change Following Near-Death Experiences. Psychiatry: Vol. 43, No. 3, pp. 234-242.
Psychiatry
May 1978
I D Rinder
BECAUSE OF MARIJUANA'S apparent widespread and growing use, and possible future decriminalization, there is understandable concern about the effects of marijuana on behavior. However, in any serious deliberation about effects on behavior, two divergent views are equally unacceptable: that of the naive medical moralizer, who believes that marijuana turns people into vicious criminals; and that...
Psychiatry
February 1, 1975
J S Neki
17 citations
Sahaja is an Indian ideal of mental and spiritual health that has received special emphasis in the Sikh scriptures--especially, the Adi Granth. Since the concept of sahaja has long been associated with mystical thought and practice, its description has become shrouded in peculiar esoteric terminologies. It is the purpose of this communication to divest sahaja of its esoteric, mystic...
Psychiatry
May 1, 1963
Sanford M. Unger
60 citations
(1963). Mescaline, LSD, Psilocybin, and Personality Change a Review. Psychiatry: Vol. 26, No. 2, pp. 111-125.