Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is increasingly understood not simply as a disorder of intrusive thoughts, but as one of how those thoughts are interpreted, regulated, and invested with meaning. This narrative, conceptually oriented review, brings together three literatures that are usually treated separately – mindfulness, Wells’ metacognitive model, and the neurocognitive and neuroimaging...
This chapter explores the relationship between self-clarity and happiness among artisans in rural India, integrating theoretical foundations from positive psychology with empirical evidence from a comprehensive intervention study conducted in Manpura village, Rajasthan. Drawing on Seligman’s PERMA model, self-determination theory, and culturally adapted contemplative practices, we investigate...
Nitrous oxide (NO), often recognized as “laughing gas” in medicine, has seen a surge in recreational use among young people over the last decades. While its medical application is generally safe at controlled doses, its abuse has raised major concerns due to its potential toxicity. The most commonly reported sequelae are associated with subacute combined degeneration of the spinal cord, and...
Loyalty is one of the most significant aspects of trust between individuals, and its violation may cause psychological stress, mental instability, and long-term relationship issues. Although conventional methods of restoring trust, such as apologizing, forgiving, and acting consistently, are helpful, they often overlook the profound psychological and neurological consequences of betrayal....
This chapter explores how monastic environments foster empathic experiences for both visitors and residents through practices of contemplation, hospitality, and spiritual presence. Drawing on autoethnographic insights and service-learning frameworks, the chapter examines how European monasteries operate as distinctive experiential settings in which silence, ritual, and embodied spirituality...
Music and psychoactive substances play a key role in forming identity during adolescence. Grasping the historical, neurobiological, and clinical aspects of this relationship is crucial for exploring how music therapy (MT) can support recovery from substance use disorder (SUD). In this chapter, the discussion begins by framing adolescent risk-taking, including substance experimentation, as a way...
IntechOpen eBooksMarch 5, 2026A. M. Roy, Sushil Prasad Mahato, Deepti Padmanabha Bhat et al.
Cognitive enhancement is increasingly pursued through complementary mind–body therapies that target fundamental brain–body mechanisms. This chapter synthesizes evidence for core modalities such as meditation and yoga, and additional approaches including Tai Chi/Qigong, breathwork, and music-based interventions. Across healthy and clinical populations, these therapies produce modest yet reliable...
Awareness during general anesthesia—the postoperative recall of sensory experiences while under anesthesia—remains among medicine’s most haunting yet underexplored phenomena. Affecting 1 to 2 in every 1,000 patients, anesthesia awareness challenges assumptions of total unconsciousness and highlights the gap between scientific understanding and lived experience. Even with proper anesthetic...
The Abhidhamma, a classical Buddhist doctrine, offers a profound understanding of cognitive processing and sensory perception, concepts formulated over 2700 years ago and recently reflected in modern neuroscience. It presents a sophisticated cognitive model in which consciousness (citta), mental factors (cetasika), and materiality (rūpa) co-arise and function in a causally interdependent...
The journey to actualise our full potential is a complex one but there is research to suggest it is marked with signs along the way. Following an investigation of the literature, a theoretical framework made up of five major stages and their markers is proposed. It is suggested that in Stage 1, the conventional sense of self, well-being pivots on the experiences of pleasure and pain. In Stage 2...
The concept of enlightenment has long intrigued scholars and contemplation practitioners alike, often associated with profound insights into the nature of self and reality. This chapter explores the notion of enlightenment through the lens of non-dualism, emphasizing the dissolution of the independent, single, permanent self and the emergence of self-transcendent experiences. Such experiences...
This paper explores the concept of enlightened joy and love as an aspect of a stable and enduring spiritual “high plateau” state, referred to here as “Living Transcendence,” which contrasts with transient mystical or spiritual “peak” experiences. Drawing from a phenomenological study of 32 “spiritual exemplars” from various traditions, the research identifies key characteristics of this state....
The Amero-Indians of the Amazon traditionally use ayahuasca for various physical and psychological ailments. Shamans in the Peruvian Amazon use the psychedelic drug ayahuasca to have various experiences in guided rituals. The goal of this religious experience is to expand consciousness and gain deeper insights. Consumption of the drink can cause harmful psychotic and paranoid reactions, but the...
Since its introduction to the West in 1969 by Swāmī Rāma through experiments conducted at the U.S. Menninger Foundation, yoga-nidrā has become a popular practice among yoga teachers from many traditions. The result is a patchwork of techniques incorporating a variety of practices and procedures. It has come to be thought of primarily as technique and the variability of techniques across...
IntechOpen eBooksSeptember 6, 2023Chiara Gentilozzi, Antonio Cuccaro, Filippo Gomez Paloma
This contribution, starting from the scientific framework of the Embodiment phenomenon, wants to focus on the specific issue of university education aimed at students from an Embodied Cognition-based (EC-based) perspective. For several years now, European educational policies have required member states to create programmes to increase the educational level of the population and to give more...
The relationship between brain and consciousness has been debated since Descartes in the 1500s, new theories arising in the twentieth century with the development of modern neuroscience. All are controversial due to the lack of consensus on the definition of consciousness, what cognitive properties must be explained, and how to evaluate sentience. Most theoretical explanations bear little...
Our chapter traces the origins of the psychoanalytic method back to experiences of non-ordinary states of consciousness achieved through the practice of hypnosis. Psychedelic medicines have the capacity to reveal hidden aspects of the unconscious mind that include symbolic elements and early organizational structures that correspond to Freud’s primary process thinking and which underpin...
Cannabinoids (phytocannabinoids and synthetic cannabinoids) are most often used during adolescence and given the changing norms, enhanced potency, reduced societal perceptions of risk and multitude forms of products for consumption, clinicians need to be become more cognizant of cannabinoid products and their effects. The aim of this narrative review is to briefly discuss acute toxicities and a...
IntechOpen eBooksSeptember 21, 2021Maria Asuncion L. Magsino1 citation
As a counterargument to the Cartesian split that has impacted both speculative and practical fields of knowledge and culture, we propose Peirce’s doctrine of synechism to show the continuity in the semiotic activity that moves from the body as an Interpretant to the emergence of another Interpretant called the “self.” Biosemiotics, a nascent field of interdisciplinary research that tackles...
EEG theta (4–7 Hz) activity is closely related to hypnosis and hypnotic analgesia, as well as to meditation and absorption. Research further indicates that theta oscillatory power is involved in different cognitive functions, such as spatial navigation, memory, creativity, and divided attention. The current manuscript will provide a synthesis of current knowledge regarding the importance of...
Welcome to the 0.0 Stress program. A practical trip integrator to reduce stress to its minimum expression. In this chapter, we will deepen our transpersonal experiential program, which can be very useful for anyone who experiences any signs or symptoms of stress such as anxiety, irritability, muscular tension, burnout, apathy, restlessness, headache, fatigue, digestive problems, concentration...
Body-mind approaches (e.g., yoga, mindfulness meditation, Pilates method, and cognitive behavior therapy) are commonly used by the public today. However, the comprehensive neurobiological framework of effects of body-mind approaches is unknown. To begin, we discuss the dynamic and static models of each body-mind approaches from neurobiological perspectives, as well as from the standpoint of...