Detached self-observation, a central dimension of mindfulness meditation, has emerged as a key metacognitive and emotional-regulatory capacity across psychology, education, and neuroscience. This theoretical paper proposes meditation as a developmental catalyst, drawing on contemporary scholarship. Detached observation is reframed here as a culturally mediated competence grounded in both...
Recent calls for mindfulness measures beyond self-report abound, especially for children. Because breath awareness is central to many mindfulness practices, the breath counting task has been proposed as a behavioral measure of mindfulness for adults. In the current study, we investigated whether the breath counting task can also serve as a valid behavioral measure of children’s mindfulness. We...
Contemporary theories of consciousness offer a range of explanatory perspectives. Global Workspace Theory emphasizes cognitive access, Higher-Order Theories focus on metacognitive representation, Integrated Information Theory centers on intrinsic experience, and Predictive Coding Theory models cognitive processes as probabilistic inference. While each theory provides valuable insights, they...
Background: Mindfulness has gained increasing attention for its role in fostering emotional regulation and psychological resilience. In contexts of displacement and trauma, mindfulness may be associated with improved adaptive coping and recovery. This cross-sectional study investigated the relationships among mindfulness, distress tolerance, and trauma recovery in internally displaced...
Which of the many available theories of consciousness should a newcomer to the field choose? We consider possible ways to deal with this conundrum. We argue that convergence of theories is unlikely. Next, we consider ways comparing theories highlighting significant issues with existing endeavors in this regard. Given the nature of the field, presumably empirical support has a critical role to...
Frontiers in PsychologySeptember 16, 2025Yasemin Bakkal Temi, Aila Gareayaghi, Ece Baydar et al.
Objectives: Significant psychological distress is prevalent among patients with advanced gastrointestinal cancer, underscoring the need to investigate the roles of mindfulness and coping strategies in shaping emotional outcomes. However, this relationship has not yet been sufficiently explored. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the associations between mindfulness, coping styles, and...
Introduction Aesthetic experiences under psychedelics are often described as vivid, emotionally powerful, and meaningful, yet they remain under-measured in psychometric research. This study aimed to refine and validate the Psychedelic Aesthetic Experience Questionnaire (PAEQ), a novel instrument designed to assess the aesthetic dimensions of acute psychedelic experiences. Methods A total of 365...
Despite extensive discussions, a consensus is lacking on whether out-of-body experiences (OBEs) and lucid dreams (LDs) should be considered as distinct categories of experience, and if so, what differentiates them. To address this issue, we first discussed the implications of OBEs and LDs as the same type of phenomenon. We then compiled a comprehensive list of experiential features associated...
Psychological assessments, allostatic load and gene expression analyses in a randomized controlled trial comparing meditation, yoga, and stress education.
Frontiers in PsychologySeptember 8, 2025Anita Milicevic, Angela Blazely, Anatol Bragin et al.2 citations
Studies on consciousness need to develop further a mixed methods research design that effectively integrates first-, second- and third-person research approaches. Mixed methods research has not fully explored the methodological potential of the participant-observer role and the interdependence of knowledge across disciplines to gain a deeper understanding of such inquiries. This paper describes...
Multiple theoretical models of dissociative experiences have been formulated over the last century. These theories are clinically useful; however, it remains unclear if common factors exist in various pathways leading to an onset of dissociations. In this paper we provide a framework for building an integrated, dynamical model of dissociative experiences. This framework combines a...
This article presents a novel perspective on the structure and function of the human cortex, grounded in the Sociobiological Informational Theory (SIT). SIT offers a conceptual framework that integrates biological, psychological, and social dimensions of brain activity, challenging traditional anatomical and physiological models. Under this perspective, the neocortex is interpreted as the...
Background: Attention regulation is crucial for mindfulness practice; however, the influence of baseline attention ability on mindfulness training outcomes remains underexplored. This study examined the effects of a brief mindfulness intervention on attention and investigated whether baseline inattention symptoms moderated these effects in meditation-naïve university students. Methods: This...
Within the broader topic of women's intuition, the focus of this work is mother-offspring intuition-the enigmatic connection between a mother and her offspring, wherein distress or imminent harm is instantly sensed, even when thousands of miles apart. Instant nonlocal communication irrespective of distance, is known as entanglement in quantum physics, and has been repeatedly verified since the...
This conceptual study examines Matte Blanco’s system of bi-logic as a novel framework for understanding psychedelic altered states of consciousness. The initial point of departure is a consideration of the complex historical relationship between psychoanalysis and psychedelics, prompting a review of contemporary psychoanalytic and neuropsychoanalytic perspectives on psychedelic action. This...
Objective: This study explored the autonomic nervous system responses and perceived experiences of novice meditators during kinetic and static meditation. Methods: Thirty-five participants completed both meditation types in randomized order. Each 20-min session included 10 min of guided and 10 min of unguided meditation. Heart rate (HR) and Heart rate variability (HRV) was recorded using the...
One of the most controversial and debated problems regarding the nature of sentience, is how to integrate the biology and neurobiology of sentience with the problem of the "explanatory gaps" that are proposed to arise between the functions of the nervous system as objectively and scientifically explained and sentience-or more generally consciousness-as it is subjectively experienced. In this...
Introduction: The daily effects of supernatural-agent (SA) concepts on spirituality remain poorly understood. In this study, we focused on dreaming as an avenue to study the effect of SA concepts on spirituality. This work contributes to a long history of research linking together dreaming and spirituality by utilizing quantitative and longitudinal methods. Methods: We conducted an intensive...
Contrary to the prevailing view that technology detracts from nature, this research demonstrates that digitally-guided mindfulness can act as a powerful amplifier of the psychological benefits of Urban Green Spaces (UGS). Across four interconnected experiments, we reveal how and for whom this synergy works to enhance life hope. Building on Attention Restoration, Broaden-and-Build, and Hope...
Near-death experiences (NDEs), a syndrome of experiences with mystical-type content classically arising in the context of life-threatening situations, are under-researched in terms of their relevance for acute medical care. We here discuss several reasons to raise the importance of conducting more comprehensive NDE research in emergency and critical care contexts, including but not limited to...
Background: d cartoon series-the topic has only rarely been researched. Methods: We asked 1,082 participants to complete an online survey to test specific hypotheses on why people perceive that food affects their dreams, including whether specific foods influence dreams directly (food-specific effects), through physiological symptoms (food distress), or via altered sleep quality (sleep...
This study investigated the feasibility and psychological benefits of a two-day intensive forest therapy program incorporating mindfulness practices for individuals affected by natural disasters. The sample comprised 110 participants, including those who had either experienced wildfires or floods or served as first responders. The results revealed significant reductions in depression, anxiety,...
The study of animal consciousness has gained new prominence, driven by progress in neuroscience, cognitive ethology, and philosophy of mind (e.g., Andrews et al., 2024;Ehret and Romand, 2022;Bayne et al., 2024;Grinde, 2024). This special issue brings together diverse contributions (i.e., empirical, theoretical, and conceptual) that propose new ways to think about the nature and evolution of...
Introduction Prior research has explored relationships among dispositional mindfulness, motivation, and academic performance, the mechanisms linking these variables remain unclear. This study aims to examine whether dispositional mindfulness predicts self-learning and academic achievement in Yemeni college students, and the potential mediating roles of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in...
Introduction Psychedelics, such as psilocybin, are increasingly recognized for their propensity to elicit powerful subjective experiences that carry personal meaning. While research has demonstrated the capacity for these compounds to promote psychological wellbeing, it has yet to be shown to what extent they modulate "meaning in life", a specific contributor to mental and physical health....