Neural filters to conscious awareness and the phenomena that reduce their impact.
Marjorie Woollacott, Marina Weiler
International Review of Psychiatry 2025 DOI: 10.1080/09540261.2025.2478907 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Review Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Consciousness Psychedelic compound Brain's "neural filters" Narrow our perception Profound transcendent experience States Vast Practices |
| Citations | 3 |
| Key findings | Reducing activity in neural filters—through near-death experiences, deep meditation, or psychedelic compounds—may enable wider awareness, transcendence of time and space, and access to nonlocal information beyond ordinary sensory limits. |
Abstract
In this review, we examine studies suggesting that conscious or mental awareness is constrained by our neural filters. These filters include sensory receptors, the ascending reticular activating system and the thalamus, the default mode network, and left hemisphere language centers. These filters limit our perception of the world to a narrow range of energy frequencies, make sense of space and time, and prioritize internally generated narratives (associated with language and conceptuality). We then present studies indicating that when the activity within these filters is reduced or absent-such as in near-death experiences, deep meditation, or the use of psychedelic compounds-we may gain access to a wider awareness, experience transcendence of time and space, and ego dissolution. This expanded state might enable the mind to potentially access intuitive, nonlocal information beyond the limitations of the five senses.
Comparable studies
Other narrative reviews on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness training as a clinical intervention: A conceptual and empirical review. Clinical populations | 2003 | Review | |
| Mindfulness: Theoretical Foundations and Evidence for its Salutary Effects | 2007 | Review | |
| Mindfulness Interventions | 2016 | Review | |
| Mind the Hype: A Critical Evaluation and Prescriptive Agenda for Research on Mindfulness and Meditation | 2017 | Review | |
| Mindfulness and acceptance: expanding the cognitive-behavioral tradition | 2005 | Review |
Citations in the library
Cites 52
- A default mode of brain function Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences January 16, 2001
- Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance Psychopharmacology July 7, 2006
- Meditation experience is associated with differences in default mode network activity and connectivity Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences November 23, 2011
- Neural correlates of the psychedelic state as determined by fMRI studies with psilocybin Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences January 23, 2012
- The Varieties of Self-Transcendent Experience Review of General Psychology May 1, 2017
and 47 more in the library