Psychedelics and Supernatural Agents
Patrick Mcnamara, Jordan Henry Grafman
Oxford University Press eBooks May 22, 2024 DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780192844064.013.24 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Review Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Citations | 2 |
| Key findings | Argues that REM sleep dreams and the psychedelic state overlap in neurophysiologic, cognitive, and phenomenological features, with both involving down-regulation of the default mode network and impairment of the cognitive self-model or ego dissolution. Proposes that supernatural agents appear in both states to explain away or resolve uncertainties around this impairment in the self-model. |
Abstract
Abstract The authors review the evidence for overlap in neurophysiologic, cognitive, and phenomenological features of REM sleep dreams and the psychedelic state. REM sleep and dreams contribute in complex ways to the phenomenology of both religious experiences and psychedelic experiences via intrusion of components of REM neurophysiology into waking consciousness or the psychedelic state. The cognitive and neurophysiologic factors that predict the appearance of supernatural agents (SAs) in dreams and in the psychedelic state appear to involve in both cases down-regulation of default mode network (DMN) and the associated impairment in the cognitive self-model in dreams or ego dissolution in the psychedelic state. The authors hypothesize that SAs emerge both in the dream and the psychedelic state in order to explain away or resolve uncertainties around impairment in the self-model.
Citations in the library
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and 25 more in the library