To investigate the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacodynamics (PD) of BPL-003, a novel intranasal benzoate salt formulation of 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT), in healthy participants. In all, 44 psychedelic-naïve participants enrolled in the double-blind, placebo-controlled single ascending dose study (1-12 mg BPL-003). Concentrations of 5-MeO-DMT and its...
Background: Mindfulness-based programmes (MBPs) have shown beneficial effects on mental health. There is emerging evidence that MBPs may also be associated with marked deviations in the subjective experience of waking consciousness. We aimed to explore whether MBPs can have a causal role in different types of such states. Methods: We conducted a pragmatic randomised controlled trial...
Abstract Jonathan Weinel explores aural aspects of the increasingly common representation in video games of an altered state of consciousness (ASC) such as intoxication, hallucination, and psychosis. He first outlines how ASCs, produced, for instance, by drug intake, form and shape our subjective experience before suggesting how such experiences can be designed for in video games. Weinel uses...
Normal perception happens through the known five senses, viz seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching. But worldwide, we have incidences of Telepathy, Clairvoyance, and Precognition. These are events of perception without using the five senses; hence these are called events of Extra Sensory Perception (ESP). We also witness instances where the mind has influenced matter—a glaring example...
High-order interactions are required across brain regions to accomplish specific cognitive functions. These functional interdependencies are reflected by synergistic information that can be obtained by combining the information from all the sources considered and redundant information (i.e., common information provided by all the sources). However, electroencephalogram (EEG) functional...
In this interview, Timo Torsten Schmidt provides details about his efforts to compile a comprehensive database of all psychometric measures gathered from controlled experiments investigating altered states of consciousness (ASCs) induced by pharmacological and non-pharmacological methods. He also introduces the paradigm of Phenomenoconnectomics which aims to systematically investigate the...
The alteration of consciousness during shamanic rituals is both a physical and mystical phenomenon. It involves psychological and spiritual experiences. Through ritual practices, shamans can connect with archetype within the collective unconscious, utilizing trance-inducing techniques for "hallucinatory exploration". This study surveyed 75 participants to investigate the impact of prototype...
Adoption of potentially consciousness-altering practices may be leading to a rise in emergent phenomena (EP): sudden unusual mental or somatic experiences often interpreted as spiritual, mystical, energetic, or magical in nature. It is unclear how frequently these altered states of consciousness occur and what the clinical implications may be. Anecdotal accounts and prior literature suggest...
Floatation-REST (Reduced Environmental Stimulation Therapy) minimizes stimulation of the nervous system by immersing subjects in an environment without sound or light while they effortlessly float in thermoneutral water supersaturated with Epsom salt. Here we investigated the relationship between altered states of consciousness (ASC) and its association with the affective changes induced by...
Flow is an intrinsically rewarding state characterised by positive affect and total task absorption. Because cognitive and physical performance are optimal in flow, chemical means to facilitate this state are appealing. Caffeine, a non-selective adenosine receptor antagonist, has been emphasized as a potential flow-inducer. Thus, we review the psychological and biological effects of caffeine...
Introduction This review explores the benefits of incorporating personal experience(s) with non-ordinary states of consciousness as a core component of Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy (PaT) training.The program incorporates an optional experiential training component. We collaborate with professionals affiliated with a Canadian non-profit organization specializing in PaT experiential training. As...
Medio Period (AD 1200 to 1450) Casas Grandes shamans used tobacco and possibly other entheogens to initiate trance states that allowed their spirits to travel across the cosmos. These trance experiences involved a sense of vertigo and soul flight that is cross-culturally common and occurs with tobacco-based nicotine intoxication. The Medio Period shamans also relied on and interacted with...
A set of interventions that can produce altered states of consciousness (ASC) have shown utility in the treatment of substance misuse. In this review, we examine addiction-related outcomes associated with three common interventions that produce ASCs: psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (PP), Transcendental Meditation (TM) and hypnotherapy (HT). While procedurally distinct, all three...
Altered states of consciousness (ASCs) are surprisingly hard to define and to measure. Neither ‘subjective’ methods (like verbal reports) nor ‘objective’ measures (such as how the state is induced, or physiological and behavioural criteria) are entirely satisfactory. Attempts to map ASCs are reviewed, including two- or three-dimensional maps such as Tart&s;s and Laureys’, and Hobson&s;s AIM...
Abstract Altered states of consciousness (ASCs), induced e.g. by psychedelics, show great potential to treat widespread mental health disorders like depression and PTSD. However, access to such treatments is restricted by legal, medical, and financial barriers. Here, we explore the potential of circular breathwork to serve as an accessible, non-pharmacological alternative to engage similar...
Abstract The transition towards the brain state induced by psychedelic drugs is frequently neglected in favor of a static description of their acute effects. We used a time-dependent whole-brain model to reproduce large-scale brain dynamics measured with fMRI from 15 volunteers under 20 mg intravenous N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a short-acting psychedelic. To capture its transient effects, we...
In electronic music events, the driving four-on-the-floor music appears pivotal for inducing altered states of consciousness (ASCs). While various physiological mechanisms link repetitive auditory stimuli to ASCs, entrainment—a brainwave synchronization through periodic external stimuli— has garnered primary focus. However, there are no studies systematically exploring the relationship between...
Common mental health pathologies such as depression, anxiety, addiction, and PTSD have recently seen treatment inroads. These issues share a phenomenological core—a dissociative quality that involves the disintegration of self and other. Interestingly, some of the most effective treatments of these pathologies are themselvesacutely dissociative. For example, psychedelic therapy has been...
AbstractThis is a brief review of consciousness studies in ‘traditional psychology’. My discussion focuses on three specific problems in consciousness studies: first, a lack of agreement on a definition of consciousness; second, the so-called ‘hard problem’ of trying to connect neurological patterning in the brain with lived experience; third, in relation to my own research focus, traditional...