Psychological Medicine
February 5, 2016
Robin Carhart-Harris, Mendel Kaelen, Mark Bolstridge et al.
301 citations
Background Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is a potent serotonergic hallucinogen or psychedelic that modulates consciousness in a marked and novel way. This study sought to examine the acute and mid-term psychological effects of LSD in a controlled study. Method A total of 20 healthy volunteers participated in this within-subjects study. Participants received LSD (75 µ g, intravenously) on one...
HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies
February 4, 2016
Gert Malan
This article investigates whether different religious (mythological) worldviews can be described as alternative and altered states of consciousness (ASCs). Differences between conscious and unconscious motivations for behaviour are discussed before looking at ASCs, Weltanschauung and symbolic universes. Mythology can be described both as Weltanschauung and symbolic universe, functioning on all...
Brain Connectivity
February 1, 2016
Tun Jao, Chia-Wei Li, Petra E Vértes et al.
Meditation induces a distinct and reversible mental state that provides insights into brain correlates of consciousness. We explored brain network changes related to meditation by graph theoretical analysis of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data. Eighteen Taoist meditators with varying levels of expertise were scanned using a within-subjects counterbalanced design during...
European Neuropsychopharmacology
January 22, 2016
Thomas Pokorny, Katrin H. Preller, Rainer Kraehenmann et al.
148 citations
The mixed serotonin (5-HT) 1A/2A/2B/2C/6/7 receptor agonist psilocybin dose-dependently induces an altered state of consciousness (ASC) that is characterized by changes in sensory perception, mood, thought, and the sense of self. The psychological effects of psilocybin are primarily mediated by 5-HT2A receptor activation. However, accumulating evidence suggests that 5-HT1A or an interaction...
January 6, 2016
Scot D. Forshaw
The question of how our perceived reality is constructed and subsequently how our mind has evolved such that we are able to both perceive and subsequently alter our own causality or even our own evolution within this reality has been a long running open question. Referred to as “The Hard Problem”. There have been many theoretical interpretations on the nature of causal self-observance –...
Prayer and Politics
January 2, 2016
Parvis Ghassem-Fachandi
In the micro-politics of community and neighborhood practice, formal Muslim prayer (namaz) frequently becomes juxtaposed to trance, possession or other dissociative states of consciousness. In the latter states, a subject becomes overwhelmed by an encounter with otherness and reacts on the basis of an economy of affect. In India such affective encounters are traditionally articulated...
AMS Acta
2016
Giuseppe Galetta
Un’allucinazione vissuta consensualmente abbandonandosi all’oblio della coscienza: un “viaggio” allucinante nelle profondità dell’inconscio, intrapreso dall’artista nel rischioso tentativo di raggiungere senza certezza uno stato di “superiore” ispirazionee di mistica illuminazione, lasciando affiorare le proprie visioni ed i propri fantasmi interiori dalle nebbie lisergiche dell’estasi chimica...
Behavioral and Brain Sciences
2016
Milagros Gallo
Abstract: Taste research in rodents supports the relevance of memory in order to determine the content of consciousness by modifying both taste perception and later action. Associated with this issue is the fact that taste and visual modalities share anatomical circuits traditionally related to conscious memory. This challenges the view of taste memory as a type of non-declarative unconscious...
2016
Michael A. Cerullo, A. Stryker
In severe depression thoughts of suicide can develop over weeks or months. Traditional pharmacologic or psychotherapeutic treatments take several weeks before they begin to improve symptoms. This gradual improvement is consistent with our everyday experience of the self. However, a new treatment, ketamine, can alter depressive symptoms within hours or even minutes. Ketamine can stop suicidal...
Explore
2016
Olivier Brabant
Commonly accepted models of human consciousness have substantial shortcomings, in the sense that they cannot account for the entire scope of human experiences. The goal of this article is to describe a model with higher explanatory power, by integrating ideas from psychology and quantum mechanics. In the first part, the need for a paradigm change will be justified by presenting three types of...