Serotonergic psychedelics are advancing as psychiatric treatments, yet acute responses vary between individuals and the contribution of sex, a fundamental biological variable, remains largely unexamined. We pooled two double-blind, placebo-controlled studies in healthy volunteers (N = 72; 31 male, 41 female) comparing psilocybin 15 mg, 2C-B 20 mg, and LSD 50 μg. Linear mixed models tested sex...
A resurgent therapeutic frontier, the contemporary renaissance in psychedelic science has accelerated investigation of classic serotonergic psychedelics (psilocybin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), mescaline), empathogenic entactogenic agents (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)), and glutamatergic dissociatives (ketamine) as adjuncts to psychotherapy. While...
We argue that a distinctive form of intersubjective experience – shared minimal-dual awareness (MDA) or “intercorporeal present” – can be jointly enacted by individuals. In this mode, two embodied persons co-engage in a present-centered attentional field such that each person’s habitual self-narrative falls silent, while a mutual salience‐space forms between them, yet without erasing their...
In recent years, practices related to altered states of consciousness (ASC) (e.g., psychedelic experiences) have taken digital forms (e.g., biofeedback and virtual reality). While the amount of research at the intersection of ASC and digital technologies is growing, it remains fragmented across fields. To address this, we conducted a scoping review of 24 empirical or proof-of-concept studies,...
Open MindJuly 9, 2026Emma Wiethoff, Barbara Breitenstein, Nina Hartter et al.
preprint
This preregistration specifies hypotheses and an analysis plan for a randomized controlled trial comparing Conscious Connected Breathing (CCB) with Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) in adults with a history of childhood adversity. The primary outcome is change in self-compassion from pre- to post-intervention. Secondary analyses examine whether altered states of consciousness during CCB...
This research focuses on the symbols of mysticism and the psychology of mysticism in the novel Hilang Dalam Dekapan Semeru (Aditya, 2025). Mystical symbols such as the figure of a woman dressed in white, frankincense, offerings, dolls, free-range chicken eggs, seven-faced flowers, and the mystical experiences of climbers are analysed in the real world and the supernatural world in Javanese...
In recent years, psychedelics have shown promising results as therapeutic interventions for individuals with depression, terminal illnesses, substance use disorder, neurodegenerative diseases, trauma and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Moreover, research involving psychedelics have contributed to the understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms behind the "psychedelic state of consciousness"...
Human NatureJuly 8, 2026J. Verbe, Raphael H. Gautier, Marianne Latinus et al.
The embodied self emerges from dynamic interactions between internal bodily signals and external sensory inputs, including those of social origin. Interoception (the perception and interpretation of internal bodily states) plays a central role in bodily self-consciousness and social cognition. Although socially salient contexts have been shown to modulate interoceptive accuracy (IAcc), the...
In this paper, we propose a trans-materialist information-theoretical approach to a full spectrum of conscious experience, from its normative embodied mode as part of an integrated brain/mind system to altered modes of consciousness, including nonlocal and near-death experiences (NDE). It allows for bridging the Cartesian gap and resolving the “hard problem” of non-material mind arising from...
Narrative theories of consciousness hold that conscious experience is (at least partly) constituted by a partially opaque inner narrative that does not perfectly track the underlying computation it narrates. I argue that the safety goal of making chain-of-thought (CoT) reasoning faithful and transparent is structurally incompatible with the conditions under which CoT could, even in principle,...