Here, the reader is taken through the history of shamanistic beliefs and practices to highlight its parallels with the contemporary helping professions. Seeking their power to heal, exorcise evil spirits, and commune with the dead, some consider shamans offer a mystical means of dealing with the vicissitudes of life. As can be said of people undergoing psychoanalytic treatment, altered states...
Chapter 10 : The Doors of Perception explores how altered states unlock consciousness’ vast but ordinarily constrained potential. Drawing on Aldous Huxley’s mescaline experiments and his notion of the brain as a “reducing valve,” the chapter follows how chemical mysticism, meditative practices, and rational inquiry by figures such as Richard Feynman open access to hidden territories of...
Out-of-body experiences (OBEs) are phenomena in which a person perceives their consciousness as separate from their physical body. Although these experiences have been reported for centuries in spiritual traditions, they are attracting increasing interest in the fields of neuroscience, psychology and anthropology. This study aims to take stock of the issue through a literature review by...
Abstract Psilocybin and other serotonergic psychedelics show therapeutic promise for psychiatric disorders, yet objective neural correlates linking the acute psychedelic state to persisting psychological outcomes remain limited. Electroencephalography (EEG) microstate analysis characterizes the rapid spatiotemporal organization of large-scale brain activity, offering a millisecond-resolution...
Human consciousness has evolved under the constant pull of terrestrial gravity, yet its role in shaping perception and awareness has received limited theoretical attention. As spaceflight transitions from short missions to long-duration habitation, understanding how consciousness responds to non-terrestrial gravity becomes increasingly urgent. In this perspective, we synthesise behavioural,...
Interest in psychedelics has expanded beyond clinical treatment contexts, yet little empirical work has examined how users describe psychedelic use in relation to sport and physical activity. This study conducted a qualitative content analysis of Reddit discussions involving psychedelics and physical performance. A Reddit search for “sports psychedelics” returned 253 threads. After screening,...
This essay offers a psycho-spiritual and political intervention against the creeping tide of nihilism amidst the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the broader context of Zionist settler-colonial oppression in Palestine. Drawing from trauma theory, decolonial psychoanalysis, and liberation theology, I argue that the current Palestinian condition demands not resilience within the logic of the...
Extensive explorations in neuroscience, psychology, and psychotherapy increasingly recognized the embodied and relational foundations of selfhood, underscoring the need for an integrated framework spanning development, psychopathology, and therapeutic change. This narrative review synthesizes empirical and theoretical literature across neuroscience, embodiment research, predictive processing,...
Los hongos que contienen psilocibina han sido utilizados durante siglos por culturas mesoamericanas en rituales sagrados, donde se consideraban un puente hacia lo divino. En la actualidad, esta sustancia ha captado el interés de la ciencia moderna. Cuando se consume, la psilocibina se transforma en psilocina, su forma activa, que actúa principalmente sobre receptores de serotonina en el...
Floatation-REST (Reduced Environmental Stimulation Therapy) systematically alters sensory and bodily input by combining neutral buoyancy, thermal and proprioceptive neutrality, attenuation of exteroceptive stimulation, and enhancement of cardiorespiratory signaling to the brain. Here we examined whether this non-pharmacological sensory perturbation induces altered states of consciousness and...