This paper explores the possibility that conscious experience may possess a more fundamental and persistent feature than many forms of selfhood ordinarily associated with consciousness. Drawing upon reports from dreaming, contemplative practice, psychedelic states, nondual awareness, and other altered conditions, the paper examines a recurring observation: autobiographical identity, agency,...
Psychedelic drugs are emerging as potentially efficacious tools for treating psychiatric conditions and probing the neural basis of consciousness. Although drug administration context is widely believed to shape psychedelic effects, it remains unclear whether it can independently generate placebo and nocebo effects resembling psychedelic experiences and side effects. In a pre-registered...
This project investigates the safety profile of high ventilation breathwork (HVB). HVB has been shown to reliably induce altered states of consciousness (ASCs) comparable to psychedelics and has demonstrated multiple positive effects on mental health in clinical and non-clinical populations. Although HVB is regarded as generally safe when considering contraindications, intense somatic,...
While meditation has been increasingly associated with challenging and adverse experiences, especially in more advanced and high-density practices, little is known about how advanced practitioners experience, make sense of, and integrate non-ordinary experiences that may disrupt their sense of self, reality, embodiment, and meaning. Building on recent advances in the scientific study of...
Abstract Understanding how the sense of self can be attenuated or reconfigured without loss of consciousness remains a central challenge in contemporary consciousness science. We propose a multidimensional framework of graded self-attenuation, in which the self is conceptualized as a dynamic configuration of distributed neural processes. Within this framework, contemplative practice attenuates...
This article aims to present a model to explain the phenomenology of hypnosis, with particular reference to plastic monoideism and its phenomenology, integrating some of the current scientific theories of consciousness, particularly those of Karl Friston's free energy theory. Experimental studies demonstrate the existence of a close relationship between the individual's representational system...
This study aims to identify the primary expression of the Mongolian “graphic archetype” by analyzing the visual forms, symbols, and meanings represented in Mongolian rock art through semiotic and archetypal approaches. The research applies Erwin Panofsky’s three levels of interpretation—pre-iconographical, iconographical, and iconological—as its methodological framework and conducts a...
This paper provides a critical desk-based review of the relationship between the pineal gland and “hyperdimensional wisdom” by drawing on neuroendocrinology, consciousness studies, religious and cultural history, and public science narratives. It does not define hyperdimensional wisdom as objective knowledge from higher-dimensional space, nor does it treat the pineal gland as an empirically...
Regressed birth and prenatal “memories” are common in psychotherapies using altered states of consciousness. However, they have often been dismissed due to their questionable veracity, as many are beyond the scope of what is considered scientifically possible. Despite their uncertain status, these accounts may have important implications for pregnancy and birth practices, psychotherapy, and...
Dissosiyatif kimlik bozukluğu (DKB), her bireyde bulunan dissosiyasyon mekanizmasının patolojik seviyeye ulaşmasıdır. Bu noktada DKB, bir kişinin kimliğinin, düşüncelerinin, duygularının ve davranışlarının farklı “kimlik durumları” ya da “alter” adı verilen ayrı parçalar halinde bölünmesiyle karakterize olur. Bu durum, kişinin kendilik algısında, hafızasında, bilinçte ve çevreyle bağlantısında...