Background: Psychedelic substances reliably induce marked altered states of consciousness (ASC), which may be important for lasting effects and clinical outcomes of psychedelic intervention. Several instruments are available to measure the acute psychedelic experience, of which the Five Dimensional Altered States of Consciousness Questionnaire (5D-ASC) is commonly used. The questionnaire can be...
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...
Nursing PhilosophyJuly 1, 2024Stephen Kivunja, J. Pryor, J. River et al.
The aim of this discussion paper is to explore factors and contexts that influence how nurses might conceptualise and assign personhood for people with altered consciousness, cognition and behaviours. While a biomedical framing is founded upon a dichotomy between the body and self, such that the body can be subjected to a medical and objectifying gaze, relational theories of self,...
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...
The study of mysticism is said to be the study of the ineffable, and thus by its nature, difficult to define. Yet the structured paths and trance states described by St. Teresa of Ávila in Interior Castle and Patañjali in the Yoga Sūtra demonstrate meticulous and thoughtful explanation of mystical practices and phenomena. This paper situates these texts, mystic guidebooks in their respective...