Recent studies intensively explore psilocybin's antidepressant potential, but variables like previous experience, repeated use, setting, and sex remain underexplored. This study examines acute and long-term effects of psilocybin in healthy individuals. A double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over study included 40 healthy participants (20 females, mean age 38). Each received two doses of...
In this conceptual review, we explore how alterations in the configuration and expression of the three core aspects of experiential Selfhood-'Self,' 'Me', and 'I'-both reflect and shape an individual's susceptibility to neuropsychopathology. Drawing on empirical neurophenomenological evidence and theoretical insights, we examine a range of psychiatric and neurological disorders through the lens...
This article presents a taxonomy of altered states of consciousness, primarily based on their central phenomenological features. Following taxonomic principles and a modified Delphi methodology, a multidisciplinary, international group identified eight distinct phenomenological/behavioral states (some with subcategories): proto and transitional, delirium, minimal to no awareness, experiential...
The Abhidhamma, a classical Buddhist doctrine, offers a profound understanding of cognitive processing and sensory perception, concepts formulated over 2700 years ago and recently reflected in modern neuroscience. It presents a sophisticated cognitive model in which consciousness (citta), mental factors (cetasika), and materiality (rūpa) co-arise and function in a causally interdependent...
The Tukdam Project directed by affective neuroscientist Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin-Madison since 2013 has investigated Buddhist practitioners in India entering a Tibetan Buddhist post-death meditative state called tukdam (Tib., thugs dam), where the body demonstrates attenuated decomposition and presents an altered postmortem chronology process. Through a collaboration of...
Assessing someone's level of consciousness is a complex matter, and attempts have been made to aid clinicians in these assessments through metrics based on neuroimaging data. Many studies have empirically investigated measures related to the complexity elicited after the brain is stimulated to quantify the level of consciousness across different states. Here we hypothesized that the level of...
Request for Proposals - Exploring expanded consciousness and endogenous DMT Sponsor: DMT Quest Aim of Funding This funding seeks to advance scientific understanding of consciousness, human potential, and the mechanisms underlying expanded awareness. Eligible research may investigate endogenous N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and its role in human consciousness, but we also welcome innovative...
Over the past decade, research with psychedelics has gained new momentum, leading to a psychedelic renaissance in both basic and clinical research. Among these substances is ayahuasca, an Amazonian plant medicine used for millennia by indigenous people for ritualistic and healing practices, which has recently entered research labs in the Americas and Europe. Preliminary findings indicate its...
CONSCIOUSNESS AND MATTER: Mind, Brain, and Cosmos in the Dialogue Between Science and Theology by Kirill Kopeikin and Alexei V. Nesteruk, eds. Pickwick, 2024. 262 pages. Paperback; $35.00. ISBN: 9781666776997. *This is a notable interdisciplinary volume that tackles the complex relationship between the mind and body, exploring it within the broader context of dialogue between science and...
Perception of one's own body in time and space is a fundamental aspect of self-consciousness. It scaffolds our subjective experience of being present, in the here and now, a vital condition for our survival and well-being. Depersonalisation (DP) is characterised by a distressing feeling of being "spaced out," detached from one's self, as well as atypical "flat" time perception. Using an...