Abstract The flow experience, first studied by Mihaly (Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Harper Perennial, 1991), represents a glimpse into peak experiences, and suggests an expanded state of consciousness often accompanied by superior creativity and accomplishment. The experience of transcendence through Transcendental Meditation® (TM®), brought to the world by...
Shalini Masih grew up in a stimulating environment of priests and healers, witnessing firsthand states of spirit possession and exorcism. In adulthood, she revisited these experiences, motivating her to extend psychoanalysis outside the clinic's realms into spaces of traditional healing. The outcome of her detailed exploration acknowledges the hugely productive interface between cultural...
AMA Schimmelpfennig J, Jankowiak-Siuda K. Unique biological and physiological properties of endogenous N, N-dimethyltryptamine from the perspective of functioning of the nervous system. Neuropsychiatria i Neuropsychologia/Neuropsychiatry and Neuropsychology. 2023;18(1):1-10. doi:10.5114/nan.2023.129068. APA Schimmelpfennig, J., & Jankowiak-Siuda, K. (2023). Unique biological and physiological...
Since its discovery in 1943, LSD has been used by artists, scientists, and intellectuals, amongst others, to stimulate their creative insights. Federico Fellini, one of the most important film directors in the XX century, used LSD when it was still legal under the guidance of his psychoanalyst during a phase of personal and creative crisis. This article proposes a phenomenological analysis of...
Absence of consciousness can occur due to a concussion, anesthetization, intoxication, epileptic seizure, or other fainting/syncope episode caused by lack of blood flow to the brain. However, some meditation practitioners also report that it is possible to undergo a total absence of consciousness during meditation, lasting up to 7 days, and that these "cessations" can be consistently induced....
It is hypothesized that being mindfully aware is a spontaneous state of being. It is imbued with joy, peace and happiness. Such a state is periodically revealed during restful attentiveness or presence. It is also associated with spontaneous brain alpha activity of 8-13 Hz. In deep nonrapid eye movement sleep, there is synchronous delta activity at a coherent frequency of 0.1 Hz. Both of these...
Human sleep is a dynamic and complex process comprising sleep stages with REM and NREM sleep characteristics that come in cycles. During sleep, there is a loss of responsiveness or a perceptual loss of conscious awareness with increasing thresholds for wakefulness as sleep progresses. There are brief bursts of wakefulness or Wake After Sleep Onset (WASO) throughout a nocturnal sleep. Conscious...
Much research has focused on the modeling of the near-death experience (NDE) by classical and atypical psychedelics; however, to date, no study has reported on the relationship between the NDE and the experience induced by the highly potent, endogenous psychedelic drug 5-Methoxy-DMT (5MeO-DMT). This article presents a case study of an individual who is popularly documented to have had a...
In dark times, dreams may be the site of both witness and resistance. Austrian author Ingeborg Bachmann (1926–73) employed dreams as a critique of nightmare-producing conditions in patriarchal, amnesic post-war Austria. Her 1971 novel Malina centres around a set of horrific nightmares in which the female protagonist is tortured, silenced and murdered by a father figure. Within the narrative...
Near-death experiences (NDEs) can occur during episodes of unconsciousness from life-threatening conditions, such as sudden cardiac arrests (SCAs). This study is based on interviews with patients who had an NDE. The interviews were analyzed with phenomenological hermeneutical method for their lived experiences and the meaning for the view of life and death. Four participants were interviewed 10...