Immersive virtual environments are increasingly investigated as tools capable of modulating conscious experience, yet the specific contribution of graded immersion to altered states of consciousness (ASC), time perception, and cognition remains unclear. The present study examined how different levels of immersion during videogame play influence subjective experience and post-experience...
Clinical trials investigating psychedelic compounds for depression and anxiety-related disorders are yielding promising preliminary results. Psychedelics produce profound alterations in brain function—such as suppression of the default mode network and thalamocortical dysregulation—leading to intense subjective experiences including ego dissolution and mystical-type states. While often...
Maladaptive Daydreaming (MD) is a proposed mental health condition characterized by compulsive, immersive daydreaming that interferes with daily functioning. Although MD is strongly associated with dissociative experiences, its relation to interoception remains unexplored. In this study, we investigated dissociative symptoms and self-reported interoception in individuals with MD compared to...
Background. Measures of self-transcendence and ego-dissolution typically operationalize transcendence as an attenuation or loosening of ordinary self-boundaries, and less often distinguish passive self-loss from integrated forms of identity expansion that may preserve or strengthen agency. Objective. We introduce and evaluate the Meta Self Scale (MSS), a 16-item measure of integrated...
Out-of-body experiences (OBEs) during sleep involve a transient disruption of bodily self-consciousness, in which the self or center of awareness is experienced as displaced from the physical body. Although OBEs have been reported in neurological, psychiatric, and dissociative contexts, they also occur in non-clinical populations, raising the question of whether their altered-self phenomenology...
Acta PsychologicaJune 20, 2026Paula Celeste Salamone, Nadia Alejandra Dowzuk, Martina Nayla Gallo et al.
Social touch plays a fundamental role in bodily self-awareness and emotional regulation. Alterations in how touch is perceived or sought may contribute to disturbances in self-perception, such as those seen in depersonalization. This study examined the relationship between depersonalization symptoms, social touch acceptance and seeking, and self-concept clarity in a non-clinical Argentinian...
This report presents a detailed phenomenological analysis of a self-observed psilocybin experience conducted under controlled conditions and documented through contemporaneous notes and post-session reconstruction. The study focuses on the structure of subjective experience rather than on pharmacological outcomes alone. Particular attention is given to alterations in bodily awareness, spatial...
Abstract Background Occupational burnout, recognized in ICD-11 as an occupational phenomenon, is a syndrome of chronic workplace stress comprising emotional exhaustion, cynicism (the analogue of the depersonalization dimension on the MBI-Human Services Survey form), and reduced professional efficacy on the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey (MBI-GS). Burnout is common among US working...
Background: State dissociation is commonly assessed using the Clinician Administered Dissociative States Scale (CADSS; 19-items). A briefer CADSS would have many advantages, enabling assessment of transient dissociative states and allowing repeated assessment within short intervals while minimizing participant burden. This is especially relevant in studies of dissociative drugs which cause...
I examine more closely the question of whether and how we can voluntarily access and benefit from accessing group mind content. I argue that some of the experiences on serotonergic psychedelics can be seen in terms of unstructured access to a variety of group minds. The ego dissolution experience on psychedelics can be viwed in terms of fusion between the individual and some salient group mind.