Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology
September 11, 2025
C. H. Sawyer
1 citation
Ego dissolution—the experience of losing one’s sense of self—is reported across a range of altered states, including psychedelic intoxication, meditative absorption, traumatic dissociation, and psychotic episodes. This paper proposes a unifying framework for these phenomena by introducing the concept of unlooping: the breakdown of recursive structures that construct and maintain identity....
Human Brain Mapping
April 1, 2025
Clayton R. Coleman, Kenneth Shinozuka, Robert Tromm et al.
4 citations
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is a classic serotonergic psychedelic that induces a profoundly altered conscious state. In conjunction with psychological support, it is currently being explored as a treatment for generalized anxiety disorder and depression. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is a brain region that is known to be involved in mood regulation and disorders; hypofunction...
February 26, 2025
Stanisław Adamczyk, Małgorzata Paczyńska, Anastasia Ruban et al.
1 citation
preprint
Psychedelic substances have the potential to induce profound alterations in cognition, emotionality, and sensory perception. The quality and intensity of these subjective effects exhibit high intra- and inter-individual variability, which can potentially be accounted for by the variability in contexts in which psychedelics are used. Therefore, the aim of the present cross-sectional study was to...
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
February 13, 2025
Stanisław Adamczyk, Małgorzata Paczyńska, Anastasia Ruban et al.
2 citations
Psychedelics have the potential to induce profound alterations in cognition, emotionality, and sensory perception. The quality and intensity of these subjective effects exhibit high intra- and inter-individual variability, which can potentially be accounted for by the variability in contexts in which psychedelics are used. Therefore, the aim of the present cross-sectional study was to...
bioRxiv
February 8, 2025
Mona Irrmischer, Marco Aqil, Lisa Luan et al.
4 citations
preprint
ABSTRACT Psychedelics profoundly alter subjective experience and brain dynamics. Brain oscillations express signatures of near-critical dynamics, relevant for healthy function. Alterations in the proximity to criticality have been suggested to underlie the experiential and neurological effects of psychedelics. Here, we investigate the effects of a psychedelic substance (DMT) on the criticality...
Asian Journal of Ethics in Health and Medicine
2025
Azimjon Karimov, Dilshodbek Rasulov
1 citation
Although psychedelics were banned from medical research for about fifty years, recent early-phase studies indicate they may offer unique therapeutic benefits for various mental health and substance use disorders. When effective, psychedelic experiences often involve phenomena not typically observed in other medical or psychiatric interventions, such as a diminished sense of self-importance,...
PsyArXiv
November 16, 2024
Jakob Damm
preprint
Suicide is a pressing global health issue, with alarming prevalence rates that have ledthe World Health Organization to prioritize its prevention. Traditionally, suicidality is framedwithin medicine as a delusional symptom of mental illness. Contrastingly, another perspectiveviews suicide as an expression of free will, emphasizing the legitimacy of its motivations.This paper seeks to reconcile...
Anatomy of an Avatar
September 19, 2024
Philip Gerrans
Abstract Users of psychedelic drugs often report that their sense of being a self or ‘I’ distinct from the rest of the world has diminished or altogether dissolved in a phenomenon known as ego dissolution (Nour et al., 2016). This is a case of transient disintegration of the self model caused by actions of serotonin 5HT2A agonists. Psychedelic experience provides a window on the nature of self...
Philosophical Perspectives on Psychedelic Psychiatry
September 13, 2024
Philip Gerrans
Abstract Daniel Dennett famously argued that the self is a ‘centre of narrative gravity’. In fact, the self is best thought of as a centre of interoceptive gravity whose homeostatic and affective experiences are subsequently interpreted and communicated in a narrative. This idea explains feelings of persistence and unity in the normal case and changed nature of self-awareness in psychedelic...
The MIT Press eBooks
February 6, 2024
It was as if my body / my being was pixelated and dissolved into the rest of the pixels that make up the entirety of every thing else.[#3086] There are countless ways in which the experience of pure awareness can shift from background to foreground.The phenomenology of translucency is one way: "It's like real ity shining through when all ideas, concepts . . .step aside for a moment" (#2528; see...