ABSTRACT The present study aimed to characterize the relationship between mystical experience and psychopathology measures in a general-population sample of 763 U.S. adults. The participants were assessed across various domains including psychopathology, spirituality, personality, and life experience. The analysis revealed three distinct profiles among individuals: Transcendent Wellness,...
To address the challenge of predicting psychological response to a psychosocial intervention we tested the possibility that baseline gene expression profiles might provide information above and beyond baseline psychometric measures. The genomics strategy utilized individual level inferences of transcription factor activity to predict changes in loneliness and affect in response to two...
Illusionism is a general philosophical framework in which specific theories of consciousness can be constructed without having to invoke a magical mind essence. The advantages of illusionism are not widely recognized, perhaps because scholars tend to think only of the most extreme forms and miss the range of possibilities. The brain's internal models are never fully accurate, nothing is exactly...
Symptoms of depression and anxiety are prevalent among adults with chronic health conditions, contributing to reduced quality of life, morbidity, and mortality. Mind-body wellness interventions (i.e. psychology programming, mindful movement, breathwork, meditation) may impact mental health symptoms, with online delivery offering access and scalability. Whether online mind-body wellness...
How is language related to consciousness? Language functions to categorise perceptual experiences (e.g., labelling interoceptive states as 'happy') and higher-level constructs (e.g., using 'I' to represent the narrative self). Psychedelic use and meditation might be described as altered states that impair or intentionally modify the capacity for linguistic categorisation. For example,...
Interest has been renewed in the study of consciousness, both theoretical and applied, following developments in 20th and early 21st century logic, metamathematics, computer science, and the brain sciences. In this evolving historical narrative, I explore several theoretical questions about the types of artificial intelligence and offer several conjectures about how they affect possible future...
Abstract This essay defends the claim that episodic remembering is a mental action by arguing that episodic remembering and sensory- or experience-like imagining are of a kind in a way relevant for agency. Episodic remembering is a type of imaginative project that involves the agential construction of imagistic-content and that aims at (veridically) representing particular events of the...
This article explores the hindrances to Samadhi in the 21st century by drawing comparisons between ancient Vedic, later Vedic, and contemporary Western philosophical insights. Samadhi, the state of profound meditation and spiritual absorption, has been a focal point across texts like the Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, and Yoga Darshana. Traditional challenges to Samadhi include distractions,...
This narrative review explores the utilization of psychedelic states in therapeutic contexts, deliberately shifting the focus from psychedelic substances back to the experiential phenomena which they induce, in alignment with the original meaning of the term “mind-manifesting”. This review provides an overview of various psychedelic substances used in modern therapeutic settings and ritualistic...
ABSTRACT Dissociation is a widespread difficulty among patients suffering from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). However, there is no gold standard treatment for dissociative symptoms. Recent studies propose a cognitive and behavioral conceptualization for dissociation. The aim of this study was to explore the efficacy of a group program of Dissociation-Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy...