BJPsych Bulletin
April 1, 2020
David E. Leary
The American psychologist and philosopher William James drew inspiration from British evolutionary theory, neurology, psychiatry, psychology and philosophy. Trained in anatomy, physiology and medicine, he developed a physiological psychology that offered acute analyses of consciousness and of the relations between mind and brain, habit and thought, cognition and emotion and other aspects of...
Integral Transpersonal Journal
April 1, 2020
Sheena Necole McMahon
This paper provides a definition for gratitude and for trait gratitude. It also describes several useful measurement tools to study gratitude and states how gratitude relates to personality characteristics. In addition, current gratitude research is reviewed and future research questions are proposed. Not only is gratitude associated with well-being but also with sleep quality,...
Neurocase
April 2020
Nagesh Adluru, Cole Korponay, Derek L Norton et al.
Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche (YMR) is a Tibetan Buddhist monk, and renowned meditation practitioner and teacher who has spent an extraordinary number of hours of his life meditating. The brain-aging profile of this expert meditator in comparison to a control population was examined using a machine learning framework, which estimates "brain-age" from brain imaging. YMR's brain-aging rate appeared...
Philosophy Compass
April 1, 2020
Jennifer Windt
Abstract Sleep is phenomenologically rich, teeming with different kinds of conscious thought and experience. Dreaming is the most prominent example, but there is more to conscious experience in sleep than dreaming. Especially in non‐rapid eye movement sleep, conscious experience, sometimes dreamful, sometimes dreamless, also alternates with a loss of consciousness. Yet while dreaming has become...
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
April 1, 2020
Matthew L. Dixon, Manesh Girn, Kalina Christoff
14 citations
preprint
Abstract Individuals use various strategies to cope with challenging emotions such as anxiety. Mindful acceptance involves broadening attentional scope and fully experiencing present moment sensory feelings (whether pleasant or unpleasant) without judgment or elaboration. In contrast, narrative-evaluation involves focusing on a narrow band of sensory experience and generating an elaborate...
PsyArXiv
March 25, 2020
Bethany Butzer
preprint
The topic of synchronicity has long intrigued philosophers, scientists and the general public. Carl Jung formally introduced the term “synchronicity” in the 1950s, however to date very little empirical research has explored the underlying mechanisms of synchronicity. In other words, why do synchronicities occur? Are synchronicities random, or do they hold clues about the ultimate nature of...
Philosophy and the Mind Sciences
March 24, 2020
Miguel Ángel Sebastián
It is often claimed that a minimal form of self-awareness is constitutive of our conscious experience. Some have considered that such a claim is plausible for our ordinary experiences but false when considered unrestrictedly on the basis of the empirical evidence from altered states. In this paper I want to reject such a reasoning. This requires, first, a proper understanding of a minimal form...
Philosophy and the Mind Sciences
March 24, 2020
Thomas Metzinger
133 citations
This is the first in a series of instalments aiming at a minimal model explanation for conscious experience, taking the phenomenal character of “pure consciousness” or “pure awareness” in meditation as its entry point. It develops the concept of “minimal phenomenal experience” (MPE) as a candidate for the simplest form of consciousness, substantiating it by extracting six semantic constraints...
Journal of Documentation
March 17, 2020
Kiersten F. Latham, Jenna Hartel, Tim Gorichanaz
27 citations
Purpose Americans increasingly feel a sense of wonder at the universe; meditation and yoga are on the rise; and a field known as Contemplative Studies has emerged. These indicators, among others, suggest a groundswell of interest in contemplative practice and contemplative experience and raise intriguing questions for information and Information Studies. Against this backdrop, this paper asks:...
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews
March 16, 2020
Jacob S. Aday, Cayla M. Mitzkovitz, Emily K. Bloesch et al.
260 citations
Research into the basic effects and therapeutic applications of psychedelic drugs has grown considerably in recent years. Yet, pressing questions remain regarding the substances' lasting effects. Although individual studies have begun monitoring sustained changes, no study to-date has synthesized this information. Therefore, this systematic review aims to fill this important gap in the...