Although recreational use of the dissociative anaesthetic drug ketamine is currently increasing, little is known about the phenomenological aspects of its use. We therefore designed a structured interview to examine initiation experiences, positive and negative effects of ketamine use, and concerns about the drug and its long-term effects. Ninety participants (30 frequent users, 30 infrequent...
Sleep paralysis (SP) occurs when rapid eye movement (REM) activity and concomitant paralysis of the skeletal muscles persist as an individual awakens and becomes conscious of his/her surroundings. SP is often accompanied by frightening hallucinations that some researchers suggest may be confounded with memories of childhood sexual abuse (CSA; [McNally, R. J., & Clancy, S. A. (2005). Sleep...
Mulder and colleagues [Mulder, T., Hochstenbach, J., Dijkstra, P. U., Geertzen, J. H. B. (2008). Born to adapt, but not in your dreams. Consciousness and Cognition, 17, 1266-1271.] report that a majority of amputees continue to experience a normally-limbed body during their night dreams. They interprete this observation as a failure of the body schema to adapt to the new body shape. The present...
Many clinical anecdotes and an experimental study have reported intensification of dreaming by the selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). However, no published neurochemical dream model invokes serotonin as a dream-promoting neuromodulator or accounts for serotonergic dream enhancement. An experimental study of normal volunteers showed that, although SSRI treatment decreased dream...
The "Triarchic body-pathway relaxation technique" (TBRT) is a form of ancient Chinese mindfulness-based meditation professed to give rise to positive emotions and a specific state of consciousness in which deep relaxation and internalized attention coexist. The purpose of this study was to examine the EEG pattern generated during the practice of this mindfulness exercise, and compare it to...
The author presents a case of self-organizing daimonic mythopoiesis. The spiritual tourist, entheogenic experimenter, and the painter enfold a matrix of inter-developed "sorties" into the allotropic differentials of the autopoietic process. Fieldwork in Mandi, Himashal Pradesh, India provides an introduction to the virtualities of the peripersonal as it manifests in a "darshan" or self-showing...
AbstractAfter drawing a distinction between two kinds of dualism—numerical dualism (defined in terms of identity) and modal dualism (defined in terms of supervenience)—we argue that Descartes is a numerical dualist, but not a modal dualist. Since most contemporary dualists advocate modal dualism, the relation of Descartes' views to the contemporary philosophy of mind are more complex than is...
I argue that the so-called 'hard' problem of consciousness ' the problem of how consciousness is possible at all, and how it 'connects' with matter ' is only an artefact of the ways in which human scientists approach consciousness and (more generally) mind. Putting the point paradoxically but also quite precisely: the efforts to solve the mind'body problem, and this its latest variant form, are...
Thomas Reid has a theory of consciousness that is central to his philosophy of mind but which raises a regress problem. I have two tasks in this paper. The first is to give an account of Reid's views on consciousness and the avoidance of the regress based on textual analysis. The second is to expand the theory of consciousness Reid gives to offer a deeper explanation of how the regress is...
Hypnotic-like behavior has been reported from the dawn of history. The early origins are shrouded in mystery and magic; but Franz Anton Mesmer, an Austrian physician, conducted his therapeutic sessions under the name of “animal magnestism”. He proposed a theory that the “magnetic” influence could be transfered by iron bars. However a committee of leading scientists of the day showed that the...