Extended cessation (EC) is a rare, non-ordinary meditative endpoint characterized by a temporary absence of reportable phenomenal experience, followed by an extraordinary perceptual vividness, openness, equanimity and affective balance. EC thus offers a unique, non-pharmacological window into the brain dynamics underlying suspension of conscious experience and the subsequent psychological...
The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) has sparked profound philosophical and scientific debate regarding whether machines can possess genuine consciousness. While AI excels in simulating intelligent behaviors, the emergence of subjective experience—often considered as the hallmark of consciousness—remains elusive, attracting sustained interdisciplinary attention. This study...
This paper sheds light on the interactive process in which religious practitioners work to achieve states that appear to contradict individual agency. Drawing on ethnographic studies of Buddhist meditation retreats and Torah study in a Haredi yeshiva, we track the delicate balance between ‘doing religion’ (active engagement) and ‘being done by religion" (experiencing religious forces as taking...
The origin of consciousness remains one of the oldest problems in both science and philosophy. Several emerging theories provide new perspectives on the origin and evolution of consciousness, including Cellular Basis of Consciousness (CBC) theory and the Cognition-Based Evolution (CBE) theory. Moreover, declarations such as the New York Declaration on animal consciousness further underscore the...
Recent research shows that young children frequently report non-ordinary experiences, including extra sensory perceptions, out-of-body experiences, and states of self-transcendence, reflecting relational, pre-linguistic, and weakly individualised forms of consciousness. This paper integrates qualitative studies of children’s experiences with contemporary altered states of consciousness (ASC)...
This article presents a comprehensive analysis of contemporary socio-psychological approaches to the study of spiritual intelligence (SI), employing systematic-structural and axiological methodological frameworks. The paper examines the evolution of SI as a scientific construct from its emergence in the late 1990s to the present day, analyzing major theoretical models including those developed...
Background/Objectives: Esketamine-related dissociation is a transient, pharmacologically induced altered state that differs from the trait-like pathological dissociation typically observed in trauma-related conditions. While most studies have quantified these effects using the Clinician-Administered Dissociative States Scale (CADSS), patients' subjective phenomenology and meaning-making remain...
The mechanistic link between molecular pharmacology and global brain dynamics remains unresolved - a "scale bridge" problem central to consciousness research. We propose the Receptor-Constrained Dynamical Topology (RCDT) hypothesis: that the functional impact of neuromodulatory drugs propagates from local ligand-receptor binding events through spatially heterogeneous gain modulation to produce...
Research Topic: This research examines the ideas and philosophy of David Hawkins, which he establishes through his scale. It examines the scale and its levels in detail through his books, and the most important linear philosophies upon which Hawkins relied and disseminated in his courses and applications under the name “Consciousness Scale.” Research Objectives: To highlight the seriousness of...
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...