Spirituality has gained increasing legitimacy in psychotherapy; however, certain spiritual experiences, such as past life memories, remain marginalized in clinical settings. These experiences often arise outside therapy and may hold deep existential meaning for individuals, yet patients frequently hesitate to disclose them in conventional psychotherapy for fear of being pathologized. This...
Request for Proposals - Exploring expanded consciousness and endogenous DMT Sponsor: DMT Quest Aim of Funding This funding seeks to advance scientific understanding of consciousness, human potential, and the mechanisms underlying expanded awareness. Eligible research may investigate endogenous N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and its role in human consciousness, but we also welcome innovative...
Objective: Most undergraduate students experience high stress levels, necessitating university support. Meditation-based programs can encourage student wellbeing. This research examined the feasibility of a for-credit undergraduate mindfulness course, its effectiveness in helping students develop a mindfulness practice, and its potential impact on healthy development. Participants: Twenty-nine...
Over the past decade, research with psychedelics has gained new momentum, leading to a psychedelic renaissance in both basic and clinical research. Among these substances is ayahuasca, an Amazonian plant medicine used for millennia by indigenous people for ritualistic and healing practices, which has recently entered research labs in the Americas and Europe. Preliminary findings indicate its...
ExploreJune 4, 2025Jenny Moix, Samantha Baldaccini, Marta Isern
Despite the growing body of scientific research on Out of Body Experiences (OBEs), a scoping review has not yet been conducted. A search was conducted across six databases. Studies published between 1987 and 2024 were included, resulting in the selection of 87 publications. The analyzed factors included deliberate inducing, predisposing, precipitating, consequential, phenomenological, and...
PsyArXivJune 3, 2025Jan Marius Keppel Hesselink
preprint
The rainbow body (Jalü in Tibetan Buddhism) represents a profound spiritual attainment, and it is said that the physical form dissolves into light at the time of death. This paper proposes a novel hypothesis: the visual component of the rainbow body experience, as vividly perceived in personal meditative encounters, can be understood as a complex, dynamic phosphene-movie, a vivid internal...
The mechanisms underlying consciousness and its potential continuity beyond biological death remain pivotal challenges in neuroscience. This study integrates quantum biology, cognitive psychology, and thought experiments to propose a novel framework in which consciousness persists through hypothetical particles. Using three hypothetical scenarios—brain revival, molecular disassembly/reassembly,...
Black Americans with disabilities experience a range of inequities including barriers to access, social stigmatization, and health outcomes that are greater than both their White and their nondisabled peers. This conceptual article explains in detail these inequities. The authors provide an overview of the existing models of disability used in counseling, healthcare, research, and educational...
Self-disorders (SDs), central features of schizophrenia spectrum disorders, primarily affect the pre-reflective sense of self, the fundamental experience of existing as a conscious subject. This disruption also impacts reflective self-consciousness. This study aims to further explore the neural correlates of self-disorders in individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders by using a...
Prolonged Disorders of Consciousness (PDoC) are complex conditions characterised by sustained consciousness impairment lasting over four weeks following sudden-onset severe brain injuries. These conditions pose emotional and social challenges for family members. This study aims to enhance understanding of the lived experiences of male family members dealing with PDoC in the UK. Semi-structured...