One common observation is that psychedelics destabilize longrange cortical communication patterns and reduce activity in the posterior cingulate cortex and precuneus in the posterior regions of the neocortex. This is the compatible with our knowledge of the brains of people trained in mindfulness. It appears that the less these midline structures a

When I dream, I exist for myself, although without any insight into my condition, as the "self" is muted during dreaming. When transitioning into a deep, dreamless sleep, I cross the Great Divide of Being. My consciousness ceases to exist. Likewise when I become comatose following a stroke or accident. I am still alive, albeit on life sup

Experiences that fundamentally change the way we see the world provide clues about consciousness. I learned that the experience of self is optional. Even the feeling of having a body is not necessary for subjectivity. Transformative experiences are deeply personal and can profoundly impact lives. They are living proof that nervous tissue, under spe

…transformative experiences achieve transcendence, conveying a sense of equanimity, a feeling that everything is as it should be. They transform the life of the experiencer to the extent that the sense of self is extinguished. Experiencing the world with the "I" out of the way--an "I" that always wants something, desires somethi

IIT accounts for subjective experience via five axioms of phenomenal existence. These axioms are indubitably true for any and all human experiences, are consistent with but independent of each other, and are complete; that is, there are no other axioms that hold universally true for all experiences.

The axioms are about essential properties of experience. Many articles and my last book have dealt with these, so I will be brief.

The first axiom is intrinsicality. This means that any experience is subjective, existing for itself, not for others. It exists from the intrinsic perspective, from within, not from an outsider's perspective.

The second a

if you believe in computational functionalism, then a sufficiently accurate simulation of your connectome will be conscious (whether it will be your mind, let alone a sane rather than a mad mind, is a different matter). If you believe that consciousness is a structure of causal relationships, an essential aspect of reality tied to its physical subs

Psychiatrist Judson Brewer, at the time at the Yale University School of Medicine, discovered that these "open" or "closed" states of consciousness map onto activities of the posterior cingulate cortex and precuneus complex, part of the neocortical regions engaged when ruminating, introspecting, and daydreaming. Anger and anxiet

It is, however, a matter of historical record that people have been impacted by their extraordinary experiences, discovering the biblical "peace of God that passeth all understanding," altering their way of life. Thus a more nuanced approach is to accept these reports as authentic and honest descriptions. They teach us that our central ne