PLOS mental health
January 1, 2024
Leonardo Christov-Moore, Félix Schoeller, Caitlin Lynch et al.
11 citations
Aesthetic chills—pleasurable, cold sensations—are linked to self-transcendence, a state of ego-dissolution and connectedness that promotes well-being and prosociality. In a diverse sample of 2937 participants in Southern California exposed to chills-eliciting stimuli, both the likelihood and intensity of chills were positively associated with measures of self-transcendence, even after accounting for demographics, traits, and prior mood. Analyses of variance, mutual information, and correlation structure confirmed reliable interrelations across various audiovisual stimuli. The findings suggest aesthetic chills may indicate sufficiently intense feelings of self-transcendence, though generalizability to non-WEIRD populations and causal direction require further study.
George Deane, Jonas Mago, Aikaterini Fotopoulou et al.
7 citations
preprint
A computational theory called adaptive narrative control explains how subpersonal processes shape conscious experience to enable adaptive behavior. Systems with an attention schema can anticipate the epistemic and pragmatic consequences of attentional states, using mental action—endogenous control of attention—to regulate affective states. This capacity also produces avoidant mental action or motivated inattention, which is argued to be a core mechanism underlying psychopathology, leading to rigid belief formation, reduced emotional recognition (alexithymia), and decreased subjective well-being under certain environmental conditions. The account partially echoes Freudian defense mechanisms and introduces a computational unconscious. It refines the REBUS model of psychedelic therapy and explains improvements in well-being from meditation.
PsyArXiv
May 28, 2026
Oliver Andersson Hugemark, Terje Sparby, Andrea Grabovac et al.
preprint
Advanced meditation can sometimes lead to challenging experiences involving destabilization, rigidification, and social negotiation. Through a reflexive thematic analysis of practitioners' accounts, the authors describe how embodied sense-making and integration processes unfold during these difficulties. The analysis identifies how meditators navigate destabilizing experiences, how rigid patterns of response may emerge, and how social contexts shape the meaning and resolution of these challenges. The findings suggest that advanced meditation difficulties are not merely individual psychological events but are deeply embedded in bodily, relational, and social processes.
PsyArXiv
May 27, 2026
Asiya Gul, Sebastian Ehmann, Catherine Prueitt et al.
preprint
This theoretical paper proposes extending the scientific study of advanced meditation to Sufism within Islam, comparing self-attenuation practices across Theravāda Buddhism, Tibetan Dzogchen, and Sufi traditions. The authors argue that contemplative traditions beyond Buddhism, particularly Sufism, offer valuable but underexplored models for understanding advanced meditative states and their effects on self-related processing. By examining similarities and differences in how these traditions conceptualize and cultivate self-transcendence, the paper suggests that a broader cross-traditional framework can enrich scientific understanding of meditation's transformative potential. The analysis highlights common themes of self-diminishment and non-dual awareness while respecting each tradition's unique doctrinal and practical contexts.