Preprints.org
November 4, 2025
William J. Tyler
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Religious and spiritual practices engage brain networks that regulate self-referential processing, salience, executive control, reward, and social bonding, as shown by functional neuroanatomy and network studies. These states are biochemically mediated by serotonin, dopamine, endogenous opioids, and oxytocin. Health benefits include reduced stress and inflammatory biomarkers. Positive religious/spiritual engagement and spiritually integrated psychotherapy are linked to lower depression and anxiety, while religious struggles predict worse outcomes. Resting posterior alpha activity may be a trait marker of resilience. Psychedelic-assisted therapy offers an opportunity to explore how network plasticity and mystical experiences can mediate durable clinical benefits, supporting an integrative mental healthcare approach.
Preprints.org
October 17, 2025
Jacques Suspène, Sarah Huet, Sabine Berteina‐raboin et al.
preprint
Alcohol use disorder involves excessive drinking, and current medications often do not prevent relapse. Psilocybin is being studied for treating substance use disorders. This review of recent clinical trials finds that psilocybin appears to reduce craving, but its effect on overall alcohol consumption is less clear. Future trials would benefit from larger sample sizes and standardized tests.
Preprints.org
October 8, 2025
Arisa Yokosu, Takahiko Maruyama, Hiromitsu Miyata
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A brief paired body-mind practice derived from Japanese martial arts, the Wakame Exercise, increased nondual awareness and reduced the salience of body boundaries in undergraduates compared to a structured physical interaction or rest. Within the Wakame group, higher nondual awareness correlated with more creative attitudes, which in turn linked to greater decentering. These effects occurred regardless of participants' baseline boundary thinness. The findings suggest that short, meditative paired practices from Eastern martial traditions can temporarily dissolve self-other boundaries and foster psychological flexibility, offering a basis for integrating such methods into modern psychology.
Preprints.org
October 3, 2025
Octavian Brinzei
preprint
MDMA-assisted therapy reduces PTSD symptoms in multiple clinical trials, but regulatory rejection based on flawed blinding methods highlights a contradiction: the drug's strong psychoactive effects make true placebo-controlled trials impossible. This paper introduces the Trauma-Affective Memory Loop (TAML), a model of how traumatic memories are stored and reinforced. MDMA reduces fear signals, creating a temporary "therapeutic window" for safe trauma reprocessing. Acute, one-time traumas may resolve in one to three sessions, while complex or developmental trauma may need repeated treatment. A new quadruple-masked trial design, the Brinzei MDMA-PTSD Protocol (BMPP), limits bias while allowing effective therapy delivery.
Preprints.org
September 29, 2025
Jay Toulany, Jasmyn E. A. Cunningham, Abraham Nunes
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Lithium is the first-choice long-term treatment for bipolar disorder, but only 30% of patients respond, and there is no reliable way to predict who will. Ketamine, a rapid antidepressant, may work better in patients whose clinical features typically predict poor lithium response. A scoping review of clinical and preclinical studies found that ketamine and lithium converge on the GSK-3β/mTOR pathways and enhance synaptic plasticity, and lithium limits ketamine-related oxidative stress and hyperlocomotion. However, clinical predictors diverge: ketamine response is linked to metabolic risk, anxiety, mixed features, and non-melancholic presentations—factors that generally predict poorer lithium response.
Preprints.org
September 24, 2025
Tam Hunt
preprint
Pain perception arises from electromagnetic field dynamics as the primary computational substrate, with neurotransmitter systems acting as field-controlled energy modulation networks. This hierarchical framework places ephaptic field effects at the nanosecond timescale as the primary layer, neuromodulation at millisecond-to-second timescales as energy distribution, and myelination architecture at evolutionary timescales as the structural substrate. Pain systems maintain baseline criticality, with acute pain representing adaptive supercritical shifts and chronic pain reflecting maladaptive critical states.
Preprints.org
September 22, 2025
Thomas C. Hunt
preprint
Psychedelic substances—LSD, psilocybin, ketamine, and 5-MeO-DMT—modulate consciousness by enhancing the coherence and dynamics of brain electromagnetic fields, rather than solely through neural computation. LSD increases sustained coherence across frequency bands; psilocybin boosts oscillatory flexibility and field entropy; ketamine causes dissociative field fragmentation via NMDA receptor disruption; and 5-MeO-DMT rapidly dissolves field boundaries. These effects suggest psychedelics act as field resonance enhancers, expanding consciousness through increased electromagnetic field coherence, cross-frequency coupling, and epistemic depth. The framework proposes that receptor activation tunes electromagnetic field computation, offering testable predictions for optimizing psychedelic therapy.
Preprints.org
September 15, 2025
Tam Hunt
preprint
The brain's electromagnetic fields, not just synaptic firing, may be the primary medium for computation, cognition, and consciousness. Neural avalanches—activity cascades following power-law distributions that mark critical brain dynamics—propagate too rapidly to be explained by synaptic transmission alone. The authors propose that these avalanches spread through resonance cascades in the brain's EM fields, which form a nested hierarchy of oscillations. The neural substrate and its firing provide the energetic foundation, while neurotransmitter systems act as field-controlled energy distribution networks, tuning brain regions toward or away from a baseline critical state. This framework explains how 1/f noise emerges naturally from multi-scale field interactions at criticality, and suggests normal waking consciousness corresponds to an optimal balance of local and global field dynamics.
Preprints.org
June 20, 2025
Lida‐alkisti Xenaki, Nikos C. Stefanis
preprint
Psychosis involves a profound disruption in how a person experiences themselves and the world, marked by symptoms such as loss of reality testing. Standard psychiatric approaches often rely on descriptive psychopathology, which can miss the rich subjective experiences of those affected. This paper proposes an integrative framework that combines phenomenology—the study of first-person conscious experience—with descriptive clinical categorization. By examining disturbances in basic selfhood and perception of the outer world, the authors aim to bridge standardized evaluation with personal narrative. They describe psychotic features transdiagnostically, viewing psychosis as a dynamic disruption in experiential frameworks from early stages. Incorporating empathic, intersubjective communication into psychiatric interviews supports person-centered care and may improve early intervention, therapeutic alliances, and treatment strategies.
Preprints.org
April 10, 2025
Andrés David Turizo Smith, Natalia Botero Jsramillo, Diana Milena Berrío Cuartas
preprint
Psilocybin, a psychedelic compound found in certain mushrooms, has a long history of use in spiritual ceremonies and neuropsychiatric therapy. Although it was classified as a Schedule I substance in 1970, research into its therapeutic potential has revived since the early 2000s, especially in psychiatry and palliative care. This review explores how psilocybin may improve quality of life for palliative care patients by reducing psychological distress and enhancing emotional well-being. The discussion covers historical context, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, legal status, and future directions for its use in palliative care.
Preprints.org
July 30, 2024
Rúna F. E. Walther, Hein T. van Schie
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This narrative review argues that therapeutic benefits of psychedelics arise primarily from the subjective experiences they induce, not from the substances themselves. The strongest predictor of positive outcomes is the occurrence of mystical experiences, but other psychological processes—awe, perspective shifts, insight, emotional breakthrough, acceptance, memory re-experiencing, and certain challenging experiences—also contribute significantly. The review covers both pharmacological methods (various psychedelics used in therapy and indigenous rituals) and non-pharmacological methods (breathwork, meditation, sensory deprivation) that can induce psychedelic states. It concludes that a purely medical and neurobiological approach is reductive and should not overshadow the importance of phenomenological experiences in understanding and treating psychological issues.
Preprints.org
Ranjeet Kumar Verma
preprint
A dialogue between Advaita Vedanta's non-dualistic consciousness and quantum physics suggests that both challenge materialist views of reality. Advaita holds that consciousness (Brahman) is the fundamental reality and the material world is illusion (Maya). Quantum phenomena such as wave-particle duality, non-locality, and the observer effect resonate with this view, implying reality is interconnected, probabilistic, and observer-dependent. The paper proposes that quantum physics may offer a scientific framework supporting Advaita's claim that consciousness is the substratum of reality, and examines how the observer effect aligns with the Advaitic principle that reality is shaped by consciousness. This contributes to philosophy of mind and science by proposing a unified, non-dual model of consciousness.
Preprints.org
July 2, 2026
preprint
A new theoretical framework proposes that consciousness is a nonlocal field shaped by brain energy dynamics, introducing 'neurentelechy' as a measure of energy dissipation tied to conscious content. The model uses vector representations of sensory qualities and intentional configurations to formalize how neural activity produces structured subjective experiences. It predicts an energy imbalance between metabolic and electromagnetic activity during conscious states, integrating neuroscience, thermodynamics, and phenomenology into a falsifiable model. If confirmed, this approach suggests consciousness is a fundamental structural feature of nature, modulated by neural processes, rather than an emergent anomaly.
Preprints.org
April 21, 2026
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A new metric called the Functional Consciousness Score (FCS) measures a system's ability to access and reason about internal representations of its own states. The metric is applied to benchmark systems including a Waymo L4 autonomous vehicle. For black-box systems, the authors propose Functional Self-Model Analysis (FSMA), an abductive method for inferring self-models from behavioral evidence. Applied to stream-of-consciousness literature, FSMA produces a catalog of self-models for estimating functional consciousness in biological and artificial agents. The scores align with intuitive gradients of cognitive sophistication while remaining operationally grounded. The framework makes several central functional claims of major consciousness theories partially measurable.
Preprints.org
April 2, 2026
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The hard problem of consciousness arises not from an inherent mystery of nature but from the methodological choice to adopt a reductive third-person perspective that systematically excludes the subject. This creates an artificial separation—an iatrogenic artifact—that then cannot locate qualitative experience within its own framework. Analyzing Hans Holbein the Younger's painting The Ambassadors as an epistemic model, the anamorphic "blot" represents the Real that resists frontal, mathematical capture. Resolution requires a shift from static representation to the processual performance of enactive inference.
Preprints.org
March 9, 2026
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Theories of consciousness can be grouped into two broad perspectives: Local-Quantitative (LOQ), which holds that consciousness arises solely from measurable neural processes, and Anti-Local-Quantitative (ALOQ), which posits extra-physiological, unquantifiable origins. A framework based on criteria like neural localization, empirical measurability, and metaphysical assumptions helps organize and compare theories from Global Workspace Theory to Orchestrated Objective Reduction. This dichotomy is intended as a supplementary tool, not a replacement for existing taxonomies, to clarify commitments and experimental conditions, streamline discourse, and promote more coherent debate in consciousness research.
Preprints.org
February 6, 2026
preprint
Playing a videogame with greater immersion—from desktop to virtual reality to VR plus a treadmill—selectively alters specific dimensions of conscious experience, especially feelings of disembodiment, depersonalization, and distorted time perception, without broadly changing cognitive flexibility. In a study with 72 participants who played the same 35-minute segment of Half-Life: Alyx, those in the highest immersion condition (VR plus treadmill) reported the strongest immersion and the least accurate retrospective time estimation. Presence was enhanced in both VR conditions compared to desktop play. Cognitive flexibility, measured by the Stroop task and Alternative Uses Test, showed no broad modulation, only subtle differences in Stroop accuracy.
Preprints.org
January 21, 2026
preprint
This theoretical paper proposes a neurobiological hypothesis linking Vedic descriptions of higher states of consciousness to the hormone oxytocin. The authors suggest that the subjective experiences described in ancient Vedic texts—such as feelings of unity, bliss, and expanded awareness—may correspond to measurable changes in the brain's oxytocin system. Drawing on social neuroendocrinology, the hypothesis posits that practices like meditation and chanting could stimulate oxytocin release, thereby facilitating states of social bonding and transcendence. The argument integrates insights from neuroscience, endocrinology, and Vedic philosophy to offer a framework for understanding how ancient contemplative traditions might be grounded in modern biological mechanisms.
Preprints.org
December 17, 2025
preprint
Reality may not be a pre-existing world of fixed objects but an informational field that becomes determinate through acts of attention and measurement. This article proposes a post-Bohmian ontology in which consciousness acts as a rendering engine, collapsing latent informational potentials into coherent perceptual experience. The model draws on quantum indeterminacy and observer-dependent collapse, predictive coding in neuroscience where perception arises from inferential updates, and the biological diversity of sensory Umwelten showing organisms access only narrow environmental information. Consciousness is conceptualized as a localized interface within a distributed informational field, with the brain translating non-local patterns into stable constructs. The framework accounts for altered states, psychopathology, and the relationship between first-person experience and third-person descriptions.
Preprints.org
July 16, 2024
preprint
This theoretical paper examines how time perception differs across three altered states of consciousness: near-death experiences, mystical states, and psychedelic-induced states. The author argues that these states shift awareness from chronos (linear, measured time) to kairos (qualitative, meaningful time), suggesting that altered time perception is a core feature linking these phenomena. The work draws on phenomenological accounts and philosophical frameworks to propose that the dissolution of ordinary time boundaries may underlie the transformative potential reported in these states.
Preprints.org
November 23, 2022
preprint
A hypothesized theory, the Self Simulation theory, proposes a model for how conscious perception is computed. The model includes an interconnected network of auxiliary neural networks that receive sensory input, compute a representation, and relay it to the Neural Correlates of Consciousness (NCC). The NCC, a processing unit that can be neuroanatomically distributed but computationally connected, references a working memory to decode the content of memory, achieving conscious perception. The theory aims to address both the hard problem of consciousness (the experience of self-existence) and how conscious perception is computed, and it claims to account for various phenomenal experiences and past experimental paradigms.
Preprints.org
November 1, 2022
preprint
Salvinorin A, a unique non-nitrogenous hallucinogen, binds to the kappa opioid receptor (KOR) in a way that has been difficult to determine. This work elucidates and evaluates the binding mode of salvinorin A at the KOR, providing a detailed molecular understanding of how this compound interacts with the receptor. The findings clarify a long-standing puzzle in pharmacology, offering insights into the structural basis for salvinorin A's potent and selective activity at KOR, which may aid in designing new therapeutic agents.
Preprints.org
June 6, 2022
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A new theoretical framework called the trilogy paradigm of consciousness distinguishes consciousness from awareness, arguing that consciousness arises from the interaction between awareness and decision-making. This interaction produces two functions: awareness-based choice selection (ABCS), which enables true free will, and discretionary selection of information for awareness (DSIA), which enables intentional attention. Together, ABCS and DSIA constitute the faculty of "I," which the authors argue sets natural intelligence apart from artificial intelligence. The mind is described as an unconscious compilation of all mental functions excluding ABCS and DSIA, which are the essence of consciousness.