Auto-Induced Cognitive Trance (AICT), a non-ordinary state of consciousness entered by will alone after learning a standardized procedure, is associated with greater well-being. Among 607 survey respondents (436 AICT-trained, 171 yet-to-be trained), practitioners reported higher self-esteem and overall connectedness—to self, others, and the world—than non-practitioners. Longer AICT practice was linked to further benefits: lower trait anxiety, higher positive affect, and stronger connectedness. The findings suggest AICT may improve well-being shortly after training, with continued practice yielding added gains in anxiety reduction and positive mood.
Active inference theory holds that motor actions rely on suppressing prediction errors from the body to match expected movements. This study investigated whether experienced meditators show altered somatosensory attenuation during a force-matching task. At baseline, a general somatosensory attenuation effect was present and correlated negatively with trait mindfulness, as predicted. However, intensive meditation practice did not produce a global reduction in attenuation. Instead, control participants showed a regression-to-the-mean effect that increased with task repetition, while active participants maintained their baseline level, suggesting the retreat may have affected the formation of prior expectations about force intensity. The authors discuss multiple, possibly opposite effects of meditation on proprioceptive inference.