February 6, 2025
Rosalind McAlpine, Merve Utanğaç, Joanna Kuć et al.
2 citations
preprint
Experienced meditators who also use psychedelics expect meditation to enhance acceptance and present-moment focus during psychedelic sessions, while increasing feelings of oceanic boundlessness and reducing anxious ego-dissolution. Among those with limited meditation experience (1-3 years) and few psychedelic sessions (1-20), adhering to a specific meditation tradition was linked to higher perceived benefits of meditation for psychedelic preparation. However, for highly experienced meditators (10+ years) with limited psychedelic use, non-adherents reported higher perceived benefits. Loving-Kindness Meditation was rated the most beneficial preparatory practice. Participants recommended about three weeks of daily 30-minute sessions, favoring online and asynchronous delivery.
Research Square
April 28, 2022
David Wyndham Lawrence, Robin Carhart-Harris, Roland Griffiths et al.
2 citations
An analysis of 3,778 inhaled DMT experiences posted to Reddit over a decade found that entity encounters occurred in 45.5% of experiences, most commonly with a feminine phenotype (24.2%), aliens (16.3%), deities (13.8%), and jesters (6.5%). Interactions were predominantly positive (34.9%) or pedagogical (32.4%). Common visual phenomena included fractals and vivid colors, while somatic effects like auditory ringing were frequent. Mystical features and reduced fear of death were reported, with 6.1% of experiences described as profoundly beautiful. Challenging responses were less common.
PsyArXiv
June 25, 2021
Christopher Timmermann, Hannes Kettner, Chris Letheby et al.
2 citations
preprint
Psychedelic use can shift metaphysical beliefs away from materialism and toward panpsychism and fatalism, and these changes persist for at least six months. In a large prospective online survey, participants reported significant belief changes after using psychedelics, with shifts linked to the extent of past use and improved mental health. The belief shifts were moderated by baseline impressionability and mediated by perceived emotional synchrony with others during the experience. Findings were confirmed in an independent controlled clinical trial, suggesting psychedelics causally influence metaphysical beliefs.
Imaging Neuroscience
April 16, 2025
Lorenzo Pasquini, Alexander J. Simon, Courtney L. Gallen et al.
1 citation
DMT rapidly induces a short-lasting altered state of consciousness marked by physical transcendence, vivid auditory distortions, and visual imagery. Using simultaneous fMRI and EKG data from 14 healthy volunteers before, during, and after intravenous DMT or placebo, a brain substate emerged immediately after DMT injection, characterized by deactivations in the hippocampus and medial parietal cortex and increased activity in the superior temporal lobe. Hippocampal and medial parietal deactivations correlated with altered sense of time, space, and self-referential processes, reflecting a deconstruction of ordinary consciousness. Superior temporal lobe activations correlated with audio/visual hallucinations and the experience of "entities.
International review of neurobiology
January 1, 2025
Kate Godfrey, Lisa X Luan, Christopher Timmermann
1 citation
Classic psychedelics like LSD, psilocybin, ayahuasca, and DMT consistently reduce alpha power (8-13 Hz) in occipital regions, as measured by resting-state EEG and MEG. Below 30 Hz, desynchronization is typical, though DMT can preserve or increase delta/theta activity. Measures of signal diversity, such as Lempel-Ziv complexity, reliably increase during psychedelic states, indicating more variable neural firing. Real-time subjective intensity and plasma levels robustly covary with spectral and complexity changes, suggesting potential for real-time EEG biomarkers. Limited research on functional connectivity and cortical travelling waves hints at decreased top-down control and increased bottom-up signaling, a possible transient reversal of hierarchical organization, but replications are needed. EEG has yet to be evaluated in clinical studies.
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
December 22, 2024
Jakub Vohryzek, Morten L. Kringelbach, Edmundo Lopez-Sola et al.
1 citation
preprint
Both psychedelic states and reduced states of consciousness flatten the brain's functional hierarchy, yet their behavioral and phenomenological profiles differ. To resolve this paradox, researchers defined hierarchy by the brain's proximity to thermodynamic equilibrium and examined changes induced by three serotonergic psychedelics: psilocybin, LSD, and DMT. All three consistently reduced the functional hierarchy globally. Unlike loss of consciousness, psychedelics moved the brain toward equilibrium while increasing neural activity complexity, indicating a distinct mechanism involving altered configuration and differentiation of resting-state networks. This work demonstrates how statistical mechanics metrics can characterize different global brain states, advancing understanding of consciousness as an emergent collective process.
CPT: pharmacometrics & systems pharmacology
October 1, 2023
Emma Eckernäs, Jeroen Koomen, Christopher Timmermann et al.
1 citation
A modeling study designed an infusion protocol for the psychedelic compound DMT, aiming to maintain a specific level of psychedelic intensity. Using computer simulations based on pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic models, optimal doses to achieve intensity ratings between 7 and 9 on a 0-10 scale were a bolus of 14-16 mg DMT fumarate followed by an infusion rate of 1.2-1.4 mg/min. However, the proportion of simulated individuals achieving the target intensity was low (below 53%), indicating that individual dose adjustments would be necessary. Differences between the models were observed, particularly at scale boundaries, with bounded integer models predicting more cases exceeding the target than the continuous variable model.
March 24, 2021
Pedro J. Teixeira, Matthew W. Johnson, Christopher Timmermann et al.
1 citation
preprint
Unhealthy behaviors like poor diet, inactivity, and smoking are major contributors to cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, causing substantial suffering and public health costs. Interventions to promote healthy behaviors increasingly draw on psychobiological models. This article explores the potential of psilocybin, a psychedelic with low toxicity and no addictive properties, to assist positive lifestyle change. Psilocybin has shown favorable effects in patients with depression, anxiety, and substance misuse, conditions marked by rigid behavioral patterns. The authors describe proposed mechanisms and research findings linking psychedelics to health behavior change, noting that therapeutic models combining psychedelic experiences with methods like Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Motivational Interviewing are already being tested for addiction and eating disorders. They suggest this research may extend to promoting diet, exercise, nature exposure, and mindfulness.
bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology
June 1, 2026
Panagiotis Fotiadis, Hyunwoo Jang, Rui Dai et al.
Brain waves coordinate neural communication and shape conscious perception. Analyzing blood oxygen level-dependent activity from the Human Connectome Project and other datasets across sleep, propofol anesthesia, and psychedelic states (LSD, DMT, psilocybin, nitrous oxide, ketamine), four dominant wave propagation motifs were identified: a global synchronized wave, an anti-correlated unimodal-transmodal wave, an anti-correlated task-positive/task-negative wave, and an anti-correlated visual-somatomotor wave.
May 13, 2026
Robin Carhart-Harris, Richard Zeifman, Lorenzo Pasquini et al.
preprint
The paper argues that the term 'plasticity' in neuroscience refers to induced changes in brain function or structure, which differs from the dictionary definition of plasticity as the ability to be shaped or molded. Many biomarkers of neuroplasticity actually index processes that bias phenotypic canalization, the opposite of phenotypic plasticity, creating a paradox. The authors question extrapolating from these biomarkers to improved mental health, as the relationship is context dependent. They propose a new construct, 'mediational and recalibrative plasticity' (MR-P), which aligns with plasticity proper and can describe and predict phenotypic changes relevant to mental health.
BMJ open
March 12, 2026
Rosalind McAlpine, Magdalena Jaglinska, Krisztina Jedlovszky et al.
A 21-day mobile-accessible programme called the Digital Intervention for Psychedelic Preparation (DIPP) is being tested for feasibility and preliminary efficacy in a randomised controlled trial. The study will recruit 40 non-treatment-seeking adults without a clinical diagnosis, randomly assigning them to either a guided meditation with music condition or a music-only condition. After the digital intervention, all participants will attend an in-person supervised psilocybin session with a standardised 25 mg dose. Primary outcomes include recruitment efficiency, retention, and adherence; secondary outcomes assess preparedness, quality of the psychedelic experience, and wellbeing, with follow-ups up to 9 months. The trial is registered as NCT06815653.
Neuroscience of consciousness
January 1, 2026
Jonas Mago, George Deane, Lars Sandved-Smith et al.
People under the influence of psychedelics often report encountering autonomous entities such as spirits, elves, or ancestors. A neurocomputational model, grounded in the active inference framework, explains these experiences by proposing that psychedelics reduce the predictability of sensory perceptions, leading the brain to interpret both internal and external perceptions as coming from non-self agents. The model synthesizes earlier theories including the entropic brain model, computational accounts of felt presence, and sensory attenuation theories of self-other discrimination. It aims to account for how the brain supports entity encounters and for the diversity and similarity of these experiences across cultural contexts.
bioRxiv
November 26, 2025
Rui Dai, Rodrigo Cofré, Christopher Timmermann et al.
preprint
Classical psychedelics (DMT, LSD, psilocybin) and non-classical ones (nitrous oxide, ketamine) all disrupt local synchrony in small brain regions (<1 cm³) in humans, as measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging. This disruption occurred extensively in cortical regions and sparsely in subcortical regions. As local synchrony declined, large-scale functional connectivity increased. For classical psychedelics, the disruption was most strongly associated with 5-HT receptors; for nitrous oxide and ketamine, it was most strongly associated with NMDA receptors. Both neuronal and non-neuronal cell types were linked to these changes. The findings suggest diverse molecular events converge on a common outcome of disrupted local synchrony, which then mediates drug-specific global connectivity changes.
Sci Rep
November 25, 2025
Laura C. Carvalho, Jorge Encantado, Michiel van Elk et al.
Psychedelic experiences may help people adopt healthier behaviors like improved diet, more exercise, and regular meditation, according to a survey of 96 practitioners working in legal and underground settings. Practitioners reported perceived positive changes in clients' contemplative practices (61.4%), time in nature (60.1%), eating patterns (56.9%), and diet and nutrition (56%). The findings suggest that practitioners often see psychedelic experiences as linked to beneficial health behavior changes, though further research is needed to confirm these results and understand their long-term sustainability.
The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience
November 24, 2025
Mona Irrmischer, Marco Aqil, Lisa Luan et al.
A psychedelic substance (DMT) shifts brain oscillations away from criticality—a state of balanced, complex activity—toward a quieter subcritical regime, particularly in alpha and adjacent frequency bands. This shift increases entropy while reducing complexity. The magnitude of the criticality shift in alpha and theta bands correlates with the intensity of self-dissolution, a core feature of the psychedelic experience. These findings suggest that altered proximity to critical dynamics underlies both the neurological and experiential effects of psychedelics, with implications for understanding altered states of consciousness.
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
November 21, 2025
Joseph C. C. Chen, Gabriella Mace, Avery Ostrand et al.
preprint
Awe, a positive emotion linked to well-being and social behavior, was studied using EEG and autonomic physiology in 23 healthy older adults watching a nature film. Awe was the dominant emotion reported, though joy was also common. During awe events, skin conductance decreased, and EEG alpha and theta power decreased—changes associated with low arousal and positive emotion. Awe also increased Lempel Ziv Complexity (LZC), a measure of neural signal entropy linked to richer conscious experience. LZC correlated positively with awe intensity and negatively with skin conductance. Three additional datasets using different induction methods (video clips and DMT) showed similar occipital LZC increases, suggesting LZC may be a generalizable neurophysiological marker of awe.
Psychedelics
November 15, 2025
Meghan DellaCrosse, Shoval Gilead, Rafael Lancelotta et al.
Spanish-speaking individuals who had a memorable psilocybin or LSD experience reported two main themes: deep connection (to nature, others, the present moment, and the substance) and emotion-related experiences (from joy and peace to emotional processing, catharsis, and challenging experiences). The findings are based on a secondary qualitative analysis of open-ended survey responses from 379 Spanish-speaking participants. Similarities appeared across both substances, with some unique nuances. The work underscores the need for diverse populations in psychedelic research to improve generalizability and cultural relevance, and highlights the therapeutic potential of psychedelics while calling for culturally sensitive tools.
PsyArXiv
September 30, 2025
Christopher Timmermann, Tommaso Barba, James Sanders et al.
preprint
In an advanced meditator and Lama from the Mahāmudrā tradition, nondual meditation and a low dose (5 mg) of 5-MeO-DMT both produced timelessness, reduced labeling of sensory content, and diminished narrative self and thoughts. Both states showed increased alpha power and decreased gamma power in the brain, with neural overlap driven by posterior and right frontal gamma reductions. Nondual meditation uniquely emphasized recognition of nonduality and clarity of mind, while low-dose 5-MeO-DMT was characterized by visual imagery. High-dose (12 mg) 5-MeO-DMT produced sensory disconnection, seeing a 'white-light', and broad increases in gamma power. The findings suggest two distinct routes to self-dissolution: a 'saturation' route with increased neural firing and entropy (high-dose 5-MeO) and a 'subtractive' route with reduced firing and entropy (nondual meditation and low-dose 5-MeO).
arXiv (Cornell University)
September 30, 2024
Jeremy I Skipper, Joanna Kuć, Gregory M. Cooper et al.
Reducing attention to language in multimodal AI models makes their semantic spaces more similar to the phenomenology of altered states such as ego dissolution and unity reported in psychedelic and meditation experiences. When attentional weights were shifted away from language and vision in CLIP and FLAVA models, their embedding spaces aligned more closely with disembodied, unitive, and minimal phenomenal states than with anxiety or random text. This alignment was accompanied by blurred distinctions within and across semantic categories, such as 'giraffes' becoming more like 'bananas'. The findings suggest that language categorization contributes to the structure of ordinary consciousness, and its breakdown may underlie the phenomenology of altered states linked to improved mental health.
bioRxiv
January 29, 2024
Juan Ignacio Piccinini, Yonatan Sanz Perl, Carla Pallavicini et al.
preprint
The brain state induced by psychedelic drugs is often studied as a static snapshot, but this work focuses on the transition itself. Using a time-dependent whole-brain model and fMRI data from 15 volunteers given intravenous DMT, the authors show that the drug briefly pushes the brain near a critical point where it becomes maximally responsive to perturbations. This heightened reactivity is concentrated in fronto-parietal regions and visual cortices and correlates with serotonin 5HT2a receptor density. The findings suggest that even a short psychedelic episode can have a lasting influence because minimal perturbations during this transient achieve maximal effect, with the temporal evolution aligning with the drug's pharmacokinetics.
bioRxiv Preprint Server
June 12, 2026
Dante Sebastián Galván Rial, Gabriel A. Della Bella, Lorina Naci et al.
preprint
States of consciousness can be ordered along a single dimension defined by the entropy of spontaneous neural activity, as proposed by the Entropic Brain Theory. Applying the same analytical pipeline to pharmacological (psychedelics, modafinil, propofol anaesthesia) and clinical (schizophrenia) fMRI datasets, the temporal irregularity of brain network topology was quantified. Propofol anaesthesia occupied the low-entropy end; psychedelic states and schizophrenia occupied the high end. This ordering tracks combined modulations of the level and content of consciousness, from reduced awareness under anaesthesia to heightened arousal and expanded experience under psychedelics and disorganised processing in schizophrenia. The result was not reducible to fluctuations in mean functional connectivity and was supported by convergent reorganisation of higher-order association cortex.
Neuroscience of consciousness
January 1, 2026
James W Sanders, Raphaël Millière, Ema Demšar et al.
The psychedelic compound DMT induces highly immersive experiences that often include encounters with seemingly sentient presences. Using micro-phenomenology, immersion under DMT was characterized as a structured continuum from subtle to gross forms. Twenty-three participants received 20 mg intravenous DMT during fMRI-EEG, followed by detailed interviews. Analysis yielded 125 phenomenological categories describing structural dimensions like sensory faculties, spatial organization, and self-world configuration. Bodily effects typically preceded visual and auditory ones, and perceived presences emerged only after multisensory integration and 3D spatial characteristics had developed, illustrating a hierarchical relationship between subtle and gross immersion. Perceived presences varied widely in sensory modality, semantic complexity, and relational mode, showing immersion as a dynamic, constructive process.
arXiv Preprint Archive
March 28, 2025
Marcus J. Glennon, Catherine I. V. Bird, Prateek Yadav et al.
Setting up a psychedelic study is a long and complex process that presents unique challenges not yet standardized. This review brings together major UK research teams to formalize these considerations, identify ongoing debates, and provide a practical guide for researchers and policymakers. It addresses challenges to existing assumptions about psychiatric prescribing, the placebo effect, and definitions of selfhood. The paper can be read end-to-end or used as a manual with sections for specific needs.