Frontiers in Education
March 17, 2022
Kevin Rebecchi, Hélène Hagège
12 citations
A theoretical review examines the links between altered states of consciousness and creativity, focusing on a spectrum of attentional states including hypnagogia, mind wandering, mindfulness, and flow. These states occur during activities like sports, music, painting, writing, video games, theater, meditation, and boredom, as well as in professional fields such as education. The authors argue that researchers often isolate single states (e.g., mind wandering) without considering their relationships with others or with intention, levels of consciousness, and changes in perception of time, self, and space.
August 16, 2023
Kevin Rebecchi
2 citations
preprint
A 34-year-old autistic woman with lifelong aphantasia—the inability to generate visual mental images—reported experiencing vivid, controllable mental imagery for the first time after consuming psilocybin mushrooms. The effect persisted beyond the drug's acute psychedelic phase. Retrospective scores on the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire showed a significant increase in imagery vividness after intake. The findings align with prior research on psilocybin's effects on brain connectivity, neuroplasticity, and visual processing. The case suggests that psilocybin may modulate mental imagery in aphantasia and raises questions about the classification and pathologization of aphantasia, emphasizing cognitive diversity.
Journal of Psychedelic Studies
June 17, 2025
Kevin Rebecchi
A 34-year-old autistic woman with lifelong aphantasia—the inability to form visual mental images—experienced vivid, manipulable mental imagery for the first time after consuming psilocybin truffles. The effect persisted beyond the drug's acute psychedelic phase. Her score on the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire rose from a baseline of 16 before intake to 80 afterward; at 12 months it was 59, and at 33 months it increased to 68, slightly above the population average. The case aligns with prior work on psilocybin's effects on brain connectivity and neuroplasticity. It suggests psilocybin may modulate mental imagery in congenital aphantasia and encourages viewing aphantasia as cognitive diversity rather than a disorder.