People who report a stronger sense of self-boundarylessness—feeling less distinct from the surrounding world—tend to endorse words related to fluidity more strongly and take longer on a math task. Brain imaging shows that during mind-wandering, boundarylessness is linked to less activity in the posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus. Interestingly, both low and high boundarylessness, compared to moderate levels, are associated with greater connectivity within the default mode network at rest, less activity in the medial prefrontal cortex when processing self-related words, and lower endorsement of words related to constancy. Directing attention to the center of experience activates brain regions similar to meditation onset, regardless of meditation experience.
Automatic writing, whether occurring spontaneously or induced by hypnosis, reduces the sense of control and agency compared to copying symbols. In a functional MRI study of one spontaneous automatic writer and four highly hypnotizable individuals, automatic writing was associated with decreased brain activity in regions linked to the sense of agency, including the left premotor cortex and insula, right premotor cortex, and supplemental motor area. Increased activity was observed in the left and right temporoparietal junctions and occipital lobes. The highly hypnotizable individuals showed widespread decreases in brain activity and increases in frontal and parietal regions compared to the spontaneous writer. Spontaneous and induced automatic writing had similar effects on the subjective experience of agency but only partly overlapping effects on cortical activity.