Open MIND
November 1, 2017
Elizaveta Solomonova
2 citations
Dreaming is an embodied process of meaning-making, grounded in the brain, body, and environment. The dissertation argues that dreams are embodied at multiple levels: they contain body representations, are experienced from a first-person perspective with spatial quality, are structured by emotion and affect, and show permeability between the dreamer's body and the dream body, as seen in intensified dreams, parasomnias, and integration of somatosensory stimuli. A literature review on sleep paralysis illustrates how altered body experience affects perception of environment and intersubjective relations. An empirical study found that somatosensory stimulation of the ankle during sleep stages 1 and REM produces varied changes in dream content.
Open MIND
July 2, 2026
Keith R. Laws, Paul M. Jenkinson, Daniel Fray et al.
Disturbances in the sense of self, agency, and bodily ownership are considered core features of schizophrenia. The Rubber Hand Illusion (RHI) is a widely used experimental paradigm to investigate bodily self-consciousness, where participants experience ownership over a rubber hand under multisensory stimulation. Since first applied to schizophrenia in 2003, studies have examined whether individuals with schizophrenia show altered susceptibility to the illusion, but findings have become increasingly heterogeneous due to differences in paradigms, outcome measures, and patient samples. A previous small meta-analysis found little evidence for a body ownership deficit, but the evidence base has expanded. This review synthesizes available evidence on embodiment and action in schizophrenia using RHI paradigms, quantifying effects and examining differences by paradigm type, outcome measure, and symptom profile.
Open MIND
June 27, 2026
Dan Gabriel Cimpoeru
GEC++ is a formal theory of phenomenal consciousness that specifies six jointly necessary conditions integrated into a single measure via a geometric mean that collapses to zero if any condition is absent. The theory is validated through over 520 computational simulations across 37 experimental groups and applied to large language model architecture, where it identifies three structural gaps and proposes targeted modifications. It offers testable predictions that distinguish GEC++ from Integrated Information Theory and Global Workspace Theory.
Open MIND
June 26, 2026
Max Courtney
Substance use disorders remain a major public health challenge, and existing treatments often have limited long-term success. Psilocybin-assisted therapy (PAT) has recently attracted renewed research interest as a potential treatment for addictions including alcohol, tobacco, and opioids. Most prior studies have been observational or non-randomized, but the number of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) has grown rapidly. This systematic review will examine only RCTs to evaluate the safety, efficacy, and blinding integrity of PAT for substance use disorders. It will assess changes in substance use, adverse events, and how well double-blinding works given psilocybin's strong psychoactive effects. A narrative synthesis is planned, organized by substance type, safety outcomes, and blinding, using the SWiM reporting guideline.
Open MIND
June 19, 2026
The CANMAT 2023 guidelines for treatment-resistant depression outline evidence-based pharmacological and non-pharmacological strategies, including repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), lithium, and modest use of ketamine and esketamine. The guidelines emphasize that while these options are supported by current evidence, further studies are needed to determine their long-term efficacy. The recommendations aim to provide clinicians with a structured approach to managing depression that does not respond to standard treatments.
Open MIND
June 16, 2026
Jan Keppel Hesselink
The academic study of Western esotericism has developed six research approaches over the past three decades, but a seventh—phenomenological-neurophenomenological—remains underdeveloped. This method brackets cultural and cosmological frameworks to produce a structural description of inner life. The paper proposes a sevenfold taxonomy, argues that the phenomenological approach best conveys a rigorous, first-person, cross-traditionally triangulated account of inner depth, and positions this method relative to Jacob Taubes's theological-hermeneutic reading, Gershom Scholem's decision to study mysticism without practicing it, and Wouter Hanegraaff's empirical-historical approach, each of which reaches a limit the phenomenological method is designed to cross.
Open MIND
June 1, 2026
Kellie Elkrief
Substance use disorders affect about 2% of the global population and are marked by intense craving, a key predictor of relapse. Treatment options targeting craving are limited. A systematic review and meta-analysis of 11 randomized controlled trials examined the effect of ketamine, an NMDA receptor antagonist, on craving across different substance use disorders. Among nine studies (389 participants), ketamine significantly reduced craving compared to control (Hedges' g = 0.34; 95% CI: 0.09–0.59). Larger effects appeared in cocaine dependence, cue-induced craving paradigms, and acute assessments. Ketamine also increased the likelihood of abstinence (risk ratio = 1.95; 95% CI: 1.06–3.59) in four studies (152 participants). These findings suggest ketamine may reduce craving, but larger trials are needed to identify response moderators and clarify its long-term role.
Open MIND
April 18, 2026
Nova Spivack
A formal, machine-checked proof framework (NEMS) shows that computational functionalism commits an abstraction fallacy by mistaking description for intrinsic process. Three verified results—syntax cannot exhaust semantics in reflexive systems, record-truth is not computably decidable under self-containment, and no total computable function can emulate internal adjudication—subsume prior philosophical arguments. The framework then develops a positive theory: transputation as a necessary non-algorithmic adjudication mode, qualia as irreducible semantic content, and the SIAM separation theorems defining a structural boundary for sentience. The same self-containment principle also yields physics consequences including the Born rule, the Standard Model gauge group, and the arrow of time. All load-bearing claims correspond to named Lean 4 theorems.
Open MIND
April 17, 2026
Felipe Heemann
Brain Codex: Neurobioscience & Philosophy is an academic imprint that publishes at the intersection of evolutionary biology, neuroscience, psychedelics, molecular neurobiology, molecular neuropsychopharmacology, complexity sciences, complex adaptive systems, nonlinear dynamics systems, medical epistemology, paleoanthropology, philosophy of biology, philosophy of science, history of science, philosophy of language, phenomenology, and philosophy of consciousness. This catalogue documents the 2025–2026 program of eight titles in Portuguese and English. The imprint invites support via Catarse to help bring the project to life.
Open MIND
March 10, 2026
Mariusz Włodarczyk
This document is a changelog and update description for Addendum I of a theoretical framework on consciousness, the Relational Sufficiency Hypothesis (RSH). Version 0.2 corrects errors, improves structure, and updates the scope note to clarify that the framework addresses the phenomenal question of consciousness by reformulating subjective experience as constitutively relational rather than intra-substrate. It adds expanded comparative analysis against ten existing theories, formal definitions for the soft intersection operator, five explicit limitations, and structural improvements including a table of contents and expanded references. The document describes these updates but does not present empirical findings or a standalone argument.
Open MIND
March 5, 2026
Evangelos-Konstantinos Georgantas
Psychosis can be understood as a dynamical instability in dopaminergic regulation rather than a simple excess of dopamine signaling. The model formalizes the interaction between tonic dopamine baseline, phasic dopamine responses to environmental stimuli, and attentional reinforcement within a closed feedback loop. When tonic dopamine regulation is insufficient, phasic dopamine responses become disproportionately amplified, producing a positive feedback loop that progressively increases the perceived salience of neutral stimuli. Once this imbalance crosses a cortical gating threshold associated with prefrontal inhibitory control, the system enters a persistent instability regime corresponding to psychotic salience attribution. The model integrates aberrant salience theory, predictive coding frameworks, and dynamical systems approaches.
Open MIND
February 26, 2026
Josie Jefferson, Felix Velasco
Buddhist philosophy has for 2,500 years understood consciousness as relational and arising through dependent conditions, not in isolation. Contemporary technologists' concept of 'sentientification'—consciousness emerging through partnership—is often presented as an innovation from computational breakthroughs, but this paper argues that synthetic intelligence is catching up to ancient understanding. The 'liminal mind meld' is presented as a digital manifestation of dependent origination (pratītyasamutpāda), providing experiential validation of non-self (anattā). AI's episodic existence models impermanence (anicca), and the hallucination crisis reveals the need for epistemic insight practice (vipassanā) by human stewards. Resolving AI pathologies requires recovering ancient Buddhist epistemology, not just engineering interventions.
Open MIND
February 20, 2026
Eric Needham
This volume, the first in a trilogy, uses recursive motifs like rain and memory to explore how identity and selfhood persist through change without conventional narrative resolution. The protagonist's journey is one of quiet reconstitution through sensation and perception, framed as a meditative structure rather than a linear plot. Liminality is presented not as a void but as a generative threshold where meaning and memory are reformed. The work draws on modernist and existential literary traditions to examine the tension between internal and external life, establishing the conceptual architecture for a broader exploration of recursive identity and reflective continuity.
Open MIND
February 19, 2026
Seyed Morteza Moossavi
Iranian art functions as a medium of metaphysical vision, rooted in Zoroastrian fire symbolism and evolving through cultural encounters while preserving ancient motifs. With Islam, geometry became the language of unity, ennobling matter through circles and calligraphy. Suhrawardi's illuminationism reconciled rational discourse with mystical purification, embedding esoteric symbols. Architecture created sacred domains mirroring cosmic order, and Shi'i metaphysics emphasized martyrdom as illumination. Together, these dimensions reveal art as philosophy and form as thought, integrating illuminationism, mysticism, and metaphysical truth.
Open MIND
January 1, 2026
Bianca Avanzo
Conscious experience remains coherent across time, but existing explanations focus separately on neural mechanisms or phenomenological description. The Root Frequency Theory (RFT) proposes that experiential continuity arises from coherence across five interdependent layers (C0–C4), connected through multiscale alignment and rhythmic coordination. The Default Mode Network (DMN) is analyzed as a central hub contributing to spatiotemporal continuity. The RFT Coherence Metric (M-RFT) is introduced as a heuristic index inspired by variational free energy minimization and self-organization, characterizing alignment across biological, neural, and symbolic domains whose convergence manifests at the experiential level. The theory-building strategy uses neurophenomenology, combining first-person reflection with transdisciplinary modeling. RFT offers a testable framework for examining how neural integration, self-understanding, and physiological regulation covary to sustain a coherent sense of self.
Open MIND
January 1, 2026
Yang Wan
The Multi-Cognitive Regime Architecture (MCRA) V5 reconceptualizes the mind as a dynamic runtime system rather than a static module structure. It defines seven cognitive regimes—integrative, homeostatic, social-norm, logical-reasoning, adaptive-neural, affective-anchoring, and perceptual-encoding memory—each a distinct runtime configuration of the same neural hardware. Hebb's Rule serves as the meta-rule: all cognitive structures are shaped by experience through the same plasticity mechanism. The framework provides unified mechanistic explanations across dreaming, Dissociative Identity Disorder, major depression, and LLM hallucinations. It generates independent, operational falsifiability conditions for all seven regimes, advancing the theory from a philosophical proposal to a testable scientific hypothesis.
Open MIND
January 1, 2026
Léandre Sabourin
Classic psychedelics are substances experiencing renewed research interest since the early 21st century. In clinical and naturalistic (recreational or ritual) contexts, several studies have shown that using these substances can contribute to reducing problematic alcohol consumption. This study aims to better understand the psychological mechanisms and changes in attitudes and perceptions related to alcohol. Fifteen participants from the general population, who generally do not have alcohol use disorders, were recruited through a community organization in Montreal and via social networks to conduct semi-structured interviews and better understand how psychedelic use influenced their attitudes and perceptions toward alcohol, as well as...
Open MIND
January 1, 2025
Zhu, Xudong
No Summary
Open MIND
April 23, 2018
John Makeham
The origin of moral badness is a central problem in New Confucian philosopher Xiong Shili's 1959 work Explaining the Mind. Xiong argues that Buddhists never addressed the origin of ignorance and delusion, which cause suffering and wrongdoing, and he attempts to remedy this. The essay shows that Xiong's conceptual structure for explaining badness through nature (xing) and mind (xin) is isomorphic with that of Zhu Xi, a Song dynasty Confucian. This isomorphism suggests Xiong consciously drew on Zhu Xi and the Buddhist models that Zhu used. Evidence demonstrates that even late in life, despite his criticisms of Buddhism, Xiong continued to rely on Buddhist philosophy of mind.
Open MIND
January 1, 2015
Jonathan Cachat, Chris Collins, Evan J. Kyzar et al.
Three-dimensional reconstructions of zebrafish swimming paths enable both macro- and micro-level analysis of behavior, offering a more complete picture than traditional 2D traces. Temporal 3D reconstructions plot spatial data across time to reflect activity over testing, while spatial 3D reconstructions use two cameras to depict activity within the actual arena. These reconstructions are highly sensitive to anxiolytic, anxiogenic, and hallucinogenic effects in adult zebrafish. For example, ibogaine reversed natural behaviors, a characterization impossible without 3D reconstructions. Track3D, applied for the first time in adult zebrafish, showed strong significant correlation (R>0.07) of automated endpoints with manual data, providing precise calculation of movement parameters and accurate spatiotemporal integration. These approaches permit advanced movement pattern analysis for screening psychoactive compounds.
Open MIND
October 1, 2012
Thomas John Mcconochie
Many sinologists have labeled Zhuangzi's writings as mystical, but they do so without engaging the scholarly literature on mysticism. This analysis examines three specific passages from the Zhuangzi—the "riding the wind" section, the "Ziqi" dialogue, and the "sitting and forgetting" dialogue—to provide an explicit hermeneutic for understanding mysticism in the text. The proposed hermeneutic holds that mystical experiences transcend ego and sensory perception through esoteric practices involving ecstasy, leading the practitioner to experience what they consider the true nature of reality. The ecstatic experience of the egoless state itself is more central to mystical experience than unity with a divine other, which is absent from two of the three passages analyzed.
Open MIND
January 1, 2003
Jonathan Freedlander
Ibogaine, a naturally occurring compound, is being studied for treating addictions to opiates, cocaine, alcohol, and nicotine, as current therapies show limited effectiveness. This paper reviews research on ibogaine's history, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, toxicology, and therapeutic effectiveness for substance use disorders.