On the Varieties of Conscious Experiences: Altered Beliefs Under Psychedelics (ALBUS)

Psychedelics may both relax and strengthen beliefs depending on the dose and brain system involved. The REBUS model holds that 5-HT2a receptor activation relaxes prior expectations, enabling new perspectives. This paper proposes that at very high levels of 5-HT2a agonism, opposite effects can occur—termed SEBUS—where synchronous neural activity strengthens beliefs, enhancing meaning-making, hallucinations, and even delusional thinking. The ALBUS framework integrates these opposing effects across the dose-response curve, suggesting psychedelic experiences resemble waking dream states with varying lucidity. The authors provide neurophenomenological models of perceptual synthesis, dreaming, and episodic memory to support this view.

Study at a glance

Abstract

How is it that psychedelics so profoundly impact brain and mind? According to the model of "Relaxed Beliefs Under Psychedelics" (REBUS), 5-HT2a agonism is thought to help relax prior expectations, thus making room for new perspectives and patterns. Here we introduce an alternative (but largely compatible) perspective proposing REBUS effects may primarily correspond to a particular (but potentially pivotal) regime of very high levels of 5-HT2a receptor agonism. Depending on both a variety of contextual factors and the specific neural systems being considered, we suggest opposite effects may also occur in which synchronous neural activity becomes more powerful, with accompanying "Strengthened Beliefs Under Psychedelics" (SEBUS) effects. Such SEBUS effects are consistent with the enhanced meaning-making observed in psychedelic therapy (e.g. psychological insight and the noetic quality of mystical experiences), with the imposition of prior expectations on perception (e.g., hallucinations and pareidolia), and in the delusional thinking that sometimes occurs (e.g. apophenia, paranoia, engendering of inaccurate interpretations of events, and potentially false memories). With "Altered Beliefs Under Psychedelics” (ALBUS), we propose the manifestation of SEBUS vs. REBUS effects may vary across the dose-response curve of 5-HT2a signaling. While we explore a diverse range of sometimes complex ideas, our basic idea is fundamentally simple: psychedelic experiences can be understood as kinds of waking dream states of varying degrees of lucidity, with similar underlying mechanisms. We further demonstrate the utility of ALBUS by providing neurophenomenological models of psychedelics focusing on mechanisms of conscious perceptual synthesis, dreaming, as well as episodic memory and mental simulation.