Przedstawienia grzybów psychoaktywnych w ewidencji archeologicznej i ich interpretacje

There has been a debate regarding substances that cause altered states of consciousness (especially those of a psychedelic nature) that have been intrinsically linked to man since the dawn of time. The question of the beginning of the crystallization of human consciousness intrigues today’s researchers. American writer and ethnobotanist Terence McKenna tangled with such ideas, indeed one of his thoughts contributes to many controversial opinions and theories presented in this work. The stoned ape theory considers psilocybin, the active substance of entheogenic mushrooms, as an element that played an important role in the process of human evolution and contributed to the acceleration of human consciousness. The author of a title theory believes that psychoactive mushrooms, which might have been components of our ancestors’ diet, could also contributed to the development of language and religion. In this paper, an attempt will be made to subject the title theory to criticism with particular discussion of archaeological evidence.

Too Big to Fail

This chapter explores the importance of magnitude as a theme in Laurie Anderson’s work, particularly Big Science. It begins by tracing histories of the titular phrase and then investigates the semiotics of bigness. Particularly with reference to individual identity, big systems, big edifices, and big collections of data all suggest superhuman states of consciousness. Accordingly, big knowledge systems such as linguistics, artificial intelligence, and the occult are all discussed. The chapter then reconciles their superhuman scale (and the attendant kinds of awareness it implies) with the paradoxical fact that such tokens of bigness are themselves human-made. Throughout, it draws connections between these notions and the album.

THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL BASES FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT, SELF-REALISATION OF A CHILD’S PERSONALITY: THE FUTURE OF THE NATION NEEDS TO BE GROWN

In modern social development conditions, the competitive is the creative personality of a child, who carries out creative activity and self-develops. The possible ways of a child’s development in the light of genetic psychology, mainly genetic and creative approach, are revealed. The main mechanisms of creativity are presented. One important direction in digitalisation is researching the psychology of a personality as a real (not just imaginary) subject of study, as unique, unrepeatable and integral system, unity. Modern science lacks the main — the adequate method for the mentioned subject. The method acts as a central link of all the problems of the psychology of a personality; since it is not only a tool for obtaining the evidence-based facts but also a tool for embodying the scientific knowledge, and the way of its existence and storage. The human’s genetic phycology aims to study the conditions, in which the process of transforming the content and forms of personal mental phenomena, states of consciousness, and ways of action will be able to achieve the level of excellence of activities’ mental mechanisms, at the mentioned level the ability to make discoveries and inventions, create artistic images arises.

An experience with Holotropic Breathwork is associated with improvement in non-judgement and satisfaction with life while reducing symptoms of stress in a Czech-speaking population

Background Holotropic breathwork (Grof ® Breathwork), was developed by Stanislav Grof and Christina Grof as a ‘non-drug’ alternative technique to evoke altered states of consciousness (ASC). Interestingly, although HBW has been anecdotally reported to evoke experiences and mental health effects corresponding to those of psychedelic substances, the scientific literature on the matter is scarce. Aims The objective of this study was to assess the (sub)acute and long-term effects of HBW on satisfaction with life, and whether these depend on the depth of the experience evoked by the HBW session. Methods A naturalistic observational design was employed in the present study. Between January 2019 and July 2020, 58 Czech-speaking participants who had an experience with HBW were assessed using three separate anonymous online-surveys created and hosted on Qualtrics. Assessments of mindfulness, satisfaction with life, depression, anxiety, and stress were made once prior to (baseline), and two times following (sub-acutely and 4-weeks) the participants’ experience with HBW. The ego dissolution inventory and the 5-dimensional altered states of consciousness scale was used to quantify the HBW experience. Results Despite low ratings of the psychedelic experience (mean range of 0–34% out of 100%), ratings of non-judgement significantly increased sub-acutely following the HBW session and persisted for 4-weeks. Stress-related symptoms significantly decreased while satisfaction with life significantly increased at 4-weeks after HBW. Conclusion An experience with HBW may be associated with improvement in non-judgement, satisfaction with life, and reductions of stress-related symptoms.

No evidence that LSD microdosing affects recall or the balance between distracter resistance and updating

The effect of low doses (<=20 μg) of LSD on working memory, in the absence of altered states of consciousness, remain largely unexplored. Given its possible effects on serotonin 5-HT2A receptors and dopaminergic signalling, it could be hypothesised that LSD microdoses modulate working memory recall. Moreover, in line with computational models, LSD microdoses could exert antagonistic effects on distracter resistance and updating. Here, we tested this hypothesis in a randomised double-blind, placebo-controlled study comparing three different LSD microdoses (5 μg, 10μg and 20μg) with placebo. After capsule administration, participants performed a modified delay-match-to-sample (DMTS) dopamine-sensitive task. The standard DMTS task was modified to include novel items in the delay period between encoding and probe. These novel items either had to be ignored or updated into working memory. There was no evidence that LSD microdoses affected the accuracy or efficiency of working memory recall and there was no evidence for differential effects on ignoring or updating. Due to the small sample of participants, these results are preliminary and larger studies are required to establish whether LSD microdoses affect short-term recall.

Representational ‘touch’ and modulatory ‘retouch’—two necessary neurobiological processes in thalamocortical interaction for conscious experience

Theories of consciousness using neurobiological data or being influenced by these data have been focused either on states of consciousness or contents of consciousness. These theories have occasionally used evidence from psychophysical phenomena where conscious experience is a dependent experimental variable. However, systematic catalog of many such relevant phenomena has not been offered in terms of these theories. In the perceptual retouch theory of thalamocortical interaction, recently developed to become a blend with the dendritic integration theory, consciousness states and contents of consciousness are explained by the same mechanism. This general-purpose mechanism has modulation of the cortical layer-5 pyramidal neurons that represent contents of consciousness as its core. As a surplus, many experimental psychophysical phenomena of conscious perception can be explained by the workings of this mechanism. Historical origins and current views inherent in this theory are presented and reviewed.

Consciousness of God as God is: The phenomenology of Christian centering prayer

<p>In this study I aim to give an alternative approach to the way we theorise in the philosophy and comparative study of mysticism. Specifically, I aim to shift debate on the phenomenal nature of contemplative states of consciousness away from textual sources and towards reliable and descriptively rich first-person data originating in contemporary practices of lived traditions. The heart of this dissertation lies in rich qualitative interview data obtained through recently developed second-person approaches in the science of consciousness. I conducted in-depth phenomenological interviews with 20 Centering Prayer teachers and practitioners. The interviews covered the larger trajectory of their contemplative paths and granular detail of the dynamics of recent seated prayer sessions. I aided my second-person method with a “radical participation” approach to fieldwork at St Benedict’s Monastery in Snowmass. In this study I present nuanced phenomenological analyses of the first-person data regarding the beginning to intermediate stages of the Christian contemplative path, as outlined by the Centering Prayer tradition and described by Centering Prayer contemplatives. My presentation of the phenomenology of Centering Prayer is guided by a synthetic map of Centering Prayer’s (Keating School) contemplative path and model of human consciousness, which is grounded in the first-person data obtained in this study and takes into account the tradition’s primary sources. This includes: (1) an outline of the stages of the contemplative path; (2) the levels of consciousness (ordinary, spiritual and divine) and the type of experiential content (coarse, subtle and very subtle/divine presence) proper to each stage of the path; and (3) corresponding types of self (false, true and separate-self sense). My study addresses three meta-issues in the field pertaining to method, description and theory. First, I offer a new framework for the comparative study of contemplative practices and experiences, alongside a sound second-person method for collecting first-person data from contemplative practitioners. Second, I provide an effective framework for developing phenomenological accounts that are descriptively faithful, analytically transparent and theoretically useful. Third, I draw on the phenomenological accounts developed in this study to reconsider important theses advanced in the contemporary philosophy and comparative study of mysticism. On this basis, I argue that practitioners phenomenally apprehend union states, specifically prayer of full union, through experiential primitives, such as a “sense of presence”, and without a “God-identification element”. Consequently, union states are phenomenologically of an unidentified reality and therefore not theistic, in Katz’s and Pike’s senses. However, there might be some sense in which they are phenomenologically of God, because they could be practitioners’ consciousness of God as God is; but this would empirically disconfirm received views of how God should be experienced. This finding challenges arguments for a unique theistic experience, designed to uphold a fundamental distinction between theistic and nontheistic experiences. Since Christian practitioners do not necessarily have unique theistic experiences in union, in the way that Katz and Pike require, there is at least some sense in which contemplatives from different traditions and cultures could have experiences similar in content and structure.</p>

Consciousness of God as God is: The phenomenology of Christian centering prayer

<p>In this study I aim to give an alternative approach to the way we theorise in the philosophy and comparative study of mysticism. Specifically, I aim to shift debate on the phenomenal nature of contemplative states of consciousness away from textual sources and towards reliable and descriptively rich first-person data originating in contemporary practices of lived traditions. The heart of this dissertation lies in rich qualitative interview data obtained through recently developed second-person approaches in the science of consciousness. I conducted in-depth phenomenological interviews with 20 Centering Prayer teachers and practitioners. The interviews covered the larger trajectory of their contemplative paths and granular detail of the dynamics of recent seated prayer sessions. I aided my second-person method with a “radical participation” approach to fieldwork at St Benedict’s Monastery in Snowmass. In this study I present nuanced phenomenological analyses of the first-person data regarding the beginning to intermediate stages of the Christian contemplative path, as outlined by the Centering Prayer tradition and described by Centering Prayer contemplatives. My presentation of the phenomenology of Centering Prayer is guided by a synthetic map of Centering Prayer’s (Keating School) contemplative path and model of human consciousness, which is grounded in the first-person data obtained in this study and takes into account the tradition’s primary sources. This includes: (1) an outline of the stages of the contemplative path; (2) the levels of consciousness (ordinary, spiritual and divine) and the type of experiential content (coarse, subtle and very subtle/divine presence) proper to each stage of the path; and (3) corresponding types of self (false, true and separate-self sense). My study addresses three meta-issues in the field pertaining to method, description and theory. First, I offer a new framework for the comparative study of contemplative practices and experiences, alongside a sound second-person method for collecting first-person data from contemplative practitioners. Second, I provide an effective framework for developing phenomenological accounts that are descriptively faithful, analytically transparent and theoretically useful. Third, I draw on the phenomenological accounts developed in this study to reconsider important theses advanced in the contemporary philosophy and comparative study of mysticism. On this basis, I argue that practitioners phenomenally apprehend union states, specifically prayer of full union, through experiential primitives, such as a “sense of presence”, and without a “God-identification element”. Consequently, union states are phenomenologically of an unidentified reality and therefore not theistic, in Katz’s and Pike’s senses. However, there might be some sense in which they are phenomenologically of God, because they could be practitioners’ consciousness of God as God is; but this would empirically disconfirm received views of how God should be experienced. This finding challenges arguments for a unique theistic experience, designed to uphold a fundamental distinction between theistic and nontheistic experiences. Since Christian practitioners do not necessarily have unique theistic experiences in union, in the way that Katz and Pike require, there is at least some sense in which contemplatives from different traditions and cultures could have experiences similar in content and structure.</p>

Psychedelic experience dose-dependently modulated by cannabis: results of a prospective online survey

Rationale. Classic psychedelics are currently being studied as novel treatments for a range of psychiatric disorders. However, research on how psychedelics interact with other psychoactive substances remains scarce. Objectives The current study aimed to explore the subjective effects of psychedelics when used alongside cannabis. Methods Participants (n = 321) completed a set of online surveys at 2 time points: 7 days before, and 1 day after a planned experience with a serotonergic psychedelic. The collected data included demographics, environmental factors (so-called setting) and five validated questionnaires: Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ), visual subscales of Altered States of Consciousness Questionnaire (ASC-Vis), Challenging Experience Questionnaire (CEQ), Ego Dissolution Inventory (EDI) and Emotional Breakthrough Inventory (EBI). Participants were grouped according to whether they had reported using no cannabis (n = 195) or low (n = 53), medium (n = 45) or high (n = 28) dose, directly concomitant with the psychedelic. Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) and contrasts was used to analyse differences in subjective effects between groups while controlling for potential confounding contextual ‘setting’ variables. Results The simultaneous use of cannabis together with classic serotonergic psychedelics was associated with more intense psychedelic experience across a range of measures: a linear relationship was found between dose and MEQ, ASC-Vis and EDI scores, while a quadratic relationship was found for CEQ scores. No relationship was found between the dose of cannabis and the EBI. Conclusions Results imply a possible interaction between the cannabis and psychedelic on acute subjective experiences; however, design limitations hamper our ability to draw firm inferences on directions of causality and the clinical implications of any such interactions.