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After traumatic brain injury (TBI), patients often experience an altered level of consciousness for some period of time, and deeply altered levels of consciousness may be classified as comatose or vegetative states. Some patients do not fit either of these categories, due to some level of preservation of self-awareness, and are defined as being in a minimally conscious state; patients may progress to this state from coma or vegetative state after a TBI. Understanding the criteria for each of these altered states is important for prognostication purposes. While a large proportion of patients with prolonged coma after a TBI will “awaken” within 1 year, many researchers have focused on utilization of pharmaceutical agents to hasten recovery of consciousness due to the propensity for complications and other deleterious issues associated with prolonged coma. However, as with all medications, the medications used have a side-effect profile that could certainly play a harmful role in recovery. In addition, limited data are available to suggest that these medications actually do aid TBI patients in their recovery. The goal of this chapter is to discuss the available evidence for conscious-enhancing medications for this use.

A quick chapter on the approach to pediatric altered mental status. The mnemonic AEIOU TIPS is a comprehensive heuristic to work through the possible etiology of the patient’s altered state. This chapter also includes some empiric bedside therapies for potentially reversible causes, as well as some pearls to remember in all cases.

The scientific study of movement-related contemplative practices has proceeded without much attention to the range of psychological and phenomenological changes thought to occur during the practice. Quadrato Motor Training (QMT) is a specifically structured walking meditation, recently found to improve creativity and reflectivity, as well as neuroplasticity. This paper presents first-person reports related to QMT-induced experiences, derived from both practitioners of breathing meditation (BM) who practiced the QMT for 1 week (n = 15) compared to 4 weeks of daily training (n = 14) and control non-BM practitioners who practiced the QMT for 4 weeks of daily training (n = 14). Following factor analysis, the reported experiences were classified into three categories: Attentional Effort, Mindfulness, and Altered States of Consciousness (ASC). Our analysis revealed significant group differences, with increased ASC and attentional effort experiences reported by the groups that practiced the QMT for 4 weeks, but not in the group that practiced it for only 1 day. We further build on the previous QMT-induced electrophysiological and cognitive changes and the meditation literature to posit the possible underlying mechanisms of QMT-induced ASC experiences, in order to suggest a novel interpretation of QMT that calls attention to its structural similarities with meditation. By providing and contextualizing these reports of QMT-induced experiences, scientists, clinicians, and meditators can gain a more informed view of the range of experiences that can be elicited by whole-body contemplative practices.

ResumenSe documentan 7 nuevos registros de orquídeas para la flora del estado de Tabasco, México. La distribución de cada especie fue evaluada para México y el resto del Neotrópico mediante información obtenida de listados florísticos, registros de herbario y herramientas en línea. Finalmente, se discute la importancia del bosque tropical perennifolio como hábitat para la conservación de las orquídeas en un estado severamente alterado por deforestación y cambios en el uso de suelo como Tabasco.AbstractSeven orchid species are reported as new records for the state of Tabasco, Mexico. The distribution of each species was evaluated for Mexico and the rest of the Neotropics considering data of floristic inventories, herbarium records and online tools. Finally, the importance of the tropical rain forest as habitat for orchid conservation in a severely altered state by deforestation and land use changes as Tabasco is discussed.

This essay examines Gaspar Noe's film, Enter the Void (2009), in light of the work of both Gilles Deleuze and Alain Badiou. Arguing that the film shows to viewers the 'void' that separates subjects from objects, the essay also considers Noe's film in the light of drug literature and the altered states induced by cinema and describe by Anna Powell. Finally, the essay proposes that Enter the Void is a work of 'unbecoming' cinema, which in turn points to expansion of cinematic form through the use of digital technologies.

Focusing on a kind of crime in a peripheral territory of Russia, this paper offers an unusual perspective on a classic anthropological topic: the phenomenon of occult violence described as “sorcery” or “witchcraft.” In Tuva, a Siberian culture with ancient traditions of shamanic religion, new evidence has emerged of a cohort of revivalist shamans who provide a counteroffensive against curse afflictions attributed to their clients’ enemies. The data reveal the rise of a legally unsanctioned process of shamanic justice for complex synergies of occult violence and unlawful conduct, existing on the frontiers and limits of state justice. From within a post-Soviet epidemic of curses and social tensions in the capital city of Tuva, a retaliatory theme emerges, anchored in shamanic rebellions against the Soviet regime. The paper considers the work of Obeyesekere (and other scholars on sorcery) in evaluating the implications of shamanic retaliation as a politically marginalized practice.

This study presents two case reports of altered states spontaneously occurring during meditation in two proficient practitioners. These states, known as fruition, are common within the Mahasi School of Theravada Buddhism, and are considered the culmination of contemplation-induced stages of consciousness. Here, electrophysiological measures of these experiences were measured, with the participant’s personal reports used to guide the neural analyzes. The preliminary results demonstrate an increase in global long-range gamma (25–45 Hz) synchronization during the fruition states, compared to the background meditation. The discrepancies and similarities with other neuroscientific studies of meditation-induced altered states are discussed. Albeit preliminary, the results presented here provide support for the possibility - previously raised by various authors - that long-range global gamma synchronization may offer an underlying mechanism for un-learning of habitual conditioning and mental patterns, possibly underpinning the neural correlate of the Buddhist concept of liberation. Finally, this pilot study highlights the utility of employing neuro-phenomenology, namely using first-person reports to guide neural analyzes, in the study of subtle human consciousness states.

CV and CK chondrites might came from the same parent body from different depth values. To better constrain the conditions there, the composition, structure and chronology of mineral changes were analyzed in NWA 1465 CV3 chondrite meteorite. This sample represents an interesting part of the proposed ancient parent body where opposite to the generally poor altered state of CV3 chondrites, strong mechanical deformation produced elongated chondrules. All of the ingredients in the sample were flattened and fractured. After the chondrules settled down glass formation, opaque crystallization, fracturing and a second opaque generation followed by carbonate crystallization happened. The lack of fragments along the veins suggests no shearing movement happened, and the small number of weak shock signatures points to S2 level, and the oriented pressure in the parent body might come from burial induced pressure. The meteorite might came from a location in the CV−CK parent body where melting, and weak impact related fracturing and vein filling happened. In this an environment alteration of the primitive material started, possibly from a zone transitional between the shallow, less processed CV, and the deeper, more processed CK chondrites.

In this article I ask the question: what does an embodied, relational and wild therapeutic approach look like? In answering, I look at my own annual withdrawal from my garden, and link it with humanity’s historical withdrawal from an intimate, sensual relationship with the other-than-human and more-than-human, highlighting the privileging in our culture of rational and intellectual modes of consciousness, and the denigration of the instinctual and the wild. I offer the concept of trance states as a way to conceptualize working relationally with wildness in the client–therapist dyad. Wild Mind is introduced as a way to listen to the wider, wild intelligence which is a part of us, and of which we are a part.

Delirium is a complex phenomenon with a wide range of signs and symptoms coming from the central nervous system. The main characteristic of delirium is the clouding of consciousness. It is more common for older people under hospital treatment. Key delirium features state their fast and aggressive onset; the agents are predominantly exogenous, with clearly altered states of consciousness and attention, with the presence of hallucinations usually expressing misrepresentated observations. Epidemiological data clearly indicate that a particularly vulnerable part of the population are older hospitalized patients, particularly those who are exposed to orthopedic hip or heart surgery. This part of the population, according to age, commonly uses different medications, some of which have significant potential for the development of delirium. Different drugs have different potentials for delirium conditions development. Therefore, it is important to be familiar with those drugs for which there is a clearly defined and described delirious potential (anticholinergic drugs, hypnotics, antidepresives, analgesics… Knowing the potential, gives a significant advantage to the medical staff when they make decisions on the administration of certain classes of drugs, especially in the hospital setting. Additionally, the rapid recognition of delirium symptoms and patient's status during hospitalization or after surgical implantations are of importance. The existence of protocols for the diagnosis of delirium, as well as well-trained health personnel is an important prerequisite to recognize and treat delirium conditions for an effective fight against the emergence of delirium and to redress its consequences.

Background: Pattern reversal visual evoked potentials (PRVEP) are one of the recommended tests for detection of functional visual loss. However, voluntary alterations producing abnormal records have been reported in the normal subjects limiting the role of the test. Hence, this study aimed to record voluntarily altered PRVEP responses and to study the role of various modifications in the technique for detection of the condition. Methods: 20 normal subjects in the age-group of 18-25 years were studied. PRVEP records were obtained in the normal perceiving states and then with voluntary alterations in different stimulus conditions and the changes in the mean P100 latency and N75-P100 amplitude were compared and analysed using paired t-test. Results: 15 out of 20 subjects could voluntarily alter their PRVEP records with 26 out of 30 eyes demonstrating statistically significant abnormal records in terms of latency delay or amplitude reduction or both. Modifications in the technique with increased check size, field size and binocular stimulation reduced the number of abnormal records. But, mean P100 latency and N75-P100 amplitude recorded from the above stimulus conditions in voluntarily altered states were still statistically significantly altered from those in the normal perceiving conditions (p

The appearance since 1990 of so many excellent books about Spiritualism—Alex Owen’s The Darkened Room, Ann Braude’s Radical Spirits, Janet Oppenheim’s The Other World, Marlene Tromp’s Altered State...

Editor—Gaskell and colleagues conducted a secondary analysis of a heterogeneous, multicentre database to study the relationship between the presence of frontal alpha-delta EEG patterns and volitional responses assessed after anaesthesia induction using an isolated forearm technique. The authors conclude that that neither the presence of the frontal alpha-delta EEG patterns, nor any other EEG measure that they evaluated, reliably correlated with the volitional responses. Based on the data the authors present, this statement is not correct., National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Award R01 GM104948), National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Award P01 GM118629), National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Award R01 AG053582), National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Award R01AG056015)

Altered states of consciousness, such as psychotic or pharmacologically-induced hallucinations, provide a unique opportunity to examine the mechanisms underlying conscious perception. However, the phenomenological properties of these states are difficult to isolate experimentally from other, more general physiological and cognitive effects of psychoactive substances or psychopathological conditions. Thus, simulating phenomenological aspects of altered states in the absence of these other more general effects provides an important experimental tool for consciousness science and psychiatry. Here we describe such a tool, the Hallucination Machine. It comprises a novel combination of two powerful technologies: deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs) and panoramic videos of natural scenes, viewed immersively through a head-mounted display (panoramic VR). By doing this, we are able to simulate visual hallucinatory experiences in a biologically plausible and ecologically valid way. Two experiments illustrate potential applications of the Hallucination Machine. First, we show that the system induces visual phenomenology qualitatively similar to classical psychedelics. In a second experiment, we find that simulated hallucinations do not evoke the temporal distortion commonly associated with altered states. Overall, the Hallucination Machine offers a valuable new technique for simulating altered phenomenology without directly altering the underlying neurophysiology.

A new control condition called Wiki is introduced. Key themes of each test suggestion of the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form C, were matched by a corresponding extract from Wikipedia.org. The authors compared phenomenological reports of participants across 4 conditions: hypnosis split into high and low hypnotizable subgroups, music, and Wiki condition, using the Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory. High hypnotizables undergoing hypnosis reported higher altered experience and altered states of awareness than individuals in the Wiki condition, supporting the authors' hypothesis that the Wiki condition does not evoke an altered state of consciousness (internal dialogue, volitional control, and self-awareness did not differ). Wiki might be a viable control condition in hypnosis research given further examination.

In March, 1974, a 46-item questionnaire was mailed to a randomly selected sample consisting of 300 students from the University of Virginia and 700 other adult residents of Charlottesville and surrounding suburbs. Items requested respondents to report the incidence and detailed characteristics of various psychic and psi-related experiences. Information concerning attitudes and the personal impact of such experiences was solicited, as well as demographic data. Usable questionnaires were obtained from 89% of the student sample and 51% of the town sample. Claims of psychic and psi-related experiences were rather wide-spread: over half of the respondents claimed at least one ESP experience, for example. There also was a tendency for persons who claimed psychic or psi-related experiences to claim a large number of them. Variables related to naturally-occurring altered states (e.g., vividness and frequency of dream recall) tended to be strong predictors of such experiences, while demographic variables generally were poor predictors. However, there was a strong negative relationship between age and claims of deja vu experiences. Many respondents indicated that psychic or psi-related experiences affected their attitudes toward life and/or life-styles.

Methemoglobinemia, an altered state of hemoglobin resulting in impaired oxygen delivery to the tissues can be congenital or following exposure/ingestion of various oxidant drugs or toxins. One of the earliest signs of methemoglobinemia is generalized cyanosis not improved on oxygen supplementation and presence of normal PO2 on acid blood-gas analysis. Here, we report two cases of acquired methemoglobinemia following poisoning and our experience of managing them with automated therapeutic red cell exchange.

Psychedelic drugs have historically been used for ritualistic purposes and to help individuals gain insight. Ibogaine, a naturally occurring psychoactive substance, has been reported to have anti-addictive properties that aid in the treatment of substance use disorders. An online survey obtained retrospective data from individuals who used ibogaine in the past. Individuals who used ibogaine tended to describe thematically similar experiences post-treatment. This study adds to the literature by using the 5d-ASC, a psychometrically sound measure of altered states of consciousness (ASCs), to examine the ASCs induced by ibogaine and discusses the demographic characteristics of those who seek ibogaine treatment (N = 27). The study also examined several aspects of ibogaine treatment experience, including reasons for seeking treatment, course of treatment, and treatment outcome. Results indicated a positive correlation between the various dimensions of the ASCs and the outcome (ability to make changes in one's life, cravings, and how changed the person was as a result of ibogaine treatment). While this study is limited in generalizability due to high attrition and low sample size, it deepens the understanding of the phenomenological experience of ibogaine and explores the possible utility of ibogaine in the treatment of substance use disorders.

This article explores the contribution of ethnographic studies to our understanding of multinational corporations, through a literature review and through a case study of BMW Plant Oxford. The study considers that ethnographic studies can provide a more complex view of power relations between managers and workers, and can develop embedded perspectives taking into account the influences from outside the firm on its employees’ actions, developing the image of the firm not as a solitary entity, but as embedded in complex global networks and social discourses.

Nowadays, there is a growing interest in deeply understanding biological mechanisms not only at the molecular level (biological components) but also the effects of an ongoing biological process in the organism as a whole (biological functionality), as established by the concept of systems biology. Within this context, metabolomics is one of the most powerful bioanalytical strategies that allow obtaining a picture of the metabolites of an organism in the course of a biological process, being considered as a phenotyping tool. Briefly, metabolomics approach consists in identifying and determining the set of metabolites (or specific metabolites) in biological samples (tissues, cells, fluids, or organisms) under normal conditions in comparison with altered states promoted by disease, drug treatment, dietary intervention, or environmental modulation. The aim of this chapter is to review the fundamentals and definitions used in the metabolomics field, as well as to emphasize its importance in systems biology and clinical studies.

Near-death experiences, altered states during a brush with death, may include mystical features like a sense of sacredness and divine union, timelessness/spacelessness, positive mood, noetic quality, and ineffability. We quantified mystical elements in near-death experience by comparing responses on the Mysticism Scale of 292 near-death experiencers and 34 persons who had come close to death without near-death experiences. Two thirds of near-death experiencers reported mystical experiences during their brush with death, compared to none of the comparison survivors. Near-death experiencers scored higher on the Mysticism Scale than did nonexperiencers; they endorsed noetic quality, positive affect, and unity most often and ego loss, timelessness/spacelessness, and ineffability least often. Depth of near-death experience was correlated highly with scores on the Mysticism Scale, but factor analysis of features during the brush with death yielded two distinct factors representing mystical and near-death elemen...

Mathematical models are invaluable tools for understanding the relationships between components of a complex system. In the biological context, mathematical models help us understand the complex web of interrelations between various components (DNA, proteins, enzymes, signaling molecules etc.) in a biological system, gain better understanding of the system as a whole, and in turn predict its behavior in an altered state (e.g. disease). Mathematical modeling has enhanced our understanding of multiple complex biological processes like enzyme kinetics, metabolic networks, signal transduction pathways, gene regulatory networks, and electrophysiology. With recent advances in high throughput data generation methods, computational techniques and mathematical modeling have become even more central to the study of biological systems. In this review, we provide a brief history and highlight some of the important applications of modeling in biological systems with an emphasis on the study of excitable cells. We conclude with a discussion about opportunities and challenges for mathematical modeling going forward. In a larger sense, the review is designed to help answer a simple but important question that theoreticians frequently face from interested but skeptical colleagues on the experimental side: “What is the value of a model?”

Background : A “4-D model” was recently described as a theoretical framework for categorizing trauma-related symptoms into four phenomenological dimensions (the experience of time, thought, body, and emotion) that can present either in the form of normal waking consciousness (NWC) or as dissociative experiences, that is, trauma-related altered states of consciousness (TRASC). Methods : The present study examined the predictions of the 4-D model in 258 persons with borderline personality disorder (BPD) with ( n =126) versus without ( n =132) posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Results : As measured by the Borderline Symptom List , consistent with the predictions of the 4-D model, in comparison with symptom endorsements theorized to be associated with NWC, measures of TRASC were less frequent, and more strongly correlated with both Dissociative Experience Scale scores and severity of childhood emotional neglect, particularly in persons with both BPD and PTSD. Our prediction that symptoms of TRASC would be less intercorrelated in comparison with distress associated with NWC symptoms, however, was not supported. Conclusions : Findings are discussed as they pertain to the symptomatology of BPD, PTSD, and dissociation. Keywords : Dissociation; borderline personality disorder; posttraumatic stress disorder; trauma-related altered states of consciousness; childhood abuse and neglect; 4-D model Responsible Editor: Julian D. Ford, University of Connecticut Health Center, United States. (Published: 18 August 2014) Citation : European Journal of Psychotraumatology 2014, 5 : 24863 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/ejpt.v5.24863

Three kinds of hallucinations have repeatedly been identified in the literature on altered states of consciousness (ASCs): visions of (1) geometric forms, (2) figures and objects, and (3) complete scenes. Lewis-Williams’ neuropsychological model draws on these reports to gain insights into the minds of Paleolithic people, on the basis of shared neurobiology and given comparative ethnographic data on ritualized ASCs. Helvenston has long rejected this model because in many ASCs hallucinations do not always adhere to a strict 1-2-3 sequence, because they do not always feature animals, and because people do not always lose their critical faculties. She is right, but she is attacking a straw man because these criteria are her own. Helvenston’s claims about the effects of psychoactive compounds and sensory deprivation are also questionable. It remains an open question how our Turing pattern model relates to more figurative forms of hallucinations.

The purpose of these comments is to correct some mischaracterizations of my work with Paul Bahn that Froese et al. make in their latest paper “Are altered states of consciousness detrimental, useful or helpful for the origins of symbolic cognition? A response to Hodgson and Lewis-Williams”. Additionally I discuss neuropsychological errors occurring in that paper.

As pastors of MoTiv, formerly known as Delft University Chaplaincy, over the course of some thirty years, we have experienced a very drastic development, a metamorphosis, in our understanding and task of interpretation, and in the way in which we even approach our work field. Such a transition process never takes place in a straightforward way, but tentatively, struggling and doubting, with an insight surfacing now and then, as a confirming experience. As someone involved in such a process, it is not easy keeping your distance and putting into words how that development has taken place. The fact that we can now make an attempt to do so in this article can largely be attributed to the thesis on the Delft University Chaplaincy that was written by Arnold de Jong.1

Frewen and Lanius (in press) recently articulated a 4-D model as a framework for classifying symptoms of posttraumatic stress into those that potentially occur within normal waking consciousness (NWC) versus those that intrinsically represent dissociative experiences of trauma-related altered states of consciousness (TRASC). Four dimensions were specified: time-memory, thought, body, and emotion. The 4-D model further hypothesizes that in traumatized persons, symptoms of TRASC, compared with NWC forms of distress, will be (a) observed less frequently; (b) less intercorrelated, especially as measured as moment-to-moment states; (c) observed more frequently in people with high dissociative symptomatology as measured independently; and (d) observed more often in people who have experienced repeated traumatization, particularly early developmental trauma. The aim of the present research was to begin to evaluate these 4 predictions of the 4-D model. Within a sample of 74 women with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) primarily due to histories of childhood trauma, as well as within a 2nd sample of 504 undergraduates (384 females), the 1st 2 hypotheses of the 4-D model were supported. In addition, within the PTSD sample, the 3rd hypothesis was supported. However, inconsistent with the 4th hypothesis, severity of childhood trauma history was not strongly associated with TRASC. We conclude that the hypotheses articulated by the 4-D model were generally supported, although further research in different trauma-related disorders is needed, and the role of childhood trauma history in the etiology of TRASC requires further research.

Research in Quebec by a team that I direct indicates that religious collectivities still have very important roles to play despite the individualization of religion and the changing relations between individuals and religious institutions. The analysis focuses on the smaller, more marginal spiritualities that attract native-born Québécois, who often maintain some ties with the Catholic Church. Here we find abundant evidence of individualized, hybrid spiritualities but we also see that religious sociality remains essential for maximizing the effectiveness of religious (spiritual) practice, providing a framework for religious apprenticeship, supporting those in ritually produced altered states of consciousness, and validating religious authenticity of the practices and beliefs of participants. While collectivities remain important in more mainstream religious congregations (Catholics and Pentecostals, for example), the specifically religious elements of communality in these groups are sometimes obscured. By examining more marginal currents, we try to show the enduring power of religious sociality.

We respond to the commentaries by Hodgson and Lewis-Williams by clarifying the novelty of our theory. We argue that whenever Turing instabilities of neural activity play a role in generating visual hallucinations, they do more than shape the geometric patterns. Their relatively autonomous self-organization is a source of intrinsic value related to their self-maintenance as a pattern of activity, and they would also thereby decouple “higher-level” stages of neural processing from external stimulation, thus facilitating a more abstract mode of cognition. These additional features of our proposal support Hodgson and Lewis-Williams in their respective theories about the very first origins of human artistic activity. We also evaluate the critical literature regarding the possibility of ritualized enaction of altered states of consciousness (ASC) in early prehistory. We conclude that ASC were indeed possible, and suggest that they were likely involved in facilitating the social development of more symbolic forms of life and mind.

This article looks closely at the relationship between performance and documentation and their altered state via media intervention. Such media intervention is found in the case of NT Live, the latest National Theatre venture, which transmits live productions from the theatre to cinemas around the United Kingdom and the world. Considering the production This House, presented as part of the 2013 NT Live ‘season’, which looks at the hung parliament of the 1970s in the years before Thatcherism, the article compares the deathly motifs of the play with the concept of NT Live, which strives to lengthen the life of performances through their digital replaying. Problematizing the terming of NT Live, due to the time delays in place in international transmissions, presenting instead the ‘document’ of a performance as ‘live’ performance, the deathly concepts of This House play out in the house of the Theatre, as NT Live tussles between NT Live and NT Archive, between the life and death of a performance. Demonstratin...

The present article investigates the unique features of Icelandic geographical terrain and its impact upon cognitive reality of medieval Iceland. The focus is on saga depictions of Viking-Age individuals on Iceland’s western coast passing into their local mountains when they die. This, it is contended, does not constitute death in the conventional sense of ceasing to be but instead a transformation into ambiguous ‘other’ entities which continue to inhabit the landscape in an altered state. Textual analysis is brought into dialogue with archaeological data concerning placements of mounds and burial sites in the same region and time frame. The aim is to illuminate the role of Icelandic landscape as a stage shaping medieval Icelandic beliefs and attitudes vis-avis their dead. Instead of a dichotomous opposition between this-world and other-world, it is proposed that the medieval Icelandic landscape was perceived as both at the same time.

Adapted from the Lissa Evans novel Their Finest Hour and a Half, Their Finest (Lone Scherfig, 2016) is a fictional film based loosely on historical figures and circumstances, as it tells the story of the production of a feature film by the UK Ministry of Information (MOI) in 1940. What, Their Finest quietly asks, is real? What is fake? And what does it matter, if you are at the movies? Joy is real. Tears are real. And other things, too: the tea I sip, the arm of my companion next to me, the chattering women in the row below, the sighing man who has come to the movies alone. The light is real. The darkness, too. Hastie thinks through the implications of a female author of the original monograph, the female director of the current film, and the fictional composite female character Catrin Cole, the screenwriter in the film. The whole of Catrin Cole did and didn't exist before Their Finest. “Catrin Cole” is not a historical figure, hidden or otherwise. She is a composite of fact and fiction, the pieces stitched together to make a whole person. As asserted by producer Stephen Woolley, who initiated the project, Their Finest drew upon the lives of many women writers for the Film Division of the MOI, particularly that of Diana Morgan, the one woman in the Ealing Studios writers’ room.

Previous studies have found that hope has beneficial effects in athletics, academics, physical health, and mental well being in majority populations. Given the challenges Latino youth face in the United States, ethnic identity and hope may be a powerful buffer from these negative stressors. The current study aimed to identify whether chronic levels of hope related to academic performance, whether an ethnic pride manipulation altered state hope levels, and whether there was a link between ethnic identity and chronic hope among a sample of Latino youth. Results indicated that GPA and chronic hope levels were not related, a manipulation to boost ethic pride increased state hope, and that ethnic identity was related to chronic levels of hope. The findings suggest that ethnic identity is an important contributor to hope levels.

espanol?Como habitar, con nuestro cuerpo sensible y empatico, un entorno descrito por un texto? El presente articulo explora dicha cuestion a partir de una serie de investigaciones desarrolladas a lo largo de las ultimas decadas en el ambito de las neurociencias en torno a la cognicion encarnada y los estados alterados de consciencia. A partir de las investigaciones mencionadas, trataremos de comprender mejor los procesos que dan lugar a la inmersion del lector en determinadas descripciones presentes en Des anges mineurs (1999) y Terminus Radieux (2014), de Antoine Volodine. Este modelo neuroestetico de la experiencia inmersiva del entorno estara respaldado por una reinterpretacion de la distincion narratologica entre descripcion y narracion. Observaremos de este modo que la inmersion encarnada puede dotar de un alto grado de soberania a la practica estetica de la descripcion (que tiende a adquirir autonomia con respecto a la narracion y a otorgarle un valor intrinseco al entorno y a los elementos que lo conforman), hasta el punto de atribuirle un papel ecologico fundamental en la era del Antropoceno.How can we inhabit, with our sensitive empathic body, an environment described by a text? This paper explores this question through neuropsychological studies on embodied cognition and altered states of consciousness. These studies help us to elucidate the reader’s immersion in the descriptions of Minor Angels (1999) and Radiant Terminus (2014), from Antoine Volodine. Our neuroaesthetic model of immersive inhabitation will allow us to reinterpret the narratology distinction of descriptions and narration. We will thus see that embodied immersion can turn description into a sovereign aesthetic practice, tending toward autonomy from narration and endowed with intrinsic ecological value in the age of the Anthropocene. EnglishHow can we inhabit, with our sensitive empathic body, an environment described by a text? This paper explores this question through neuropsychological studies on embodied cognition and altered states of consciousness. These studies help us to elucidate the reader’s immersion in the descriptions of Minor Angels (1999) and Radiant Terminus (2014), from Antoine Volodine. Our neuroaesthetic model of immersive inhabitation will allow us to reinterpret the narratology distinction of descriptions and narration. We will thus see that embodied immersion can turn description into a sovereign aesthetic practice, tending toward autonomy from narration and endowed with intrinsic ecological value in the age of the Anthropocene.

This piece began as a stream of consciousness drawing. Two rows of sexless faces all looking in the same direction formed what reminded me of a gust of wind. I continued using the face as a repeating unit to create the sky. Cloud Watching was heavily influenced by the Ukiyo-e period of Japanese art and the psychedelic fractalization of objects by the human eye during altered states of consciousness.

Music therapy is a discipline with an important background that has demonstrated its substantial benefits for people with multiple different personal profiles. Humans at all stages of life, with functional diversity, health, cognitive, or emotional problems, can feel the benefits of music therapy. Adolescence is a convulse stage in human development, and music therapy can be an invaluable source of support so adolescents can develop in a positive way. Flow is, according to Csikszentmihalyi, an altered state of mind in which a person feels engaged with a gratifying activity, producing high levels of satisfaction. In the present research work, interactions between flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 2012) and music are explored through a case-study with one adolescent in a school context.

Musictherapy is a discipline with an important background that has demonstrated its substantial benefits for people with multiple different personal profiles. Humans at all stages of life, with functional diversity, health, cognitive, or emotional problems, can benefit from musictherapy. Adolescence is a convulse stage in human development, and musictherapy can be an invaluable source of support so adolescents can develop in a positive way. Flow is, according to Csikszentmihalyi (2012), an altered state of mind in which a person feels highly engaged in an inherently gratifying activity, producing high satisfaction and therapeutic outcomes. In the present research work, interactions between flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 2012) and humanistic musictherapy are explored through a case-study with one adolescent in a school context.

Herdsmen have been parts and parcel of the Nigerian social milieu. Their presence are more in the Northern parts of the country. Recently, there has been deadly clashes between what we now observe as Fulani herdsmen and local farmers. These clashes have gone beyond farm disputes to military raids on communities. These herdsmen have been classified as terrorists by many organizations and groups, however, the federal government of Nigeria has not officially said so. Attempts have been made by the federal government, states and local communities to resolve the insecurity posed by these raids. Despite these attempts, there appears to be some forces militating against this resolution and this has raised suspicion of ethnic cleansing among leaders of thought. The inability of a total resolution has been affecting security and economic development in Nigeria. This paper hopes not only to be analytic and speculative in its method of assessment of the situation, but proposes inter alia a situation of altered states of consciousness and psycho-condition mentality as part of the problem. In addition, the paper shall be prescriptive in nature in order to resolve the assumed force militating against its resolution.

The psychedelic experience has been reported since antiquity, but there is relatively little known about the underlying neural mechanisms. A recent neuroimaging study on psilocybin revealed a pattern of decreased cerebral blood flow and functional disconnections that is surprisingly similar to that caused by various anesthetics. In this article, the authors review historical examples of psychedelic experiences induced by general anesthetics and then contrast the mechanisms by which these two drug classes generate altered states of consciousness.

In the simplest terms altered states of consciousness (ASCs) are those states that are recognized by an individual or by external observers as being substantially different from one's general state of awareness and responsiveness to the external environment. In contrast to the active, mentally alert state that defines “normal” waking consciousness, altered states are characterized by diffuse attention, non-logical thought, and a focus on sensory experiences. Keywords: biological psychology; hallucinations; hypnosis; dreams; drugs

In this study participants were provided with either the standard rationale that accompanies the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility: A (Shor & Orne, 1962) or a rationale that presented hypnosis as a nondeceptive placebo, consistent with Kirsch's (1994) sociocognitive perspective of hypnosis. The effects of the placebo and standard rationales were highly comparable with respect to hypnotic attitudes; prehypnotic expectancies; objective, subjective, and involuntariness measures of hypnotic responding; as well as a variety of subjective experiences during hypnosis, as measured by the Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory (Pekala, 1982). Differences among correlations were not evident when measures were compared across groups. However, indices of hypnotic responding were correlated with attitudes in the hypnosis but not the placebo condition, and, generally speaking, the link between subjective experiences during hypnosis and measures of hypnotic responding were more reliable in the placebo than the hypnosis group. Researcher findings are neutral with respect to providing support for altered state versus sociocognitive models of hypnosis.