James W. Sanders

[Free Live Event Nov 12] Psychedelic Science Hour | Measuring the Ineffable: Can Science Capture Lived Experience?

Join Manesh Girn, PhD, , Chloé Pronovost-Morgan, MD, and @jwsanders.bsky.social exploring the intersection of science and lived experience.

🎟️ Register free now via the link in bio

Image: 17th century visionary depictions of the Dzogchen practice Tögal, in Tibet's Lukhang Monastery. (Source: Wellcome Trust)

Finally, I'm very grateful to the team at Imperial College London's Centre for Psychedelic Research, and especially David Erritzoe, for their support over the last few years. An awesome team, who I am pleased to continue working with as an honorary research associate.

I'm very grateful to UCL, + my supervisors Jeremy Skipper & Chris Timmermann @christimmermann.bsky.social. I'm also very grateful to David Germano (& the University of Virginia), Claire Petitmengin, & Martijn van Beek, for making this historic meeting of micro-phenomenology & Dzogchen a reality

There will naturally be a substantial focus on the micro-phenomenological method, & deep-dives into similarities / differences between these advanced meditation states & those induced by N,N-DMT and 5-MeO-DMT, and more.

"Lukhang mural 3" by Wellcome Trust, wellcomecollection.org Ian Baker, Hamid Sardar, Hon Wai Wai is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Today I start my PhD studies at UCL's Centre for Consciousness Research! @uccr.bsky.social Here I will work with advanced practitioners of Dzogchen ('Great Perfection'; a Tibetan contemplative tradition), to neurophenomenologically assess the landscapes of conscious experience these practices unlock

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I’m grateful to my coauthors @raphaelmilliere.com Ema Demšar, Zach Daily @robincarhartharris.bsky.social & especially @christimmermann.bsky.social for his great trust & patience. Huge gratitude for the support & mentorship of Claire Petitmengin too

Full paper here: osf.io/preprints/ps...

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Next for us is to explore how the phenomenological structures identified here relate to brain dynamics observed in the concurrently measured fMRI/EEG data - a truly exciting undertaking!

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Terrence McKenna said that the chance of the scientific mindset surviving the DMT realm is like the chance of an ice cube surviving a blast furnace. We demonstrate here, to the contrary, that even the most complex & personal experiences can have shared, observable structures

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This study demonstrates the potential of psychedelic micro-phenomenology to create detailed & precise descriptions with a structural focus, ideal for neurophenomenology & for comparing qualities of immersion & perceived presences across various non-ordinary/disordered states

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Immersion and presence phenomena are important to the cognitive neuroscience of consciousness, as they lay bare the mind’s capacity to construct richly structured experiential worlds, with intricate perceptual and social features

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Importantly, dynamic analysis showed these experiences didn’t develop randomly. A hierarchical pattern emerged: bodily effects tended to emerge first, followed by the integration of visual & auditory effects, then 3D space emerged, with perceived presences typically last

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These participant illustrations highlight the dimension of semantic complexity, whereby some perceived presences took the form of complex & specific figures, while others took the form of relatively simple & abstract shapes

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Perceived presences were common, and variable on a range of dimensions: in some cases seen as figures located in a particular environment, and in others purely felt and diffuse; in some cases socially engaged with the perceiving subject, while in other cases socially detached

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A wide range of cognitive faculties are implicated, including perception through the modal senses, amodal feelings (such as felt meaning and felt space), and a wide variety of self/world and social configurations.

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Our results show that immersion under psychedelics is a complex, structural phenomenon through which an emergent landscape of experience envelops and involves the perceiving subject.

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We gave 25 participants IV DMT during combined fMRI/EEG
We then used micro-phenomenological interviews to elicit rich & systematic descriptions of immersion and perceived presences under DMT, going beyond traditional summary reports to specify how it all unfolded across time

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We know from prev research that DMT reliably induces immersive experiences of other worlds, as well as perceived presence encounters (aka entities). But the structure & temporal dynamics of these phenomena are typically obscured in research, by limited phenomenological methods

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How can micro-phenomenology advance our knowledge of the mind/brain under DMT, and address methodological shortcomings in psychedelic phenomenology more broadly?
Announcing a new preprint from the DMT Research Group @ the Imperial College London Centre for Psychedelic Research

Our new paper - the first peer-reviewed brain and phenomenological examination of 5-MeO-DMT is out in Neuro of Consciousness.

TLDR: We tested whether ‘the mount Everest’ of psychedelics could induce a complete state of consciousness deconstruction while preserving awareness. 1/n

#neuroskyence