People often use astral projection, lucid dreaming and out-of-body experience (OBE) as if they describe the same thing. They can overlap in how they feel—floating, flying, seeing a room from above or becoming unusually aware—but the terms come from different frameworks. The shortest answer is this: lucid dreaming is awareness that you are dreaming; an […]
What is the purpose of life? It is one of humanity’s oldest questions, and there is no single answer accepted by every person, culture, religion or philosophy. But research and reflection point toward a useful distinction: the universe may not hand us one universally agreed purpose, while human beings can still live purposeful lives through […]
Evidence · context · curiosity A hallucination is commonly described as a perception-like experience that occurs without a matching external stimulus. A person may hear a voice, see a figure, smell a smell, feel a touch, or sense a presence when others do not detect the same source. The experience can be brief or persistent, […]
Evidence · context · curiosity Consciousness, awareness, and experience are often used as if they were interchangeable. They are closely related, but separating them can make difficult conversations clearer. A useful starting point is to treat consciousness as the broadest term, awareness as a capacity within conscious life, and experience as the lived content or […]
Evidence · context · curiosity Experience is the word we use for what happens to us from the inside and for the events that shape us over time. We experience colour, pain, music, memory, thought, the presence of another person, and the meaning of a place. We also speak of an experience as something that […]
Evidence · context · curiosity Awareness is one of those words we use constantly while rarely stopping to ask what it means. We are aware of a sound, aware of a feeling, aware that a thought has appeared, or aware that we have been distracted. In each case, something has become available to a living […]
Evidence · context · curiosity Consciousness is the fact that there is something it feels like to be you: to see colour, feel pain, remember a song, notice a thought, or experience the world from a particular point of view. It is also the ability to be awake, aware, and sometimes aware that you are […]
Originally published by Scientific American. By Allison Parshall. Edited by Claire Cameron. Psychedelics Psychedelics can create a new “hidden order” in brain activity that could explain how these drugs alter our sense of self. Taking psychedelics can dissolve the boundary between yourself and the rest of the world, leaving a profound sense of oneness. Now […]
What Psilocybin Is Teaching Us About the Brain For generations, many people have imagined the brain as something fixed: a system shaped early in life, with only limited room for change. New research into psilocybin is helping to open a more hopeful perspective. Psilocybin is the naturally occurring psychedelic compound found in some species of […]
Safety is not a footnote in consciousness research. Ethical studies use screening, informed consent, trained support, monitoring, and follow-up. They also recognise that some people may face greater psychological or physical risk. Questions responsible sources should answer Who conducted the study and how was it reviewed? What were the limitations and reported adverse events? Was […]