How Altered States of Consciousness Have a Healing Potential in Psychiatric Illness | Marc Wittmann

Dr. Marc Wittmann | Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health
insight-conference.eu/speaker...
Time consciousness and self consciousness are intrinsically related. Subjective time is generated through the sense of self as it is anchored in bodily feelings. A phenomenal analysis of fluctuations in conscious awareness between the extreme states of flow and boredom reveals how the senses of time and self are together modulated. A decreased awareness of the self is associated with diminished awareness of time. This relation is even more evident in altered states of consciousness (ASC) such as in meditative states, as experience in the floating tank, being exposed to the ganzfeld, under the influence of psychedelics and other drugs. A peak experience as reached in such states can occur as culminating in feelings of ‘selflessness’ and ‘timelessness’ - a reported universal spiritual experience when time is not experienced at all and the self becomes connected with others and the world. In many psychiatric syndromes, individuals show hyper-awareness of the self and of time. Patients are hyper self-aware, negative affect is high, and time drags. Moreover, those patients feel a loss of connection with other people. That is, the core features of ASC are antithetical to psychiatric symptoms. In recent years, scientific reports have accumulated which show positive effects of ASC induction on psychiatric symptoms, i.e. through meditation, exposure to the floating tank, and prominently so with psychedelic substances such as psilocybin, LSD, and ayahuasca. Research is underway that aims at understanding the underlying mechanisms of how the symptoms of anxiety, depression, or drug dependence are reduced through induction of ASC. The modulation of the feeling of self and time is part of this process.
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Marc Wittmann studied Psychology and Philosophy at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, and the Ludwig-Maximilian University Munich (LMU), Germany. He received his Ph.D. (1997) and his Habilitation (2007) at the Institute of Medical Psychology, Medical School, LMU. Between 2004 and 2009 he was Research Fellow at the Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego. Since 2009 he is employed at the Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health in Freiburg, Germany. His research is focused on the perception of time in altered states of consciousness such as induced through meditation, the ganzfeld, the floating tank, and psychedelics.

[@priyabratadash4542]

no self no problem

[@endoalley680]

He reminds me of Thomas Metzinger. Which isn't a bad thing.