What does it mean to be conscious? This question has driven scientific and philosophical inquiries for millennia, inspiring countless schools of thought on how microscopic neurons in our brain can combine their abilities to allow us to experience a near-supernatural state of being. Though advances in brain imaging are bringing us closer to finding an answer, we have yet to find the key to consciousness.
However, while we are still trying to understand the mechanisms behind our everyday consciousness, some researchers have begun asking a different, though related, question: what if we can learn more by looking at altered states of consciousness? Spurred in large part by a resent resurgence in research involving psychedelic drugs, this group of consciousness researchers enter the dark and mysterious corners of our perception, often containing as much mythical, mystical and spiritual, as clinical.
While many of these studies focus on the psychedelic, a new study from a team of researchers, including one at The University of British Columbia, instead examined altered states of consciousness during meditation, yoga, and mindfulness-based interventions.
Emergent phenomena
The study focuses on emergent phenomena (EP), or “sudden unusual mental or somatic experiences often interpreted as spiritual, mystical, energetic, or magical in nature.” Since there has been a global rise in popularity in the aforementioned meditation and mindfulness interventions — with mindfulness-based mobile applications estimated to generate nearly $7 billion in revenue by 2026 — the researchers focused on the emergence of EP during these practices, and excluded any during psychedelic experiences.
While these practices and interventions are often associated with powerful positive outcomes that can improve mental and physical health (such as increased connection with the world, philosophical insight, and even feelings of “rebirth”) the research team also highlights that EP are understudied and can occasionally lead to negative or challenging experiences. These can include feelings of confusion or disarray, cognitive distress, or temperature changes.
The study set out to understand a) how common EP are, b) which EP experiences are most common, c) the proportion of positive versus negative EP experiences, and d) whether those who experience challenging EP end up seeking help.
To answer these questions, the researchers surveyed over 3,000 participants from three online sources: Amazon Mechanical Turk in the U.S., Qualtrics in the U.K., and readers of a Rationalist blog. Nearly 36% of respondents had been diagnosed with a mental disorder in the past, though the authors emphasize that this is consistent with other estimates, including one suggesting that nearly half of all Americans experience a mental disorder sometime in their life.
EP: positive or negative?
Following a survey on meditative experiences, the study found that 26% of respondents had experienced a supernatural or miraculous EP (“while not on mind-altering substances”). The most common types of these EP experienced were “forms of precognitive knowledge”, “visions of other beings”, and “knowledge of distant events”, respectively.
Meanwhile, 46% of respondents experienced sudden unusual mental events, including “symptoms of derealization”, “strong sense[s] of oneness with the world, or with God”, and “strong ecstatic thrills.” With respect to the type of outcome experienced after EP, 30% of the cases involved no changes, 28% involved negative outcomes, and 40% involved positive outcomes.
The negative experiences most often involved “feelings of misery, sadness, or disgust with [their] life” and “a disturbing sense that the world is nothing but a dream or cartoon.” Of those who experienced suffering, some reported it to be mildly intense (6%), moderately intense (8%), severely intense (4%), and life-threateningly intense (1.1%).
Notably, 63% of respondents who experienced suffering did not seek help afterwards. The authors underline that this last finding should spur further research on EP, as “there is potential for an increasing burden on clinicians and healthcare systems from these practices.”
