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Consciousness and altered states

Essays and videos offering insights into the self, relationships, cognition and neuroscience

Addiction Ageing and death Childhood and adolescence Cognition and intelligence Consciousness and altered states Family life Gender and identity Language and linguistics Life stages Love and friendship Mental health Mood and emotion Neurodiversity Neuroscience Personality Pleasure and pain Psychiatry and psychotherapy Self-improvement Sex and sexuality Sleep and dreams Social psychology Spirituality Teaching and learning Technology and the self Wellbeing

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Watercolour and ink collage with a portrait, handwritten text saying ‘Hey, I’m important’ and a small beach photo on top right.

videoConsciousness and altered states

How an artist learned to ‘co-live’ with the distressing voice in her head

6 minutes

A person in a brown coat sitting alone at a picnic table in an autumn park with fallen leaves around.

essayConsciousness and altered states

A simple shift in focus

Life is often experienced as a demanding, ongoing story. But with a little practice, a new space opens for peaceful presence

James Carmody

A man in a blue shirt playing a saxophone against a dark background.

essayConsciousness and altered states

Kind of confusing

Is consciousness like jazz, something hard to pin down? Or is it more like the biology of dolphins, odd but natural?

Tim Bayne

Photo of a man lying on a bed with white sheets, looking peaceful against a blue background.

videoConsciousness and altered states

What do screens depicting serene natural scenes mean to those living in lock-up?

12 minutes

videoFilm and visual culture

Space and time expand, contract and combust in this propulsive animation

5 minutes

Digital artwork of a skull with holographic elements and text overlays on a dark background.

videoConsciousness and altered states

‘I want me back’ – after a head injury, Nick struggles with his altered reality

7 minutes

Black and white photo of man standing in front of a massive industrial tunnel with a Jeumont sign.

essayNeuroscience

Why nothing matters

It took centuries for people to embrace the zero. Now it’s helping neuroscientists understand how the brain perceives absences

Benjy Barnett

A man floating in the sea beneath a dramatic, stormy sky with large, dark clouds.

essayTechnology and the self

We need raw awe

In this tech-vexed age, our life on screens prevents us from experiencing the mysteries and transformative wonder of life

Kirk Schneider

Photo of shattered glass with multiple cracks against a black background.

essayPhilosophy of mind

Rage against the machine

For all the promise and dangers of AI, computers plainly can’t think. To think is to resist – something no machine does

Alva Noë

A young woman and a man, both dressed formally, sit at a table with an electronic device in front of them. The woman is engaging with the device, which has several buttons and dials, while the man observes attentively. The setting appears to be an office or classroom. The image is in black and white.

essayTechnology and the self

Tomorrow people

For the entire 20th century, it had felt like telepathy was just around the corner. Why is that especially true now?

Roger Luckhurst

Colourful hand-drawn illustration of a busy market scene. Background shows fruit stall and vendor. A yellow sign reads DO NOT LITTER.

videoCities

A lush, whirlwind tribute to the diversity of life in a northern English county

3 minutes

Colourful illustration of the Mad Hatter holding a clock showing 13 o’clock. His eyes are spirals. The background is filled with small images of the same character.

essayConsciousness and altered states

Acid media

How perforated squares of trippy blotter paper allowed outlaw chemists and wizard-alchemists to dose the world with LSD

Erik Davis

Illustration of a person and a cat doing yoga in front of a fireplace, with floating planets and stars around them, a vase, a calendar, and a smartphone nearby.

essayConsciousness and altered states

A reader’s guide to microdosing

How to use small doses of psychedelics to lift your mood, enhance your focus, and fire your creativity

Tunde Aideyan

A man wearing a knit hat, facing sideways in a misty outdoor setting, with a stack of balanced stones in the background.

videoValues and beliefs

A Zen Buddhist priest voices the deep matters he usually ponders in silence

5 minutes

People dressed in horned costumes and holding pitchforks surrounded by red smoke at night during a festival or celebration.

essayAnimals and humans

An animal myself

When we imagine ourselves as another creature, we become more attuned to the world around us – and better at being human

Erica Berry

Geometric shapes with triangular patterns in blue, purple, and yellow on a black background. Shapes include squares, triangles, cones, and other polyhedra.

videoFilm and visual culture

Stop-motion origami unfurls in a playful exploration of how senses overlap

3 minutes

A crab is seen on a sandy beach. In the background and out of focus is a woman in a swimsuit

essayPhilosophy of mind

What is it like to be a crab?

Consciousness science should move past a focus on complex mammalian brains to study the behaviour of ‘simpler’ animals

Kristin Andrews

A yellow orchid flower in a vase is lit by sunlight from a side window in a living room. The background is out of focus

essayPsychiatry and psychotherapy

Psychosis and psychedelics

In the 1960s, psychedelic research was driven underground. Now it’s re-emerging – with lessons for the study of psychosis

Phoebe Friesen

A Panama hat rests on a bed bathed in afternoon light filtering through gauze curtains. There is a slight motion blur

essayConsciousness and altered states

Déjà vu

Have you been here before? The eerie sensation is the shadow of your mind searching inward for clues to its own survival

Anne Cleary

People walking towards a crashed aeroplane in a snowy field with trees in the background.

videoMeaning and the good life

The world turns vivid, strange and philosophical for one plane crash survivor

16 minutes

Abstract artwork with geometric shapes, organic forms and pastel colours intersecting in a mandala-like pattern, with gold and blue swirls on a dark background.

essayConsciousness and altered states

Animal, vegetable, mineral

Cruel and unscientific, the ‘vegetative state’ diagnosis stems from a hierarchical and bigoted view of all living things

Ben Platts-Mills

Two people carry pumpkins near an Amoco petrol pump with a motorcyclist and a garage visible in the background.

essayMetaphysics

Are coincidences real?

I am an unequivocal rationalist and yet I still want to see something strange and wonderful in life’s weird coincidences

Paul Broks

Painting of a silhouetted figure sitting in front of two windows, with a glowing outline emphasizing their form in a dark room.

essayConsciousness and altered states

Stuck with the soul

The idea of the soul is obviously a nonsense, yet its immaterial mysterious nature has deep hooks in the human psyche

David P Barash

Painting of a garden party with people chatting near a yellow house, some holding drinks. Trees and more guests in the background.

videoArt

At 95, an artist paints swiftly to capture the fugitive light

6 minutes