Altered states and chronic illness
When an intervention changes conscious experience, does that change contribute to its effects?
Research lane and candidate studies · overview updated 28 September 2026
Research question
We are developing ways to separate changes in attention, perception, self-experience, agency and meaning from the other parts of a treatment encounter. The scope includes hypnosis, contemplative absorption, psychedelic and dissociative interventions, lucid dreaming and spiritual practices. These approaches have different components and evidence bases; their inclusion does not establish benefit or a shared mechanism.
Symptoms, function, physiology, disease activity, durability and harms need separate measures. The intensity or significance of an experience cannot establish how an underlying illness changed.
Candidate comparisons
- Separate formal induction from suggestion, expectation and supportive contact.
- Measure altered experience alongside immediate and delayed outcomes, actual practice and concurrent care.
- Test whether richer descriptions of experience explain or predict more than simpler measures.
- Include nonresponse, adverse effects, burden and withdrawal when assessing a study.
These are study questions, not offered treatments or an invitation to self-experiment. Candidate protocols require appropriate expertise, ethical review and intervention-specific safeguards.
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