Consciousness Continuity
Watch.

A retrospective mixed-methods study analysed reports from 138 adults describing a personally meaningful psychedelic (n=90) or meditative (n=48) experience. Psychedelic narratives more often described disembodiment, while meditation narratives more often described boundary dissolution with embodied presence. Reported themes were associated with participants’ perceived body-attitude changes.

Important limit: Self-selected retrospective reports, heterogeneous substances and practices, unequal groups and the absence of prospective baselines prevent causal or therapeutic conclusions. The study concerns phenomenology and perceived change—not nonlocal consciousness or continuity after death.

May inform: AWAKEN · BQ002 and BQ005 review layers · AkashicOMNI body-self comparison

A conceptual paper links phenomenological accounts of embodied openness to active-inference processes, treating the body as a foundational prior and distinguishing posterior approximation from action selection.

Important limit: The proposed mapping is theoretical and supplies no new participant data or direct experimental test. It requires discriminating predictions before it can support an empirical consciousness model.

May inform: SENTIENCE000 · BQ002 methods layer · AkashicOMNI computational phenomenology

A predictive-processing account proposes that altered agency attribution, reduced sensory attenuation and richer counterfactual inference may help explain apparently autonomous entities during psychedelic states. It distinguishes entity-rich DMT reports from ego dissolution and nonduality more often associated with 5-MeO-DMT.

Important limit: The model is not yet formally implemented or experimentally validated. It neither proves nor disproves an entity outside the experiencer.

May inform: SENTIENCE000 · AkashicOMNI competing-model analysis · psychedelic neurophenomenology

In 96 participants, heart-rate-variability amplitude correlated with reported self-transcendence, compassion-related traits and emotional improvement during guided meditation delivered with or without immersive numadelic VR.

Important limit: The result is correlational and context-specific. It does not measure a metaphysical higher consciousness.

May inform: AWAKEN · HOMESENSE · AkashicOMNI embodied-evidence lens

Thirty-four adults were randomised to intravenous DMT or placebo with psychological support. The DMT group showed a greater reduction in depression scores at two weeks.

Important limit: The sample was small, psychedelic blinding is difficult, the later phase was open-label and the sponsor helped design and analyse the study. Treatment response is not evidence of consciousness continuity.

May inform: AWAKEN · AkashicOMNI · no direct change to BQ001

The proposal argues that entropy alone may not distinguish richly populated psychedelic experience from minimal or nondual states, and suggests neural complexity as a potentially more informative measure of phenomenal richness.

Important limit: This remains a theoretical preprint. Its proposed distinction is not yet a validated consciousness metric.

May inform: SENTIENCE000 · #METAD · future AkashicOMNI state comparison