Diane Hennacy: Unfiltered Consciousness

A Question for the Presenter

From an Image to a Discriminating Test

Could ion signalling or CSF dynamics influence the thalamocortical gating you describe? Is the toroidal pattern measured, and what result would distinguish filtering from brain-generated consciousness?

Follow-up: what physical quantity does the torus depict: fluid velocity, an electric or magnetic field, or a conceptual information field? What are its predicted strength, spatial scale and frequency?

Presenter’s Proposal · Not an Established Mechanism

What Hennacy Proposes

Her official abstract considers whether the brain regulates access to a broader informational field. It compares reports from nonspeaking autism, early blindness, dark retreat, dreams and psychedelic experiences. The proposed mechanism involves thalamocortical gating and inhibitory regulation. [1]

The supplied slides extend this comparison to symbolic imagery, visual or spatial thinking and a feeling of direct knowing. Another slide introduces ventricles, cilia and toroidal fields. These photographs show proposals and illustrations; they provide no visible quantitative field measurements.

Altered sensory filtering and access to information beyond ordinary channels are separate claims. Shared experiences can motivate a comparison. Establishing an external informational source requires evidence that distinguishes it from changes in perception, learning, attention or neural organisation.

Autistic people have diverse abilities and support needs. A comparison involving savant skills should not be generalised to every autistic person. The subjective feeling of knowing also needs to be assessed separately from independently scored accuracy. [5]

Related Research · Independently Added Context

Three Relevant Lines of Work

Fluid motion, ion signalling and electromagnetic fields are different physical quantities. The presence of ions in moving fluid does not, by itself, establish the strength or geometry of a proposed field or its effect on cognition. The coupling requires a specified model and measurements.

AkashicNET Discussion Proposal

What Would Make the Connection Testable?

1. Define the mechanism. Specify the relevant ionic activity, fluid motion and neural gating, with measurable predictions.
2. Establish the geometry. Compare observed spatial patterns with a toroidal model and plausible alternatives, rather than inferring geometry from an illustration.
3. Compare predictions before collecting data. State which result would favour a filtering account over a brain-generation account, and which would count against it. A correlation with an altered state may fit both.
4. Separate experience from accuracy. If information access is claimed, use blinded targets, independent scoring, leakage controls and replication alongside first-person reports.

Spiritual meaning can also be explored without claiming experimental confirmation. The purpose of this Q&A is to clarify the proposed connection and identify evidence that could change our understanding.

Sources & Further Reading

1. Diane Hennacy: official TSC2026 abstract, Unfiltered Consciousness: Insights from Individuals with Altered Access. Presenter attribution and proposed framework.
2. Hauglund et al.: Norepinephrine-mediated slow vasomotion drives glymphatic clearance during sleep. Cell, 2025.
3. Bhatt et al.: GlymphoVasomotor Field theory. Medical Hypotheses, 2025. Georgetown’s author interview explicitly describes the concept as theoretical and unconfirmed.
4. Herlyng & Shadden: Characterization of coherent flow structures in brain ventricles. Submitted 19 March 2026; preprint.
5. Hughes et al.: Savant syndrome has a distinct psychological profile in autism. Molecular Autism, 2018.
6. Faubel et al.: Cilia-based flow network in the brain ventricles. Science, 2016. Foundational animal research on cilia-driven fluid transport.

Public profiles: Diane Hennacy · @DrHennacy41125 · Conference · @brainyday.