Higher Levels of Perception

First of all, I do not condone the usage of any of the drugs discussed in the article. I am simply interested in their effects on the mind and our perception of the world.

As we have learned throughout the course of the semester our mind and sensory systems are constantly interacting and rely on each other to create each individual perception of the world. This particular article is incredibly interesting. Using Magnetoencephalography (MEG), a neuroimaging technique used to map brain activity by recording magnetic fields produced by naturally occurring electrical signals in the brain, these researchers were able to discover an increased diversity in spontaneous neural signals when under the effect of psychoactive doses of LSD, psilocybin, and ketamine. More importantly, these neural signals were occurring more often than during states of normal waking consciousness. Because of how intertwined our consciousness and sensory systems are, it is reasonable to connect a higher level of consciousness with a higher level of perception. The article is quite complicated when it gets down into the nitty-gritty science aspect of the experiment but the results are stimulating and really interesting to consider when thinking in the context of what kind of effect that must have on our perceptual systems. Are we perceiving more than during normal waking consciousness? When thinking about perception using the predictive coding model, if our brain is working differently, maybe our predictions coming in from the top change dramatically and that's why we experience the world in that way? Definitely many different ways of thinking about how in changing our consciousness we can change our perception of the world. Enjoy the read!

https://www.nature.com/articles/srep46421

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Philosophy of Perception

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