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Consciousness

Neuroscience of altered states

What imaging and EEG can and cannot say about trance — with the overclaims marked as overclaims.

ContestedComparative

Findings with reasonable support

Altered states involve measurable changes in connectivity, sensory gating and self-referential processing. Psychedelics reliably disrupt default-mode network integrity. Rhythmic sensory driving affects cortical entrainment.

Findings that are weaker than commonly claimed

Specific theta-drumming frequencies as a reliable trance switch; entoptic form-constant models as proof of prehistoric shamanism; neurotheology mapping a dedicated 'spiritual' brain region. Each is contested and none should be presented as settled.

The category error to avoid

Describing the neural correlates of an experience explains neither its meaning nor its truth-claim. A cultural practice is not reduced by being embodied.

Linked entries

One of 28 entries in the knowledge map. Evidence grades above describe the kind of claim being made, not its certainty on a single scale.