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Home , Mind and Life Institute, Neurophenomenology, Positive Neuroscience, Steven Laureys, Trance

States of : Comparing , , Trance and Psychedelics from a First- and Third-Person Perspective

11th to 15 th June 2019 - Schloss Buchenau, Germany

2nd & Life Europe Workshop of the European Neurophenomenology, Contemplative, and Embodied Network (ENCECON)

1 Welcome!

Dear Friends,

On behalf of Mind & Life Europe, we are delighted to welcome you at the second workshop of the European Neurophenomenology, Contemplative, and Network (ENCECON) at Schloss Buchenau, Germany.

The main aim of the ENCECON workshops is to Each workshop day is structured to allow provide for an in-depth and integrated discussion for theoretical discussions, methodological of what is known, what is not known, and what brain-storming sessions, and first-hand approaches could be taken to address outstanding explorations of states of consciousness under questions in a particular field related to the the question, in addition to brief presentations of mind and consciousness from of key findings from each field. We have also the first- and third-person perspectives. scheduled time on our last day together for the discussions of manuscripts as a workshop output, The initial ENCECON meeting took place in June as well as collaborative networks for joint grant 2016, exploring three topics related to contemplative applications. : 1) the role of the brain resting state in meditation, 2) the role of the body in meditation, We hope that the of our time together 3) neuro-phenomenology. The feedback has been will not only bring increased knowledge and deeper very positive with the speakers/participants keenly insights into our work, but forge new relationships looking forward to further meetings. and create new opportunities to advance the future research into the nature of human consciousness. In this second workshop, themed ‘States of Consciousness: Comparing Meditation, Hypnosis, Trance and Psychedelics from a first- and third- person perspective’, we would like to explore the similarities and differences in phenomenology and the neural dynamics of meditation, hypnosis, With warm wishes from the members of the trance, and psychedelics. planning committee:

Tania Singer, Steven Laureys, Antoine Lutz, Diego Hangartner, Cornelius Pietzner (Director MLE), Impressum Elena Antonova (chair)

Design: Daria Startseva Pictures: Pixabay

3 The second ENCECON Workshop is organized Planck Society Berlin), Steven Laureys ( by Mind & Life Europe in collaboration with the Science Group at GIGA (ULg) and Department planning committee members chaired by Elena of , Liège University Hospital), Antoine Antonova (Institute of , Lutz (Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, Lyon and Neuroscience, King’s College London), 1 University), and Diego Hangartner (The Wheel Tania Singer ( Lab, Max of Mental Balance).

4 5 Biographies & Abstracts

startle habituation paradigm and found that people who meditate more intensely habituated less to auditory startles compared to meditation- naïve individuals and meditators with more moderate mediation practice regime, with the degree of habituation being directly related to the intensity of practice (Antonova, Chadwick, Kumari, 2015). By the of being anchored in the present-moment , should also result in less anticipatory attention and therefore better performance on the tasks where anticipation would be detrimental for the task performance.

We tested this prediction using eye-movement paradigm and observed fewer catch-up errors Elena Antonova in anticipatory saccades, as well as lower intra- Thorsten Barnhofer Prisca Bauer individual variability of gain and spatial error over Dr Elena Antonova is a Lecturer at the Institute trials in meditators compared with meditation- Thorsten Barnhofer is a Professor of Clinical Prisca Bauer is a post-doc at the Lyon Neuroscience of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s naïve controls (Kumari et al, 2017). Furthermore, Psychology at the University of Surrey, where he Research Center, France. She obtained her MD from College London, UK. better smooth pursuit and antisaccade conducts research into the use of mindfulness-based Utrecht University, The Netherlands, and her PhD in performance was associated with higher scores on interventions for the prevention and treatment of Epileptology and from University She has obtained BSc in Psychology from the University observe and non-reactivity facets of the Five Facet mental disorders. He has a particular interest in the College London, UK in 2016. In 2017 she was awarded College London, UK, in 2000 and the PhD in Cognitive Mindfulness Questionnaire (Baer et al, 2006) in mechanisms through which mindfulness meditation a two-year Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship to Psychology from the Institute of Psychiatry, UK, in meditators, but not in controls, suggesting that it is benefits adaptive psychological and neural functioning study the neural correlates of mindfulness meditation 2004. Her main research interest is the neuroscience of only practicing mindfulness as a state that results across the life span. and hypnosis in the team of Dr. Antoine Lutz. In mindfulness using psychophysiology and in diminished anticipatory attention as a trait. addition, she is involved in developing mindfulness- methods with the application to the prevention and Together, our research shows that mindfulness based approaches to improve the quality of life in people management of and schizophrenia. Dr practice exerts measurable effects on mechanisms Mindfulness training in the treatment with epilepsy. During her fellowship, she developed a Antonova held Templeton Positive Neuroscience Award that are thought to be hard-wired and normally of persistent depression: can it reverse strong interest in (micro-)phenomenology, and its use between 2011-2013 for the project investigating the stable as a psychophysiological trait. maladaptive plasticity? in scientific and clinical contexts. effect of mindful attention on sensory information processing in expert mindfulness practitioners (http:// In many patients, depression takes a recurrent or www.posneuroscience.org/research-awards.html). She chronic course in which maintaining mechanisms The relation between trait measures of has been actively involved with Mind and Life Europe become increasingly engrained, and repeated stress mindfulness meditation and hypnosis since 2013. Her contribution to the field of contemplative translates into significant changes in biological science has been recognized with an election as the functioning. The introduction of mindfulness Aptitude to enter states of hypnosis (hypnotisability) Mind & Life Research Fellow in November 2017. training has brought a paradigmatically new and mindfulness meditation vary from person Dr Antonova has a strong interest in the Philosophy approach to the treatment of persistent courses to person, and may be linked to specific traits. It of Mind, both Western and Eastern schools of thought, of depression that promises to counter such is unclear how hypnotisability and mindfulness with the application to the foundational issues in mechanisms and thus offers potential to eventually traits are linked with each other. It was previously neuroscience and psychiatry. reverse maladaptive plasticity. However, research hypothesised that people who are highly on biological mechanisms of mindfulness training hypnotisable have lower measures of mindfulness Website: https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/elena. in this domain is still widely lacking. and vice versa. To test this hypothesis, we evaluated antonova.html hypnotisability using the Harvard Group Scale In this talk I will present findings from a form A, and trait mindfulness using the Five Facet study that investigated the effects of a brief Mindfulness Questionnaire in hundred healthy Probing state and trait effects of mindfulness mindfulness training on resting state parameters adult participants. We found no correlation between meditation using psychophysiological measures in EEG and MRI and discuss the findings in a these two measures. Traits linked to mindfulness broader framework that is aimed at helping our and hypnotisability are thus not mutually exclusive. Mindfulness is the of the present- understanding of how effects of the training This study highlights fundamental differences moment experience without preference or may translate into more lasting effects that may in the way hypnotisability and mindfulness are judgement. As such, mindfulness as a state should eventually help to counter psychobiological measured, and the need for more refined tools to result in openness to repetitive stimuli, even of maintenance mechanisms. measure traits and aptitude for these states. aversive. We tested this expected effect using

6 7 practice of shamans and others in traditional a particularly interesting tool in modern medicine. Her smaller-scale societies. The messages conveyed work and her scientific notoriety, in the field of hypnosis, through visionary and revelatory experiences make of her an expert at an international level. typically bear an intelligible relationship to the personal or collective context of practitioners. They Website: http://www.algologie.ulg.ac.be/ can be evoked through the use of (such as ayahuasca), meditation and (such as , Chod or possession cults), and the use Hypnosis, what about clinical research? of suggestion in hypnosis. Revelatory experiences raise several interlocking questions. How can such Hypnosis is widely used in clinical to alleviate , radical dissociations of self-experience arise, and decrease side effects of treatments, and improve why can they be evoked by such diverse means? emotional regulation as well as global well-being Why are revelatory experiences such a widespread of patients. We currently need robust clinical mechanism for the disclosure of salient information research paradigms to objectivize how hypnosis about the self and ? And what distinguishes effectively affects the quality of life of patients. We revelatory experience from psychopathology? will discuss about clinical application of hypnosis Olaf Blanke Quinton Deeley combined to self-care learning in different population of patients (chronic pain, oncology, Prof. Olaf Blanke, MD, is Bertarelli Foundation I am Senior Lecturer in Social Behaviour and etc.). Our studies showed that hypnosis/self-care Chair in Cognitive at the Swiss Neurodevelopment at the Institute of Psychiatry, learning is associated with patients’ evolution of Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), where he Psychology, and Neuroscience (IOPPN), King’s College coping strategies from passive to active, allowing directs the Laboratory of at London. I am also Consultant Neuropsychiatrist in them to reduce pain and improve their Geneva’s Campus Biotech. He founded and directed the National Autism Unit and Brain global impression of treatment effectiveness. We EPFL’s Center for Neuroprosthetics (2012-2018) and Injury Clinic at the Maudsley and Bethlem Hospitals. will present how neuroimaging results allowed is Professor at Geneva University Hospital. Blanke’s I chair the Maudsley Philosophy Group, and Social and to understand these modifications of perception, research focuses on the neuroscience of multisensory Group at the IOPPN. I have especially pain perception. perception, consciousness, and the self. Most recently, researched the relations between , cognition and Blanke has pioneered cognitive neuroprosthetics - the brain function since studying and Religious development and integration of robotic and virtual Studies at Cambridge University, and later medicine reality technology with neuroscience and medical at Guys and St Thomas’ Medical School, London, and research. His medical activities are dedicated to the psychiatry at the Maudsley and Bethlem Hospitals. application of these neuroprosthetic innovations to My work brings cognitive neuroscience research diagnostics and therapeutics (in neurological and methods into dialogue with humanities scholarship psychiatric patients) as well as well-being and to improve understanding of religious cognition, meditation. experience, and behaviour. Current research topics include researching voice in patient groups Websites: https://lnco.epfl.ch/ and http://cnp. and cultural practitioners, and how cognitive and epfl.ch/ brain processes involved in the formation of beliefs and experiences can be influenced by cultural practices such as ritual. Marie-Elisabeth Coupling inner and outer body for self- Faymonville consciousness Website: https://www.csnlab.co.uk Marie-Elisabeth Faymonville is a specialist in Based on latest evidence on the relevance Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine. She of interoceptive bodily signals (cardiac and Revelatory and visionary experience as developed, in 1992, a new method of anaesthesia: respiratory signals) and multisensory exteroceptive dissociation of the self hypnosedation. This original approach was evaluated bodily signals for self-consciousness, I will propose by retrospective and prospective clinical studies, which an integrated neural system reconciling these Reports of agents (such as were published in a number of prestigious national Olivia Gosseries two largely separated views. I argue that such or , demons, or spirits) speaking or acting and international journals. Since 1994, she has been an integrated system is based on torso-centered through humans are present across and teaching this technique in a free course at the University Olivia Gosseries, PhD, is a neuropsychologist working signals in a distributed cortical network and periods of history in experiences of and of Liege where more than 450 participants, coming at the GIGA-Consciousness at the University of delineate how it accounts for fundamental aspects possession. Indeed, revelatory experiences form a from 4 different European countries, have already Liege with Pr. Laureys. Her work mainly focuses of self-consciousness such as self-identification, key part of the formation and development of major received this training. Her original clinical approach of on clinical assessments and electrophysiological experienced global unity, and temporal continuity. world through figures such as prophets, the use of hypnosis in surgery, chronic pain, oncologic measures of consciousness in patients with disorders visionaries, and yogins, as well as in the religious and palliative care enabled her to promote hypnosis as of consciousness after a coma. Her tool of choice is

8 9 the transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) successfully differentiates between conscious and Institute of Buddhist Dialectics. He completed several combined with that she also unconscious states, with a clear-cut difference at retreats, worked as an interpreter, translating Tibetan uses to evaluate other modified states of consciousness the individual level. into many languages, and published a few books. On such as hypnosis, meditation and cognitive trance. returning to Europe in 2003, he taught widely, and Moreover, she is interested in pharmacological (e.g., TMS-EEG is also sensitive to changes in the organized several large events with His Holiness the apomorphine, zolpidem) and brain stimulations (e.g., content of consciousness, within the range of (Switzerland 2005, Hamburg 2007), repetitive TMS, vagal nerve stimulation) treatments wakefulness. Indeed, we could detect different and participated in research aimed at exploring the for post-comatose patients. changes in brain reactivity during meditation benefits of meditation as a long-term practitioner. practices (open presence and self-induced Collaborations with many universities and research Olivia was a post-doctoral researcher for 3 years at cognitive opacity) and during cognitive trance. institutes, such as the ‘Max Planck Institute’, EPFL, the University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA with Local and global aspects of cortical reactivity can University of Zurich, etc.. Pr G. Tononi doing research, and with Pr. thus be willfully modulated. Anecdotally, TMS B. Postle doing working research. In the perturbation may also induce or suppress content Diego is associated and worked with the Mind and last years, she has also performed several editorial of consciousness (e.g., induce phosphene in Life Institute since the 1990’s: he was Mind and Life’s works, including editing the second edition of “the and reduce the ability to remain in a trance state). COO from 2009 – 2012 in the USA, co-founded Neurology of Consciousness”, being an associate Mind & Life Europe, and was its director until 2015. editor for the journal , and TMS-EEG is a great tool to study consciousness Diego founded the “Institute of Mental Balance and Ilios Kotsou hosting two research topics on consciousness for the that does not depend on the integrity of sensory Universal Ethics” (IMBUE), an interdisciplinary journals Frontiers. and motor pathways, bypasses subcortical and initiative, to develop and provide tools and programs Passionate about everything related to relationships, thalamic gates, and that does not require language that foster mental balance. He created and teaches “The especially by the richness give to our lives, Ilios comprehension nor active participation of subjects. Wheel of Mental Balance”, a methodology to cultivate Kotsou is active in the fields of emotional , Dealing with Cultural Diversity: It is a reliable diagnostic method for patients with a healthy and resilient mind. Diego is also a certified organisational change and mindfulness. He holds a TMS-EEG in altered states of consciousness disorders of consciousness after a coma, but the coach (CPCC, CTPC), working with individuals and Master in Labour Sciences, is trained in brief therapy heavy and expensive setup as well as the need of teams with a special focus on fulfilment, flourishing (Palo Alto model) and mindfulness ( MBSR and MBCT Transcranial magnetic stimulation strong expertise currently prevent its use in clinical and development. ). He has a phD in psychology from the Université Libre (TMS) combined with high-density routine. More work is needed to make TMS-EEG de Bruxelles. He worked for 4 years as a researcher at electroencephalography (EEG) has been used to accessible to all. Website: www.diegohangartner.org the Faculty of Psychology at UCL and remain involved assess brain functions in physiological (e.g., sleep, in several universities (ULB Brussels, University of meditation, cognitive trance), pharmacological Savoie). Expert and trainer in the field of management, (e.g., propofol, , xenon, midazolam- The Subtle Mind: Essence and Interdependence he worked for numerous Belgian and international induced anesthesia) and pathological (e.g., organizations and has collaborated with Medecins Sans vegetative/unresponsive wakefulness syndrome, The Buddhist has developed a wide range Frontières for the training of field coordinators. Author of minimally conscious state) alterations of of practices and technologies to explore the mind several books including “Éloge de la lucidité”, “Petit cahier consciousness. TMS induces focal neuronal and to cultivate healthy qualities of the mind such d’exercices de pleine conscience” and “ Psychologie positive discharge at the cortex surface and EEG as wisdom, focus and . Furthermore, : le bonheur dans tous ses états ,” or “ Change yourself, measures cortical electrical responses locally and the Buddhist lineages have created a huge body of change the world”, in collaboration with Matthieu at distance sites. In this way, single pulses TMS- philosophical, epistemological and methodological Ricard, Jon Kabat- Zinn, Pierre Rabhi and Caroline EEG combined with a neuronavigation system frameworks to explain the workings of the mind. Lesire. Ilios Kotsou is very interested in the interaction allows to study cortical excitability and long between basic science and field practice and is actively range cortical effective connectivity with good In my presentations I will provide practical tools involved in Emergences ( www.emergences.org ) whose spatio-temporal resolution. for improving meditation, linking those practices to mission is to share knowledge in the areas of empathy, the framework of the twelve interdependent links - of altruism and mindfulness and fund humanitarian Our previous studies showed that in unconscious a key explanation of why ignorance lies at the root projects. His latest book “Éloge de la lucidité » was states such as in non-rapid eye movement sleep, of an untrained mind, in turn leading to suffering, published by Robert Laffont. Meditator-activist, he propofol anesthesia and unresponsive post-coma delusions, , clinging and aversion. puts his energy at the service of the link between inner patients, TMS triggers a stereotypical slow wave transformation and social change. that mostly remains local and short lasting. In I will also provide a framework for the reasons conscious states like in normal wakefulness, in Diego Hangartner why Buddhist philosophy and practice speaks Website: http://www.ilioskotsou.com/ minimally conscious patients or when dreaming, of different levels of mind - even the possibility brain activation patterns to TMS are widespread, Diego Hangartner [b. 1962] completed his studies of more subtle aspects that are not limited to differentiated and long lasting. The perturbational in pharmacology at the ETHZurich, specializing in biological functions. Different forms of meditation may share complexity index (PCI) was subsequently and . His main interest similarities and differences in different ways developed to quantify these brain responses, by is to understand what constitutes a healthy mind, and with Hypnosis, Trance and Psychedelics calculating the spatial and temporal response how to cultivate it. He lived for 11 years in Dharamsala, of the brain to the TMS perturbation. PCI India, learned Tibetan, and studied for 7 years at the Exploring similarities and differences between theses

10 11 diverse states of consciousness implies addressing the Can science explain consciousness? Lessons question of the variety of forms of meditation, and from coma and related states the differences and similarities between this variety of forms themselves, and the other consciousness Understanding consciousness remains one of states. Attention can be seen a common feature the greatest mysteries for science to solve. How of all meditative practices. Meditation states may do our brains work? Will we ever be able to read vary by the type of attention they draw on: focused ? How can we know if some patients in attention (on breath for mindfulness or on a coma have any consciousness left and how could for transcendental meditation) or open monitoring. we communicate with them? What are near- How are the other states of consciousness related to death experiences? What is brain death? What attentional processes? happens in our brains during dreaming, hypnosis or meditation? At present, nobody understands The deliberate cultivation of attention seems how matter (our trillions of neural connections) to be at the core of most meditation practices becomes perception and thought. while hypnosis, trance and psychedelics may involve automatic responses that are externally We will here briefly review some neurological facts induced. However, auto-hypnosis also involves Steven Laureys on consciousness and impaired consciousness. Michael Lifshitz . What could be said about trance, While philosophers have pondered upon the hypnosis and psychedelics on the questions of Steven Laureys, MD PhD, FEAN, is a neurologist mind-brain conundrum for millennia, scientists Michael is interested in the plasticity of human ‘training the mind’? Another question is about working at the Coma Science Group and GIGA have only recently been able to explore the consciousness. His research investigates practices the suggestions that are present in hypnosis. Consciousness Research Unit of the University connection analytically through measurements that aim to transform subjective experience— Does guided also imply a kind of Hospital and University of Liège, Belgium. He is and perturbations of the brain’s activity. This from meditation and hypnosis to placebos, , suggestion? Several forms of meditation involve Research Director at the Belgian National Fund ability stems from recent advances in technology and contemplative therapies. He works from an the awareness of the body and body sensations. for Scientific Research. His team explores human and especially from emerging functional interdisciplinary perspective, combining cognitive, What about the other consciousness states? Some consciousness and brain function in health and disease. neuroimaging and electrophysiology studies. The neurobiological, sociocultural, and phenomenological meditative states invite to observe one’s experience Using the latest technological tools they study the mapping of conscious perception and cognition approaches to shed light on mechanisms of self- without adding any mental content, while some workings of the mind in coma and related states (brain in health (e.g., conscious waking, sleep, dreaming, regulation in both health and pathology. other forms of concentrative or visualizations death, unresponsive wakefulness, minimally conscious hypnosis, meditation, trance, and meditations are more content based. Can the latter and locked-in syndrome), near-death experiences, anesthesia) and in disease (e.g., brain death, coma, Michael completed his PhD in neuroscience at be seen as altered states of consciousness? concussion, anesthesia, hypnosis, meditation, trance near-death, “vegetative” unresponsive wakefulness, McGill University and is currently working with and dreamlike states. He has published over 400 minimally conscious state, locked-in syndrome, T. M. Luhrmann as a postdoctoral fellow in the Many meditation practices are related to meta- scientific papers and 12 books and is founder and chair , etc) is providing exiting department of at Stanford. His awareness, as an awareness of one’s own mental of the World Federation of Neurology and European new insights into the functional work has been supported by the Natural Sciences processes. De-automatization is therefore also a Academy of Neurology Research Groups on coma of human consciousness. Our perception of the and Engineering Research Council of Canada central theme of these meditative practices, both and disorders of consciousness. The team of Professor outside world (sensory awareness; what we see, (NSERC), the Social Sciences and Humanities on its phenomenological or scientific accounts. As Laureys is internationally recognized for their hear, etc.) and our awareness of an inner world Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Bial an example, it appears that meditation practices expertise in altered states of consciousness following (self-awareness; the little “voice” inside that Foundation, and the Mind & Life Institute. Before as mindfulness or choice less awareness lead severe brain injury. Patients are being admitted to “speaks” to ourselves) seemingly depend on two his doctorate, he completed a master’s in neuroscience to desactivation of the default mode network their expert center from all over Europe. separate “awareness” networks. and an undergraduate with honours in psychology (related to automatic mind wandering) when and minors in philosophy and world religions, all at transcendental meditation seems to be related to References: References: McGill. high activation of this mode. How do the other - Meditation-induced modulation of brain - Measuring consciousness in severely damaged consciousness states relate to the question of meta- response to transcranial magnetic stimulation. brains. Annu Rev Neurosci. 2014;37:457-78. awareness and de-automatization? Compassion Brain Stimul. 2018 11(6):1397-1400. - Consciousness supporting networks. Curr Opin Learning to hear voices: The phenomenology has a central place in several meditation practices - Resting state networks and consciousness: Neurobiol. 2013 Apr;23(2):239-44 and mechanisms of tulpamancy (loving-kindness, caring mindfulness). Can it be alterations of multiple resting state network considered as being a core feature of all meditation connectivity in physiological, pharmacological, Most of us hear voices in our head all of the time. practices? What could be said about hypnosis, and pathological consciousness States. Front We ponder our decisions and ruminate over our trance and psychedelics on that point? Psychol. 2012 27; 3:295. mistakes, relive the conversations we’ve had and - Neurophysiology of hypnosis. Neurophysiol rehearse those we might hope to have. What is Clin. 2014 44(4):343-53. more unusual, however, is to have the that some of the voices in our head really don’t belong Websites: http://www.coma.ulg.ac.be and to us. In our medicalized western culture, we www.comascience.org usually think of this kind of “not me” experience as pathological, psychotic, or delusional. We tend

12 13 to say that those who hear voices are mad. And taxonomy by fusing large-scale neuroinformatic associated with altered states of consciousness. practices. After working for ten years in the US as yet, in many cultural contexts around the world, tools (e.g., text mining and automated meta- a research scientist, he joined the Lyon Neuroscience healthy people deliberately train their minds analyses) and brain-computer interface technology Building up on these results, in a recent proof- Research Center in France in January 2013. His to surrender the of agency over their at the subject level. This also involves thinking about of-principle study with 14 patients, we current research group focuses on investigating own inner . Tulpamancy is an emergent novel efforts of how to advance explanatory insights demonstrate that the approach can be applied the neurophysiological basis of mindfulness and internet-based community that revolves around into the causal network mechanisms that underlie to reliably identify (dys-)functional profiles of a compassion meditations and their impact on rigorously training the imagination to cultivate cognition, for which I currently explore deep learning frontoparietal network on a subject-level basis. consciousness, attention and regulations, and friendly dialogues with invisible companions techniques and computational modelling. Equally, pain perception as measured by cognitive, affective called “tulpas”, or thought-forms. In this talk, I am fascinated about studying altered states of In addition to providing a new way to study inter- and social neuroimaging paradigms using EEG, I will describe preliminary findings from an consciousness (e.g., meditation and psychedelics) individual differences in cognition, neuroadaptive MEG, intra-cortical EEG, and fMRI. This research ongoing multi-methods project that brings and am long-term collaborator of the Psychedelic approaches have the potential to advance is currently funded by an European ERC consolidator together phenomenological interviews, cognitive Research group, led by Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris the study of experiential states in meditation, grant (Brain&Mindfulness, 2014-2019). He also assessments, and to group at Imperial College London. psychedelics and hypnosis within the framework collaborates to a European research consortium investigate the mechanisms of tulpamancy. This of neurophenomenology by linking neural investigating the impacts of meditation practices on research illustrates how novel cultural forms Website: www.romylorenz.com (third-person perspective) and experiential- ageing and well-being as measured by brain imaging can open new modes of subjectivity and pattern phenomenological (first-person perspective) states. (PET, IRMf, DTI, EEG), biomarkers of ageing, fundamental domains of human experience, right and psycho-affective and cognitive behavioural down to the basic feeling of agency over one’s Towards neuroadaptive technology for measures (Meditageing, H2020, 2016-2021, study innermost private thoughts. neurophenomenology coordinated by Gaël Chételat, INSERM Caen). He recently started a collaboration investigating the The classic taxonomy of cognitive processes is based neurocomputational principles of meditation (ANR on and was developed MindMadeClear, coordinated by Hugues Mounier, largely blind to the functional organization of the CNRS, Supélec, Paris). brain. Therefore, classic cognitive tasks tend to tap multiple cognitive processes that involve multiple Website: https://crnl.univ-lyon1.fr/index.php/fr/ brain networks. Resolving this many-to-many Accueil/ERC-Brain-Mindfulness-A.-Lutzm mapping problem between cognitive tasks and brain networks is practically intractable with standard functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) Dual and non-dual mindfulness meditation methodology as only a small subset of all possible during pain cognitive tasks can be tested. This is problematic, as studying only a fraction from the large of In this presentation, I will first present a cognition has resulted in over-specified inferences conceptual framework mapping various styles about functional-anatomical mappings with a of mindfulness-related practices along specific misleadingly narrow function being proposed as the phenomenological dimensions. In particular, I will definitive role of a network, concealing the broader distinguish between the so-called dual and non- role a network may play in cognition. Antoine Lutz dual mindfulness meditations. Here, I present an alternative approach that Dr. Antoine Lutz is a director of research at the French I will then use this framework to interpret a recent Romy Lorenz resolves these problems by combining real- Medical Research Institute (INSERM) in the Lyon experimental study on the cognitive mechanisms time fMRI with a branch of machine learning, Neuroscience Research Center (CNRL). He did his of pain regulation in mindfulness meditation I am a cognitive with a Bayesian optimization. Neuroadaptive Bayesian PhD in cognitive in Paris, France, with in expert and novice meditators. Finally, I will multidisciplinary background in psychology and optimization is a powerful strategy to efficiently an EEG neurophenomenological speculate on the possible use of this framework biomedical engineering. I received my PhD in explore more experimental conditions than is study of attention. During his postdoctoral work with to explore the similarities and differences between from Imperial College London currently possible with standard methodology , at the University of Madison- mindfulness meditations and hypnosis. in 2017, for which I have developed a novel in a single individual. I will present results Wisconsin, he pioneered the neuroimaging study of brain-computer interface combining real-time from a study where we used this method to meditation practices in expert meditators and in neuroimaging with machine-learning (“The AI understand the unique contributions of two novices who learnt to meditate using the Mindfulness- Neuroscientist”). Currently, I am a Sir Henry frontoparietal networks in cognition. Our Based Stress Reduction program (MBSR). MBSR Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellow at the University findings deviate from previous meta-analyses and is a secular meditation intervention routinely used of Cambridge, Stanford University and the Max hypothesized functional labels for these networks. in hospitals in the North-America and Europe. In Planck Institute for Human Cognitive & Brain Using this approach, I aim to bring forward a 2008, Richard Davidson and him were awarded Sciences. My research lies in revisiting the neurobiologically-derived cognitive taxonomy; an a NIH-NCCAM grant to fund in Madison the classic taxonomy of cognitive processes and bringing important step also for making further progress in first American Center of Excellence on Research forward a neurobiologically-derived cognitive understanding the changes in network function dedicated to neurophysiological study of meditation

14 15 show that the ecstatic symptoms are related to a brain network which includes the dorsal anterior insula, which is known to process interoception. Some patients had an increased blood within the anterior insula during the seizures (ictal SPECT- single photon emission computed tomography). We could reproduce the ecstatic symptoms by the electrical stimulation of the insula in other patients who were implanted for a pre-surgical evaluation of their -resistant ecstatic epilepsy. Connectivity studies showed that the dorsal anterior insula is the leading structure of a network responsible for the ecstatic symptoms.

In the of the brain functioning as a Giuseppe Pagnoni Claire Petitmengin Fabienne Picard « predictive machine », we hypothesize that the ictal discharge within the insula prevent Giuseppe Pagnoni is Associate Professor at the After studies in Buddhist philosophy and ten years Dr Fabienne Picard is a neurologist. She is currently it to generate the prediction errors in the field Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of of experience in information system design, Claire Senior consultant in the EEG and Epilepsy Unit of of interoception, which are usually constantly Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy. After a Master Petitmengin, completed her PhD thesis under the Neurology Department at the University Hospital produced in response to internal incoming in , he completed a PhD in Neuroscience and the supervision of Francisco Varela at the Ecole of Geneva. She holds a MD degree in medical studies signals (from the inside of the body), modulated has worked for several years in the Department Polytechnique in Paris, on the subject of the lived in Neurology as well as a Diploma of Advanced and contextualized by the external signals from of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, at Emory experience that accompanies the emergence of an Studies (DEA) in Cellular and Molecular Biology, external world. University, Atlanta (GA), USA. He has led and . She is presently Professor Emerita at the with a major in neurobiology, from the Faculty of collaborated to neuroimaging studies on diverse Institut Mines-Télécom and member of the Archives Medicine of Strasbourg, France. In 1995 she joined the topics including reward processing, the interaction Husserl (Ecole Normale Supérieure) in Paris. University Hospitals of Geneva where she obtained a of immune and brain function, social cognition, title of privat-docent and senior lecturer at the Faculty intrinsic brain activity, pain processing, mental Her research focuses on the usually unrecognized of Medicine of Geneva. Internationally renowned in effort, meditation. He is currently interested in the dynamics of lived experience and “micro- the field of epilepsy genetics, she has published about 80 application of the predictive coding framework to the phenomenological” methods enabling us to articles in peer-reviewed journals. Over the last few study of contemplative practices. become aware of it and describe it. She studies the years, she has been particularly interested in the role epistemological conditions of these methods, as well of the insula in self-awareness and positive emotions as their contemplative, educational, therapeutic, through the study of “ecstatic” epilepsy. Living in the present, seeing things as and artistic applications. She has written numerous they are, and the empty mind: our favorite scientific articles and two books: L’expérience “contemplatitudes” through the lenses of intuitive, and Le chemin du milieu: Introduction à Epilepsy and ecstatic experiences predictive coding la vacuité dans la pensée bouddhiste indienne. She also edited Ten years of viewing from within: The While epilepsy is classically associated with loss Predictive coding, especially in the free-energy legacy of Francisco Varela, which commemorates of consciousness, there is a form of focal epilepsy, minimization principle formulation by Karl the tenth anniversary of the publication of The View i.e. related to an epileptic discharge starting in Friston, is a recent theoretical framework with from Within, wherein Francisco Varela designed the one region of one hemisphere, manifesting by a a potentially unparalleled explanatory power foundations of a research program on lived experience. sense of certainty, a feeling of bliss and a sense in neuroscience. In this talk, I will present of timelessness, without loss of awareness of the some reflections and insights inspired by the Website: http://www.clairepetitmengin.fr/ and external world. This state seems to correspond to adoption of such perspective for the study of http://www.microphenomenology.com an extreme in the moment present centeredness Pierre Rainville contemplative practice. I believe that this holds and may thus mimic some states induced by Pierre Rainville, Ph.D., is trained in Biology, great potential for advancing our understanding meditation. In addition to the ecstatic aura and Neuroscience, and is currently of the mechanisms of action of meditation, where (beginning of the seizures), the patients may full Professor at the Faculty of Dentistry of the both traditional notions and phenomenological suffer from secondary tonic-clonic seizures. Université de Montréal, and director of the accounts come to be seen under a novel light. It Laboratory of Neuro-Psycho-Physiology of Pain is my hope that this brief introduction will help The study of patients suffering from this type of (LaNeP3) at the « Centre de recherche de l’Institut stimulating further interest and discussions. epilepsy may help to better understand the neural universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal » (CRIUGM). network implied in present moment awareness Research methods used in his lab include psychophysics, and sense of being in an eternal now. We could psychophysiology, and brain imaging. His research

16 17 focuses primarily on brain mechanisms underlying Meditation: A Method to Alter States of acute pain perception and pain communication and Consciousness, Change Traits or Shift your examines the effects of attention, emotion, expectation, Way of Being? empathy, and learning & memory. This work is relevant to non-pharmacological interventions for In my short talk, I will explore how much pain relief, including hypnosis, placebo, meditation, contemplative sciences so far can tell us about , etc., and to the understanding of biopsychosocial how different types of meditation techniques can risk factors (e.g. stress) that contribute to chronic pain. alter states of consciousness, change psychological traits or even our whole way of being. I will Website: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/ discuss the importance of embedding meditation Pierre_Rainville in a compassion-based and ethical framework https://scholar.google.com/ and finish with pointing out some of the short- citations?user=tjPuHTwAAAAJ&hl=fr comings of current research. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ pubmed?cmd=search&term=Rainville+P Andreas Roepstorff Tania Singer Pavlov meets the Zen brain: Insights on the effects of mindfulness on pain, , Andreas Roepstorff is a professor in cognition, Tania Singer is Professor and head of the Social and suffering communication and culture at the department of Neuroscience Lab of the Max Planck Society in Culture and Society and the department of Clinical Berlin. After completion of her psychology studies at Pain is an aversive experience signaling an Medicine at Aarhus University, Denmark. He works the Technical University in Berlin in 1996, Tania immediate threat to the body and involving at the interface between anthropology, cognitive Singer received her PhD in Psychology at the Max distributed brain networks underlying immediate science and neuroscience, ans is equally interested in the Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin perceptual, affective, cognitive, physiological workings of the mind and brain, and in how cognitive in 2000. Thereafter, she became a Post-doctoral Fellow and behavioral responses, as well as associative science and brain imaging, as fields of knowledge at the same institution, at the Wellcome Department processes underlying secondary cognitive- production, relate to other scientific and public fields. of Imaging Neuroscience, and at the Institute of affective elaborations. The adaptive aversive He has formal training in social anthropology and Cognitive Neuroscience in London. In 2006, she function of acute pain may further generalize in neurobiology and has published both within these went to the University of Zurich as Assistant through fear-learning mechanisms allowing for disciplines as well as in various collaborations across Professor and became later Inaugural Chair of Social the prediction of future pain. Mindfulness-based other fields. Neuroscience and and Co-Director meditation has been associated with a reduction in of the Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems pain sensitivity and with a modification of pain- He is the director of the Interacting Minds Centre at Research. From 2010 to 2018 she was Director of the related brain responses. Such changes may lead Aarhus University and is involved in a number of department of Social Neuroscience at the Max Planck Corine Sombrun us to predict a reduction in fear-learning driven transdisciplinary collaborations, focusing on aspects of Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in by pain. However, recent psychophysiological human interaction. He has a long-standing research Leipzig. Corine Sombrun grew up in Africa and returned to studies from our laboratory suggest that learning interest in cognitive aspects of contemplative practices. France to study musicology, piano and composition. processes allowing for the generation of valid Her research focus is on the investigation of human She settled in London in 1999 as a musician but also predictions of pain occurrence are preserved in sociality and social emotions such as empathy and undertook projects for the BBC World Service. experienced meditators along with basic protective compassion. She is founder and principal investigator (reflexive) responses to the noxious input. In of the ReSource project, a large-scale longitudinal One of those reports (2001) took her to Mongolia, contrast, the hyperalgesic effects of fear-learning study on the effects of mental training on brain where a highly respected Dahrad shaman recognized were reduced or blocked in meditators. This is plasticity, mental and physical wellbeing and prosocial her as having unique shamanistic capabilities. consistent with the notion that the first arrow behaviour. She further holds a cooperation with the She was invited to spent several months a year at of pain triggers adaptive responses, including macro-economist Prof. Dennis Snower on the topic the border with Siberia to undertake the rigorous associative learning processes underlying valid of Caring Economics. In the context of her long- training to become a Shaman. After eight years she pain prediction, and that mindfulness practice may time membership at the Mind and Life Institute, she thus became the first Western woman fully trained help protect against the second arrow involving helped organize together with two in the Mongolian shamanic tradition. Her unique the maladaptive anticipation, elaboration and large-scale conferences with the Dalai Lama in 2010 experience in the practice of shamanic trance and rumination underlying pain suffering. This basic in Zürich on “Caring Economics” and in 2016 in her ability to self-induce it have been a topic of research may help delineate the alleged benefits Brussels on “Power and Care” with two resulting book interest for scientists. She has been collaborating of mindfulness-based interventions and improve publications respectively. with researchers since 2006, in order to show that our understanding of the underlying mechanisms. this shamanic trance indeed modifies the circuits of Website: https://www.social.mpg.de/2766/en cerebral functioning (Flor-Henry et al. 2017) Further research into it, including in the capacity of

18 19 any human being to reach such a state in a self-induced and with full reversibility. It appears to be a or pharmacologically-induced hallucinations, way, lead her to develop with E. Le Quéméner valuable neuroscientific tool to study functional provide a unique opportunity to examine the Since 2012 he collaborates with Corine Sombrun, (Research Expert, INRA, France) Cognitive Trance brain and its mind correlated functions. mechanisms underlying conscious perception. in order to contribute to understanding the state of Training, a sound-loop based program to help people Virtual reality has been used for simulating consciousness occurring during her trances issued experience a trance state and teach them how to self such atypical experiences (e.g. the out-of-body from shamanic and those induced by a induce it. Tested in various research settings and experience), employing its multisensory and sound-loop based program, called Cognitive Trance workshops, a 80% average of the people underwent immersive nature. In this talk, I will introduce Training to help people experience a trance state and a trance state. It opens door to inducing trance to a new virtual reality platform, the teach them how to self induce it: 80% of people succeed non-trained people as a means to discover some of the Machine, which comprises a novel combination in entering a trance state, a way to discover neurologic neurologic processes at work during the induction. of two powerful technologies: deep convolutional processes at work during induction and trance. New researches are under way in Belgium with neural networks (DCNNs) and ‘substitutional Francis Taulelle is now president of “TranceScience” Steven Laureys at Liege University. reality’. Specifically, we apply bespoke visualisation the funding structure of TranceScience Research methods for DCNNs to panoramic video, with Institute, the mission of which is to bridge traditional Corine collaborates extensively with artists, by the resulting footage viewed immersively through modulation of consciousness and its neuroscientific leading workshops exploring the influence of trance a head-mounted display. By doing this, we are characterization. on (e.g. at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure able to simulate visual hallucinatory experiences des Beaux- in France) and more recently with in a biologically plausible and ecologically the HEC Paris Executive Education by leading valid way. The Hallucination Machine offers a Cognitive trance, a universal human potential Cognitive Trance Training programs. She has valuable new technique for simulating altered inherited from shamanic heritage - The most written several books translated into many languages, phenomenology without directly altering the recent data of neuroscientific studies of including In Geronimo’s footsteps, Les esprits de underlying neurophysiology. cognitive trance states la steppe and Mon initiation chez les Chamanes (in the process of being adapted for cinema). Cognitive Trance, a state of consciousness Keisuke Suzuki stemming from shamanic practices, has been Website: www.corinesombrun.com established by C. Sombrun as being accessible, by Keisuke Suzuki obtained his Ph.D in Artificial Life and large, by most humans. Processes to induce from the University of Tokyo in 2007. He stayed as trance are related to acoustic effects, but though Cognitive trance, a universal human potential a research fellow in RIKEN Brain Science Institute, extracted for drum records, do not contains inherited from shamanic heritage - The most working on human cognitive functions in virtual the main rhythmic characteristics supposedly recent data of neuroscientific studies of cognitive reality environments (2008-2011). Here, with his irreducible to trance induction. Understanding trance states. colleagues, he developed a novel virtual reality system the activity of brain leading to a specific state called Substitutional Reality. In this setup, people of mind has been C. Sombrun search for some Cognitive Trance, a state of consciousness believe they are experiencing real-world scenes even time. She collaborated with who stemming from shamanic practices, has been though they are just exposed to pre-recorded ones. In eventually demonstrated cognitive trance not to established by C. Sombrun as being accessible, by 2011 he joined the Sackler Centre for Consciousness be neither a pathologic state nor a trasvesty of and large, by most humans. Processes to induce Science at the University of Sussex as a post-doctoral spiritual state. It is the purpose of this oral to trance are related to acoustic effects, but though research fellow. present the most recent neuroscientific data of extracted for drum records, do not contains such trance state recorded at different places and the main rhythmic characteristics supposedly Keisuke’s research focuses on the study of consciousness explain the main trends of these observations. irreducible to trance induction. Understanding in terms of embodied cognition, investigating Such states, very diverse, cover a large score the activity of brain leading to a specific state like body ownership, feeling of agency, sense of presence, Francis Taulelle of brain correlated to mind states that can be of mind has been C. Sombrun search for some etc. His approach builds on state-of-the- virtual compared to previous analyses of other trance time. She collaborated with neuroscientists who reality setups for the study of conscious presence and Francis Taulelle started his research career after states. It can be deduced that cognitive trance eventually demonstrated cognitive trance not to the bodily-self, complemented by theoretical modelling studying at the Ecole Normale Supérieure of Cachan states are generating, on laymen, a wide variety of be neither a pathologic state nor a trasvesty of of embodied self-consciousness. Recently, his work has and Orsay University, France. CNRS Researcher, brain/mind states without altering their behavior spiritual state. It is the purpose of this oral to extended to the study of hybrid setups, combining he specialized in investigating crystallization, and and with full reversibility. It appears to be a present the most recent neuroscientific data of Virtual Reality and , opening to crystal structure of materials by using Magnetic valuable neuroscientific tool to study functional such trance state recorded at different places and new ways of studying human perception, cognition, Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS/NMR) and is the brain and its mind correlated functions. explain the main trends of these observations. and consciousness. founder of NMR crystallography. He has been Such states, very diverse, cover a large score working in a variety of laboratories (Paris, Orléans, of brain correlated to mind states that can be Hallucination Machine: A Virtual Reality Strasbourg, Versailles in France) setting up NMR compared to previous analyses of other trance Platform for Studying Altered Perceptual facilities and published more than 300 scientific states. It can be deduced that cognitive trance Phenomenology articles. He is CNRS research Director emeritus, and states are generating, on laymen, a wide variety of Professor at KU Leuven, physical-chemist of materials brain/mind states without altering their behavior Altered states of consciousness, such as psychotic and Scientific advisor of the NMR center.

20 21 dimensions of conscious experience. Our findings Modification of self-awareness in hypnosis indicate the potential relevance of using DMT in the context of consciousness research as well as During the normal wake state, a negative providing proof-of-concept methods for the use correlation between external (environment) of second-person approaches in the study of non- and internal (self ) awareness has been observed ordinary states of consciousness. in healthy volunteers. Increased intensity of internal awareness reports have been related to increased connectivity in the default mode network, whereas increase in external awareness has been associated with increased connectivity in the external control network. We will present how the neuronal and behavioral counterparts of awareness are modified during hypnosis as compared to normal wakefulness. We also propose to discuss our last high-density-EEG results on hypnotic state. Finally, we will present Devin Terhune Christopher a new way to disentangle highly hypnotizable from low hypnotizable subjects. This new way Devin is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Timmermann of measurement is useful, especially in clinical Goldsmiths, University of London. He obtained his research, since it is challenging to define the level PhD in Psychology from Lund University and was Christopher Timmermann obtained a BSc in of hypnotizability of patients. Indeed, current subsequently a postdoctoral research fellow, supported Psychology in Santiago, Chile and a MSc in Cognitive standardized scales of hypnotizability are 45 to by three independent fellowships, in the Department Neuroscience at the University of Bologna in Italy. He 90 minutes longer, and are not easily applicable of Experimental Psychology at the University of is currently completing a PhD in Imperial College in clinical practice. Oxford. Upon joining Goldsmiths, he started the London, leading a project focusing on the effects of Timing, awareness, and suggestion lab and recently psychedelic compound DMT in the co-founded the Goldsmiths Consciousness Research and experience. He is interested in the use of methods Unit. His work applies an array of different methods bridging the relationship between experience and to understand how the human brain enables human changes in brain activity in non-ordinary states of time perception, different facets of awareness, and top- consciousness, as well as the impact of psychedelics at Audrey down regulation of awareness through suggestion. different temporal and spatial scales, both within and between individuals. Vanhaudenhuyse Audrey Vanhaudenhuyse is a neuropsychologist, PhD Individual differences in hypnotic in Medical Sciences. She is interested in consciousness, A neurophenomenological approach for the altered (e.g. coma, unresponsive wakefulness syndrome, It is increasingly recognized that variability study of non-ordinary states of consciousness minimally conscious sate) and modified (e.g. hypnosis, in suggestibility represents the primary driver using DMT trance) states of consciousness processes. She is currently of response to hypnosis and other suggestion- working in the Algology Department of the University based phenomena. In turn, consensus is The use of second-person approaches provides Hospital of Liège and she is heading the Sensation and emerging around that the that suggestion a unique opportunity to understand the Perception Research Group of the GIGA Consciousness and suggestibility are the principal explananda trajectories the mind-body systems may take of the University of Liège. The aim of her clinical for elucidating the mechanisms of hypnosis when undergoing transitions of consciousness researches is developing paradigms to evaluate the and germane phenomena. Here I will highlight states such as wake-sleep, disruptions in self- benefit on global well-being, sleep difficulties and the importance of individual differences in related processing, contemplative practices cognitive complains of hypnosis/self-care learning as hypnotic suggestibility for clinical practice and and psychedelic states. DMT is a serotonergic well as virtual reality in different pathologies (chronic consciousness research. I will also describe our psychedelic known for inducing rich experiences pain patients, patients in oncology, patients in intensive Marieke van Vugt work seeking to understand the neurocognitive characterised by of deep immersion care units, etc). With functional magnetic resonance profile of highly suggestible individuals as well into subjectively-felt alternate ‘realities’ or imaging and high-density electroencephalography, she Marieke van Vugt is an assistant professor in the as how suggestibility may confer a predisposition ‘dimensions”. In our research we studied the is also studying the neurophysiological mechanisms of Bernoulli Institute for Mathematics, Computer to psychopathology. This research points to effects of DMT in humans by using a multimodal hypnosis and other modified states of consciousness in Science and Artificial Intelligence at the University of suggestibility as a salient individual differences brain imaging approach combined with a range healthy subjects and patients. Groningen. factor for methods aiming to modulate awareness. of measures of subjective effects inspired in a neurophenomenological approach. Results reveal Website: https://www.gigaconsciousness.uliege.be Her research aims to understand how, when, and a close relationship between different measures why we mind-wander. She uses a multimodal of brain activity and dynamic shifts in different approach that combines computational modeling,

22 23 scalp and intracranial EEG, behavioral studies, Phenomenology and prediction of acute and and eye-tracking. In addition, she is interested in sustained response to psychedelic psilocybin how meditation practice affects our cognitive system, in mediation experts in a mindfulness group and she investigates meditation in both Western retreat practitioners and Tibetan monks. She became a member of the Young Academy of Groningen in 2017. Meditation and psychedelics have played key roles in humankind’s search for self- Website: mkvanvugt.wordpress.com and altered consciousness. However, neither their possible synergistic effect, nor related state and trait predictors have been experimentally studied. Using computational models as a comparative To elucidate these issues, we administered framework to describe the cognitive double-blind the psilocybin and emotional processes in meditation and (315 μg/kg PO) or placebo to expert meditators other practices (n = 39) during a 5 day mindfulness group retreat. Psilocybin increased meditation depth While the practice of meditation is very simple, and incidence of positively experienced self- understanding its effects on the mind is actually Franz X. Vollenweider dissolution, with no concomitant anxiety. Holger Yeshe quite complex. To begin to understand the effects Openness, , mediation depth, and of meditation, and how those are similar and Dr. Franz X. Vollenweider is currently Co-Director emotional reappraisal were predictors of the acute Born in Nürnberg, Germany, Holger Yeshe began different from those of psychedelics, hypnosis, of the Center for Psychiatric Research, Director of the response. Compared with placebo, psilocybin practicing Buddhism in 1999. Since that time, he and trance, I think it is important to use Neuropsychopharmacology and Brain Imaging Unit, enhanced post-intervention mindfulness and has studied and practiced extensively in both the computational modeling. Computational models and Professor of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine, produced larger positive changes in psychosocial Theravadan and Tibetan Buddhist lineages. In are very useful in this context, because those can University of Zurich. He is also the Director of the functioning at 4 month follow-up, which were 2005, he met his main teacher, Yongey Mingyur use a uniform language in which the different Heffter Research Center Zürich for Consciousness mediated by the self-dissolution. These findings Rinpoche with whom he has practiced with ever practices can be expressed. I will explain how Studies (HRC-ZH), which he founded in 1998 and highlight the interaction of non-pharmacological since. During his two decades of intensive study our initial cognitive modeling of the meditation incorporated in his research group. and pharmacological factors, and the role of and practice, Holger Yeshe became fluent in Tibetan process was able to explain meditation-related emotion/attention regulation in shaping the language and now serves as primary interpreter for improvements on two different attention tasks. Dr. Vollenweider received his MD degree at the experiential quality of deep psychedelic states, Khenpo Kunga, Mingyur Rinpoche’s main Khenpo. I will then speculate about how changes in University of Zurich. He completed his doctoral as well as the experience of selflessness as a In 2010, he ordained as a novice Buddhist monk emotional processing can be modeled, and how thesis in experimental medicine at the Institute of modulator of behavior and attitudes. under the tutelage of Mingyur Rinpoche, splitting cognitive models could explain similarities and Toxicology of the University and ETH of Zurich, his time between monastic settings in Asia and differences between meditation, psychedelics, was trained in at the Brain Research Dharma centers in the West. hypnosis, and trance. Institute of the University of Zurich, and in neuroimaging at the PET Centre of the PSI-ETH. Holger Yeshe has a particular interest in the In 1994 he became certified in the specialities of intersection between the meditative arts and western psychiatry and psychotherapy. His research interests Scientific modes of inquiry. In 2018, Holger Yeshe encompass the area of psychopathology, cognitive attended his first Mind & Life Europe Summer neuroscience, and behavioural psychopharmacology Research Institute which he is a great place of psychotic and affective disorders. to continue to explore this dialogue. He currently helps co-direct Tergar Germany, offering meditation Current research focuses on the investigation of seminars in both English and German, coordinating the functional networks and transmitter dynamics community outreach, and providing individual underlying the experience of self, , instruction for students of Mingyur Rinpoche. cognitive and emotional processes and the dysfunctions of these processes in human models of psychoses and psychiatric patients. Multiple approaches including measures of information processing, event-related potentials, and brain imaging techniques are used for studying these functions.

Website: www.dppp.uzh.ch/en/research/ psychiatric/neuropsychopharma/brainimaging. html

24 25 Schedule ENCECON Workshop

Schedule Tuesday, 11 June 2019 Wednesday, 12 June 2019 Thursday, 13 June 2019 Friday, 14 June 2019 Saturday, 15 June 2019

Time Arrival & Welcome Theme: Consciousness Theme: Self Theme: States vs Traits, Ethical Values Wrap-up & Departure

Meditation Meditation Meditation Meditation 07:45-08:30 Diego Hangartner Holger Yeshe Diego Hangartner Holger Yeshe

08.30-09.30 Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast

09:30-11.00 Morning Session I Morning Session I Morning Session I: States vs Traits 09:30-09.40 Olaf Blanke (noc*/embodiment) Olaf Blanke (noc*/embodiment) Tania Singer (contemplative practices) 09:40-09:50 Prisca Bauer (meditation/hypnosis) Prisca Bauer (meditation/hypnosis) Elena Antonova (meditation) Morning Session I 09:50-10:00 Quinton Deeley (hypnosis) Quinton Deeley (hypnosis) Thorsten Barnhofer (MBI for depression) Group Discussion on publishing 10:00-10:10 Marieke van Vugt (meditation) Marieke van Vugt (meditation) Devin Terhune (hypnosis) workshop proceedings and theoretical 10:10-10:20 Michael Lifshitz (meditation/hypnosis) Michael Lifshitz (meditation/hypnosis) Fabienne Picard (epilepsy) manuscript 10:20-10:30 Romy Lorenz (real-time fMRI methods Romy Lorenz (real-time fMRI methods Contemplative View by Diego Hangartner 10:30-11:00 Group Discussion Group Discussion Group Discussion

11:00-11:30 Coffee/tea break Coffee/tea break Coffee/tea break Coffee/tea break

11:30-13:00 Morning Session II Morning Session II Morning Session II: Ethical Values Morning Session II 11:30-11:40 Audrey Vanhaudenhuyse (hypnosis) Audrey Vanhaudenhuyse (hypnosis) Andreas Roepstorff (30 min) Group Discussion on collaborative 11:40-11:50 Ilios Kotsou (meditation) Ilios Kotsou (meditation) Contemplative round table (30 min) grant applications 11:50-12:00 Keisuke Suzuki (VR psychedelics) Keisuke Suzuki (VR psychedelics) 12:00-12:10 Contemplative View by Holger Yeshe Contemplative View by Holger Yeshe 12:10-12:20 (20 min) (20 min) 12:20-12:30 Group Discussion Group Discussion 12:30-13:00

13:00-14:30 Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch and departure

Afternoon Session I: Afternoon Session I: Afternoon Session I: 14.30-16.00 1st Person Methods Workshop & Debrief Meditation & Debrief Claire Petitmengin Marie-Elisabeth Faymonville Holger Yeshe *noc = neuroscience of consciousness

16.00-16.30 Coffee/tea break Coffee/tea break Coffee/tea break

16.30-17.30 Arrival & registration Methodological brainstorming session Methodological brainstorming session Methodological brainstorming session

17.30-18.00 Break Break Break

18.00-19.30 Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner

Welcome remarks by Evening Session: Evening Session: Elena Antonova, 20.00-22.00 Cognitive Trance & Debrief Cognitive Trance & Debrief Informal get-together Tania Singer and Steven Laureys Corine Sombrun and Francis Taulelle Corine Sombrun and Francis Taulelle Blitz Introductions (2 min/participant)

26 27 Mind & Life Europe is registered in Switzerland as a society with a not-for-profit status.

Mind & Life Europe Bahnhofplatz 18 8400 Winterthur Switzerland www.mindandlife-europe.org