Deborah Gonzalez - Perception and Emotion During an Expanded State of Consciousness

Expanded states of consciousness alter perception and emotion in ways that are often difficult to formalize but critical for therapeutic research. This pilot study aims to map these altered states using both visual and auditory perception tasks alongside self-reported emotional valence readings. By measuring how volunteers perceive stimuli in subliminal time exposures and detect precise differences in sound frequency, researchers build frameworks to quantify and better understand the mind-scapes experienced during these states. The findings highlight the significant role emotion plays in the depth of an expanded state of consciousness. Emotional arousal is found to correlate positively with the intensity of an experience, specifically under the influence of ayahuasca. Participants report heightened sensory sensitivity during these experiences, often finding silence or specific colors like deep indigo to be profoundly impactful, illustrating how psychedelics can unlock subjective realities that merit further scientific mapping.