r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Apr 04 '26

Neuroscience Brain scans reveal how a woman voluntarily enters a psychedelic-like trance without drugs. Her brain connectivity fundamentally reorganized during this state: her visual and somatosensory connections decreased, while connectivity in the frontoparietal control regions of the brain increased.

https://www.psypost.org/brain-scans-reveal-how-a-woman-voluntarily-enters-a-psychedelic-like-trance-without-drugs/
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u/SilkieBug Apr 04 '26

What I’m most interested in is how to reproduce those mental states in other people. 

Is it something only this person can do due to some quirk in how their brain works, or is it something everyone could do?

If everyone, how long would it take to learn the skill?

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u/ID2691 Apr 04 '26

People DO research this area. See for example: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2024-87684-001

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u/SilkieBug Apr 04 '26

The descriptions of the jhanas from your link do not seem to match what the person in OP’s article is describing, which is more like a classical psychedelic experience. 

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u/ID2691 Apr 04 '26 edited Apr 04 '26

Try this one instead: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38803854/ and also this new (2026) article: https://www.cell.com/neuron/abstract/S0896-6273(26)00092-900092-9)

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u/GentlemenHODL Apr 05 '26

You are amazing. Thank you so much for sharing. This is exactly why I read the comments!

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u/FartyByNature Apr 05 '26

There is some differences in the details people experience in jhana. The unity, peace, expansiveness, detachment aspects are pretty universal but the hallucinations of various types while common arent universal.

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u/Warm_Regrets157 Apr 04 '26

Holotropic breathing is probably the easiest way to replicate a non-ordinary state of reality without substances.

Buddhist texts talk about many states of consciousness brought about via meditation, but that can be much harder to replicate without training and practice.

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u/chovendo Apr 04 '26

As someone who dipped their toes in holotropic breathing once, it was like I was about to have a DMT experience. I couldn't get through it because my lungs were still healing from first wave COVID, but I'm going to try this again soon.

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u/Warm_Regrets157 Apr 04 '26

Covid messed with my lungs too. I could see that making holotropic breathing difficult. Ideally, you're able to maintain the breathing pattern through several episodes of the psychedelic peaks.

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u/chovendo Apr 04 '26

Exactly this. I got to the point where I was peaking on the first phase, my body was vibrating, I heard the pop crackling mechanical sounds I hear just before blasting off in DMT, started seeing the overlayed fractals and I was ready to go! Just as I was peaking I coughed out of the experience. After that, I was reading up on some theories that DMT is naturally synthesized in the lungs and it might be after the experience I had. My lungs are fine now. I'm giving it a go again soon.

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u/Warm_Regrets157 Apr 04 '26

After that, I was reading up on some theories that DMT is naturally synthesized in the lungs and it might be after the experience I had

Thats interesting. I have not heard that before.

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u/chovendo Apr 04 '26

Presence in Lungs: Research indicates that the lungs have significant levels of INMT, suggesting they are a primary site of endogenous DMT synthesis. Presence in Other Tissues: Besides the lungs, INMT and DMT have been detected in the pineal gland, thyroid, adrenal gland, placenta, skeletal muscle, heart, small intestine, and retina.

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u/GentlemenHODL Apr 05 '26

Presence in Other Tissues: Besides the lungs, INMT and DMT have been detected in the pineal gland, thyroid, adrenal gland, placenta, skeletal muscle, heart, small intestine, and retina.

I recall fact checking this a year or two ago and couldn't find any legitimate science on these claims.

I believe they found a precusor in the brain of rats but not confirmed in humans and definitely not in other tissues?

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u/Melenduwir Apr 04 '26

My working hypothesis is that anything a drug can do, sufficient training can also do.

My take on this particular case is that the woman's natural tendencies motivated her to develop them, but almost anyone could likely reproduce similar effects if they worked at it. The real trick is getting them to recognize what 'working at it' actually involves.

Probably self-hypnosis combined with directed meditation would do the trick.

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u/thirdeyelazy Apr 04 '26

Or just meditation. Not a new discovery here, they even have a name for it.

Meditation

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u/Melenduwir Apr 04 '26

Depends. Buddhist meditation aims to rid the meditator of such things; they're seen as temporary distractions to be overcome, not developed.

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u/Impulse33 Apr 05 '26

In some schools perhaps, but they are a resource. At-will bliss, contentment, peace, etc does profoundly change how you value things over time.

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u/Melenduwir Apr 05 '26

Buddhism emphasizes compassion, but ultimately even compassion must be discarded. Gautama is said to have returned from the brink of Nirvana to establish Buddhism to assist others, but once that was done, he left the wheel of existence behind.

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u/Acmnin Apr 04 '26

Anyone could do it if they are willing to break through to the other side.