CURATION

DEFAULT MODE NETWORK

The default mode network is active during passive rest and mind-wandering which usually involves thinking about others, thinking about one's self, remembering the past, and envisioning the future or perceiving beauty, rather than the task being performed. People are unaware of the massive amount of unconscious processing that is continuously done by the DMN which holds our deepest beliefs.

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DMN

The default mode network is active during passive rest and mind-wandering which usually involves thinking about others, thinking about one's self, remembering the past, and envisioning the future or perceiving beauty, rather than the task being performed. People are unaware of the massive amount of unconscious processing that is continuously done by the DMN which holds our deepest beliefs.

 

INTEROCEPTION

interoception is also known as the “6th sense” through the enteric nervous system or “gut”, which helps people understand and feel what is going on inside the body.

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KETAMINE

Ketamine is an NMDA receptor antagonist, which affects different receptor sites in the brain than traditional antidepressants.  It also differs from anti-depressants in that it only elevates positive mood rather than suppressing both negative and positive emotions, which can unfortunately lead to a numbing effect that people complain of on anti-depressants

 

MDMA - Methyledioxymethamphetamine

Considered an empathogen-entactogen and stimulant. The MAPS organization is in phase 3 clinical trials of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy which has demonstrated statistically significant improvement in PTSD after just three sessions. It is also being studied in couples, eating disorders, social anxiety in autistic adults, people coping with life-threatening illnesses and in healthy controls with no specific disorder. MDMA greatly diminishes the fear response and so trauma can be faced and integrated with a new perspective. 

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MEDITATION

Meditation is the foundation of good mental health. It teaches people how to observe, and not react, to passing thoughts and emotions as well as to tune into areas that might be further developed within the brain. Mindfulness & meditation practices may be conceptualized as a way of strengthening the brain in terms of improving the tendency toward both more positive emotions and thoughts. Daily practice will facilitate tolerance for difficult emotional states and the removal of negative thought patterns by flowing through them rather than getting stuck in them, leaving the path clear for greater ease, calm and “a quiet mind.”

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NEUROMODULATION

The alteration of nerve activity through targeted delivery of a stimulus, such as electrical stimulation, to specific neurologic sites.

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NOSC - Non-Ordinary State of Consciousness

In our ordinary state of consciousness, the world operates in a predictable way. Some basic and familiar rules of ordinary consciousness include the following assumptions: you exist at a fixed point in time limited in your ability to perceive the present world by the five senses, emotional experiences, and thoughts; you have the ability to recall autobiographically based past events and a reasonable ability to predict future events; and the world you operate within follows the basic rules of linear causality. The general consensus is that the world we agree we experience exists in the present moment. 

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Transcendence of one, several, or all of these basic rules can occur within a non-ordinary state of consciousness. For example, an individual in a non-ordinary state of consciousness may experience events such as: reliving past experiences or seeing future ones, the subjective experience, or “knowing,” of another person or other part of the natural world (animal, plant, natural object, extra-terrestrial), experiences in the womb or during the birth process, communication with deceased relatives, mathematical or scientific concepts, past lives/reincarnation, or union with abstract ideas like love or the universe. It is impossible to describe the unlimited range of experiences accessible in non-ordinary states; as a “non-ordinary” state is by its definition unlimited.

 

The subjective experience of a non-ordinary states of consciousness has a wide emotional range, but cannot be classified as either “good or bad” or “real or not real.” From a clinical and therapeutic standpoint, the NOSC is not judged in any way, other than to ask how this new information might be used to aide in healing, similar to the way in which classical psychoanalytic material such as fantasies or unconscious associations were understood as doorways into the deeper psyche.

 

Similar to the methods used by the MAPS MDMA assisted psychotherapy training protocol, content experienced in a non-ordinary state is always considered useful to the healing and growth of the participant. We have been trained to approach these experiences non-judgmentally and to trust that the experience, no matter how unpleasant or blissful, is emerging for the sake of healing.