What do near-death experiences and psychedelic experiences have in common?

Researchers analysed the similarities and differences between a near-death experience and the experience induced by a psychedelic drug.

What interferes the most with our short-term memory?

Researchers performed experiments to explore the effects of changing-state vibrotactile sequences on short-term memory.

Can childhood trauma cause insomnia in adults?

Research has shown that adverse childhood experiences result in more dysfunctional ways of shame coping and increase the severity of insomnia in adulthood.

Award Universidade de Lisboa|Fundação BIAL 30 Years honours Medicine, Psychology and Philosophy students

Academic competition in António Damásio and Hanna Damásio lecture aims to stimulate students' capacity for reflection, interpretation, and critical analysis.

Prof. Peter Fenwick

The BIAL Foundation expresses profound sorrow on the passing of Prof Peter Fenwick, a unique figure in parapsychology worldwide, broadly awarded for his work on the process of death, including consciousness and near-death experiences.

Can psychedelics enhance meditative training?

While the therapeutic evidence for meditation and psychedelics has been established as standalone interventions, recent research has started to point potential synergies in combining them. The research team led by Milan Scheidegger conducted a randomized placebo-controlled study aiming to test whether N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), an active ingredient of ayahuasca, and harmine (DMT-harmine) combined with meditation increases (1) mindfulness, (2) compassion, (3) insight, and (4) mystical-type transcendence to a larger degree than meditation with a placebo during a 3-day mindfulness retreat. Findings showed that mindfulness and compassion were not significantly different in the DMT-harmine group compared to placebo. However, the DMT-harmine group self-attributed greater levels of mystical-type experiences, non-dual awareness, and emotional breakthrough during the acute substance effects compared to meditation with a placebo. It seems that DMT-harmine may support meditation and meditation-related well-being through eliciting experiences of insight, transcendence, and meaning rather than through mindfulness or compassion. This study was supported by the BIAL Foundation, in the scope of the research project 333/20 - Mindfulness and psychedelics: A neurophenomenological approach to the characterization of acute and sustained response to DMT in experienced meditators, and published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, in the article Meditating on psychedelics. A randomized placebo-controlled study of DMT and harmine in a mindfulness retreat.