Tag Archives: mental-health

Tactile Hallucinations, explained:

Tactile hallucinations (also called haptic hallucinations) are false sensations of touch that occur without any external physical stimulus. A person genuinely feels something on or under their skin even though nothing is actually there.

In clinical psychology and psychiatry, tactile hallucinations might be classified as a type of somatic sensory hallucination.

Common Types of Tactile Hallucinations

People may report sensations such as:

• Bugs crawling on the skin (called formication)
• Something touching or tapping the body
• Burning or electric sensations
• Pressure or being grabbed
• Feeling something moving under the skin
• Water dripping or wind blowing on the skin

The experience can feel extremely real because the brain’s sensory cortex is producing the perception.

Conditions Associated With Tactile Hallucinations

In clinical contexts they may appear in several conditions:

1. Psychiatric Disorders

Common in:

  • Schizophrenia
  • Delusional Parasitosis
  • Severe Major Depressive Disorder with psychotic features

2. Substance Use or Withdrawal

Tactile hallucinations might occur during intoxication or withdrawal from substances such as:

  • Cocaine
  • Methamphetamine
  • Alcohol (especially during withdrawal or delirium tremens)

3. Neurological Conditions

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They might also occur in neurological disorders

Psychological vs Neurological Mechanism

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From a neuroscience perspective, CONSULT WITH A NEUROLOGIST, tactile hallucinations are thought to involve abnormal activation of the somatosensory cortex, the brain area responsible for touch perception.

Normally:

Stimulus: skin receptors: brain: touch perception, CONSULT WITH A NEUROLOGIST

In hallucinations:

Brain activity: perceived touch without stimulus, CONSULT WITH A NEUROLOGIST

Parapsychology Perspective

Some researchers have suggested other interpretations in certain anomalous experiences.

Some investigators discussed the possibility that certain tactile sensations in spontaneous cases might involve psychokinetic or psi-related processes, although this remains controversial and not widely accepted in mainstream science.

In the Super-Psi / Living Agent Psi model, unusual physical sensations might theoretically be produced unconsciously by psi processes rather than external spirits.

 Key Point:
Tactile hallucinations are perceptions of touch without a physical cause, and they can arise from psychiatric, neurological, substance-related, or occasionally anomalous experiential contexts.

Shervan K Shahhian

Biopsychosocial Model, explained:

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The Biopsychosocial Model is a framework used in medicine, psychology, and behavioral science to understand health, illness, and human behavior as the result of three interacting systems: biological, psychological, and social factors.

Core Idea

The model proposes that no illness or psychological condition has a single cause. Instead, it emerges from the interaction of multiple layers of influence.

1. Biological Factors

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Physical and physiological processes in the body.

Examples:

  • Genetics
  • Brain chemistry and neurobiology
  • Hormones
  • Physical injury or disease
  • Sleep and nutrition

Example:
Depression may involve serotonin imbalance, genetics, or inflammation.

2. Psychological Factors

Mental and emotional processes that influence behavior and health.

Examples:

  • Thoughts and beliefs
  • Personality traits
  • Coping skills
  • Trauma history
  • Stress perception

Example:
Two people with the same illness may respond very differently depending on their beliefs, coping style, or resilience.

3. Social Factors

Environmental and cultural influences affecting a person.

Examples:

  • Family relationships
  • Culture and religion
  • Socioeconomic status
  • Social support
  • Life events

Example:
Strong social support can improve recovery from illness, while isolation can worsen outcomes.

Simple Example

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Consider chronic pain:

DimensionExample
BiologicalNerve injury or inflammation
PsychologicalCatastrophic thinking about pain
SocialWork stress or lack of support

All three together shape the severity and persistence of pain.

Why It Is Important

The model changed modern healthcare by encouraging holistic treatment.

Instead of only medication, treatment may include:

  • Medical care, CONSULT WITH A PSYCHIATRIST
  • Psychotherapy
  • Lifestyle changes
  • Social support interventions

This model could be strongly influenced fields like:

  • Health Psychology
  • Behavioral Medicine, CONSULT WITH A PSYCHIATRIST
  • Psychosomatic Medicine, CONSULT WITH A PSYCHIATRIST

Some Example in Grief and Anomalous Experiences

For example:

LevelPossible Influence
BiologicalSleep disruption, stress hormones
PsychologicalAttachment to the deceased
SocialCultural beliefs about the afterlife

Clinical psychology might explain these experiences through grief-related cognition, while parapsychology might, sometimes explores survival or psi hypotheses.

 In short:
The biopsychosocial model might see human experience as the product of body, mind, and society interacting together, rather than being caused by only one factor. CONSULT WITH A PSYCHIATRIST

Shervan K Shahhian

Demonic Psychosis, explained:

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“Demonic psychosis” is not a clinical diagnosis in psychiatry or psychology. It is a cultural, religious, or spiritual interpretation of a psychotic state, most often used in faith-based contexts to explain experiences that clinicians would classify as psychosis.

Below is a clear, layered explanation that distinguishes belief language from clinical reality.

1. How the term is used (non-clinical)

In religious or spiritual frameworks, “demonic psychosis” typically refers to a state in which a person is believed to be:

  • Influenced, oppressed, or possessed by a demonic entity
  • Hearing voices attributed to demons
  • Experiencing intrusive thoughts perceived as external evil forces
  • Exhibiting drastic personality, moral, or behavioral changes
  • Showing intense fear, paranoia, or religious preoccupation

This language appears in:

  • Certain Christian, etc. , and some folk-religious traditions
  • Deliverance or exorcism ministries
  • Cultural explanatory models where spirits explain illness

2. Clinical understanding (what psychology actually diagnoses)

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From a psychiatric standpoint, the experiences labeled “demonic psychosis” could be most commonly explained as psychotic disorders or states, such as:

  • Schizophrenia spectrum disorders
  • Bipolar disorder with psychotic features
  • Major depressive disorder with psychotic features
  • Brief psychotic disorder
  • Substance-induced psychosis
  • Trauma-related psychosis or dissociative psychosis

Core features of psychosis:

  • Hallucinations (often auditory voices)
  • Delusions (fixed false beliefs, including religious or persecutory themes)
  • Disorganized thinking or speech
  • Impaired reality testing

Importantly:
The content of psychosis is shaped by culture and belief.
A religious person may experience “demons,” while a secular person may experience “surveillance,” “AI,” or “aliens.”

3. Why the “demonic” framing can be harmful

Interpreting psychosis as demonic influence can:

  • Increase fear, shame, and stigma
  • Delay medical or psychological treatment
  • Worsen symptoms through reinforcement of delusions
  • Lead to coercive or abusive practices (e.g., forced exorcisms)

Research shows that how voices or experiences are interpreted strongly affects distress. A threatening supernatural explanation often worsens outcomes.

4. Trauma and dissociation often play a role

Many individuals labeled as “demonically afflicted” have:

  • Significant trauma histories
  • Dissociative symptoms
  • Intrusive inner voices or parts (not entities)
  • High suggestibility or absorption

Trauma can produce externalized inner experiences, which may feel alien, malevolent, or “not me.”

5. A balanced, culturally sensitive view

Modern psychology uses a biopsychosocial model:

  • Biological vulnerability
  • Psychological factors (trauma, stress, cognition)
  • Social and cultural meaning systems

Clinicians might aim to respect spiritual beliefs without validating interpretations that increase harm or impair reality testing.

6. Key takeaway

“Demonic psychosis” is a belief-based label for psychosis, not a medical condition.

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The experiences might be real and distressing.
The explanation of demons is cultural, symbolic, or theological rather than clinical.

Effective treatment might focuses on:

  • Safety
  • Stabilization
  • Trauma-informed care
  • Medication when appropriate CONSULT WITH A PSYCHIATRIST
  • Meaning-making that reduces fear rather than amplifies it
  • CONSULT WITH A PSYCHIATRIST
  • Shervan K Shahhian

Religious Hallucinations, explained:

Religious hallucinations could be sensory experiences involving religious or spiritual content that occur without an external stimulus. The person could believe they are hearing, seeing, or feeling a divine or supernatural presence.

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These experiences might occur in psychiatric disorders, extreme stress, bereavement, or sometimes in intense religious states. Because you study psychology and parapsychology, this topic is interesting since the two fields often interpret them very differently.

1. What Religious Hallucinations Look Like

They might involve religious figures, voices, or supernatural entities.

Common examples could include:

Auditory

  • Hearing the voice of God
  • Hearing angels or demons speaking
  • Commands believed to come from a divine source

Visual

  • Seeing Jesus, angels, saints, or demons
  • Visions of heaven, hell, or divine light

Tactile / Somatic

  • Feeling touched by a spiritual being
  • Sensation of possession or spiritual energy entering the body

Olfactory

  • Smelling incense, sulfur, or sacred fragrances without a source

2. Conditions Where They Commonly Occur

In clinical psychology, religious hallucinations might appear in several disorders:

Psychotic Disorders

Might commonly appear in

  • Schizophrenia
  • Schizoaffective Disorder

Some Typical features:

  • Commanding voices
  • Religious delusions (e.g., believing one is a prophet or chosen by God)

Mood Disorders with Psychosis

Such as:

  • Bipolar Disorder (during manic episodes)
  • Major Depressive Disorder with Psychotic Features

Example:

  • Hearing God condemning or judging them.

Neurological Conditions

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Temporal-lobe disturbances are especially associated with intense mystical or religious visions.

3. Cultural and Religious Context

Some psychologists might emphasize that culture strongly shapes hallucination content.

For example:

  • Christians may see Jesus or angels
  • Hindus may see deities

The brain might often use the person’s belief system to interpret unusual sensory experiences.

4. Difference Between Religious Experience and Hallucination

Some Psychologists might usually distinguish them by several criteria.

Healthy Religious ExperienceReligious Hallucination
Occurs during prayer or meditationOccurs spontaneously
Person retains critical thinkingPerson believes it absolutely
Not distressing or commandingOften commanding or frightening
Does not impair functioningOften disrupts life

5. Parapsychological Interpretations

In parapsychology, some researchers might argue that not all such experiences are pathological.

Two interpretations sometimes maybe discussed:

  1. Psi-mediated perception: (telepathy/clairvoyance)
  2. Super-Psi / Living Agent Psi model: unconscious psychic abilities producing the experience.

This perspective could be discussed by researchers at the
Society for Psychical Research and the
Parapsychological Association.

However, mainstream science still treats most of these cases as psychological or neurological phenomena.

 In summary:
Religious hallucinations are sensory experiences with spiritual content that occur without an external source. Clinically they are often linked to psychosis, neurological disorders, or extreme emotional states, while parapsychology sometimes explores non-ordinary interpretations.

Shervan K Shahhian

After-Death Communications (ADCs), explained:

After-Death Communications (ADCs) could be experiences in which a living person perceives contact or communication from someone who has died. These experiences could be widely reported in grief research and are discussed in both clinical psychology and parapsychology.

1. What an ADC Is

An After-Death Communication is any subjective experience in which a bereaved person feels they receive a message, presence, or contact from the deceased.

They often occur spontaneously, without attempts to summon spirits, and are commonly reported during the early stages of bereavement.

2. Common Types of ADCs

Reports could tend to fall into several categories:

1. Sensed Presence

The bereaved person might strongly feels the deceased nearby.

Examples:

  • Feeling someone sit on the bed
  • Feeling watched or protected
  • A sudden emotional wave of the person’s presence

2. Visual Apparitions

The person briefly sees the deceased.

Features:

  • Often vivid and realistic
  • Usually short (seconds to minutes)
  • The figure may appear peaceful or younger.

3. Auditory Communications

Hearing the deceased’s voice.

Examples:

  • Hearing their name called
  • Hearing comforting words like “I’m okay.”

4. Dream Visitations

Very common ADC type.

Characteristics:

  • Extremely vivid dreams
  • Clear message or emotional closure
  • The deceased appears healthy and calm.

5. Tactile Experiences

Physical sensations such as:

  • A touch on the shoulder
  • Feeling a hug
  • Bed movement

6. Symbolic Signs

People interpret unusual events as communication.

Examples:

  • Objects moving
  • Electronics turning on
  • Meaningful coincidences.

3. How Common Are ADCs?

Some research might suggest they are surprisingly common.

Studies indicate:

  • Some of bereaved people report at least one ADC.
  • They occur across cultures, religions, and belief systems.
  • Many experiencers were not expecting them.

This is why grief researchers consider them a normal aspect of bereavement for many people.

4. Some Psychological Interpretation

In clinical psychology, ADCs could often interpreted as part of the grief adaptation process.

Possible explanations include:

  • Memory activation of the deceased
  • Dream processing
  • Emotional coping mechanisms
  • The brain maintaining a continuing bond with the loved one.

The model might argue that healthy grieving often includes maintaining an inner relationship with the deceased.

5. Parapsychological Interpretation

Some parapsychologists consider several possibilities:

  1. Survival Hypothesis
    The consciousness of the deceased survives death and communicates.
  2. Psi-Mediated Experience (Super-Psi)
    The living person unconsciously uses psi abilities (telepathy, clairvoyance) to create the experience.
  3. Living-Agent Psi Model
    The experience is produced by the mind of the experiencer rather than the deceased.

Some of these models are discussed in modern research organizations such as Parapsychological Association and the Society for Psychical Research.

6. Differences from Psychiatric Hallucinations

Some researchers emphasize that ADCs typically differ from pathological hallucinations.

Common differences:

ADCPsychiatric Hallucination
Usually comfortingOften distressing
Occurs during griefLinked to mental disorder
Rare and briefPersistent or frequent
Person retains insightOften loss of insight

Because of these differences, many psychologists view ADCs as non-pathological grief experiences.

 Key Point:
For some people, ADCs are not considered mental illness but a subjectively meaningful experience during bereavement.

Shervan K Shahhian

Bereavement-Related Anomalous Experiences, what are they:

Bereavement-Related Anomalous Experiences (BRAEs) could be unusual perceptual or psychological experiences reported by people after the death of a loved one. They could be widely discussed in both clinical bereavement research and Parapsychology. These experiences might often feel very real and meaningful to the bereaved person.

What They Are

Bereavement-related anomalous experiences could be subjective experiences in which a grieving person perceives contact, presence, or communication from the deceased.

They typically occur during the early stages of grief but may also appear years later.

Some researchers in grief psychology might sometimes call them After-Death Communications (ADCs).

Common Types of Bereavement Experiences

1. Sense of Presence

A person feels the deceased nearby even though no one is physically there.

Examples:

  • Feeling the loved one sitting beside them
  • Sensing someone in the room
  • Feeling watched over

2. Visual Experiences

Seeing the deceased briefly or in dreams.

Examples:

  • Seeing the loved one standing in the room
  • A vivid waking vision
  • Extremely realistic dreams of the deceased

These are sometimes called grief visions.

3. Auditory Experiences

Hearing the voice of the deceased.

Examples:

  • Hearing their name called
  • Hearing them speak a brief message

4. Tactile Experiences

Physical sensations associated with the deceased.

Examples:

  • Feeling a touch on the shoulder
  • Feeling someone sit on the bed

5. Symbolic Coincidences

Events interpreted as meaningful signs.

Examples:

  • Unusual animal appearances
  • Objects moving or appearing unexpectedly
  • Music associated with the deceased playing suddenly

6. Dream Encounters

Dreams where the deceased appears alive, healthy, and communicating.

Some people might report these dreams as emotionally healing rather than disturbing.

How Common Are They?

Surprisingly, they could be very common.

Studies in bereavement research might suggest:

  • Some of widows and widowers report at least one experience
  • Many people might never report them because they fear being judged

Possible Psychological Interpretation

Possibly in clinical psychology, these experiences could often explained as:

  1. Normal grief phenomena
  2. Memory activation and emotional processing
  3. Attachment system responses
  4. Temporary sensory misperceptions during intense mourning

Importantly, they may not usually be considered symptoms of mental illness unless they are persistent, distressing, or impair functioning.

Possible Interpretation in Parapsychology

Some researchers in Parapsychology might sometimes explore other possibilities:

  1. Survival hypothesis: consciousness continues after death
  2. Super-Psi Hypothesis: the bereaved mind unconsciously produces psi information
  3. Psychological coping mechanisms

Some parapsychologists acknowledge that multiple explanations may coexist.

Possible, Key Characteristics

Bereavement anomalous experiences might have these traits:

  • Brief and spontaneous
  • Occur during emotional vulnerability
  • Feel comforting rather than frightening
  • Do not typically impair reality testing

Example Report

A typical report might be:

“After my husband died, I woke up one night and felt him sit on the bed and place his hand on my shoulder. I wasn’t scared, it felt comforting.”

Experiences like this might be reported cross-culturally and throughout history.

Possibly Important Clinical Perspective

Some modern grief specialists might view these experiences as:

  • Common
  • Usually healthy
  • Often helpful in the grieving process

Unless they become persistent hallucinations with loss of insight, they are not treated as psychiatric disorders.

Shervan K Shahhian

Understanding Grief Hallucination:

A grief hallucination (often called a bereavement hallucination or post-bereavement experience) is a sensory experience of a deceased loved one that occurs during the grieving process. These experiences are very common and usually not considered a sign of mental illness.

Psychologists and parapsychologists might refer to them as bereavement-related anomalous experiences.

Common Types of Grief Hallucinations

People may experience the deceased in different sensory ways:

1. Visual experiences

  • Briefly seeing the deceased person
  • Seeing them sitting in their usual place or walking by

2. Auditory experiences

  • Hearing their voice
  • Hearing them call your name

3. Sense of presence

  • Feeling strongly that the person is nearby

4. Tactile sensations

  • Feeling a touch or pressure on the bed or shoulder

5. Olfactory experiences

  • Smelling their perfume, cologne, or cigarette smoke

How Common Are They?

Research in bereavement psychology shows they are surprisingly frequent.

Studies suggest some of the grieving people might report at least one such experience.

These might occur across cultures and age groups.

How They Might Differ From Psychiatric Hallucinations

Some psychologists might distinguish grief experiences from disorders such as Schizophrenia.

Key differences:

Grief HallucinationsPsychiatric Hallucinations
Occur after a lossOccur without bereavement trigger
Usually brief and comfortingOften distressing or threatening
Person knows the loved one diedOften involves loss of reality testing
Do not disrupt daily functioningOften impair functioning

Some grief hallucinations fade might naturally as the grieving process progresses.

Some Psychological Explanations

Modern grief psychology suggests several mechanisms:

1. Attachment system activation
The brain is still expecting the loved one to be present.

2. Memory integration
The mind is reorganizing emotional memories of the person.

3. Sensory expectation
The brain briefly “fills in” expected perceptions.

Parapsychology Perspective

It’s worth something that researchers in Parapsychology sometimes classify these as crisis apparitions or after-death communications (ADC).

Three interpretations could be often discussed:

  1. Psychological grief process
  2. Psi-mediated experiences (Super-Psi model)
  3. Actual survival-related contact

The field does not claim certainty, but it studies the experiences seriously.

Important Clinical Point

In some cases, grief hallucinations are:

  • Normal
  • Transient
  • Part of healthy mourning

They only might become a concern if they:

  • Persist for long periods
  • Cause distress
  • Impair functioning
  • Occur with other psychiatric symptoms

 Interesting fact: 

Many bereavement researchers now consider these experiences part of “continuing bonds”, where the relationship with the deceased psychologically continues in a new form.

Shervan K Shahhian

Grief & Loss Recovery Support and Therapy, an explanation:

Grief & Loss Recovery Support refers to the range of emotional, psychological, social, and sometimes spiritual services that help people process and adapt to the experience of loss. The loss can involve many things, not only death.

Types of Loss People Seek Support For

Grief support may address losses such as:

  • Death of a loved one
  • Divorce or relationship breakup
  • Loss of health or disability
  • Loss of a job or career
  • Loss of identity or life role (retirement, empty nest)
  • Loss after trauma or disaster
  • Existential or spiritual crisis

In psychology, grief might often be understood as an adaptive process of adjusting to a changed reality.

Main Forms of Grief & Loss Recovery Support

1. Grief Counseling

Provided by psychologists, therapists, or licensed counselors.

Goals:

  • Process painful emotions
  • Integrate memories of the lost person or life situation
  • Reduce complicated grief reactions
  • Restore functioning and meaning

Approaches might include:

  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
  • Meaning-Centered Therapy
  • Complicated Grief Therapy
  • Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy

2. Grief Support Groups

Peer-based groups where individuals share experiences with others who have had similar losses.

Benefits:

  • Reduces isolation
  • Normalizes grief reactions
  • Provides community validation
  • Encourages emotional expression

These may be hosted by:

  • Hospitals
  • Community centers
  • Religious organizations
  • Bereavement programs

3. Bereavement Coaching / Grief Coaching

More practical and guidance-focused than therapy.

Coaches might help with:

  • Daily life adjustment
  • Decision-making after loss
  • Rebuilding life routines
  • Meaning reconstruction

4. End-of-Life & Bereavement Support

Support before and after death through roles such as:

  • End-of-Life Doula
  • Death Midwife

They help families with:

  • Emotional preparation
  • Rituals and closure
  • grief transition

5. Spiritual or Existential Support

Some individuals seek support from:

  • clergy or spiritual advisors
  • existential therapists
  • meditation teachers

This is common when grief triggers questions about meaning, consciousness, or the nature of existence.

Psychological Goals of Grief Recovery

Modern grief psychology does not aim to “eliminate grief.” Instead, it helps a person:

  1. Accept the reality of loss
  2. Process emotional pain
  3. Adjust to a new life structure
  4. Maintain a healthy continuing bond with what was lost
  5. Rediscover meaning and purpose

Signs Someone May Need Professional Support

Grief counseling is often recommended if a person experiences:

  • persistent numbness or despair
  • inability to function months after loss
  • severe guilt or self-blame
  • suicidal thinking
  • prolonged isolation

This condition may relate to Prolonged Grief Disorder.

Interesting psychological insight:
Some research shows grief recovery improves when people can tell the story of their loss in a coherent narrative, which is why both therapy and support groups are effective.

Shervan K Shahhian

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), an explanation:

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is a psychological treatment that combines mindfulness meditation practices with principles from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). It could have been originally developed to help people prevent relapse in depression, but it could be also used for anxiety, stress, and emotional regulation.

Core Idea

MBCT teaches people to observe their thoughts and emotions without automatically reacting to them.

Instead of trying to change or fight thoughts, you learn to notice them as mental events, “just thoughts,” not facts.

Example:

  • Thought: “I’m a failure.”
  • Traditional reaction: Believe it and feel worse.
  • MBCT approach: “I notice my mind is producing a self-critical thought.”

This creates psychological distance from the inner critic.

Key Components

MBCT usually could run as an 8-week program with group sessions.

1. Mindfulness Meditation

Participants practice:

  • Breath awareness
  • Body scan meditation
  • Mindful walking
  • Mindful eating

These practices strengthen attention and awareness of the present moment.

2. Cognitive Awareness

People learn to notice:

  • automatic negative thoughts
  • self-critical inner dialogue
  • rumination patterns

This is especially relevant to depression relapse, where people often fall back into habitual thinking loops.

3. Decentering

One of the most important MBCT skills.

Decentering: seeing thoughts as mental events, not reality.

Example:
Instead of “This thought is true,” the shift becomes:

“I’m noticing that my mind is generating this thought.”

4. Breaking the Rumination Cycle

MBCT helps interrupt cycles like:

  1. negative mood
  2. self-critical thinking
  3. rumination
  4. worsening mood

Mindfulness interrupts the loop before it spirals.

Conditions MBCT Helps

Research shows benefits for:

  • recurrent major depression
  • anxiety disorders
  • chronic stress
  • trauma-related rumination
  • emotional dysregulation

Many studies show MBCT can reduce relapse in depression by ~40–50% in people with multiple past episodes.

A Simple MBCT Exercise

3-Minute Breathing Space

  1. Awareness
    Notice what is present: thoughts, feelings, body sensations.
  2. Breathing
    Focus attention on the breath.
  3. Expanding
    Expand awareness to the whole body.

This short practice is used to interrupt automatic negative thinking.

Possible Psychological Mechanism

MBCT could work through:

  • metacognitive awareness
  • reduced cognitive fusion
  • improved emotional regulation
  • decreased rumination

It could train the mind to move from “doing mode” to “being mode.”

Interesting Information

MBCT is interesting, because:

  • intense self-monitoring and inner criticism can suppress intuitive cognition
  • mindfulness reduces cognitive noise and evaluative filtering

Many researchers believe mindfulness increases open monitoring awareness, which may facilitate subtle perception and intuition.

Shervan K Shahhian

Intense Inner Criticism Might Block Intuitive Perception or Creative Cognition, why:

Intense inner criticism might block intuitive perception and creative cognition because it activates psychological processes that might interfere with the mental states required for intuition and creativity. Several mechanisms could be involved:

1. Threat Activation in the Brain

When the inner critic becomes harsh, the brain might interpret it as a threat.

  • Certain parts of the brain, might activate a stress response.
  • Stress hormones might (like cortisol) increase.
  • The mind might shift into defensive or survival mode.

This state might suppress the open, associative thinking needed for creativity and intuition.

2. Overactivation of the Analytical Mind

Intuition might to emerge from quiet, non-linear processing.

However, intense self-criticism might force excessive activity in the mind, particularly areas involved in:

  • self-monitoring
  • error detection
  • judgment

This produces hyper-analytical thinking, which might crowd out subtle intuitive signals.

3. Cognitive Load and Mental Noise

Harsh self-evaluation might create constant mental commentary:

  • “That idea is stupid.”
  • “You’re wrong.”
  • “You shouldn’t think that.”

This internal noise might interfere with spontaneous insights that arise from the Default Mode Network, a brain network that could be associated with imagination, internal reflection, and creative incubation.

4. Suppression of Psychological Safety

Creativity might require permission to explore imperfect ideas.

An intense inner critic:

  • punishes mistakes
  • discourages risk-taking
  • blocks experimentation

Without psychological safety, the mind might stop generating novel associations.

5. Reduced Access to Implicit Processing

Intuition could relay on implicit processing information that the brain has learned but cannot easily verbalize.

Harsh internal judgment disrupts this because it demands immediate logical proof, preventing intuitive impressions from surfacing.

6. Interruption of “Flow States”

Flow requires:

  • relaxed concentration
  • reduced self-consciousness
  • minimal self-judgment

The inner critic might do the opposite, it might increase self-conscious monitoring, which might break the flow state.

Psychological Summary

Intense inner criticism produces:

  • fear of error
  • hyper-analysis
  • cognitive overload
  • suppression of exploratory thinking

All of these block the mental conditions could be required for intuition and creativity.

A Useful Psychological Paradox

Many creative and intuitive breakthroughs occur after the mind relaxes—during:

  • meditation
  • daydreaming
  • walking
  • sleep transitions

These states quiet the inner critic, allowing deeper cognitive processes to emerge.

Shervan K Shahhian