ASC: Altered state of consciousness. Out of the five types of ASCs outlined by Vaitl et al. (2005), namely (1) spontaneously occurring (e.g. during sleep, dreaming or near-death experiences); (2) physically or physiologically induced (e.g. by starvation, diet or sexual activity); (3) psychologically induced (e.g. by sensory deprivation, hypnosis, biofeedback, meditation or rhythm-induced trance); (4) disease-induced, (e.g. in psychotic disorders or epilepsy) and (5) pharmacologically induced (e.g. with psychedelic drugs), this thesis focused on psychologically induced ASCs through meditation, neurofeedback training and rhythmic auditory entrainment.
BCMI: Brain-computer music interfacing.
BCMI-1: the BCMI system developed in the BCMI-1 project (Chapter 4).
BCMI-2: the BCMI system developed in the BCMI-2 project (Chapter 5) to address the limitations of BCMI-1.
BPS: Beats per second.
CNS: Central nervous system.
EEG: Electroencephalogram.
NFT: While the terms ‘neurofeedback’, ‘neurofeedback training’, ‘neurofeedback therapy’, ‘neuro therapy’, ‘neuro-biofeedback’ and ‘brainwave biofeedback’ have been used fairly interchangeably in the literature, the most commonly used terms are ‘neurofeedback’ and ‘neurofeedback training’. As ‘neurofeedback’ technically does not necessarily imply training, in this thesis, I use ‘neurofeedback training’ (NFT) to refer to the practice in which BCI systems provide feedback on neurological activity to trainees for a specific length and regularity of time that is defined by trainers in clinical or non-clinical settings (Section 3.2).
ARE: Auditory rhythmic entrainment, a specific type of auditory entrainment that uses rhythm to stimulate and re-pattern neurological functions (Section 3.4).
meditation: A set of mind-body practices that, by regulating attention, can help induce a variety of physiological and mental changes, from simple relaxation to dramatic mystical experiences (Section 3.3).
neuromarkers: Also called neural correlates. Specific brain activities that correspond with particular experiences. Some neuromarkers of meditative states are discussed in Sections 3.2, 3.3 and 3.4.
NOR: Non-ordinary reality (internal experience during shamanic journeying).
shamanic journeying: A specific type of guided meditation used in shamanic traditions that aims to help practitioners enter an ASC in which they can communicate with ‘spirits’ in a mental image and retrieve specific information from them (Section 3.4.3).
SSC: Shamanic state of consciousness. A specific type of ASC that can be induced with shamanic journeying (Section 3.4.3).
visual imagery/visions: Internal visual imagery experienced with visualisation (e.g. in guided meditation with eyes closed).
breakthrough: A breakthrough, also called a ‘crossover’ in meditation, happens when the normal waking state of consciousness shifts into an ASC (Sections 3.2.4 and 3.3.1).