The article describes how ayahuasca alters brain waves to produce intense perceptual and emotional experiences, and how resting brain patterns can predict the strength of these effects. It reports EEG measurements taken before and after ingestion in a controlled trial, linking specific neural activity to subjective experiences and noting potential implications for individualized care. The study also discusses limitations and the influence of environment on psychedelic experiences.

This topic is of interest to psychology readers because it connects neural dynamics with altered states of consciousness, perception, emotion, and thought patterns, offering insights into how brain activity shapes subjective experience and potential implications for mental health treatment.

Article Title: Scientists map the brain waves behind the intense effects of ayahuasca

Link to PsyPost Article: https://www dot psypost.org/scientists-map-the-brain-waves-behind-the-intense-effects-of-ayahuasca/

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#neuroscience #psychedelics #EEG #ayahuasca #mindwandering

"Sometimes, the most valuable work you might do is the quiet work of thinking nothing at all." - Futurist Jim Carroll

Let's get right to the point.
It's OK to daydream.
It's OK to get lost in your thoughts.
It's OK to be absent-minded.
It's OK to lose your focus.
It's OK to stare blankly out the window.
It's OK to let your mind wander.
It's OK to have a thought pop into your head unrelated to what you're doing.
It's OK to take a mental detour.
It's OK to let your thoughts drift.
It's OK to not have an immediate, practical goal for your thinking.
It's OK to be a little disorganized in your thoughts.
It's OK to mull things over slowly.
It's OK to take an unguided mental walk.
It's OK to space out.
It's OK to ponder an unlikely scenario.
It's OK to doodle without a plan.
It's OK to follow a train of thought to an unexpected destination.
It's OK to let your mind jump from one idea to the next.
It's OK to not check things off a list right now.
It's OK to mentally play with concepts.
It's OK to get stuck in your head.
It's OK to revisit old memories for inspiration.
It's OK to have an 'aha!' moment while doing nothing.
It's OK to trust your intuition over logic for a bit.
It's OK to embrace mental downtime.
It's OK!

Here's why: Have you ever been told to stop staring out the window and get back to work? It turns out that letting your mind wander might actually be one of the smartest things you can do. Scientists have discovered that daydreaming isn't laziness—it's your brain doing some of its most important creative work.

And as someone who has helped organizations around the world with concepts related to innovation, it's a story I often share from the stage.

Consider this: Your brain operates in two different modes: focused thinking and diffuse - or unfocused - thinking.Focused thinking is what happens when you're concentrating hard on a math problem or writing an essay. It's great for learning new information and working through things step-by-step. But here's the catch: you can't be creative while you're hyper-focused.

That's where daydreaming, drifting, imaging comes in - aka diffuse thinking - comes in. When you let your mind wander, space out, or daydream, your brain switches into a different mode that makes unexpected connections between ideas. This is when you have those "aha!" moments where a solution suddenly pops into your head.

So the next time someone tells you to stop daydreaming, you can tell them you're actually problem-solving.

You are doing important work!

You are being creative!

Futurist Jim Carroll zones out frequently.

**#Daydreaming** **#Creativity** **#Thinking** **#Mindwandering** **#Innovation** **#Rest** **#Reflection** **#Breakthrough** **#Intuition** **#Downtime**

Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2025/10/decoding-tomorrow-daily-inspiration-sometimes-the-most-valuable-work-you-might-do-is-the-quiet-work-of-thinking-nothing-at-all/

Dive into the wild world of zoned-out minds, where tasks take five hours and we all pretend we were just "deep in thought" when caught staring at walls.

https://open.substack.com/pub/funnybuttrue/p/digital-zombies-is-your-phone-eating?r=2kjx3z&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

#MindWandering, #DistractedLife, #BrainOnVacation, #FocusFail, #DaydreamNation, #ZonedOut, #ModernAttention, #DigitalDistraction, #ThoughtTravel, #MentalVacation

I have been thinking about better consumption for a while now. Finally wrote somehing about it.

https://www.unsungnovelty.org/posts/04/2025/you-dont-need-ai-summaries-tldr-or-to-be-on-top-of-things/

#productivity #productivitytips #brainrot #MindWandering #qualityvsquantity

Depressed individuals mind-wander over twice as often, study finds https://www.psypost.org/depressed-individuals-mind-wander-over-twice-as-often-study-finds/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #depressionawareness #mentalhealth #mindwandering #negativethoughts #depressivesymptoms

#introduction ! I'm a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Amsterdam @UvAMaatschappijGedrag. Interested in almost everything but research now mostly focused on #mindwandering and #conscious.

#cogsci #neuroscience #cognition #CognitiveNeuroscience