The Archetypal Research Lab conducts ongoing investigations focused on symbolic brain entrainment as a method for archetypal activation. This process stimulates innate structures in the lower brain that correspond to archetypal templates and symbolic processing. These neural structures are the source of entopic imagery such as mandalas, vortex shapes, and complex geometric patterns reported as vision content during psychedelic and altered-state experiences. Symbolic brain entrainment is discussed in Winkelman (2000) and further neuroscience related to neuro-symbolic trance is dicussed in Winkelman (2011, 2017, 2018) and Laughlin and Tiberia (2012), among others.

References:

1. Laughlin, C. D., & Tiberia, V. A. (2012). Archetypes: Toward a Jungian anthropology of consciousness. Anthropology of Consciousness, 23(2), 127–157.

2. Winkelman, M. J. (2000). Shamanism: The neural ecology of consciousness and healing. Bergin & Garvey.

3. Winkelman, M. (2011). Shamanism and the alteration of consciousness. In E. Cardeña & M. Winkelman (Eds.), Altering consciousness: Multidisciplinary perspectives, Volume 1 (pp. 159–180). Praeger/ABC-CLIO.

4. Winkelman, M. J. (2017). The mechanisms of psychedelic visionary experiences: Hypotheses from evolutionary psychology. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 11, 539, 1–17.