Marc Wittmann

My 2023 talk on 'How we experience time: The bodily self, altered states of consciousness, and anomalous phenomena' at Science and Consciousness 2023: Wyrd Time, at Broughton Hall Estate, UK. My @igpp.bsky.social research is wyrd! www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mAb...

Have you ever felt time slow down dramatically? Our findings with lead author Steve Taylor from the first socio-demographically representative sample: 70% have experienced at least one time expansion experience in their lifetime. brill.com/view/journal...

Thoughtful analysis of our EU TIMED project with Ruth Ogden and me: Your Perception Of Time Is, In Fact, Warped www.noemamag.com/your-percept...

The final article of our EU Horizon 2020 VIRTUALTIMES project with Shiva Khoshnoud and @federicoalvarez.bsky.social at @igpp.bsky.social on Exploring and modifying the sense of time in virtual environments: "How playing video games downregulates self-referential processing".

Can Science Test the Possibility of Reincarnation? My Psychology Today blog on astounding findings at University of Virginia School of Medicine: In 1,678 cases, the more unexpected the death of the previous person, the shorter intermission time before rebirth www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/sens...

In the spirit of Arthur C Clarke “The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible” I hosted the symposium "Beyond self, time, and space" celebrating science and friendship under the eclipse of the sun: igpp.de/symposium-be...

Subjective exceptional experiences are more common—and more transformative—than we think. Our research explores their link to meaning, self-transcendence, and awakening | Psychology Today www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/sens...

Watch my talk at the Floatation Tank Association webinar, May 28, 2026: Changing Self and Time: Altered States During and After Floatation-REST www.youtube.com/watch?v=ia1O...

My latest experimental co-production with my students: Trait absorption as predictor of altered states of consciousness across three relaxation induction methods: meditation, Ganzfeld, resting osf.io/preprints/ps...

I am among the speakers of this year's Float Conference im Norfolk, Virginia, September 18 - 20, 2026, presenting our IGPP work on inducing altered states of consciousness in Floatation-REST. www.floatconference.com/speakers

Preprint out! Mapping nonordinary (exceptional) experiences in a representative German sample: Phenomenology, prevalence and links to self-transcendence osf.io/preprints/ps...

The first micro-phenomenological study regarding Floatation-REST is out: We assessed the diachronic and synchronic structure of experience related to altered states of consciousness, out of time and self: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

I am grateful to Marcin Moskalewicz for inviting me to give a talk on "Embodied time: Neural and bodily foundations of time perception" at the Time in the Mind 10th Summer School of Cognitive Science, Kazimierz, in Poland, 9.9.2026: lsk.kul.pl/projects/mar...

What happens in the brain during flow? Applying EEG microstate analysis during video game play, Shiva Khoshnoud @federicoalvarez.bsky.social and I found that flow is associated with reduced dynamics in brain states linked to self-referential processing in the DMN. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Why does time speed up as we age? Now in Springer Nature's Memory & Cognition journal: A fascinating case of falsification of our strong and convincing hypothesis with lead author Alice Teghil from Sapienza Università da Roma and my team at @igpp.bsky.social: link.springer.com/article/10.3...

The TIMED collaborative effort "The vanishing hours: Future temporal focus and the passage of time in the digital era". Individual and cross-country differences in how digital behaviour affects subjective passage of time: authors.elsevier.com/c/1mwyy_4NEt...

Justin Feinstein, President of the Float Research Collective gave a talk at @igpp.bsky.social, here it is now available on youtube:

Justin Feinstein, President of Float Research Collective, gave a talk at @igpp.bsky.social Freiburg, here it is now availale on youtube:

Last few days for registering for SENSING TIME, the @timingresforum.bsky.social 2nd Summer School for Master’s students and early-stage PhD researchers, in Padua 6th-10th of July 2026 sites.google.com/view/sensing...

Our Special Issue on Investigating Extra-Sensory Experiences & Consciousness through Qualitative Research, edited by @donnamthomas.bsky.social and me. We welcome qualitative studies exploring this under-researched area for an understanding of consciousness think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issu...

Next in our series on the most boring task ever in psychology: impulsive individuals feel more boredom while waiting—and it makes time feel slower: brill.com/view/journal...

Tuesday, 3.3.2026, at 3.15 pm CET, Dr. Justin Feinstein, President and Director of Float Research Collective gives a talk at the @igpp.bsky.social Freiburg. Stop by at the institute or join via zoom by requesting an email link here: igpp.de/en/justin-fe...

New preprint out: @donnamthomas.bsky.social and me exploring phenomenal parallels between exceptional experiences in childhood and altered states of consciousness in adults, based on the 8-dimensions approach bei Fort et al: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... The preprint: osf.io/preprints/ps...

In the words of Maciej Stolarski, the initiator of this in memoriam article dedicated to Philip G. Zimbardo: "I am happy - and deeply moved - to share our newly published tribute paper honoring Phil, which in many ways feels like our final goodbye to him": onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Call for Papers ! Submit your article to the Journal Qualitative Research in Psychology for a Special Issue on: Investigating Extra-Sensory Experiences and Consciousness through Qualitative Research Co-Guest Editor: @marcwittmann.bsky.social #ConsciousnessResearch shorturl.at/VYKFF

An anniversary! Four years of #Floatation-REST @igpp.bsky.social research with the Floataway.com cabin at Prana Freiburg: 2 doctoral theses, 2 master's theses, 2 third-party funding acquisitions, 3 publications, and here the lastest preprint: www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-7...

Im Rahmen der Vortragsreihe zu 75 Jahre Grenzgebietsforschung am @igpp.bsky.social am 18.11.2025 in Freiburg in der Universitätsbibliothek mein Vortrag: "Wie wir die Zeit erleben: Das leibliche Selbst, veränderte Bewusstseinszustände, anomale Phänomene" youtu.be/A_vhCAu1RwI?...

think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issu... @marcwittmann.bsky.social Call for papers for this special issue 'Investigating Extra-Sensory Experiences and Consciousness through Qualitative Research

The @springernature.com book "The Bodily Self, Emotion, and Subjective Time: Exploring Interoception through the Contributions of A.D. (Bud) Craig" is out: 22 authors, 16 chapters. Neurobiology, Psychology, Psychiatry, Neuroimaging, Musicology, Philosophy, ... link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

A sketch of an idea to a theory of why altered states of consciousness as induced through psychedelics, meditation, and Floatation-REST have therapeutic potential for alleviating psychiatric conditions. www.the-mind.org/the-mind/iss...

The Real Reason the Last Decade of Our Life Seems to Fly By. My Psychology Today blog on our latest empirical discovery with Alice Teghil as to why time speeds up as we grow older. It is not related to autobiographical memory but to cognitve decline. www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/sens...

The very first micro-phenomenological study on experience during Floatation-REST from my lab at @igpp.bsky.social revealing the dynamics of how individuals enter into altered states of consciousness. Part 2 of Helena Hruby's doctoral thesis: www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-7...

On November 26 our @SpringerNature book in commemoration of Bud (A.D.) Craig's legacy is out. See TOC with 14 contributions on the insular cortex, bodily self, emotion, psychiatric disorders, epilepsy, pain, mindfulness, touch, music, and subjective time. link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

The two main hubs in the brain for the processing of human time perception have been identified: SMA and Insula. Here Alice Teghil from Sapienza Università di Roma and I provide the conceptual background in our review on 'How the body and brain process time'. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Now and newly online available, my talk at the INSIGHT 2023 conference of the MIND Foundation in Berlin: "Subjective Time and Body-Self During Altered States of Consciousness: New Evidence". www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcyH...

My talk at the ESI Systems Neuroscience Conference (ESISyNC) 2025 on "Subjective Time and Self in Altered States: Exploring Floatation-REST", Frankfurt, 9.9.2025, to be found here on Youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=phDq...

Zeit, Raum, Welt und Ich? Photobastei 2.0, Zürich, 29.10.2025, 19:00 - 21:00 Uhr: Eine Diskussion zu psychedelischen Erfahrungen und Bewusstsein mit Susanne Schmetkamp, Kurt Stocker, Marc Wittmann www.zuerich.com/de/events-na...

Boredom on many levels of inquiry: as body feelings, subjective slowing down of time, and related insular cortex activity. Review out by @wanjawolff.bsky.social and team.

Herzliche Einladung zu unserer Vortragsreihe „75 Jahre Grenzgebietsforschung in Freiburg“ Am 16. September geht‘s los. Online-Teilnahme möglich. Weitere Informationen unter: igpp.de/vorlesungsre...

More news on interoception and time perception!

A fascinating case of falsification of our strong and convincing hypothesis with lead author Alice Teghil: Memory encoding for new information, not autobiographical memory load, predicts age-related acceleration in subjective time passage over the last decade osf.io/preprints/ps...

Our first qualitative methods article in the @degruyterbrill.bsky.social journal Spiritual Care on "Silence, darkness, and gravity: A qualitative analysis of individual experiences during Floatation-REST" now available: www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

The TIMED project www.timed-europe.net reveals: The more we live in the online world, and the more we enjoy and benefit from that immersion, the more quickly life seems to speed by. The good news? This effect is relatively small—but measurable: osf.io/preprints/ps...

How do the body and brain process time? Evidence from neuroimaging, neurophysiological, electrophysiological, and patient-based studies suggest that time perception is grounded in interoceptive (insula) and sensorimotor processing (SMA). Preprint with Alice Teghil osf.io/preprints/ps...

Anomalies, Demarcation, and Discovery: Toward Constructive Engagement with Frontier Science Lecture by Florian Metzler, PhD #IGPPKolloquium 29.07.25, 15:15 (CET) live or via zoom Register here: www.igpp.de/allg/kolloqu...

In the upcoming book on A.D. (Bud) Craig's legacy link.springer.com/book/9783031... Alice Teghil writes about body processes in retrospective timing: link.springer.com/chapter/10.1... Marc Wittmann & Sylvie Droit-Volet on how the body informs about time passage: link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...

The first of two validation articles on the Immersion in Digital Life Scale (IDLS) and Quality of Digital Experience Scale (QDES) to measure experience with digital technology use is out, a collaborative effort of the www.timed-europe.net TIMED network www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy...

Ever had any strange experiences? We're looking for adults aged 45-60 years living in North of England to take part in our research. Get in touch if interested, there'll be some great discussions and free supper!

As exciting as being in "flow" is researching it! We present a new continuous subjective measure that doesn't interfere with flow to to temporally connect subjective experience with physiological data osf.io/preprints/os... Thanks to @suragenc.bsky.social , Elif, @marcwittmann.bsky.social &Tzvetan!

Watch Helena Hruby's talk on our first #Floatation-REST study as part of her doctoral thesis, at the 2024 Float Conference in San Antonio, USA.