海角社区

Michael Lifshitz is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at 海角社区 and the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal. He did his PhD in Neuroscience at 海角社区 and then a postdoctoral fellowship in Anthropology at Stanford. His work combines phenomenology, neuroscience and ethnography to shed light on the plasticity of consciousness. He studies practices that aim to transform subjective experience鈥攆rom meditation and hypnosis to placebos, prayer, and psychedelics. He is particularly interested in how these practices can modulate feelings of agency, so that thoughts, actions and sensations can come to feel like they are emerging from a source beyond the self.聽

michael.lifshitz2 [at] mcgill.ca (Email)

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Selected Publications

Brahinsky, J.B,聽Lifshitz, M.,聽& Luhrmann, T. M. (2022). Steps towards a neurophenomenology of speaking in tongues. In聽The Oxford Handbook of Psychedelic, Spiritual, Religious, and Mystical Experiences, M. van Elk & D. Yaden (Eds.), Oxford University Press.聽

Luhrmann, T. M. Weisman, K., Aulino, F., Brahinsky, J. D., Dulin, J. C., Dzokoto, V. A., Legare, C. H.,聽Lifshitz, M.,聽Ng, E., Ross-Zehnder, N., & Smith, R. E. (2021). Sensing the presence of gods and spirits across cultures and faiths.聽Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(5), e2016649118.

Lifshitz, M.,聽Brahinsky, J., & Luhrmann, T. M. (2020). The understudied side of contemplation: Words, images and intentions in a syncretic spiritual practice.聽International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis聽, 68(2), 183-199.聽

Lifshitz, M.,聽van Elk, M., & Luhrmann, T. M. (2019). Absorption and spiritual experience: A review of evidence and potential mechanisms.聽Consciousness and Cognition, 73, 102760.

Lifshitz, M.,聽Sacchet, M., Huntenburg, J. M., Thiery, T., Fan, Y., G盲rtner, M., Grimm, S., ... Margulies, D. S., & Barnhofer, T. (2019). Mindfulness-based therapy regulates brain connectivity in major depression.聽Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 88(6), 375-377.聽

Lifshitz. M.,聽Sheiner, E. O., & Kirmayer, L. J. (2018). Cultural neurophenomenology of psychedelic thought: Guiding the unconstrained mind through ritual context. In聽The Oxford Handbook of Spontaneous Thought. K. Fox & K. Christoff (Eds.), Oxford University Press.

A. Raz &聽M. Lifshitz聽(Eds). Hypnosis and meditation: Towards an integrative science of conscious planes.聽Oxford University Press, 2016.