Emulating Entheogens to Enhance Empathy

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March 2023

Received funding for project.

April 2023

Will begin running participants.

4000+

Expected total number of participants.

Study Status

Protocol Design

Data Collection

100%

Data Analysis

Manuscript(s) Preparation

Publication

Protocol 005 (E4002)

Characterizing the neurophysiological and behavioral profile of aesthetic chills

With funding from the Tiny Blue Dot Foundation and Joy Ventures, The Institute for Advanced Consciousness Studies will be conducting a series of basic research studies aimed at 1) building a gradient of aesthethic chills and 2) evaluate the potential of chills stimuli as psychoplasthogens (as evidenced by signature of brain criticality) and empatheogens.

Extending on past results from online studies at the institute, E4-F02 will further validate chills in selected stimuli from within experience (via state-report), physiology (via peripheral measures), neural signatures (entropy measures via sparse EEG), psychological shifts (via self-reported awe, ego-dissolution and non-ordinary experience) and behavioral outcomes (prosocial behavior, moral decision-making, dispositional empathy).

This study will investigate what causes chills, what they mean for emotions and social behavior, and how technologies could be designed to boost positive reactions. We are interested in understanding a feeling called “chills” – when you get goosebumps or shivers down your spine in response to something positive or meaningful.

E4001

Identify individualized pro-social chills-eliciting content

With funding from the Tiny Blue Dot Foundation, The Institute for Advanced Consciousness Studies will be conducting a series of basic research studies aimed at developing a multisensory intervention that approximates the subjective/neural states and deep changes in prosocial belief and behavior associated with entheogenic, non-ordinary experience. A key component of this eventual intervention is interoceptive stimulation, achieved via aesthetic “chills” known to increase prosocial inclination. As a first step, we must conduct a pilot study to assess the “chills”-evoking properties of a pre-selected set of video stimuli, in order to (I) isolate the most universally-chills evoking stimuli ; (II) determine trait characteristics that predict chills; and (III) examine the correlations between chills and self-report outcome measures of prosociality.

Outcomes

2025

Christov-Moore, L., Schoeller, F., Von Guttenberg, M., Durinski, T., Jain, F. A., Iacoboni, M., & Reggente, N. Using Chills-Inducing Music to Augment Self-Transcendence, Emotional Breakthrough, and Psychological Insight During Mindfulness and Loving Kindness Meditation. Frontiers in Psychology, 17, 1589132. [PDF]
Schoeller, F., Ashur, P., Larralde, J., Couedic, C. L., Mylapalli, R., Krishnanandan, K., Ciaunica, A., Linson, A., Miller, M., Reggente, N., & Adrien, V. (2025). Gesture sonification for enhancing agency: an exploratory study on healthy participants. Frontiers in Psychology, 15. [PDF]
Schoeller, F., Jain, A., Christov-Moore, L., Lynch, C., Diot, T., Reggente, N. (2025) Repeated Exposure Decreases Aesthetic Chills Likelihood but Increases Intensity. PLOS One. [PDF]

2024

Christov-Moore, L., Schoeller, F., Lynch, C., Sacchet, M., & Reggente, N. (2024). Self-Transcendence Accompanies Aesthetic Chills. PLOS Mental Health, 1(5), e0000125. [PDF]
Schoeller, F., Christov-Moore, L., Lynch, C., Diot, T., & Nicco Reggente. (2024). Predicting individual differences in peak emotional response. PNAS nexus, 3(3), pg 066. [‌PDF]
Schoeller, F., Jain, A., Adrien, V., Maes, P., & Nicco Reggente. (2024). Aesthetic chills mitigate maladaptive cognition in depression. BMC Psychiatry, 24(1). Aesthetic chills mitigate maladaptive cognition in depression.[PDF]
Lulla, R., Christov-Moore, L., Vaccaro, A., Reggente, N., Iacoboni, M., & Kaplan, J. (2024). Empathy from Dissimilarity: Multivariate Pattern Analysis of Neural Activity During Observation of Somatosensory Experience. Imaging Neuroscience. [PDF]
Jain, A., Schoeller, F., Esfand, S., Duda, J., Null, K., Reggente, N., Pizzagalli, D. A., & Maes, P. (2024b). Aesthetic chills modulate reward learning in Anhedonic depression. Journal of Affective Disorders, 370, 9–17. [PDF]

2023‌‌

Jain, A., Schoeller, F., Horowitz, A. H., Yan, G., Hu, X., Salomon, R., Dr., & Maes, P. (2023) Aesthetic chills cause an emotional drift in valence and arousal. Front. Neurosci. [PDF][Blog Writeup]

2025

Deli, E., Schoeller, F., Safron, A., Jain, A., Tozzi, A., Adrien, V., & Reggente, N. (2025). Feeling the Heat: A Thermodynamic Perspective on Emotions, Motivation, and Time Perception. New Ideas in Psychology, 79, 101188.
Safron, A., Juliani, A., Reggente, N., Klimaj, V., & Johnson, M. (2025). On the varieties of conscious experiences: Altered Beliefs Under Psychedelics (ALBUS). Neuroscience of Consciousness, 2025(1). [PDF]
Schoeller, F., Zhang, B., Garcia, T., & Reggente, N. (2025). There is no such thing as interoception. [PDF]

2024

Schoeller, F., Jain, A., Pizzagalli, D. A., & Nicco Reggente. (2024). The Neurobiology of Aesthetic Chills: How Bodily Sensations Shape Emotional Experiences. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 24(4), 617-630. [PDF]
Schoeller, F., Horowitz, A. H., Jain, A., Maes, P., Reggente, N., Christov-Moore, L., Pezzulo, G., Barca, L., Allen, M., Salomon, R., Miller, M., Di Lernia, D., Riva, G., Tsakiris, M., Chalah, M. A., Klein, A., Zhang, B., Garcia, T., Pollack, U., … Friston, K. (2024). Interoceptive Technologies for psychiatric interventions: From diagnosis to clinical applications. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 156, 105478. [PDF]

2023

Christov-Moore, L., Schoeller, F., Lynch, C., Sacchet, M. D., & Nicco Reggente. (2023). Self-Transcendence Accompanies Aesthetic Chills. OSF Preprint.
Nicco Reggente, Pluimer, B., Lulla, R., Kaplan, J., Iacoboni, M., & Christov-Moore, L. (2023). Multivariate Connectivity Pattern Analysis of Task-Free fMRI Predicts Subdimensions of Empathy. OSF Preprint.
Schoeller, F. (2023). Negative self-schemas drive pathological doubt in OCD. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 14. [PDF]
Christov-Moore, L., Reggente, N., Vaccaro, A., Schoeller, F., Pluimer, B., Douglas, P. K., Iacoboni, M., Man, K., Damasio, A., & Kaplan, J. T. (2023). Preventing antisocial robots: A pathway to artificial empathy. Sci. Robot, 8, eabq3658. [PDF] [Blog Writeup]
Schoeller, Felix. “Primary states of consciousness: A review of historical and contemporary developments.” Consciousness and Cognition 113 (2023): 103536.
Christov‐Moore, L., Jinich‐Diamant, A., Safron, A., Lynch, C., & Reggente, N. (2023). Cognitive Science Below the Neck: Toward an Integrative Account of Consciousness in the Body. Cognitive Science, 47(3), e13264. [PDF]

2025

Christov-Moore, L., Schoeller, F., Von Guttenberg, M., Durinski, T., A. Jain, F., Iacoboni, M., & Reggente, N. (n.d.). Using a Chills-Inducing Score to Augment Loving Kindness Meditation: Effects on Self-Transcendence, Emotional Breakthrough, and Psychological Insight. OSF Preprint.

2024

Schoeller, F., Jain, A., Dumitrescu, A., Johnson, M., Maes, P., Reggente, N. (2024) Schema Surgery: AI-generated Peak Positive Emotional Stimuli Deactivate Maladaptive Schema. OSF Preprint.
Christov-Moore, L., Schoeller, F., Reggente, N. (2024) Religiosity and Body Awareness Mediate Political Conservatism’s Link to Intensity of Aesthetic Experiences: A Californian-Texan Pre-registered Study.
Adrien, V., Bosc, N., Galletto, C. P., Diot, T., Claverie, D., Reggente, N., Trousselard, M., Bui, E., Baubet, T., & Schoeller, F. (2024). Enhancing Agency in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Therapies through Sensorimotor technologies (Preprint). JMIR. Journal of Medical Internet Research/Journal of Medical Internet Research.
Jinich-Diamant, A., Reggente, N., Bolis, D., Lehmann, K., Kanske, P., Lynch, C., Iacoboni, M., Kaplan, J., Hesp, C., Schilbach, L., & Christov-Moore, L. (2024). Toward A Multiscale Account of Trust. OSF Preprint.
Safron, A., Juliani, A., Kiefer, A., Reggente, N., Klimaj, V., & Johnson, M. (in press). On the Varieties of Conscious Experiences: Altered Beliefs Under Psychedelics (ALBUS). Neuroscience of Consciousness. OSF Preprint.
Juliani, A., Safron, A., Kanai, R. (In press) Deep CANALs: A Deep Learning Approach to Refining the Canalization Theory of Psychopathology. Neuroscience of Consciousness. OSF Preprint.

2023

Schoeller, F., Christov-Moore, L., Lynch, C., & Nicco Reggente. (2023). ChillsDB 2.0: Individual Differences in Aesthetic Chills Among 2,900+ Southern California Participants. OSF Preprint.
Christov-Moore, L. (2023). Interactions Between Religiosity and Political Orientation Effects on Aesthetic Chills. OSF Preprint.
Schoeller, F., Jain, A., Christov-Moore, L., & Reggente, N. (2023). Musical chills induce psychological insight. OSF Preprint.

2024

Christov-Moore, L. (2024). The Science of Flourishing. Transform Conference. Los Angeles, Nevada. [Talk]

2023

Moore, C. (2023, October 25-26). Emulating Entheogens for Enhancing Empathy. Compassion 2.0, San Francisco, CA. [Talk] [Supplemental]

2024

Christov-Moore, L. (2025, August 27). Music goosebumps expose unexpected patterns in belief. Neuroscience News.
Dolan E. W. (2025, August 27). Surprising Link Found Between Aesthetic Chills and Political Extremism. PsyPost.
Love, S. (2024). When does a high become a trip? The Atlantic.
Santodomingo, R. (2024). La ciencia intenta desvelar los misterios del escalofrío. El País.
Hobson , N. (2024, July 20). MIT Neuroscience Reveals the Mystery Behind Aesthetic Chills. Here’s the Real Reason You Get Goosebumps. How the intensity of emotional experiences affects your focus. Inc.
Ubiquity University. (2024). Humanity Rising Day 935: IACS III: Aesthetic Chills and Empathic AI [YouTube].
Ubiquity University. (2024). Humanity Rising Day 934: IACS II: Toward a multiscale account of trust [YouTube].
Ubiquity University. (2024). Humanity Rising Day 933: IACS I: Introduction to the Lab, and review of the Emulating Entheogens [YouTube].
Frohlich, J. (2024). How a total eclipse alters your psyche. Nautilus.
Woodward, K. D. (2024). Scientists Develop Model to Predict When You’ll Get the Chills from Beautiful Art. Today Headline.
X, S. (2024). Predicting who will experience aesthetic chills. Phys.org.
Lennon, A. (2024). Feeling ‘Chills’ Improves Self-Beliefs in Patients with Depression. Labroots.
Chill-Inducing Stimuli Hold Promise as Drug-Free Treatment for Major Depressive Disorder. Physicians Weekly, 2024.
Report for: Preventing antisocial robots: A pathway to artificial empathy. Almetric.
Report for: Aesthetic chills mitigate maladaptive cognition in depression. Almetric.
PsyMed VenturesPsyMed Ventures. (2024). Exploring the Next Generation of Mental Health Solutions. LinkedIn.
Neuroscience News. (2024). Aesthetic chills chase depression away.

2023

Atomic Podcast with Dr. Rooney Sappington. (2023). Atomic Podcast EP. 14 – Interview with Dr. Nicco Reggente and Dr. Leonardo Christov-Moore [Video]. YouTube.
Britton, S. (Host). (2023). Making Transcendent Experiences More Accessible with The Institute For Advanced Consciousness Studies (IACS). [Audio podcast episode]. In EvolutionFM.
Ubiquity University. (2023). Humanity Rising Day 781: Compassion 2.0 Neuroscience of Compassion & Prosociality & Self-Compassion. [Video] Youtube.
Crespi, S., Mclean, K., Lloreda, L.C. (2023). The AI special issue, adding empathy to robots, and scientists leaving Arecibo. Science.
Fan, S. (2023). Giving AI a Sense of Empathy Could Protect Us From Its Worst Impulses. Singularity Hub.
Yirka. B. (2023). How to give AI-based robots empathy so they won’t want to kill us. Tech Xplore.
(2023). Giving AI a Sense of Empathy Could Protect Us From Its Worst Impulses. News Azi.
(2023). How to give AI-based robots empathy so they won’t want to kill us. Today Headline.

2025

Walder, M., Rumstein, R., Schoeller, F., & Reggente, N. (2025). Aesthetic Chills Increase Prayer-Induced Hope and Gratitude: Implications for Personalized Psychedelic Experiences. Psychedelic Science 2025, Denver, CO, United States. [Poster]
Christov-Moore, L., Zhang, B., Nath, M., Simonian, N., Schoeller, N., & Reggente, N. (2025). Neurophysiological Signatures and Prosocial Effects of Augmented Aesthetic Chills. Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) 2025, Brisbane, QLD, Australia. [Poster]
Tobel, T., Cone, A., Choquette, E., Garland, M., Walker, M., Lynch, C., Mink, K., Johnson, M., Frohlich, J., Fesinstein, J., Reggente, N., & Khalsa, S. (April 2025). Exploring altered states of consciousness in anxiety and depression: Evidence from floatation therapy. Anxiety & Depression Association of America Annual Conference, Nevada, U.S. [Poster]

2024

Christov-Moore, L., Reggente, N. (June 2024). Predicting Empathy from Task-Positive Connectivity Patterns Within Task-Free Data: A Cross-Cohort Approach. Organization for Human Brain Mapping, South Korea. [Poster]
Christov-Moore, L., Schoeller, F., Reggente, N. (July 2024). Aesthetic Chills: A Replicable Path to Self-Transcendence. Association for the Scientific Studies of Consciousness, Japan. [Poster]