I’m excited to announce QUALIUS, an upcoming post-ASSC retreat on the topic of non-ordinary states of consciousness, taking place July 10–14, 2025, in Ligres, Crete. Organized by the ALIUS and QRI, the retreat will bring together researchers working at the intersection of psychometrics, VR, computational modeling, and contemplative practice. It’s structured around four thematic tracks: measuring subjective effects, studying altered states using virtual reality, integrating lived experience into consciousness research, and formalizing the structure of non-ordinary states. QRI is helping with support for the retreat and by leading the fourth track, contributing our latest tools and frameworks for modeling the fine-grained structure of experience. Our approach emphasizes the phenomenal character of states of consciousness—the texture and structure of experience—over the intentional content, or what the experience is about. Conceptual tools like the Guide to Writing Rigorous Reports of Exotic States of Consciousness and software tools like the QRI’s Tracer Tool give a flavor of our methodology, but we’ll be showcasing more advanced, unpublished systems currently being integrated into active studies.

This post-ASSC 2025 satellite event will serve as an interdisciplinary workshop retreat to advance research on consciousness, altered states, and computational phenomenology. It will integrate perspectives from neuroscience, VR, computational modeling, and philosophy, fostering collaboration among researchers with a shared interest in non-ordinary conscious states. A key focus will be on the measurement of subjective effects in altered states research, exploring innovative experiential approaches using VR to induce and study these phenomena. The workshop will also highlight neurophenomenological methods that bridge first-person experience with third-person data, particularly at the intersections of art and neuroscience. Through focused discussions, cross-disciplinary talks, and collaborative sessions, participants will explore formal models of consciousness, including mathematical frameworks and neural modeling approaches. The workshop aims to establish a long-term research consortium, promoting sustainable partnerships and open collaboration to bridge empirical and theoretical perspectives in the study of altered states.
The retreat is designed as a smaller, more intimate gathering of around 35 researchers with a shared interest in altered states of consciousness. Unlike the main conference, which primarily focuses on published work, this retreat will emphasize ongoing and future research, fostering discussions that lead to new collaborations. The aim is to create a space where researchers can connect organically, exchange ideas, and explore potential synergies—whether intellectual, financial, or infrastructural—through a bottom-up approach driven by participant interactions and shared interests.
– QUALIUS: ASSC Sattelite Event on Non-Ordinary States of Consciousness

Acknowledgements

Thanks to George Fejer for coming up with this initiative and offering to collaborate with QRI. Thanks to Till Holzapfel for introducing us and suggesting collaboration possibilities (and everyone who recently participated in the QRI Meetup in Amsterdam, many of whom will be joining this event!).

The retreat is made possible by the assembly of an extraordinary team across four research tracks:

Track 1 – Measuring Subjective Effects (organized by Timo Torsten Schmidt and Cyril Costines, see: CIRCE). This track develops open-science strategies for capturing and comparing altered states using validated psychometrics and large-scale data platforms.

Track 2 – Virtual Reality for Altered States (Curated by Keisuke Suzuki, Pawel Motyka, and George Fejer). This track explores how VR and cybernetic feedback systems can induce, modulate, and investigate non-ordinary experiences. Includes contributions from the Viscereality Project.

Track 3 – Lived Experience in Consciousness Research (by Mar Estaralles and Jonas Mago), which explores how introspection, contemplative practice, and lived first-person perspectives can be integrated into rigorous consciousness research.

And QRI collaborators working on Track 4 – Formalizing the Non-Ordinary State Space (full list of collaborators TBA soon). This fourth track focuses on computational and phenomenological modeling of non-ordinary states. We’ll explore how structural features of experience can be visualized, compared, and potentially modulated, and how to integrate these replications into rigorous studies.

We’re grateful to the ALIUS Research Group for setting up this event, ASSC for accepting the retreat as an official satellite event of the conference, and to the broader consciousness research community for cultivating a space where formal theory, lived experience, and empirical investigation can converge.

If your work lives in this space (or if you’d like it to) consider applying today.

Infinite bliss!
Andrés 🙂