This research explores how reducing the influence of language in AI models, similar to the effects of psychedelics or meditation on the human brain, can simulate altered states of consciousness. The researchers systematically manipulated text and image attention weights in AI models, finding that reduced attention, particularly to text, led to outputs resembling states of unity, ego-loss, and minimal phenomenal experience, as measured by questionnaires. These findings suggest that language plays a key role in shaping conscious experience, both in humans and AI, and that manipulating language processing in AI could provide insights into the mechanisms of altered states. This research, while using AI models as an analogy, could have implications for understanding altered states in humans and their potential benefits for mental health.
