Seeing fireworks during sex sounds like a description straight out of a romance novel, but according to growing research, it’s actually an apt way to describe truly explosive experiences—ones that actually shift your consciousness. For some people, these experiences are so intense that they experience vivid hallucinations. And you may be able to train yourself to induce similarly intense altered states.
There are physiological responses in the brain involving neurochemicals that are often equated to the effects of psychoactive drugs; this happens both during sexual activity itself, as well as in the subsequent period after orgasm when your body returns to its baseline state, called the resolution phase. Because of these chemicals, it shouldn’t be surprising that sex can trigger altered states of consciousness, says Rui Miguel Costa, DVM, PhD, assistant professor at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidade Europeia, Lisbon.
For instance, one study Costa coauthored found that sexual responsiveness—including satisfaction, desire, and arousal—was related to higher bodily awareness and reduced awareness of space and time. This loss of awareness tends to increase as sexual arousal gets higher. Satisfying sexual activity is much like a “flow state,” where attention is highly focused on something that is intrinsically pleasurable. Flow states might also happen during activities such as creative output, or if you’re feeling “in the zone” during a workout or game.
With dual masters in psychology and education, Dori Lewis cofounded the psychedelic therapy training clinic Elemental Psychedelics in Fort Collins, Colorado, where she teaches about altered states of consciousness. Lewis explains that time can feel warped if you’re somatically present, which can be a pretty common experience during sex. An hour may feel like 20 minutes. That’s because you might be really, deeply present to the experience of your body—a level of awareness which operates outside of the typical kind of time that we live in. This is the difference between an external experience and an interoceptive experience, she continues.
People may also experience a change in their sense of self during these altered states of consciousness, according to Costa. During sex, your usual lines of thought and internal dialogue recede to give space for a flood of sensations and sometimes fantasies. During the resolution phase, a more open and flexible self may emerge, with loosened thought association and enhanced imaginativeness—this relaxation may be more pronounced if orgasm occurs, he explains.
This might be because you’re so focused on the experience and nothing else, “you don’t need your mind in the same way” you typically do throughout the day, Lewis explains.
Jenny Wade, PhD, a transpersonal psychologist, interviewed nearly 100 people about transcendence during sex, which resulted in feelings of deep peace, out-of-body experiences, past-life recall, and more according to Psychology Today. Wade also published a study in the International Journal of Healing and Caring, which includes anecdotes of altered states people experience during sex, with participants even describing near-death experiences where they float above the room and see themselves.
Other studies have revealed even more mind-bending states of altered consciousness during sex—ones that bear a striking similarity to psychedelic trips. For instance, a review published in the International Journal of Transpersonal Studies found that people have reported phenomena including merging with a partner, speaking in tongues, and feeling electricity shoot out their hands during sex.
These reports mimic some effects of taking DMT—a psychedelic that produces brief but intense hallucinations, such as a strong visual or auditory experience. This supports the theory that the cervix and the pineal gland may release endogenous DMT, though this hasn’t yet been confirmed through formal research, explains Suzannah Weiss, sex therapist, certified sex educator, and author of two books on sexual empowerment.
“People are most likely to experience [psychedelic-like responses] when they are in a calm, relaxed state and trust their partners,” says Weiss. “It also helps to practice mindfulness, awareness of bodily sensations, so that you’re more able to stay present during sex.”
According to Costa, it’s not totally clear if altered consciousness occurs more in one sex than the other. He notes that it seems to be associated with sexual arousal in women, perhaps because contextual factors influence female sexual responsiveness more strongly. “A greater degree of alteration of consciousness generally implies a higher degree of surrender to the present moment,” he adds.
While rare, some people can experience visions of colorful shapes or patterns, triggered by sensations during or shortly after sex. Costa says this phenomenon, called sexual synesthesia, is an uncommon characteristic, but also is likely underreported. Some Reddit users have shared their own experiences in various posts on the forum r/Synesthesia, and anecdotally, women seem to experience sexual synesthesia more than men.
One Redditor describes feeling like they’ve been transported to another place, like a meadow full of flowers and stars. They say it’s very difficult for them to concentrate on anything happening in reality, and that they totally lose track of time during sex. Another experiences different visualizations, describing a time during climax when they saw an explosion of color, like brightly colored ribbons and streamers. Separately, Lewis says she has experienced visual scenes during sex. She also adds that altered-state experiences can happen more when you’re in certain sexual dynamics, like BDSM or kink play.
To that end, altering your own consciousness during sex might be as simple as engaging in breath work or experimenting with psychedelics.
A recent study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, also authored by Costa, suggests that engaging frequently in sexual fantasizing may enhance partner-focused mental imagery vividness. “Accepting and cultivating sexual fantasies may also enhance sexual desire, dispel sexual preoccupations, and increase focus on sexual sensations, which may facilitate the emergence of enjoyable and blissful alterations of consciousness,” Costa says.
Sometimes, psychedelics can be an aid to altered consciousness, but Lewis says with enough practice and intentionality, it’s possible to teach yourself to achieve an altered state—and not just related to sex. Seeing colors can also occur with music, in nature, or during dance, for example. And associative training, such as practicing color-letter associations, may help induce synesthesia in non-synesthetes.
While synesthesia-like experiences may be developed through associative training, it’s unclear whether these would be true synesthesias, Costa says. Unfortunately, if you are someone who isn’t already prone to altered states of consciousness, they are probably mental associations that fade over time, not true visions that keep recurring automatically.
When it comes to sex and altering our consciousness, Lewis says people may be seeking a unique experience, and an altered state or higher state of consciousness is one way to achieve that.
“I think there’s something novel about shifting your mental perspective from day-to-day consciousness into something different,” Lewis says. “Having an experience that’s kind of unique to just the two of you gives people a sense of connection and intimacy.”
February / March 2026
This issue is optimized for mobile/tablet viewing. It's also available on Apple News+.
Featuring:
➡ Archaeologists Found a Skeleton Wearing a Silver Amulet. The Discovery Is Rewriting the History of Christianity.
➡ The Stray Dogs of Chernobyl Are Rapidly Mutating. Scientists Are Still Trying to Figure Out What It Means.
➡ New Evidence Could Upend What We Know About the Charles Lindbergh Baby Murder
➡ Police Found Mysterious Notes in a Dead Man's Pocket. They Turned Out to Be Codes That Not Even the FBI Can Break.
December 2025 / January 2026
This issue is optimized for mobile/tablet viewing. It's also available on Apple News+.
Featuring:
➡ An Angel of Death Preyed on Hospital Patients for Years.
➡ How America's Most Advanced Lab Brought the Killer to Justice.
➡ A 3,000-Ton Locomotive Was Loose, Unstoppable, and Filled With Toxic Cargo
➡ An Underwater Cave Promised Adventure and Glory. No One Expected It to Become a Tomb.
➡ Your Consciousness Can Predict the Future, Some Scientists Say
October / November 2025
This issue is optimized for mobile/tablet viewing. It's also available on Apple News+.
Featuring:
➡ Inside the Secret Island Where Death Is Optional
➡ A Legendary Ship Sank Without Warning. Fifty Years Later, Science Could Finally Solve the Mystery of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
➡ This Tech Rebel Threw Away $900 Million in a Municipal Dump. Can Robots Find His Lost Fortune?
➡ Sex Workers, LSD, and Mind Control: What Happened in the CIA's Lab of Nightmares at 225 Chestnut Street
August / September 2025
This issue is optimized for mobile/tablet viewing. It's also available on Apple News+.
Featuring:
➡ The Worst Air Disaster in American History Happened in Broad Daylight. Will More Mistakes Keep Happening?
➡ NASA Has a Plan to Save Earth from Planet-Destroying Asteroids. It Sounds Even Wilder than Science Fiction.
➡ A Naval Officer Says Underwater UFOs Are Legitimate Threats. The Evidence Is Hard to Ignore.
➡ When You Die, a Psychedelic Molecule Shapes Your Final Moments of Consciousness, a New Theory Reveals.
June/July 2025
This issue is optimized for mobile/tablet viewing. It's also available on Apple News+.
Featuring:
➡ This Undersea Explorer Found America's Greatest Sunken Treasure. Then Things Got Really Weird.
➡ Is Bigfoot Hiding in the Swamps of Florida? This Group Says It Has Proof.
➡ Scientists May Have Gotten the Global-Warming Timeline Seriously Wrong.
➡ A Third State Now Exists Between Life and Death, Some Scientists Now Believe
April/May 2025
This issue is optimized for mobile/tablet viewing. It's also available on Apple News+.
Featuring:
➡ Scientists Successfully Revive a Dead Brain, Redefining the Boundary Between Life and Death
➡ Fingerprints Keep Leading to Wrongful Convictions. Why Do Courts Still Rely on Them?
➡ For 80 Years, the North Sea Held a Deadly Killer. Now Scientists Are Racing to Defuse the Threat.
➡ They Built the Quietest Room in the World. Why Is Everyone So Afraid to Step Inside It?
February/March 2025
This issue is optimized for mobile/tablet viewing. It's also available on Apple News+.
Featuring:
➡ This Guy Says He Knows the Truth About UFOs. Should We Believe Him?
➡ Scientists Are Now One Step Away From Solving Nuclear Fusion—And Unlocking Unlimited Energy.
➡ A Million-Dollar Heist Rocked the Art World— Then Amateur Sleuths Cracked the Case
➡ A New Era of Missile Warfare Has Begun—and the U.S. Isn’t Ready
December/January 2025
This issue is optimized for mobile/tablet viewing.
It's also available on Apple News+.
Featuring:
➡ A Clue Hidden in a 400-Year-Old Map Might Have Just Solved One of America's Greatest Mysteries
➡ Inside the Deranged Plot to Smuggle Cocaine With an Armed Soviet-Era Submarine
➡ This Brilliant Engineer Helped Build the B2 Bomber—Then He Sold America's Stealth Secrets to China
➡ Your Consciousness Can Connect With the Whole Universe
October/November 2024
This issue is optimized for mobile/tablet viewing.
It's also available on Apple News+.
Featuring:
➡Untold Secrets Reveal How the Castle Bravo Test Became America’s Worst Nuclear Disaster
➡ This Body Was Found Preserved on a Block of Ice in a Colorado Shed. It Had Been There for 30 Years.
➡ It Was Supposed to Be America's Greatest Victory in Space—Then It Became NASA’s Worst Nightmare
➡ The Sidewinder Missile Ruled the Air—Then the Soviets Stole the Design
August/September 2024
This issue is optimized for mobile/tablet viewing. It's also available on Apple News+.
Featuring:
➡This Man Knows the Truth About Amelia Earhart. Why Doesn't Anyone Believe Him?
➡ The Army's Machine Gun Is No Match for Cheap Chinese Body Armor. So It's Making a New One.
➡ Russia Built a Stunning Rival to the Supersonic Concorde—and Then It Fell From the Sky
➡ A Navy Admiral Says Underwater UFOs Are a Threat—and the Pentagon is Withholding Secrets
June / July 2024
This issue is optimized for mobile/tablet viewing. It's also available on Apple News+.
Featuring:
➡4 Black Eggs Have Surfaced From the Depths of the Ocean— and the Mysterious Creatures Inside Are Baffling Science
➡ A $2 Million Treasure Appeared in a Kentucky Cornfield. No One Knows Where It Came From.
➡ A Million-Dollar Heist Rocked the Art World— Then Amateur Sleuths Cracked the Case
➡ A New Era of Missile Warfare Has Begun—and the U.S. Isn’t Ready
April May / 2024
This issue is optimized for mobile/tablet viewing. It's also available on Apple News+.
Featuring:
➡The Man Who Knows Too Much About Area 51
➡ How the FBI Took Down the Internet's Most Dangerous Website
➡ A Staggering New Clue Emerges in the D.B. Cooper Hijacking Mystery
➡ The Wildest Prison Break in U.S. History
➡ The Secret to a Perfect Lawn Lies in One of These 10 Electric Lawnmowers
February / March 2024
This issue is optimized for mobile/tablet viewing. It's also available on Apple News+.
Featuring:
➡The Incredible Mystery of NASA’s Missing Moondust
➡ Inside the Final Fiery Minutes of the East Palestine Train Wreck
➡ Scientists Believe They’ve Unlocked Consciousness—and It Connects to the Entire Universe
➡ Why This Unstoppable Stealth Bomber Will Rule the Skies
➡ America Is Developing a New Nuclear Bomb—But Can’t Test Whether It Works
➡ The 8 Best, Expert-Recommended Solar-Powered Generators
Special Issue: Nukes
➡ How Deadly Nuclear Waste Is Menacing This St. Louis Neighborhood
➡ The Terrifying History of Russia's Nuclear Submarine Graveyard
➡ Strange Mutations in Stray Dogs Near Chernobyl Suggest They Are Rapidly Evolving
➡ America Dumped 56 Million Gallons of Radioactive Material Along the Columbia River—Then It Started to Leak
December 2023 / January 2024
This issue is optimized for mobile/tablet viewing. It's also available on Apple News+.
Featuring:
➡ A New Clue In Amelia Earhart's Disappearance Emerges From the Ocean
➡ How an Alleged Water Bandit Stole $25 Million in Water from Thirsty California Farms
➡ A Coal Mine Exploded and 300 Miners Died. What Went Wrong?
➡ China Just Built a Terrifying New Aircraft Carrier and May Soon Dominate the Seas
October / November 2023
This issue is optimized for mobile/tablet viewing. It's also available on Apple News+.
Featuring:
➡ How Rats Took Over Our Cities—And Why We Can't Stop Them
➡ This Language Is on the Verge of Extinction. Can It Be Saved?
➡ America's Deadliest Warplane Returns in a New Doomsday Role
➡ This Amateur Diving Group Kept Solving Cold Cases. Then Its Own Skeletons Surfaced.
➡ The Scientific Breakthrough That Could Put an End to Gray Hair.
August/September 2023
This issue is optimized for mobile/tablet viewing. It's also available on Apple News+.
Featuring:
➡ Immortality Is in Reach. But It’s Not What We Imagined.
➡ Your Next iPhone (and Nuclear Subs) Will Be Powered By Space Metal
➡Scientists Now Think We Can Build a Warp Drive
➡ China and Russia Have Cracked the Stealth Code. Can the U.S. Regain Air Dominance?
June/July 2023
This issue is optimized for mobile/tablet viewing. It's also available on Apple News+.
Featuring:
➡ The CIA’s Secret Plan to Build a Laser Beam Powered by the Human Mind
➡ The 747 Ruled the Skies—Then One Slammed Into a Mountain
➡The Race to Contain AI Before Singularity
➡ These Florida Homes Aren’t Just Hurricane-Proof—They’re Blueprints for the Future
April/May 2023
This issue is optimized for mobile/tablet viewing. It's also available on Apple News+.
Featuring:
➡ AI Is on the Cusp of Taking Control—This Is How It May All Go Wrong
➡ There’s No Weapon Russia Fears More Than the HIMARS Rocket Launcher
➡The Nuclear-Submarine Arms Race Is Getting Intense, and the U.S. Just Took a Massive Leap Forward
➡ Iran Is Becoming a Drone Superpower—By Stealing American Technology
February/March 2023
This issue is optimized for mobile/tablet viewing. It's also available on Apple News+.
Featuring:
➡ The Greatest Treasure Hunt in American History Ended—and Then Things Got Weird
➡ These Are the High-Powered Weapons Ukraine Needs to Send Russia Running
➡ The Secret War to Take Out Iran’s Fleet of F-14 Jets
➡ Russia Is Trying to Intimidate the U.S. with Hypersonic Missiles and Big, Scary Nukes—And It's More Than a Threat
December 2022/January 2023
This issue is optimized for mobile/tablet viewing. It's also available on Apple News+.
Featuring:
➡ Is Death Real?
➡ China and Russia Are Dominating the Hypersonic Arms Race—And It’s Not Even Close
➡ When the South Fork Dam Broke, a Pennsylvania City Washed Away. Which Town Is Next?
➡ The Navy’s New $13 Billion Aircraft Carrier Is Already Obsolete. This Weapon Can Save It.
October/November 2022
This issue is optimized for mobile/tablet viewing. It's also available on Apple News+.
Featuring:
➡ Can America's M1 Abrams Still Compete With China's and Russia's Latest Battle Tanks?
➡ Inside the Final Minutes of the Concorde Disaster—and How It Doomed Supersonic Travel for Decades
➡ How the Massive Cargo Ship Felicity Ace Sank, Taking $400 Million Worth of Exotic Supercars With It
➡ I Turned My Old Gas-Guzzler Into a Zippy EV for $15,000
August/September 2022
This issue is optimized for mobile/tablet viewing. It's also available on Apple News+.
Featuring:
➡ Cosmic Secrets of the 17 Most Powerful Mega-Telescopes on Earth—and Beyond
➡ Can the Air Force's Secret, Hypersonic Jet Reclaim the Skies From Russia and China?
➡ For 50 Years, the Zodiac Killer's 340 Cipher Stumped the FBI—Then Three Amateurs Cracked the Code
➡ America's Most Fearsome Howitzer Has Entered the War in Ukraine
June/July 2022
This issue is optimized for mobile/tablet viewing. It's also available on Apple News+.
Featuring:
➡ Every Single Drone Fighting in the Skies Over Ukraine
➡ How to Buy a New Car in 2022 Without Getting Fleeced
➡ This Megastructure Could Keep Us Alive Forever
➡ The Race to Revolutionize EV Batteries
Jordan Smith is a writer and editor with over 5 years of experience reporting on health and fitness news and trends. She is a published author, studying for her personal trainer certification, and over the past year became an unintentional Coronavirus expert. She has previously worked at Health, Inc., and 605 Magazine and was the editor-in-chief of her collegiate newspaper. Her love of all things outdoors came from growing up in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
此内容由惯性聚合(RSS阅读器)自动聚合整理，仅供阅读参考。 原文来自 — 版权归原作者所有。