Are there similarities between dementia and spiritual awakening? The phenomenology of the dissolution of the self in dementia and in spiritually transformative experiences

I presented a poster about my research onto the similarities between dementia and spiritual awakening at the The Science of Consciousness Conference in Barcelona, July 6-11, 2025. This page shows my abstract, the presentation (from July 9) and the literature I refer to in my presentation. For further explorations, presentations, cooperations please contact me directly: info@bettinawichers.de

If you are interested in a cooperation with me/ my research please see the links for the proposed research project above or here: Forschung/ Research

M heartfelt thankyou to all the people who supported this journey with a financial contribution which was essential for me not only going onto that journey but also to feel free to enjoy it intensively! See the list of my supporters so far at the end of this page. If you want to make a contribution to my furter work - research and writing - there are several possibilities which you also find at the very end of this page. 

Please note: I applied for a oral presentation but was excepted for a poster presentation. As I see it as important that my perspectives are connected with this field of science of consciousness I adapted my content into a poster. Finally I can see now that it was a great force behind that - it forced me to work out a much broader perspective of my research and to condense as much content into it than it would have been possible in a 15 min oral presentation. 

In my presentation, I provide insights into my research into the possible phenomenological parallels between dementia and spiritually transformative experiences or the experience of spiritual awakening: the experience of the dissolution of the self. My professional experience as a clinical supervisor in the field of dementia, my own process after a spiritually transformative experience, and insights from interviews with, among others, relatives of people with dementia, but also with people with spiritually transformative experiences, all flow into this research.

This research began with perceptions I had during my many years of work as a gerontologist (M.Sc.) in clinical supervision in gerontopsychiatric care, where I observed something in people with advanced dementia that I call the ‘unconscious void’, a state of consciousness in which ‘nothing’ seemed to be happening in these people, in which there was no restlessness, no fear, and not even thoughts seemed to be present. For a long time I could not explain this intuitive perception to myself, until one day I had an extraordinary experience of consciousness myself, an ‘experience of nothingness’, ‘ajata’, in the wake of which my previous self- and world-relationships were radically dissolved. I had no spiritual practice, but had this experience while contemplating a scientific text, which opened up an opening that caught me completely unprepared.

The literature I am refering to in my research is from a broad range of scientific and spiritual traditions. I refer here only to some sources which are directly connected to this presentation. 

You will get an overview about my research for now (June 2025) from this article: 

• Wichers B., (2025). Dementia and the Dissolution of the Self - A Transpersonal Perspective Journal of Transpersonal Research, 17 (1), 31-40

List of References 

• Adyashanti (2010). The end of your world. Uncensored straight talk on the nature of enlightenment. Louisville, CO: Sounds True.
• Angerer, R., & Rae, R. (2022). Development as transcendental pluralism: Process, reliability, and validity. SSRN Electronic Journal. Retrieved from: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4225308
• Atchley, R.C. (2011). How spiritual experience and development interact with aging. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 43(2), 156-165.
• Cook-Greuter, S.R. (2014). Ego development: A full-spectrum theory of vertical growth and meaning making. [Online document] Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/publica-tion/356357233
• Cooper, A.C., Ventura, B., & Northoff, G. (2022). Beyond the veil of duality—topographic reorganization model of meditation. Neuroscience of Consciousness, 2022.
• Corneille, J.S., & Luke, D.P. (2021). Spontaneous Spiritual Awakenings: Phenomenology, Altered States, Individual Differences, and Well-Being. Frontiers in Psychology, 12.
• Dass, R. (2001). Still Here: Embracing Aging, Changing, and Dying. Riverhead Books.
• Freimann, A., Mayseless, O., Hart, T., & Johnson, A. (2024). Living transcendence: A phenomenological study of spiritual exemplars. The Humanistic Psychologist. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/hum0000359
• Garcia-Romeu, A. (2010). Self-Transcendence as a Measurable Transpersonal Construct. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 42, 26.
• Grof, S., & Grof, C. (1989). Spiritual Emergency: When Personal Transformation Becomes a Crisis. TarcherPerigee.
• Josipovic, Z. (2019). Nondual awareness: Consciousness-as-such as non-representational reflexivity. Neuroscience of Consciousness, 2019(1)
• Josipovic, Z. (2021). Implicit–explicit gradient of nondual awareness or consciousness as such. Neuroscience of Consciousness, 7(2), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1093/nc/niab031
• Kitwood, T. (1997). Dementia Reconsidered: The Person Comes First. Open University Press.
• Laukkonen, R.E., & Slagter, H.A. (2021). From many to (n)one: Meditation and the plasti-city of the predictive mind. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 128, 199-217.
• Laukkonen, R.E., Sacchet, M.D., Barendregt, H., Devaney, K.J., Chowdhury, A., & Slagter, H.A. (2023). Cessations of consciousness in meditation: Advancing a scientific under-standing of nirodha samāpatti. Progress in Brain Research, 280, 61-87.
  https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.pbr.2022.12.007
• Lenzoni, S., Morris, R.G., & Mograbi, D.C. (2020). The petrified self 10 years after: Current evidence for mnemonic anosognosia. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 465. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00465
• Lindström, L., Goldin, P.R., Mårtensson, J., & Cardeña, E. (2023). Nonlinear brain corre-lates of trait self-boundarylessness. Neuro-science of Consciousness, 2023.
• Maturana, H. R., & Varela, F. J. (1980). Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living. Spring
• Metzinger, T. (2020). Minimal phenomenal expe-rience: Meditation, tonic alertness, and the phenomenology of “pure” consciousness. Philosophy and the Mind Sciences,1(I), 7. https://philosophymindscience.org/index.php/phimisci/article/view/8960
• Newberg, A., & d’Aquili, E. (2001). Why God Won’t Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief. Ballantine Books.
• O’Fallon, T. (2015). The evolution of the human soul: Developmental practices in spiritual guidance. [Master’s Thesis]. Lorain Center for Incarnational Spirituality, Issaquah, WA https://www.terriofallon.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/The-Evolution-Of-The-Human-Soul-10.pdf 
• Rogers, C.R. (1995). On becoming a person: A therapist's view of psychotherapy. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.
• Sabat, S. R. (2001). The Experience of Alzheimer’s Disease: Life Through a Tangled Veil. Blackwell.
• Segal, S. (1998). Collision with the Infinite. Life be-yond the personal self. San Diego, CA: Blue Dove Press.
• Tornstam, L. (2005). Gerotranscendence: A developmental theory of positive aging. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company.
• Wacks, V.Q. (2011). The elder as sage, old age as spiritual path: Towards a transpersonal gerontology. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 43(2), 127-155.
• Wichers, B. (2011): Entwurf für ein Integrales Demenz-Konzept. Masterarbeit. [Draft for an Integral Dementia-Concept] (Unpublished Master’s thesis). University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Göttingen, Germany.
• Wilber, K. (2006). Integral spirituality. A startling new role for religion in the modern and postmodern world. Kerala, India: Integral Books.
• Wilber, K. (2000). Sex, ecology, spirituality. Boulder, CO: Shambala.
• WHO (World Health Organization), (2019). ICD-10 Version 2019, V Mental and behavioural disorders (F00-F09) Organic, including symptomatic, mental disorders [Web page]. Retrieved from: https://icd.who.int/browse10/2019/en#/F00-F09
• Wolfe, R. (n.d.). Ajata is. [Online document] Retrieved from: https://ajatasunyata.com/ajata-is

Practical and emotional support I got from Hanna Hündorf, who helped me with my poster presentation, Brigitte Eva Petri, and Frank Behrens, who are emotional supporter in the background, Corrie and Arnd Naundorf with several practical things before the journey, and Florian Wichers, who not only did the bookings for me but also had his smartphone always with him while I was traveling by plane for the very first time after 19 years and guided me from the distance if it was necessary. 

This research can't be done without the help of others. I have exhausted my own financial resources in this years-long process and am now relying on finding funding through other channels so that I can continue my research. If you have access to research funding and can recommend me, please get in touch. For a long time, this research has been based solely on my own resources, intellectual, spiritual and financial - I need support from institutions who are willing to take this into account. 

I like to quote my dear friend and colleague Roman Angerer, who was the only one who was able to keep contact on the intellectual level with me over these years, about me: "People like her, or should I say heroins like her, doing independent scientific research and theory building outside of the classical academic context are an essential driver for the creative progress of society." 

If you also like to support my research - please use my GoFundMe, Buy me a coffee, Paypal (info@bettinawichers.de),  or reach out for my bank account data via email: info@bettinawichers.de

Published 26.06.2025, Updated 16.07.2025