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The main aim of this paper is to introduce a new theory of conscious states that incorporates principles of physics, neurobiology, and psychoanalysis.

These hypotheses can be tested by examining brain activity and associated cognition in other candidate primary states such as rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and early psychosis and comparing these with non-primary states such as normal waking consciousness and the anaesthetized state. It is also proposed that entry into primary states depends on a collapse of the normally highly organized activity within the default-mode network (DMN) and a decoupling between the DMN and the medial temporal lobes (which are normally significantly coupled).

It is argued that this entropy suppression furnishes normal waking consciousness with a constrained quality and associated metacognitive functions, including reality-testing and self-awareness. Moreover, if primary states are critical, then this suggests that entropy is suppressed in normal waking consciousness, meaning that the brain operates just below criticality. Indeed, since there is a greater repertoire of connectivity motifs in the psychedelic state than in normal waking consciousness, this implies that primary states may exhibit “criticality,” i.e., the property of being poised at a “critical” point in a transition zone between order and disorder where certain phenomena such as power-law scaling appear. Based on neuroimaging data with psilocybin, a classic psychedelic drug, it is argued that the defining feature of “primary states” is elevated entropy in certain aspects of brain function, such as the repertoire of functional connectivity motifs that form and fragment across time. The psychedelic state is considered an exemplar of a primitive or primary state of consciousness that preceded the development of modern, adult, human, normal waking consciousness. Entropy is applied here in the context of states of consciousness and their associated neurodynamics, with a particular focus on the psychedelic state. 6Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas (CONICET), Buenos Aires, ArgentinaĮntropy is a dimensionless quantity that is used for measuring uncertainty about the state of a system but it can also imply physical qualities, where high entropy is synonymous with high disorder.

5Neurology Department and Brain Imaging Center, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.4The Beckley Foundation, Beckley Park, Oxford, UK.3Department of Computing, Imperial College London, London, UK.2C3NL, Division of Brain Sciences, Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK.1Division of Brain Sciences, Department of Medicine, Centre for Neuropsychopharmacology, Imperial College London, London, UK.Hellyer 2, Murray Shanahan 3, Amanda Feilding 4, Enzo Tagliazucchi 5, Dante R. Carhart-Harris 1 *, Robert Leech 2, Peter J.