# Psychedelic Experience **Opening (not a real abstract):** We have now seen the kinds of hypotheses that we can articulate using the conceptual framework of psychedelic space, with its component dimensions of scope, clarity, novelty, and duration. We have also seen how we need to be mindful of a range of complicating factors as we consider the empirical evidence for these hypotheses. In this chapter, we will look at the empirical evidence concerning the effects of psychedelics and meditation on attention. The reason for this choice of focus is that attention plays a crucial role in determining what appears in awareness. Roughly speaking, attention functions as a kind of gatekeeper for consciousness. Depending on the circumstances, it helps promote some mental contents into awareness and keep others out. Since psychedelics and meditation both clearly have a profound impact on awareness— **Authors:** [[Lyone Chapter 5 attention]]