Mindskede

Mindskede is a neologism used in contemporary discussions of consciousness to describe a proposed cognitive state in which mental content becomes temporarily decoupled from immediate perception, enabling a predominantly internal stream of thought and imagery. The term is not widely standardized and has no formal definition in peer-reviewed psychology, but common usages describe it as a state that can be induced by meditation, sensory deprivation, repetitive tasks, or trance-like activities, and is characterized by selective attention to inner experience, altered sense of time, and heightened mental imagery. In this state, individuals may report reduced responsiveness to external stimuli, increased introspection, and vivid recall or construction of internal narratives. Mindskede is sometimes discussed in relation to phenomena such as mindfulness, flow, lucid dreaming, and depersonalization, but remains distinct in its emphasis on inward focus and transient decoupling rather than heightened external skill or dream control.

Scholars note that the lack of standardized criteria makes mindskede difficult to measure across studies, and caution against overgeneralizing from anecdotal reports. Some critics argue that the term risks conflating well-established states of consciousness with broader subjective experiences. Proponents see value in using mindskede as a descriptive label for a common phenomenology encountered in meditation, hypnagogia, learning, and creative ideation.

See also: altered states of consciousness, mindfulness, trance, hypnagogia, lucid dreaming, depersonalization, cognitive phenomenology.