Name: From Concerts to Cannabis: Immersion and Altered States
Start: 2026-05-18T19:30:00
End: 2026-05-18T21:30:00
Location: Saracens Head

Immersion and altered states are psychological experiences where attention narrows, awareness shifts, and perception transforms. Mike dives into how audiences become immersed during performances, looking at how our brains and bodies quite literally synchronise. Sorcha takes a look at effects of cannabis, from how it’s perceived to what actually happens inside the brain during this altered state.

When Our Hearts Beat Together: Audience Immersion in Performance

Dr Mike Richardson (Research Associate, Department of Psychology, University of Bath)

We’ve all had that experience. Time falls away, sensations of hunger, thirst, or even needing to pee disappear, we don’t hear our name called, miss the doorbell… what?! It’s 1am already! Whether your tipple is the latest Martin Scorsese film, reading Lord of the Rings for the 4th time, or getting your knees up at a warehouse rave, we’ve all had a moment of total immersion. Did we really evolve to universally and unequivocally get hooked on the season finale of The Traitors? In this talk I will be exploring how and why we get immersed and what happens in our brains and our bodies when we do.

On the "High" Way to Adulthood: How Cannabis Affects the Adolescent Brain

Sorcha Hamilton (PhD student, Department of Psychology, University of Bath)

Adolescents in the UK use cannabis more than any other age group, yet most cannabis research focuses on adults. So why does age matter when studying its effects on the brain? In adolescence, the brain is still developing systems for learning, decision-making and emotion. This means cannabis may affect young people differently from adults. In this talk, we'll explore how cannabis interacts with the brain. Using our brain imaging research and interviews with young people, we'll examine how adolescent and adult brains respond differently, and what this means for supporting harm reduction.

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