Happiness as a self-state and trait of consciousness: clinical hypnosis and saliva molecular biomarkers - a brief revision

The relationship between consciousness and neural activity, i.e., between mental and brain states, has been widely studied. However, the relation between consciousness and its biochemical markers is still undetermined. Altered states of consciousness (ASC), can be a learning process for the achievement of subjective states of happiness. Clinical hypnosis and guided meditation are fast learning techniques, leading to the desired subjective state. This subjective state of happiness has saliva molecular biomarkers and can be correlated with psychological assessments. Therefore, it is proposed a new approach of altered state of consciousness induction, associated with subjective states of happiness, using a specific methodology and analysis, named The Pursuit of Happiness model. This model: (1) Studies the use of a hypnotic induction technique, named The Way of Happiness, to achieve states and traits of consciousness associated happiness. (2) Proposes, in parallel, a biomedical analysis named: States and Traits of Consciousness: Saliva Molecular Biomarkers. (3) Correlates the objective saliva molecular biomarkers with the subjective psychological assessments. (4) Develops a Knowledge Discovery Database with datamining algorithms and bioinformatics tools to discover patterns that relates ASC, subjective states of happiness, saliva molecular biomarkers, peak experiences and self-consciousness.