Institute for Advanced Consciousness Studies

The Institute for Advanced Consciousness Studies (IACS) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research laboratory founded in 2019 in Santa Monica, California. The institute combines academic rigor with startup flexibility to study consciousness through neuroimaging, neuromodulation, virtual and augmented reality, and altered states of consciousness. IACS was co-founded by Nicco Reggente, a cognitive neuroscientist with a Ph.D. from UCLA, who serves as Principal Investigator and Research Director. The organization's president is Alexander (Sasha) Bystritsky, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist who is also Executive Director of the Tiny Blue Dot Foundation and a UCLA Professor Emeritus. The board includes prominent consciousness researchers Christof Koch, known for his work on the neural correlates of consciousness at the Allen Institute for Brain Science, and Giulio Tononi, the creator of Integrated Information Theory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The institute's research spans several major areas. Their meditation research, funded by the Tiny Blue Dot Foundation, develops personalized neurofeedback systems that use brain signals and virtual reality to help individuals achieve deep meditative states. Their technodelics program investigates technology-based alternatives to pharmacological psychedelic interventions, aiming to make transformative experiences accessible to people facing cultural or economic barriers to traditional psychedelic therapy. IACS's AI safety work centers on the project "Preventing Sociopathic Robots," funded by the Survival and Flourishing Fund and Foresight Institute. This work, published in Science Robotics in 2023, argues that current approaches to artificial empathy focus only on cognitive or performative processes while overlooking affect, thereby promoting sociopathic behaviors in AI systems. The researchers propose that AI agents need embodied vulnerability, homeostatic engagement, and genuine empathic capacity to develop prosocial behavior, rather than relying solely on external constraints. The institute has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and maintains active research collaborations with organizations including Joy Ventures, Pacific Institute of Medical Research, Unlikely Collaborators, the U.S. Air Force, and various academic institutions. Their work has been supported by the Survival and Flourishing Fund ($379,000 from Jaan Tallinn in the 2023-H1 round), Tiny Blue Dot Foundation, Unlikely Collaborators, and other funders. As of 2026, IACS has received a 4-out-of-4-star rating from Charity Navigator.