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. 2018 Mar 2;9:172. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2018.00172

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Copyright © 2018 Swanson.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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Aldous Huxley’s “cerebral reducing valve.” On the ‘inlet’ (right) side of the cerebral reducing valve is a vast ocean of all possible perceptual, emotional, and cognitive experiences. On the ‘outlet’ (left) side is our moment-to-moment stream of experience in normal waking life. Mechanisms inside the valve ‘reduce’ the character and contents of experience, ‘canalizing’ the ocean of possible experience into a more limited stream of waking consciousness aimed at maximum biological utility.