States of Consciousness

Almost a hundred years ago William James observed that ordinary consciousness is but one of many potential types of consciousness which surround it, separated from it by the thinnest of veils. Some of these other types of consciousness, such as dream sleep, are relatively well-known, while others, such as mystical states, are not so well understood.

A state of consciousness is a stable configuration or pattern of pyschological processes such as mood, memory, ability to reason, body sense, sense of self, and so on. Much of what is known by psychologists about consciousness is in fact the result of research focused on so-called altered states or alternative modes of consciousness, such as sleep, hypnosis, meditation, and the effects of pscyhoactive drugs. Research on these altered states allows us to infer what is "normal" in nonaltered states of consciousness.

It is not possible to divide states of being into the neat categories of consciousness and unconsciousness. Too many curious and interesting states lie between, challenging a simple definition. These altered states of consciousness defy objective description because they are intensely personal. Nevertheless, these experiences, which range from the mild distraction of a daydream to wild, drug-induced hallucinations, can have certain common characteristics.

Perceptions of the self and of the outside world may change -- some drugs, for example, radically alter perception of space and time. Scientists and artists have long been fascinated by altered states of consciousness and many, such as the British author Aldous Huxley (1894 -1963), experimented with drugs partly to see what they would do to the workings of the mind: Huxley's experiences with mescalin are recorded in his book 'The Doors of Perception (1954). Drugs, legal and illegal, can make the mind both less and more critical as users become less inhibited but also sometimes paranoid.

In an altered state of consciousness, we have a sense of touching on truths usually denied us in normal consciousness, and of exploring more fundamental aspects of the self. The term "altered states" covers a number of phenomena. Some arise naturally and automatically (dreaming for example, is thought to be common to all mammals). Others are attained through learned techniques such as meditation. Some are induced by drugs. Others still -- the paranormal states -- are highly controversial, and many people doubt their existence. The diverse nature of these states of consciousness raises many questions about the operation of the human mind. For example, Freud considered dreams to be essential maintenance for the mind, and some psychologists see dreams as devices that help to consolidate long term memories.

The issue of the paranormal is more complex because it is even harder to document than other forms of altered state experiences. However, if paranormal states, such as telepathy and psychokinesis, can be shown to have any substance, then it will be virtually impossible to discount non-material theories of consciousness.

To understand altered states one must assess subjective accounts of what it is like to "be in" these states, along with objective research that tries to identify their physiological basis and effects. These subjective and objective realities can be very different. For example, the Mekeo, a New Guinea tribe, have a concept of the soul that is very unlike the Christian one. In their viw, when a person dreams, the soul issues forth and has adventures in the landscape of sleep. The soul belongs to a particular body, but the physical brain has no control over its nocturnal doings. When a Mekeo wakes up, he is often worried about what his soul has got up to, because the consequences of its activities may return to haunt his waking self. To a physiologist, this model of different levels of consciousness seems to be mere superstition; yet to the Mekeo, it feels like experiential truth. In addition, because the mind becomes less critical during the experience of an altered state, it is difficult, if not impossible, to explain it in language that can be understood by someone who is not in that state.

The more we learn about altered states, the more it becomes apparent that the boundaries between conscious and unconscious, voluntary and automatic, awake and asleep, are blurred at the edges.



For millennia people have used drugs, such as opium to achieve altered states of consciousness. Many artists have believed that drugs could unleash creative forces. The British poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 - 1834) reputedly wrote his mysterious short poem "Kubla Khan" in an opium-induced haze. The French poets Arther Rimbaud (1854 - 1891) and Charles Baudelaire (1821 - 1867) both became addicts. In the 1960s, Timothy Leary and other beat gurus claimed that drugs such as LSD could take them to otherwise unreachable parts of the psyche. Those who fear the effects of drugs, however, maintain that these romantic claims are delusions, and that most people who take drugs do so because they cannot cope with reality.