Transcript Section 8: Altered States of Consciousness (ASC)

Section 8: Altered States of
Consciousness (ASC)
By: Don Slack &
Melissa Townsend
Chapter 22: Drugs & Altered States
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Defining ASCs
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Objectively Defined
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“How they were induced”
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Drugs
 Various types
Hypnosis
Problem:
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“Very few ASCs are associated with unique physiological
patterns or with physiological or behavioral changes that map
directly onto changes in experience.” -Blackmore
No defined correlations between physiological alteration and
the experience perceived.
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Defining ASCs (cont’d)
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Subjectively Defined
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Pattern of mental functioning seems different to the
person such that they feel that their state of
consciousness is different from a “normal” state
Problem: What is a normal state of consciousness?
(SoC)
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Problem with sharing subjective definitions of ASCs with
others
An Even More Basic Problem
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Is there a consciousness to be altered?
Could consciousness be defined as just
behaviors and descriptions of subjective SoCs?
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(Eliminative materialism/functionalism)
Farthing’s List of Functions
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These mental functions at least appear to change while in an altered state of
consciousness:
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Attention
Perception
Imagery & Fantasy
Inner Speech
Memory
High Level Thought Processes
Meaning & Significance
Time Perception
Emotional Feeling & Expression
Arousal
Self-control
Suggestibility
Body Image
Sense of Personal Identity
Question: What mental functions are left?
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ASCs may only be definable by analyzing the whole system
Drugs!!!!!!!
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The book gives an extensive list of psychoactive drugs. Here
are the major groups:
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Stimulants
CNS Depressants
Narcotics
Antipsychotics
Antidepressants
Anesthetics
Psychedelics
What do you think of this: “Gregory’s unpleasant experience
in the laboratory illustrates how important set and setting are
in determining the effects of psychoactive drugs.” (p. 331)
Psychedelics
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Most psychedelics structural resemble one of the four neurotransmitters:
acetylcholine, norepinephrine, dopamine, and serotonin.
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Question: Are we just altering the hardware then?
“Minor” Psychedelics
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Cannabis
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Effects differ very widely from person to person, and over a range of doses.
Some commonly reported effects:
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Euphoria and relaxation at low doses
Fear and paranoia at higher doses
Enhancement of senses
Altered experience of time
Short term memory thought to be impaired.
“Major psychedelics”
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Example: LSD
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Effects:
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Hallucinations
“Deep Insights”
Sense of going on a journey
Final Thoughts on Psychedelics
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“Are any of these drug-induced ASCs valid,
truth-giving, truly spiritual experiences, or are
they just the ramblings of poisoned minds?”
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-Blackmore (337)
Chapter 23: Sleep, Dreams, &
Hypnotic States
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Questions:
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“What does it mean to say that ‘I become
conscious’ in a lucid dream? Aren’t you conscious
in ordinary dreams?”
“Who is the dreamer?”
Waking and Sleeping
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REM and non-REM states of sleep are physiologically
different
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REM:
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Brain is highly active
Resembles waking state
Motor function shut off
Sleeper is harder to waken
What do you think: Dream logic is wonderfully unlike waking
logic, with people being composites, objects transforming into
other objects, and people doing things for the strangest
reasons. All this is accepted by the dreamer who neither
notices how peculiar it all is nor realizes that it is a dream
(Blackmore, 340).
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What does this say about a single, constant, consciousness?
The Evolution of Dreams
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Why do we dream?
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Do animals dream?
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NOT “Why do we sleep?”
Why not? Many have REM sleep.
If they dream, are they conscious?
Dreams
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Lucid Dreams
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Definition: A dream in which you know during the dream
that you are dreaming.
Previously thought not to exist
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Hearne and LaBerge designed an experiment in which a man
signaled to them (via a particular series of eye movements)
that he was conscious while in a dream during REM.
Are you conscious?
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Are you able to influence the content, or does it just feel that
way?
Subjects are able to retain roughly the same measure of time
during lucid dreams as when they are awake.
Are there levels of consciousness?
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“Becoming lucid feels like waking up or becoming more conscious”
(Blackmore, 353)?
Chapter 24: Exceptional Human
Experience
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Exceptional Human Experiences (EHEs)
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Definition: a broad category encompassing psychic visions,
hypnotic regression, lucid dreams, peak experiences, and
religious/mystical experiences.
Responses to EHEs
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Dismissed as inventions/lies
Pathological states that need treatment
Evidence that materialist science is wrong and must be
expanded to include the paranormal, the existence of the
soul, the power of consciousness to reach beyond the body
or the existence of God.
They are normal.
Out of Body Experiences (OBEs)
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Definition:
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An experience a person seems to perceive the
world from a location outside their physical body.
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Emphasis on the word experience; whether anything
actually leaves the body or not is open to investigation.
Theories of OBEs
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Theories
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Dualist
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Theosophy
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An OBE is an “Astral Projection”
 Astral Projection: When consciousness leaves the physical in the form of
the astral body sometimes remaining connected by a silver cord.
Problem:
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We have more than one body:
 Astral, Etheric, Physical, and several other higher bodies, all of which
can separate.
If the astral body really sees the physical world during astral projection, then it
must be interacting with it and hence it must be a detectable physical entity,
yet it is supposed to be nonphysical and all attempts at detection have failed.
Monist
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OBEs = imagination + ESP
Nothing leaves the body
Theories of OBEs (cont’d)
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OBEs = ASCs
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Not akin to dreams
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Body Image Disruption
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Many take place while awake.
Does not resemble REM
Sensory input and the body image are disrupted. In
response, the cognitive system constructs a new body
image, and a plausible world derived from memory and
imagination, using the kinds of bird’s eye views that are
common in memory and dreams.
Attributable to disruption of temporal lobe function.
Near Death Experiences (NDEs)
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Ingredients for an NDE:
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A tunnel
An OBE
A brilliant white or golden light
Positive and loving emotions
Visions of another world
Meetings with other beings
A life review
The decision to return
Some are peaceful, some are hellish
Interpreting NDEs
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The similarities across ages and cultures suggest that NDEs have something
interesting to teach us about death and consciousness… but what?
“Afterlife hypothesis”
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NDEs require a new science of consciousness
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Proof of existence of a soul that can survive death.
NDErs describe clear states of consciousness with lucid reasoning and memory
when their brain is severely impaired, or even in a state of clinical death.
Some NDErs report knowledge of things/occurances that they could (according
to our science) have known about.
Dying Brain Hypothesis
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Severe stress, extreme fear, and cerebral anoxia all cause cortical disinhibition
and uncontrolled brain activity.
Tunnels and lights are caused by disinhibition in visual cortex.
Mystical Experiences
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James’ four marks that justify a “mystical” experience
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Ineffability
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Noetic quality
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The sense that mystical states are states of knowledge, insight or illumination.
They carry a lasting sense of authority.
Transiency
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The experience cannot be described in words and therefore cannot be a meme.
Rarely last more than ½ hour – 1 hour before fading.
Cannot be clearly remembered afterwards, but are easily recognized when they
occur.
Passivity
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Cannot be induced
Once it begins, the mystic feels as though he/she is not in control.
Perhaps
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The deepest mystical insights are not only
monist and non-paranormal, but are perfectly
compatible with science
“The universe is one, the separate self is an
illusion, immortality is not in the future but
now, everything is as it is and there is nothing
to be done” – Blackmore 368.