Altered States: Defined and Categorized for Your Convenience
Because what part, if any, of waking consciousness is ordinary?
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Before I explain how I categorize the work that lives here, it’s important to define what an altered state is.
According to Merriam-Webster, altered states of consciousness are defined as “any of various states of awareness (as dreaming sleep, a drug-induced hallucinogenic state, or a trance) that deviate from and are usually clearly demarcated from ordinary waking consciousness.” Dictionary.com is a bit broader, defining altered states as “any modification of the normal state of consciousness or awareness, including drowsiness or sleep and also states created by the use of alcohol, drugs, hypnosis, or techniques of meditation.” Another definition, pulled from a 2015 article in the International Journal of Yoga, suggests that in addition to state changes induced by meditation, drugs, and food, “an altered state of consciousness is a change in one's normal mental state as a result of trauma or accident.” But there are problems with these—and most other—definitions.
The Problem With Defining Altered States
From an academic perspective, defining altered states of consciousness has proven to be incredibly difficult. Scientists who have attempted to do so seem to note the same thing: that in order to define an altered state of consciousness, one must first define a “normal” or “ordinary” state of consciousness. I assume that the many philosophers, psychologists, and neurologists who have pondered this idea eventually came to the same realization I did before abandoning the task entirely: what part, if any, of waking consciousness is ordinary? To quote Hunter S. Thompson, “I haven’t found a drug out there yet that can get you anywhere near as high as going out and getting into the weirdness of reality.” (I digress.)
Looking at yet another definition, this time taken from an article published in the journal Philosophical Psychology in 2009, “‘Altered State of Consciousness’… has been defined as a changed overall pattern of conscious experience, or as the subjective feeling and explicit recognition that one's own subjective experience has changed.” This one comes closest to defining the spectrum of experiences I seek to unpack here (even though the article in question actually goes on to argue against the above definition and propose one that’s more concrete). The reason I’m so fond of it is precisely because it is so vague. For me, the last half of the phrase really nails it: the subjective feeling and explicit recognition that one's own subjective experience has changed.
“I haven’t found a drug out there yet that can get you anywhere near as high as going out and getting into the weirdness of reality.”
Hunter S. Thompson
Consider the “big red button” I talk about in my Welcome post. I suggest that we are altering our “normal” state of being all day (and life) long with things like food, social media, walks, and meditation. Now consider the way these activities affect our subjective experience. I’m reminded of a walk I took yesterday after growing frustrated when the words no longer flowed from my fingertips. (One of my favourite things to do when I hit a wall is walk.) Changing up my environment and walking a mile or two in the rain took me from feeling sluggish and worn out to refreshed and ready to write — an explicit recognition that my subjective experience had changed.
Five Distinct Altered States of Consciousness
Exploring how we change our subjective experience begs for some sort of categorization. Thankfully, I do not have to come up with my own model. In 2012, German psychologist Dr. Dieter Vaitl proposed one composed of five distinct altered states:
Pharmacological (consider the short-term altered states induced by alcohol, cannabis, psychedelics, pharmaceutical drugs, and even seemingly innocuous substances such as caffeine)
Psychological (any altered state generated by the psyche, including meditation, hypnosis, listening to music, sensory deprivation, repeating mantras, using VR, and even our emotions)
Physical & Physiological (altered states affecting and generated by the body: sleep, sex, fasting, eating certain foods, exercise, dance and drumming, respiratory maneuvers such as breathwork, exposure to extreme temperatures through sauna or cold plunge, and many, many more)
Pathological (altered states that are the result of trauma or accident including brain injury, as well as epileptic or psychotic episodes)
Spontaneous (dreaming, daydreaming, out-of-body and near-death experiences)
You can expect the vast majority of work on A to Z of Altered States to cover the first three categories. I might venture into pathological or spontaneous altered states of consciousness from time to time, but I’m most interested in the types of altered states that we have the power to induce—for better or for worse.
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