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Conference hydra::dejavu

Title:Psychic Phenomena
Notice:Please read note 1.0-1.* before writing
Moderator:JARETH::PAINTER
Created:Wed Jan 22 1986
Last Modified:Tue May 27 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:2143
Total number of notes:41773

76.0. "Altered States of Consciousness -- a Metaphor" by 6249::COOPER (Topher Cooper) Wed Feb 05 1986 09:04

Here's a metaphor for you.  It's a pretty good metaphor, but remember it
is ONLY a metaphor.  As the NLP people say "anything I tell you may be a
lie, but it will be a useful lie."

This metaphor is based on Charles Tart's theory of consciousness, from which
the now common term "Altered State of Consciousness" (ASC) is taken.

Consciousness consists (within the metaphor) of many interacting functional
pieces (which do not necessarily correspond to the pieces which are convenient
in describing the brain).  We'll call these "units."  The units work together
much the way a sophisticated music synthesizer does.  "Signals" come in from
the outside, are generated from within and are taken from storage (memory).
These "signals" are filtered, mixed, transformed, put back in various
different storage units, delivered to the outside, and used to modify the way
the units do all of these things. Signals may even be used to control their
own source (feedback).

There is an important difference, however, between the music synthesizer and
our metaphorical version of consciousness.  In the synthesizer, the "units"
may be controlled, and even, to a limited extent, switched on and off, by each
other but the way they are wired together can only be changed from "outside".
In consciousness, however, the the way the units are wired together is also
under the control of the units themselves.  Feedback is constantly modifying
the ways that the units are wired together in response to both internal and
external events.

The way these units are wired together influence many things (almost
everything, in fact).  It influences what we find important and what we feel
we can ignore.  It influences how we react to things.  It influences how we
think about things.  It influences what things we think are similar and what
things are dissimilar.  It influences what we are able to do.  It even
influences what truth is to us -- there are truths accessible from some
states that are not accessible, or even meaningful, in others.

A system with a lot of feedback like this frequently has things called
"fixed-points" or "attractors".  When the system is in a state which isn't
near an attractor it tends to change -- to drift.  When it is near an
attractor it tends to change to be closer to the attractor.  When it is at
an attractor it tends to stay there until pushed away.

Think of a large sheet of flexible material.  The sheet is pulled down various
amounts in various places (we'll refer to these places as "dimples").  The
sheet also has waves of various sizes moving through it.  A marble placed on
a flat part will tend to be moved easily by even the small waves.  A marble
placed near a dimple will tend to fall into that dimple.  Once in a dimple
the marble will tend to stay there until a large enough wave comes along to
knock it out -- the deeper the dimple the bigger the wave needed.

On closer inspection, many of the bigger dimples turn out to be made up of
several smaller dimples which are close together.  It is fairly easy to go
from dimple to dimple within the cluster, but its still hard to get outside
the cluster completely.

This is the way consciousness seems to work.  Places on the sheet,
corresponding to different ways that the units are wired together, are called
ASCs.  ASCs which are at dimples, are called "stable ASCs".  Usually when
we refer to an ASC we really mean a stable ASC.  The whole sheet tends to
slant down to a large cluster of stable ASCs called the Consensus Reality
State of Consciousness (CRSC) -- at least it does in those of us who are
neither insane, seriously brain damaged, nor perfect masters.

In order to change states we first must get out of the stable ASC or cluster
of ASCs we are in.  This is easy from most states, but not from some others,
most especially not from the CRSC.  To get out of the CRSC we must disrupt it
-- produce situations under which it is not stable.  The various techniques
of "inducing meditative states" or of "altering consciousness" (repetition,
concentration, thought cutting, "whirling", etc., even drugs) seem to be
principally to accomplish this.  They may also serve to set a direction when
one "emerges" from the CRSC cluster (though Dr. Tart doesn't think so -- he
believes that direction is set almost entirely by expectation -- where you
think you *should* go).

When we emerge from the CRSC we may drift for a short while (which may be
experienced as pleasant, unpleasant or indifferent) until we get close to the
stable ASC towards which we are headed.  Things then fall into "place" rather
quickly (see notes 74.0 and  74.4).  One common pattern is a cluster of ASCs
which form "steps".  We then can experience a sequence of "deepenings" as we
move from one to the next in the cluster (note 74.4).

The CRSC is the only completely stable ASC most of us ever experience
(fortunately, since most of the other "really stable" states, e.g., paranoia,
are extremely pathological -- not good places to be at all).  Changes
eventually take place in the others (e.g., because of fear, boredom
(see 74.4), sense of responsibility, or a need to empty ones bladder) which
cause us to slip out of them naturally.  Fear of "getting stuck" is common,
but does not seem to be a real problem unless you do something that can cause
physical brain damage, like using "mind-altering" drugs.

When we emerge from an ASC we tend to slip quickly and naturally back into
the CRSC or into one of the closely related sleeping states.

If this were all there was to things, exploring ASCs would be interesting
and perhaps fun, and perhaps (because of the ability to do things in some
of them which we can't do in the CRSC, see note 74.1) useful,
but it wouldn't be as significant as it, in fact, can be.

There is not in actuality any sheet.  The sheet is a mathematical
abstraction, like a graph.  It only exists as a map showing the stable and
unstable ASCs.  The sheet derives its properties from the way the units fit
together.  And it is altered by our moving around it.

When we return to the CRSC it will frequently be in a different place than
when we left it.

Some of the change is very short term: a little confusion when we awaken from
deep sleep, for example.  Some of the change is longer term though still
temporary (see note 74.1).  And some of the change is pretty permanent
(talk to Christians who have been "born again").

These changes take place for a number of reasons.  We may have learned
something in a fairly conventional sense.  People who have had near death
experiences (NDEs) have had an experience which frequently convinces them
that their is no true end to life and this alters the way they approach it.

Also we may be able to accomplish something in the ASC which we could not in
the CRSC.  For example, we may be able to dissipate or store up various
"energies" in ways we are unable to in the CRSC.  Stress, for example, may
be reduced, or we can catch up on our sleep.

Finally, the sheet may simply be altered.  Frequently when we leave the
CRSC and visit an ASC, the CRSC becomes shallower, and the ASC becomes deeper.
It becomes easier to leave the CRSC when we want, and to find and stay in that
particular ASC when we want.  Also it seems, at least for some ASCs, that the
CRSC moves slightly "towards" the ASC (or maybe its the other way around).

The power of ASCs then is the ability to effect changes in the CRSC (that is,
in ourselves as we are most of the time) which are difficult or impossible for
us to do from within the CRSC.

But remember -- nothing I've told you is completely true, though I hope that
none of it is completely false either.

	    Topher
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76.1(*)SCORPI::MORGANMIKIEMon Feb 10 1986 14:3914
        Thanx for putting in this note. Now I understand you a little
    better.  I had missed the point of linking ASC's togather entirely.
    Bob Monroe uses that idea in his tapes.  He calls them by arbitrary
    numbers such as 3 and 10 state.  Bob starts you at state 3, takes
    you to state 10 and 12 and then takes you a little farther.  I have
    only been to state 10 (which is accompainied by the flaging sensation
    and the rolling feeling).
        I fully agree that any ASC taken out of contex is dangerious.
    Still we have to have an adventurious spirit (no pain, no gain).
    Excitement and wonder are what I experience with ASC's.  And for
    every one I am rewarded with (they don't come to too often ya know),
    I have a hundred questions.
    
                                  Mikie