Non-Ordinary States of Consciousness

Our aim was to investigate whether or not highly sensitive persons experienced more nonordinary/altered states of consciousness (ASC) during 45 minutes of sensory isolation in a flotation tank, than did less sensitive persons. Psychology students (N = 57) were allocated to 1 of 2 groups (high and low levels of sensitivity) depending on their score on the Highly Sensitive Person Scale. Prior to the flotation session participants completed questionnaires to assess their degree of depression, anxiety, optimism, absorption, and how often they had experienced a mystical state. After the flotation session we assessed degree of ASC. The main finding was that the highly sensitive individuals experienced significantly more ASC during flotation than did the individuals in the low sensitivity group. Further, the highly sensitive participants had significantly more absorption and anxiety, and had experienced mystical states more frequently prior to flotation, in comparison to individuals with low-level sensitivity.

In the first section of this paper an operationalized notion of praeternatural experience is described which includes two general classes of experience: religio-mystical (Ontic) and paranormal (Perceptual). The exploratory study which follows uses the personality measures of the complete Tellegen Differential Personality Questionnaire taken from 120 Ss who reported having had spontaneous religio-mystical and/or paranormal experiences sometime in the past. The scores on all eleven primary dimensions, three higher order affect factors, and two validity scales were used individually, in univariate ANOVAs, and together, in a Direct Discriminant Function Analysis, to successfully separate two classes of praeternatural experient from non-experients and from each other.

In this presentation I share some of the boundaries crossed and lessons learned in my 20 year psychedelic journey reported in Diamonds from Heaven (forthcoming). Seventy-three high dose LSD sessions conducted between 1979-1999 became the philosophical adventure of a lifetime, but one I had to keep largely hidden from my university colleagues. As psychedelics return to scientific and academic discourse, I am now sharing my experiment in doing philosophy in the psychedelic mode. Categories include: crossing the perinatal plain, the ocean of suffering, Deep Time and the soul, the Greater Real of archetypal reality, Oneness and the Primordial Void, the birth of the Future Human, Diamond Luminosity, and coming off the mountain.

Our aim was to investigate whether or not highly sensitive persons experienced more nonordinary/altered states of consciousness (ASC) during 45 minutes of sensory isolation in a flotation tank, than did less sensitive persons. Psychology students (N = 57) were allocated to 1 of 2 groups (high and low levels of sensitivity) depending on their score on the Highly Sensitive Person Scale. Prior to the flotation session participants completed questionnaires to assess their degree of depression, anxiety, optimism, absorption, and how often they had experienced a mystical state. After the flotation session we assessed degree of ASC. The main finding was that the highly sensitive individuals experienced significantly more ASC during flotation than did the individuals in the low sensitivity group. Further, the highly sensitive participants had significantly more absorption and anxiety, and had experienced mystical states more frequently prior to flotation, in comparison to individuals with low-level sensitivity.

The psychoanalytic viewpoint proposes that insight into one’s unconscious thoughts, feelings, and motivations can be helpful in understanding and changing personal constructs (Goldenberg & Goldenberg, 2013). Conversely, anything that stands in the way of accessing that material may present a barrier to effective psychotherapy. Holotropic Breathwork, a process of rapid, deep breathing to evocative music, induces a non-ordinary state of consciousness (NOSC) (Taylor, 2007), which reportedly allows deeper access to the unconscious. Rhinewine and Williams (2007) offer a hypothetical, bio-psychological explanation of the disinhibiting mechanism of holotropic NOSC’s, which reduce the self-protectiveness of the logical/thinking part of the brain, and potentially result in opening to new insights. Ryan and Deci’s (2008) Self-determination Theory (SDT) model offers a current and accepted framework from which to explain the potential effectiveness of the therapeutic setting and practice of HB. SDT proposes that there are three universal psychological needs which are essential for the occurrence of growth toward psychological health and well-being: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. This paper describes how Holotropic Breathwork fulfills those three needs, potentially resulting in therapeutic benefit. An overview of research on the healing benefits of NOSC’s, and in particular, on the use of HB as an adjunct to psychotherapy is included to support the argument that HB may be beneficial in this context.

This dissertation research study employed a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to explore the researcher’s lived experience of using the shamanic plant medicines ayahuasca and Willka. Ayahuasca and Willka are classified as entheogens, chemical substances ingested for spiritual or healing purposes, and are used as central components of shamanic healing rituals in Peru. Data were collected via narrative methods of qualitative inquiry based on the researcher’s personal experiences with ayahuasca and Willka in Peruvian shamanic rituals. The researcher was the only participant in this study. Analysis of written protocols evaluated how these plants have contributed to the researcher’s overall healing process. Hermeneutic phenomenological analysis of the researcher’s written narratives were utilized with incorporation of relevant texts pertaining to mind-body research. The results of this study highlight the role of set and setting, heightened physical and emotional sensations and awareness, altered states of consciousness, a personal relationship with the sacred plants, expanded consciousness and enhanced self-knowledge and self-healing in facilitating health and well-being. This dissertation research study provides insight into the healing potential of shamanic sacred plant medicine and altered states of consciousness in modern health care.

Combining philosophical reflections with deep self-exploration to delve into the ancient mystery of death and rebirth, this book emphasizes collective rather than individual transformation.  Drawing upon twenty years of experience working with non-ordinary states, Bache argues that when the deep psyche is hyper-stimulated using Stanislav Grof's powerful therapeutic methods, the healing that results sometimes extends beyond the individual to the collective unconscious of humanity itself.

Bache believes that the impending global crisis of sustainability will play a critical role in humanity’s collective transformation, triggering a profound dark night of our collective soul and an equally profound rebirth.  By incorporating Sheldrake’s morphic field theory, Peter Russell’s global brain theory, Ken Ring’s near-death episode research, and chaos theory, he outlines some of the mechanisms through which such a transformation might take place with unexpected speed.
SUNY Press, 2000

A sub-sample of 120 subjects were chosen from a previous non-random survey of mystical, visionary and remote perception experiences (praeternatural experiences). The sample consisted of equal numbers in each of five frequency ranks of total praeternatural experience remembered over a lifetime. All subjects were administered the Differential Personality Questionnaire and the sub-scales from this self-administering instrument were subjected to direct discriminant function analysis across rank of frequency of occurrence of praeternatural experience. This analysis yielded two significant factors. Absorption and Positive Affectivity were the most powerful discriminators on the first factor ('Capacity') which separates rank in order. The second factor indicates the existence of a 'Conformity' function (Constraint, Harmavoidance and Traditionalism) which separates the middle ranks from the highest and the Non-experient ranks.

This paper presents the results of an empirical study into the factors of personality which are associated with the occurrence of reported spontaneous mystical, visionary and remote perception experiences. There has already been considerable survey research into these reported phenomena (Laski, 1961; Back & Bourque, 1970; Hay & Morisy, 1978; Thomas & Cooper, 1978; Hardy, 1979; Hay, 1979; 1982) which has attempted to redress a general lack of "grassroots" information regarding these reports. These studies not only indicate that mystical and related experiences are more widespread than previously thought, but they appear to be a part of an entire class of non-veridical experience which, for heuristic and operational purposes, willbe calledpraeternatural experience. I For the purposes of this paper, praeternatural experiences are operationally defined as that class of reported experiential events which are given as responses to either the catch-all questions of Hay (1979) and...

I killed a squirrel the other day, or rather I was the instigator. At first, I refused to do it (despite the demands of my less scrupulous lady whose furniture was being ruined), but the little varmint had chosen our unsealed garden shed for his winter hideaway and was putting all his pinecones and birdseed and whatever else he could grab into storage there. Worse, he was tearing the stuffing out of our garden cushions from the lawn furniture, even gnawing through the bamboo that coated the chairs. Not ready for murder, I bought two live-catch traps and baited them with peanuts, but we – my lady, my stepdaughter, and our excited dog, Raksha – watched through the window while the squirrel entered into the cage we had placed on the cover of the hot tub and did a little tap dance on the trigger plate to grab the nut, sniff it, insert it, pause, and just as lightly dance away. Nothing happened. It was too light to release the trigger. I oiled the hinges, and we gathered again, but the same thing happened – nothing but nut theft. (Secretly, I kind of admired the panache of the furry critter.)