Consciousness. Altered States of consciousness

In order to understand the mechanism of many phenomena, the source of which is the man himself, you need to understand what consciousness is and what he does have status.
There are many unexplained phenomena, which according to some hypotheses, is man affecting the world around us. It's the poltergeist, pyrokinesis, telepathy, clairvoyance, etc. But in the simple world view, the psyche plays a huge role, as the person perceives the surrounding world through the senses, passing information through the prism of his consciousness. Often the human body may play a nasty joke.
Psyche (from al-Greek. {, ψυχή } "breath, soul") is a difficult concept in philosophy, psychology and medicine.

• A special aspect of the vital activity of animals and humans and their interactions with the environment.
• The ability of active reflection of reality or the totality of mental processes and phenomena (perception, subjective feelings, emotions, memory, etc.).

The psyche should be understood as a kind of reflection of the body, that is, its ability to different reflexes, or rather, the manifestation to them of the ability to respond to stimuli both internal and external worlds of man.
Psyche is in communication with somatic (bodily) processes. It is estimated by several parameters: integrity, activity, development, self-regulation, communication, adaptation, etc. and manifests itself at a certain stage of biological evolution.
In the transition from biological forms of reflection to the mental divided into the following stages:

• Touch. Reflective of individual stimuli, the subject responds only to biologically significant stimuli (irritability).
• Perceptual. Is expressed in the ability to reflect the complex stimuli in General: the orientation begins with a set of attributes, there is a response and of biologically neutral stimuli, are merely signals of vital stimuli (sensitivity).
• Intelligent. Is that in addition to the reflection of the individual items there is a reflection of their functional relationships and connections.

There are several types of mental processes:

• Cognitive (Feeling; Perception; Thinking; Attention; Memory; Imagination; Speech)
• Emotional (Emotions; Feelings; Emotions; Stress)
• Strong-willed (the Struggle of motives; decision Making; goal Setting)

Man has a higher form of mind — consciousness.

Consciousness

Consciousness is one of the forms in which objective reality is reflected in the human psyche. According to the cultural-historical approach, the characteristic feature of consciousness is that between objective reality and consciousness are elements of socio-historical practice, which allows to construct an objective (common) picture of the world.
To the inherent characteristics of consciousness are: speech, thinking and the ability to create a generalized model of the surrounding world as a set of images and concepts.
In the structure of consciousness consists of a number of elements each responsible for a specific function of consciousness:

1. Cognitive processes (sensation, perception, thinking, memory). A basis for a body of knowledge about the world.
2. The distinction of subject and object (the opposition of the world, the distinction between "I" and "not me"). This includes self-awareness, self-knowledge and self-esteem.
3. Relationship to the person themselves and the world (his feelings, emotions, experiences).
4. Creative (creative) component of the (consciousness creates new images and concepts, which previously was not in it with the help of imagination, thinking and intuition).
5. The establishment of a provisional picture of the world (memory stores the images of the past, the mind creates a model of the future).
6. Goal setting activities (based on the needs of the person, consciousness forms the purpose of the activity and directs man to reach them).

From the point of view of materialistic science, between human consciousness and the surrounding material world there are four types of interactions. The first and the second type of interaction is dialectically connected: the primary consciousness is born from the material world and is determined by them, but then, as they Mature, it begins to actively influence the world by transforming it according to their own plan. The third and fourth types of interactions are themselves not material, but relate to the information type. The third type of interaction just seems passive. In fact it is the active reflection, incorporating elements of reflection, evaluation and transformation. The most complex and later developing the fourth type of interaction, which marks a higher stage of development of consciousness – self-awareness.

States of consciousness

There are "normal" or "normal" state of consciousness – waking, dream and deep sleep.
Altered States of consciousness (ASC) – "qualitative deviation in subjective experience or psychological functioning from certain generalized to a given entity rules reflexively by the individual or noted by observers" (the classic definition A. Ludwig ).
Typologically ISS can be subdivided as follows:

• Caused artificially: induced psychoactive substances (for example, by psychedelic drugs) or procedures (e.g., sensory deprivation).
• Psihasteniceskie due to: religious ceremonies, autogenic training according to Schultz, holotropic therapy Gropu.
• Spontaneously arising in normal circumstances (with significant tension, listening to music, sports game), or an unusual but natural circumstances (e.g., if the labor is normal), or in unusual and extreme conditions (e.g., peak experiences professional athletes, property experience of various etiologies, etc.).

ISS can be caused by completely different triggers (events that cause a certain reaction), and such States may or may not be related to pathology. Also such States often occur spontaneously and randomly.

Altered States of consciousness

The earliest form of fixation and development of human culture is the deliberate induction of ASC and their active use for various purposes is shamanism. In Ethnography describes an altered state, known as "shamanic disease", "shaman's trance", a state of collective trance, for example in the process of conducting a shamanic ritual, etc. In the future of ISS and techniques of guidance has found its place in various religions and "popular" culture: sorcery, divination, magic village, carnivals, etc. to the attention of the science to the ISS phenomena and their regulation associated with the era of mesmerism when F. A. Mesmerism (1733-1815) laid the foundations of hypnosis and developed his active therapeutic use.
In modern psychology, developed various models describing ISS: discrete, continuous and discrete-continuous.
According to the research of Arnold Ludwig, the main characteristics are the following features characteristic for the majority of ISS:

1. Subjective thought disorders (manifested in the change of concentration, violation of mnemonic processes or difficulty in making judgments).
2. Changes in the subjective feeling of time flow.
3. Loss of control and fear of loss of ego-identity (dissociative disorders).
4. Changes in the emotional sphere of the lower conscious control, manifested as: 1) regression to a more primitive emotions; 2) bipolar disorder; 3) emotional lability; 4) difficulty in expressing emotions (isotimia).
5. Changing the schema of the body (proprioception), including the phenomenon of depersonalization and derealization.
6. Distortions in perception, which is a illusion in different sensory modalities, hallucinations and pseudohallucinations, and temporary worsening of visual perception, especially visual.
7. The change in the system of meanings and values.
8. Difficulties in verbalization of experiences ISS (ineffability).
9. A sense of renewal occurs in a number of States, and when you exit them (psychedelic state, hypnosis, depersonalization, etc.).
10. Lower the threshold of suggestibility, including the impossibility of a critical assessment of verbal communications and instructions as perceived by the subject; a tendency to distort or incorrectly interpret different stimuli on the basis of personal attitudes and fears.

Recommended for procario: "States of Consciousness" – an international online resource dedicated to the academic research of ISS.

Translated by «Yandex.Translator»