Talk:Altered state of consciousness/Archive 1

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Improvement Drive

Meditation is currently a nominee on WP:IDRIVE. If you would like to see this article improved vote for it on WP:IDRIVE.--Fenice 15:33, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

Trance and 'altered states'

This 'altered state' concept of trance depends on an explicitly unstated model or framework. I would like to introduce another model for trance which encompasses meditation, hypnosis, addiction, charisma, electronic, etc. as types of trances, and which is explicitly stated in my book and elsewhere (www.trance.edu, for example). The trance model has been evolving for the past 10 years, but it seems to me to be a good reframe for a definition and explanation for trance and its varieties. Drwier 21:06, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

I agree with the intention of this initiative. I encountered ill informed resistance to my usage of 'trance' in the Wiki Singing Bowls article. Trance is increasing used as a the meta-paradigm for difference states of consciousness. No value judgement on the states is intended. Some people have different understanding of the term trance. The definition in Wiktionary could do with reframing and extended definitions and usages. B9 hummingbird hovering 09:52, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

inflate the macromap

Common Causes An altered state of consciousness can come about accidentally through fever, sleep deprivation, starvation, oxygen deprivation, nitrogen narcosis (deep diving), or a traumatic accident. Intentionally it can sometimes be reached by the use of a sensory deprivation tank or mind-control techniques, hypnosis, meditation, prayer, or disciplines (e.g. Mantra Meditation, Yoga, Sufism or Surat Shabda Yoga). It is sometimes attained through the ingestion of psychoactive drugs such as alcohol and opiates, or hallucinogenic plants and chemicals such as LSD, 2C-I, peyote, marijuana, mescaline, psilocybin mushrooms, and datura (Jimson weed).

Naturally occurring altered states of consciousness include channeling, dreams, premonitions, euphoria, ecstasy, out of body experiences, psychosis and "being in the zone".

  • Fear induces a trance state, usually, in which the Reptilian

mind changes its normative Yin condition relative to the ego mind, and to some extent, takes control of the conscious mind, especially in regard to motor control.evolutionary psychologyThe reason for this adaption is that the Reptilian mind is actually moving faster and reflexing better than the normal Waking Beta Conscious mind.

  • Fever induces a trance state primarilly because it is the Theta condition in which the bodies self maintenance consciousness operates.
  • Sleep Deprivation induces a trance state because the Neural net gtes overloaded with signal noise, and the Need for sleep drives

the psyche towards the sleep types of consciousness.

  • Starvation induces a Trance state for similar reasons to Sleep deprivation. The bodies emergency fall back state is the Reptilian

mind. The higher and deeper the system goes into extreme need, shock, or damage, the more the Reptilain mind "looses faith" with the conscious mind and the more it takes over. If the body is out of nutrition, particularly brain nutrients, switching to a lower energy operational state such as alpha condition or somnambulism can conserve brain nutrients, and, more importantly, returns the survival instincts back to the front of metacognition.

  • oxygen deprivation is a form of brain nutrient deprivation, and so

causes altered states of consciousness for the same reasons as Starvation, essentially.

  • Nitrogen Narcosis is a peculiar case i don't know enough to make

comment on.

  • Sensory Deprivation works because the force of attention will always

find something to fix itself to. If you can't see, the mind eventually gets bored, particularly the occipital lobes, and begins to "think" you might be asleep. Light is known to be a clear cause of increase and decrease in alpha wave patterns, and this is, incidentally, an interesting sidenote in explanation of different types of behavior in day time and night time activities.

  • "mind control techniques" sounds a bit campy. Could we consider changing that to "self exploration" Techniques. Incidentally, it is

brain inhibition that maintains a waking Beta Condition- it is LOSS of that control which generally leads to Altered states of consciousness.

  • hypnosis, and "self hypnosis" are pretty distinctly different.

One is with an outside of self operator, and one is all the individuals own work. The two are very similar, but have very different pros and cons to them. It is difficult or impossible to generate waking theta conditions via mere "hypnosis" for instance. Self control of the self hypnotist is much more fine than what can be expressed verbally by an exterior source. Additionally, a hypnotist does not have as good a feedback system.

well, thats a third of theway through, and i don't want to overwhelm anybody, so I'll quit fer now. Prometheuspan 00:17, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

WikiProject class rating

This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 03:44, 10 November 2007 (UTC)