Altered States of Consciousness

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Altered States of Consciousness
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• Religion is a system of beliefs and behaviors
  that deals with the relationship between humans
  and the sacred supernatural.
• The way in which humans interact with the sacred
  supernatural is largely through the performance
  of rituals.
• Some rituals are fairly simple and can be
  performed by most adult members of the community.
• Other rituals are quite complex and require
  specialized training to perform.
• Still, others require more special abilities such
  as communicating with the supernatural.

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• A religious experience is a subjective one that
  manifests itself on an emotional and
  psychological level.
• These emotions range from fear and anxiety to a
  generalized feeling of well-being to a profound
  experience in which a person feels an association
  with the supernatural.
• These experiences and emotions make up an
  important element of religious practice altered
  states of consciousness (ASC)

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So, What is it?

• In its simplest sense and ASC is any mental state
  that differs from a normal state.
• EX daydreaming or the feeling that comes from
  the alcoholic buzz.
• These mental states can be subjectively
  identified by the individual, and/or seen by
  observes, as being different from the
  individual's normal, mental state.
• Although everyone experiences ASC to some degree,
  in both religious and nonreligious contexts, in
  many cultures these states are encored and are
  interpreted by the culture as important religious
  events.

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Entering an Altered State of Consciousness

• ASC can be brought about by a number of
  physiological, psychological, and pharmaceutical
  factors.
• The experiences encountered in an altered state
  will vary according to the factor that is
  responsible for the state as well as the physical
  condition and the expectation of the individual.
• See the table below.

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• Perhaps the most familiar are states of
  meditation and trance.
• A person can enter these states by ceasing all
  activity and reducing stimuli.
• For example, in passive meditation one seeks a
  quiet place without any distracting noise or
  activity and sits quietly.
• Many people experience a state of total
  relaxation in many nonreligious situations, such
  as lying on a beach or floating in a pool.
• ASC can also be achieved through more severe
  enforced isolation, such as that which occurs in
  solitary confinement or self-imposed isolation.

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• People who seek enlightenment or contact with a
  god or spirit might deliberately isolate
  themselves in a cave or in the middle of a desert
  or plain.
• Another way of entering an altered state is to
  concentrate on an object or sound, as in active
  meditation.
• The sound might be a chant or repeated sequence
  of words, the monotonous beat of a drum, or the
  sounds of nature such as the crashing of waves on
  a beach or the sound of a waterfall.

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• In marked contrast to situations of quite
  concentrations or elimination of stimuli are ASC
  that are produced by sensory overload and
  strenuous motor activity.
• EX Mevlevi Order, or "whirling dervishes," in
  Near Eastern cultures achieve an altered state
  though continuous and monotonous movement that
  often leads to a state of exhaustion.
• Many religious rituals are accompanied by loud
  music, singing, and energetic dancing.

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"Whirling in ecstasy, dervishes of the Mevlevi
Order in Istanbul perform a ritual dance each
December to commemorate the death in 1273 of
their founder, Celaleddin Rumi. Pivoting on one
foot as they circle the roomright hand facing
heaven, left hand facing earththe dancers
symbolize spinning planets revolving about God. A
mystic poet, Celaleddin was admired by sultans
for his humanitarian teachings Süleyman restored
his shrine in Konya, Turkey."
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• Changes in body chemistry can also lead to
  changes in one's mental state.
• Such changes can be brought about by fasting,
  dehydration, and sleep deprivation.
• This is perhaps why fasting is so common in many
  societies.
• Muslims fast from sunup to sundown during the
  month of Ramadan, and Jews fast on Yom Kippur.
• Several Native American cultures call for a young
  person to seek a guardian spirit.
• This search often involves a lack of food, water,
  and sleep.
• These factors, in addition to isolation and
  discomfort, will likely result in a vision that
  is part of a spiritual experience.

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• Drugs can also be used to attain an ASC.
• The use of peyote is a key element in NA
  religious practices.
• It is used to contact and interact with
  supernatural powers in rituals that are an
  integral part of their pilgrimage.
• Although peyote is a controlled substance and its
  possession is illegal in the United States, it is
  legally used by the Native American Church as a
  sacrament in much the same way as Christians and
  Jews were able to use sacramental wine during the
  period of Prohibition.
• In all of these cases the substance is used to
  create a religious experience as it is defined by
  the culture.

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Some Features of Altered States of Consciousness

• Difficulty concentrating, poor memory, impaired
  judgment
• An increase in the feeling of power and control
• Weakness, numbness, blurred vision
• Hallucinations and visions
• Feeling of timelessness, a speeding up or slowing
  down of time
• Expression of extreme emotions, detachment and
  lack of emotions
• New meanings attached to objects and experiences,
  belief of a gain of insight
• Loss of control, feeling of helplessness
• Parts of the body appear to be enlarged, heavy,
  detached, shrunken
• Increased acuteness of the senses

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Sacred Pain

• ASC can also result from pain.
• Pain is a common theme in religious traditions.
• Pain may be a punishment, as in the Christian
  legacy of Eve bringing forth children in pain
  ("in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children"
  Genesis 316) or the Hindu consequences of bad
  karma.
• Pain may be seen as purifying, as with the
  ascetics and monks who cause themselves pain of
  the flesh in this life to avoid greater torment
  of the soul in the next life.
• Pain is sometimes an enemy or maybe even a
  weapon, as with Christ's battle on the cross.
• Finally, pain may be seen as transformative or as
  a source of supernatural powerPain purifies and
  is used to achieve exorcism.

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• In our society we tend to think of pain as a very
  individualistic and even isolating experience.
• However, religious pain is often shared pain.
  Sometimes this sharing is vicarious.
• Christianity provides many examples of the
  importance of vicarious suffering, including the
  sacrifice of Christ on the cross, the existence
  of hell, the public executions of witches and
  heretics, and the ability to imitate the
  suffering of Christ through stigmata.

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• Many rituals use pain that is either
  self-inflicted or inflicted by others.
• For example, some funeral rituals involve
  self-mutilation on the part of mourners.
• Self-inflicted pain is also effective because
  before performing the act, people often become
  very focused, concentrating on the act.
• They may also have undergone a period of
  purification before the act that might include
  fasting or lack of sleep.

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Ancient Maya
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Carving on Linten 24, Temple 23, Yaxchilán,
Mexico. Lady Xoc pulling a rope through her
tongue as her husband, Shield-Jaguar holds a
torch. This ritual took place on October 28, 709,
celebrating the birth of Bird-Jaguar.
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The Role of Altered States in Religious Practices

• The interpretation of the changes in mental state
  when one is in an ASC is largely a cultural
  interpretation.
• In other words, culture places meaning on our
  experiences.
• A buzz from drinking several alcoholic drinks is
  amenable to several interpretations.
• Some are secular "I've had a little too much to
  drink, and I'm feeling tipsy."
• Some people, experiencing the identical reaction,
  might interpret that same feeling as I feel as
  if a spirit has entered my body."
• The objective feeling may be the same, but the
  subjective interpretation may be very different.

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• The religious interpretations of ASC generally
  fall into two categories.
• First, supernatural power, usually in the form of
  spirits or gods, enters the person's body, a
  phenomenon that we call spirit possession.
• An individual can control the spirit within his
  or her body to accomplish certain goals, or the
  spirit that possesses a human body can use that
  body to heal or to divine the unknown, often
  without the knowledge or the memory of the
  possessed person.
• However, possession by an unwanted spirit can
  bring about illness that may be cured by exorcism
  rituals.

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• The second common religious interpretation of an
  ASC is that a person has entered a trance state
  because the soul has left the person's body.
• The experience of the individual in the altered
  state is then associated with the experiences of
  the soul, which is operating in a supernatural
  realm.

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• Altered states frequently play an important role
  in healing, for both the healer and the patient.
• Healing is facilitated, and in some cases even
  accomplished, through suggestibility, emotional
  catharsis, and feelings of rejuvenation.
• For example, when possessed by a spirit, the
  healer may use the supernatural power of the
  spirit to remove the cause of the illness, often
  by sucking the offending spirit out of the
  patient's body.
• When an illness is diagnosed as the loss of the
  soul, the healer sends his or her soul on a
  voyage to retrieve the lost soul of the patient.

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• The most common idea of religious altered states
  is the idea of achieving a unitary state.
• A unitary state is one in which the individual
  experiences a feeling of becoming one with the
  supernatural, however this is conceived of by the
  community.
• For some this is becoming one with God or a
  spirit for others it may be expressed as
  becoming one with a generalized supernatural
  force.
• The idea of the unitary state is often one of the
  major components of a religious ritual or even an
  entire religious system.
• A common religious theme is that humans were once
  at one with the supernatural but somehow became
  separated.
• The goal of many religious practices is to regain
  that unity.

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• This theme can be seen in many familiar
  religions.
• For Christians Jesus provides the pathway back to
  God.
• For Buddhists following the teachings of Buddha
  allows an individual to attain oneness with the
  universe.
• For Muslims reconciliation is possible through
  submission of the will to Allah.

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The Biological Basis of Altered States of
Consciousness

• Work that has been done on migraines by
  neurologist Oliver Sacks and others.
• The term migraine is generally used to describe a
  type of headache, but migraines are also
  associated with nausea and other symptoms that
  can incapacitate the individual.
• One symptom associated with migraines is an aura,
  a type of hallucination.
• Although auras are most often visual, they may
  also involve distortions of other senses.

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• Culture plays a major role in how the patient
  interprets an aura.
• A modern migraine sufferer might experience a
  visual aura as pathological, a condition that
  makes it difficult to function-for example, to
  drive a car.
• (An aura that consists of floating lights, for
  example, can severely interfere with normal
  vision.)
• The same visual experience could be interpreted
  as a vision.
• In fact, descriptions of visions were written
  down and illustrated by Hildegard of Bingen, a
  nun and mystic who lived from 1098 to 1179.
• Her descriptions and drawings match contemporary
  descriptions of auras by migraine patients.
• Thus a particular experience may be experienced
  as a medical condition or, if the culture
  interprets it that way, a mystical experience.

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• Of course, migraine auras are not consciously
  induced, as many religious altered states are.
• New research in neurobiology has focused on how
  rhythmic, ritualized behavior affects certain
  parts of the brain.
• For example, in situations in which a fast rhythm
  is being used, such as with vigorous singing and
  dancing, the sympathetic system or arousal system
  of the brain is driven to higher and higher
  levels, ultimately becoming over stimulated.
• When this happens, the brain essentially
  selectively shuts down, and certain areas of the
  brain stop receiving the neural input that they
  normally receive and on which they depend to
  function normally.

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• One area that shuts down is a structure in the
  brain known as the orientation association
  structure.
• This is the part of the brain that enables us to
  distinguish ourselves from the world around us
  and to orient ourselves in space.
• These are tasks that we normally take for granted
  because our brains are functioning well, but the
  inability to perform these tasks can cause huge
  difficulties for people who have sustained damage
  to this part of the brain.
• Imagine trying to sit down in a chair if you
  could not tell where you ended and the chair
  began or if you did not know where exactly your
  body was.

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• The orientation association structure becomes
  deprived of new information because of the
  selective shutdown response to over stimulation
  of the arousal system.
• The result of this is a softening of the
  boundaries between self and other.
• This might be responsible for the unitary state
  reported by participants in many rituals.

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Ethnographic ExamplesThe Holiness Churches

• The Holiness Churches are a series of independent
  churches that are found primarily in Appalachia,
  most predominantly in West Virginia.
• This area of the United States was once highly
  dependent on coal mining.
• It was a relatively isolated, economically
  depressed area.
• Although some of this is true today, the
  isolation is breaking down, and life is
  improving.
• However, many Holiness Churches still survive.

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• Each church is independent, yet individuals will
  frequently visit several churches in the region.
• The rituals do not follow a set pattern, although
  many elements are highly traditional, and the
  sequence of activities is determined largely by
  the elders of the church community.
• During the service several members of the
  congregation enter an ASC
• The state is entered through intense
  concentration in prayer and with loud music with
  a repetitive beat no drugs are used.
• Individuals speak in tongues, dance
  energetically, and even enter trancelike states.

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• In some Holiness Churches participants in an
  altered state will pick up poisonous snakes and
  drink poison.
• Entrance into an altered state is a highly
  desired religious experience and is interpreted
  as being filled by the Holy Ghost.
• This is an example of a unitary state. These
  practices are based on a specific portion of the
  Bible

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• And he Jesus said unto them, Go ye into all the
  world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
  He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved
  but he that believeth not shall be damned. And
  these signs shall follow them that believe In my
  name shall they cast out devils they shall speak
  with new tongues they shall take up serpents
  and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not
  hurt them they shall lay hands on the sick and
  they shall recover (Mark 16 15-18).

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Ju/'hoansi Healing Rituals

• Their way of life has been the subject of many
  ethnographic studies.
• Several times a month a group gathers around the
  fire for a night of singing and dancing as a part
  of a healing ritual.
• They believe in the presence of healing energy
  residing within the body of certain individuals,
  the n/um k" ausi, or medicine owners.
• This healing energy, or n/um, heats up as the
  n/um k" ausi dance around the fire.

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• The healer soon feels the n/um coursing through
  his or her body.
• The healer feels power and energy and experiences
  visions.
• Moving around the fire, the healer lays trembling
  hands on the bodies of the members of his
  community or rubs his sweat, thought to be imbued
  with n/um, on their bodies.

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Drug-Induced Altered States

• The use of drugs to induce an altered state of
  consciousness is practiced by many societies.
• The use of drugs is ubiquitous in South American
  traditional societies.
• EX Yanomamö
• hekura spirits
• One must take ebene to speak with the
  supernatural.

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Moawa, headman of Mishimishimabowei-teri
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Shamans sometimes succumb to the attacks of enemy
hekura spirits and must depend on the efforts of
their allies for help. Moawa stands over a
prostrate shaman and attempts to revive him