80th Float

This morning before work I had an amazing Float. It was like an extension of my float from last night but more Lucid in nature ending in maniacal laughter.  

I made very good use of my mantra and breathe work allowed me to enter the void space quickly. Then used the flame and the void to clear my mind. Once in a lucid dream state I changed the color of the floor to a bright red. Then I instantly transported myself to St. Patricks and walked around the pews and up to the alter and set that mother a blaze. I watched the flames climb the walls and spread. I could feel the heat on my face and walked down the aisle to the front door and watched as the flames followed me across the pews and start climbing into the choir. 

I exited the building and watched as it then changed to a full exterior burn and started laughing like a maniac. Could not stop the laughter and had to get out when salt water got into my eyes. Kept laughing during my shower. I was only in the tank for 35 minutes. 

Nude Beach Thoughts

Seriously. This can't be good for anyone...

So I just posted this an hour ago on r/vancouver in hopes of getting my stolen iPhone 4 back.

http://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/comments/zn194/debt_ridden_student_had_iphone_stolen_while/

Then while commenting back and listening to new music I have become obsessed with.

I decided to check my bank accounts.


WTF is THAT!
Talk about bad luck. Thank the Great Magnet for having friends and loved ones that can do a loaner! 

Arch 226: Shamanic elements in Western culture and why they persist.

1.                  Purpose.

The aim of this paper is to inspect the persistence of shamanic elements and their techniques within Western culture through the use of psychopharmacological substances, ritualistic practices, and cognitive training, which are commonly used to induce an Altered State of Consciousness (ASC) in coaction towards attaining a Sacred Ecstatic Experience (SEE) in contemporary society. That they have remained within contemporary society is adherent to their importance within the development of individual and social life. Shamanic elements of healing and their therapeutic applications will be examined in regards to how their traditional uses have been maintained, developed, and incorporated into new aspects of medical and therapeutic culture. This maintained and modified nature of shamanic elements will also be discussed on the topic of magic and intellectual property rights.

2.                  Importance.

 Shamanism is often examined using cultural ecological terms when trying to define its presence as a religious technique within past and present cultures. A problem with this is that there have been few comprehensive assessments of the subjective effects of shamanic-like journeying techniques on non-shamans, regardless of the deviations that occur from the traditional forms to modified (self-)Treatments (Rock et al. 2008). Hayden (2003) is one of the few texts providing a comprehensive assessment of shamanic-like elements and techniques, which is termed by Hayden (2003:63) as Sacred Ecstatic Experiences (SEEs): sacred ecstatic states seem to be particularly strong experiences that can occur when a person enters into an altered state of consciousness with cultural values that predispose the person toward sacred ecstatic experiences, when individuals are motivated to have such experiences and have made appropriate ritual, mental, and physical preparations for them. The SEE is the foundation for the continuation of shamanic elements and their techniques today.

It is difficult to construct exactly all the proper terminology and criteria which must be used when building an operationally defined list of all the elements of shamans and their techniques to discuss here. This topic of operational definitions of SEE has been tackled in such a multidisciplinary way that the terminology appears diluted and confused to me (Rock et al. 2008, Dobkin de Rios 1977, Hayden 2003, Móró 2010, Suchman 1989). An objective of this paper is to briefly examine only those elements and techniques that are supported with the physical and measureable properties above the debate over the validity of subjective experience within scientific models and theories. For several decades this has been dealt within psychological research development of ASC studies and the noteworthy measure Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory (PCI; Pekala et al. 1991).

The future also holds promise for SEEs to be researched across disciplines using a wide range of scientific approaches. As with all things in life, a hierarchy of categorization occurs. Shamanic elements and their techniques are influencing research into the neurological basis and cognitive implications of ASC upon our health, life, and the role of set and setting within therapeutic models of clinical care. Even complex legal realms of litigation of copyright laws and intellectual property rights can utilize the sacred knowledge that shamans have been using since the prehistory of religion. Absorbing for generations and apply it towards increasing and enhancing their own current perspectives.

Perspectives are what make reality. We all have our own one. Every individual has a personal sense of reality and has such themes have been perplexing philosophers for millennia and been argued on paper since the inception of academic institutions. Shamanic elements are rooted in the ability of controlling perspective, perception, sacred forces, the Force, nature, God, karma, and spirits. All of these terms exist interconnected and separated by our reality tunnels. But for the purpose of this discourse I shall use many of the above to be the same abstract concept of what it is that shamans interact with spiritually and physically.

The shaman's voluntary ability to overcome, control, and regulate the severe conditions through the invocation of SEEs places him or her in a special position when used to enhance appropriate behaviors and ameliorate stress and illness within a community (Hayden 2003:49 Krippner 1991). This is because the shaman has tapped into certain abilities to communicate with the sacred forces and reach into others reality tunnels and break free their physical illusionary shells to expose what the individual’s sacred realities could be. This is achieved through many shamanic elements and techniques; a more visible one being costumes. Costumes worn during shamanic rituals have been ethnographically shown to assist, protect and help control the connection between the shaman and the sacred forces that they invoke, also by utilizing archetypal symbolic items, enhancement of the mental states, self-confidence, and energy levels within the shaman balance of control (Hayden 2003).

To properly use a costume one needs to know how to acquire it, put it on, and invoke the associated symbolic content behind it. All of this knowledge is part of the training of the shaman and is a very crucial stage of shamanic practices. No person instantly gains insight into their own and other’s perspectives. With dedication of the individual and the help from elders, texts, experience, and practice the shaman can prepare themselves ritually and mentally for the shamanic practice ahead. Through training, individuals create automatic physical, cognitive, and behavioral reflexes, reactions, and associations in order to gain mastery over their internal mental states during ASCs and SEEs and return to their present perspective (Hayden 2003, Winkelman 1991, Krippner 1991). Neurologically this has been shown that during hallucinogen induced ASCs there is an increase of coherence in metacognitive processes and the modified oscillatory rate improves the connection of thoughts and feelings primarily to a greater degree of balance and integration of the left and right hemispheres leading to insight and a trance-like or possessive state (Winkleman 1991).

Trance and possession states though are only two type of ASC. Shamanic techniques of inducing an ASC are as varied as their symbolical worldviews and beliefs. Formal techniques that are associated with shamanism are sensory deprivation and overstimulation, pain through tattoos, initiation rites, body modification, psychoactive plants, psychopharmacological substances, and cognitive training (Hayden 2003, Winkelman 1991, Schmid et al. 2010, Rock et al. 2008). These techniques and ASC will be revisited in more detail soon.

Training teaches the shaman how those insights can be used personally and for the community. This social application of knowledge is another important element of shamanism. Not facing certain challenges alone is part of the shamanic character and practices and has been ethnographically shown (Hayden 2003). No one is alone in this world, for we have developed as a social community of organisms, and the thing that social organisms are specialized at is working together. An assistant and others can be enlisted by the shaman to maneuver the dangerous possession state situations that SEEs can hold (Hayden 2003:60). Often the shaman strives to be a healer and protector within his or her community. This is why shamans are known to practice both healing and destructive perspectives.

During healing sessions involving shamans, the use of induced ASC can range from scenarios where the shaman is alone or involve the whole group present and the universal presence of SEEs during shamanistic healing ceremonies reflects that there is a biological and cognitive basis (Winkleman 1991, Dobkin de Rios 1983, Móró 2010). The similarity that shamanistic techniques have with therapeutic situations is that the workings of information content processing mechanisms and the subjective experience of set and setting have a measureable impact upon the physical and mental functioning of patients (Móró 2010, Schmid et al. 2010). The therapeutic commonalties between traditional SEE healing ceremonies and evidence for the therapeutic effectiveness of hallucinogens provide support for this. Winkleman (1991:15-19) and Schmid et al. (2010) clearly demonstrates this through: the findings from clinical medicine on effects of LSD; a general model of ASC, their physiological characteristics, and therapeutic effects; and laboratory studies of physiological, sensory, emotional, behavioral, and cognitive effects of hallucinogens; and the categorization of the differences in types of psychedelic users.

3.                  Arguments For.

The use of psychopharmacological substances, ritualistic practices, and cognitive training teaches the shaman the ability to voluntary overcome, control, and regulate SEEs. A wide range of techniques are described in traditional shamans’ repertoire and incorporate different ASC induction agents and psychobiological procedures. Winkleman (1991:17) compiled a comprehensive techniques list that includes: hallucinogens, opiates, and other drugs; extensive running or other motor behavior; hunger, thirst, and sleep loss; auditory stimulation and other forms of intense sensory stimulation such as physical torture or temperature extremes; sensory deprivation, sleep states and meditation; and a variety of psychophysiological imbalances or sensitivities resulting from hereditarily transmitted nervous system liabilities, epileptic-like states resulting from injury, disease, or other trauma to the central nervous system like extreme temperatures, or other sensitive conditions of the temporal lobe and the associated structures of the parasympathetic system. All of these techniques appear not only in the clinical literature, but also in our everyday life. It is hard not to read a story, watch a film or TV series without seeing one or another of these techniques being experience by a character and have a deep impact upon their consciousness. To me this is clearly showing how SEE occur throughout everyone’s life. Therefore it is because of this that these techniques support how SEEs have a systematic correspondence with the phenomenal experiences during contemporary pharmacologically induced ASCs practices (Móró 2010, Suefeld & Borrie, 1999). SEE induction techniques work in coaction with the manipulation of ASC by utilizing the concepts of set and setting. Set involves the individual characteristics and expectations while setting contributes through the physical and social context of the practice (Winkleman 1991, Dobkin de Rios 1984, Móró 2010).

SEEs traditionally have utilized techniques that focus on the psychobiological and emotional aspects of ASC that involve transcendence, mystical, spiritual, and transpersonal experiences and are reflected in the extensive role of the shamanistic healer in manipulating the individual’s tribal cosmology during treatment (Winkleman 1991).  This was built upon techniques and elements learned during a shaman’s training and their initiations on the proper use of costumes, archetypal props, well-practiced chants, song and dance, small social nuances, and the preparation of psychoactive plants commonly seen in shamanic practice (Hayden 2003. Schmid et al. 2010).

Ethnographically, these techniques have been demonstrated in shamanic recruitment rituals as they allowed the shamanic societies of prehistoric cultures, and the priesthoods of early religion, to identify individuals who would perform well under ASC develop the ability to properly control a balance between the sacred forces (Suchman 1989, Hayden 2003). Elements of recruitment rituals and control over ASC persist today in certain subcultures that demonstrate a common positive view towards successful individuals with the SEE characteristics of ineffability, enlightenment, fleeting duration of harsh experiences, passivity of egocentric guidance, and transcendence with higher forces (Hayden 2003, Suchman 1989). Such subcultures are the fashion world, standup comedy, off-the-grid and gang communities, creative and artistic publication of alternative media, and the tattoo and body modification industries.

In all of these subcultures, sans the tattoo and body modification industry, there is an underlying concept that to be successful one must put in their time and work through a long and arduous apprenticeship that involves; the severe poverty-like living conditions, a constant state of disapproval and rejection, adopting an ideology such as “only the tough, smart, and odd survive”, and the wide use of pharmacological substances within each culture. Without having these recruitment rituals, the individual would lack the knowledge and skills to exert mental and physical control over the main cognitive and emotional factors involved in such social and businesses landscapes; repeated rejection, drastically harsh styles of criticism, extremely fast and constantly reactive lifestyles, egocentric personalities but with an ability to shift to other perspectives freely in order to gain knowledge and advantages over others situations. Recruitment rituals that involve life experience appear then too be used traditionally and contemporarily for the behavioral effects that are gained during training in ASC induction practices and manipulation.

Initiation and recruitment rituals can also be induced using the more structured and dogmatic techniques similar to those used today by worldwide military personal training by the application of hazing ceremonies towards new recruits. The modern day military industrial complex has bureaucratized and created tightly controlled evaluation criteria for every occupational position in their social organizational structure. This is achieved through any and all available methods of measurement and categorization of an individual and the application of that individual’s assessment models to find the most profitable and achievable mode of training.  A detailed comparison is beyond the scope of this paper but supports the claim that many organizations and groups incorporate the SEEs in a variety of forms towards eliciting their desired behavioral effects. 

The resulting behavioral effects that are elicited during such aforementioned SEE techniques are: a replacement of an externally orientated perspective of sympathetic dominance of cognitive processes and desynchronized activity of the frontal cortex; cessation of external behavior and focus on internally generated perspectives during high does or severe conditions; increased tendency toward exploratory behavior and arousal response reconditioning; depatterning influence on habitual experiences and a reduction in egocentric fixation; dealing with a variety of stress related perspectives such as fears, phobias, and stress and tension management; as well as personal integration, self-control and a range of physical changes. All of these behavioral changes have been clinically shown to have significant therapeutic effects when targeted at various structures of the body, brain, or mind, such as sensory modalities, movements and postures, breathing, brain metabolism, neurotransmitter levels, linguistic, cognitive, and emotional processing (Winkleman 1991, Móró 2010, Schmid et al. 2010, Hayden 2003, Suefeld & Borrie, 1999).

It is these therapeutic effects that shall now be examined in detail on the array of commonalities that current clinical and (self-) treatments share with traditional healing ceremonies shown ethnographically to be used by shamans’ (Hayden 2003, Winkleman 1991, Krippner 1991, Dokin de Rios 1977, Schmid et al. 2010, Rock et al. 2008).  Móró (2010) shows us that ASC induction methods can result in an obvious causal resulting state, however this perspective has been modified and personalized in every realm that shamanic elements are present and can be separated into five categories: spontaneously occurring, physically and physiologically induced, psychologically induced, disease induced, and pharmacologically induced phenomena (Móró 2010). Due to cultural transmission different induction techniques have been combined across large timelines and social arenas. During traditional healing ceremonies and contemporary clinical research the SEE is put through a constant barrage and experimentation which has resulted in manipulating ASC for the neurological, cognitive, emotional, psychophysical, and behavioral effects that can serve as a therapeutic tool.

 One case example is an analysis of Ayahuasca as a method of (Self-) Treatment by Schmid et al. (2010:188-204). Ayahuasca, botanically and pharmacologically; is made of a vine (Banisteriopsis caapi), a MAO (monoamino-oxidase) inhibitor, and usually a DMT (Dimethyltryptamine)-containing plant (Psychotria viridis or Diplopterys caberena), it’s active ingredients are the reversible MAO-inhibitor harmine and the serotonin-reuptake inhibitor tetrahydroharmine, which together make the serotonin-receptor (5-HT2) agonist component N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) bioavailable for oral use, and is relatively potent and long-acting when compared to the practice of inhalation of synthesized DMT (Schmid et al. 2010). The fully processed ayahuasca becomes an ingestible beverage that is used in the ritualistic setting of Santo Daime rituals, neo-shamanic rituals, and do-it-yourself (Self-) treatments which are commonly referred to as “healing ceremonies” (Schmid et al. 2010).

It was found that those patients who had sought (self-) treatment of their clinical conditions are that there search was guided by a common lack of confidence in the conventional medical regimes that are applied in hospitals and treatment centers. Instead, coupled with a perspective of rejection towards the “harm and addiction” propaganda surround psychoactive substances, the patients wanted a more “holistic” or “spiritual” therapy method (Schmid et al. 2010). These examples show how such patients display features of a SEE through the presence of cultural values that predispose the person toward sacred ecstatic experiences and when individuals are motivated to have such experiences and have made appropriate ritual, mental, and physical preparations for them (Hayden 2003, Schmid et al. 2010).

With this perspective in hand (Self-) treatment patients were open to actively learn to apply the appropriate training in order to elicit, what Winkleman (2005) has termed, “unspecific changes” within their therapeutic techniques. Schmid et al. (2010:197) have categorized these unspecific improvements to include nine categories: (1) A change in health behaviors including diet. Participants also often gave up alcohol or cigarettes, (2) Enhanced clarity, recognition, and sensibility, (3) Increased physical well-being, (4) Energy, power, and strength, (5) Better coping with problems and ‘‘daily hassles,’’ (6) Confidence and tranquility, (7) A renewed sense of happiness, love, and joy, (8) A change of life orientation sometimes including a strive for non-materialistic values, (9) Improved social competences. All of these unspecific changes are beneficial characteristics within clinical therapeutic strategies and share their origins with shamanic healing ceremonies.

Another therapeutic technique that has been examined clinically for its ASC manipulation potential and resulting unspecific improvements is Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy (REST) (Norlander et al. 1999, Suefeld & Borrie 1999). The first technique of REST is called chamber REST. The procedure follows that a subject lies down in a bed for 24 hours in a dark, sound-reduced room. Instructions are given to reduce movement but no physical restraints are used. The standard biological amenities are provided (food, water and toilets) within the room and an intercom is used so that subjects can talk to the research assistants at anytime. Across studies fewer than 10% of subjects leave the study (Suefeld & Borrie, 1999).

The second method used in REST is tank flotation. Floatation REST involves a quiet room that contains an insulated tank (of varying sizes) that contains 20-30 cm of a medium that is a skin-temperature solution (35.5 Celsius) of water and Epsom salts. This mediums density has a specific gravity of 1.15 relative to distilled water which allows for no effort to be made to float and major effort to attempt to turn over. As a result of this, a subject can relax with no concern for their safety.  Similar to chamber REST, an intercom is present and communication with a research assistant is available. Tank floatation has experimental benefit that sessions on average only last 45-60 minutes compared to chamber REST sessions of 24 hours.

Chamber and Floatation REST methods are similar to the sensory overstimulation and deprivation practices used traditionally by shamans and religious practioners. This is ethnographically shown by such techniques of the St. Lawrence Island Eskimos where shamanic training involves a 5-day episode where they "go out of their minds," staying outside during snowstorms without eating or drinking, enacting death and resurrection rituals, and displaying strength so unusual that "ten men cannot hold them" (Suchman 1989).   Similar psychological Effects of REST can be seen in clinical multitreatment stress management therapies.

A common treatment technique used in hospitals is Relief from Stimulus Overload in order to reduce patients suffering from drug-induced mania. It is also used by neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) in the treatment of premature infants and infants born addicted to heroin, cocaine or alcohol (Suefeld & Borrie, 1999). In retirement and pediatric care units REST techniques have been shows to statistically improve mental and emotional characteristics, reduce weight gain, help quit smoking, and lowered levels of agitation (Suefeld & Borrie, 1999). Chamber REST has also been used in conjunction with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) to lower the rates of subjective memory loss brought on by ECT (Suefeld & Borrie, 1999). It is proposed that due to the aforementioned therapeutic findings and their commonalities with the prehistoric shamanic elements and techniques, it can be clearly shown that within Western culture these traditional shamanic rituals have taken on a more contemporized view of inducing a therapeutically beneficial SEE.

As a final line of evidence for shamanic elements playing a role in western culture the interrelationship of shamanic manipulation and control of magic to today’s issues of intellectual property rights shall be examined. This concept was proposed and discussed by Suchman (1989) due to his analysis that magic and intellectual property rights both involve control over abstract and linguistic perspectives and figure prominently in numerous aspects of daily life. Using the economics of intellectual property, the anthropology of law, and the ethnography of magic Suchman (1989) reaches some rather interesting conclusions.

One is how magic was intimately intertwined within preliterate society’s most sophisticated technologies and the practical components of their techniques (Suchman 1989). Because of this, magical services gained the ability to be sold or traded within the community for either tangible or intangible remuneration. By applying such social magic systems, the shaman or priesthoods dictate the conditions of access to proprietary nonintellectual commodities (such as magical talismans, rituals, psychoactive plants, and ceremonies) on the purchase of technological services that they could not otherwise monopolize, which today is reflected in what patent holders refer to as a tying agreement (Suchman 1989). Magical services also enroll strength from elaborate cultural constructs of a “mythology of risk” that controls for external threats in the same way that litigation threats chill infringement of Western intellectual property rights (Suchman 1989). 

What Suchman’s (1989) perspective brings to the table is that economic theorists can gain new insights into their models through the understanding of such prehistoric methods of magic and religious information systems. Extensive innovation imposes high information costs, extensive record keeping, and flourishing economies which characterizes contemporary industrial society, but most likely may not have had much application within prehistoric communities (Suchman 1989). Prehistoric communities on the other hand cannot withstand the pressures of constantly embracing new technologies due to disruptions in the social order and established methods of production (Suchman 1989).

Yet, it is important to note that the shamanic elements of recruitment rituals and training methods restrict creativity activity and ASC experimentation to a relatively small and isolated subgroup, buffing society’s core cognitive technologies and therapies from unproven techniques (Suchman 1989).  It is these exact features that are essential to the academic and scientific research methodologies. The scientific method has often been compared with the old practice of alchemy, but it also appears to share shamanic elements with the management of intellectual property and the importance of peer-reviewed publications.

4.                  Arguments Contra.

The most common argument against the presence of shamanic elements and their techniques being present within Western culture is that of language. The terminology issues within academia are consistently present due to the fact that each article and discussion of abstract concepts must be operationally and experimentally defined. The variables need to be set in stone.

This though is hard to achieve both during scientific discussions, as well as layman discussions, about ASC involve subjective experiences and the adjectives used to describe them. This issue can be dealt with by incorporating definitions that are based on statistical notions instead of solely the perceptually and culturally biased notions (Móró 2010). The PCI mentioned above is a clear rendition of attempts to solve this problem (Pekala et al. 1991).

It has been suggested that the therapeutic effects of SEE are nothing but a placebo effect due to set and setting and that “The hallucinogen does not in itself effect a cure but rather plays the role of a medicinal aid to be used in the total context of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy” (Schultes and Hoffmann 1979:178). The overwhelming clinical evidence indicates that hallucinogens change experience and awareness and by inducing measureable unspecifc improvements showing support against the placebo argument and has been examined previously in this paper (Pekala et al. 1991, Winkelman 1991).

5.                  Alternative Explanations.

It appears that the most common alternative explanation for shamanic elements and their techniques are related to the parapsychological concept of Psi. It is a term that collectively refers to reported interactions and anomalies of behavior between organisms and their environment in which information or influence has taken place that cannot be explained using current scientific measures of physical properties (Krippner 1991). Many of these reported interactions come from ethnographically and contemporary accounts of events featuring elements of shamanic practices. William James’ (1982) crucial work on the topic, The Varieties of Religious Experience, has been cited thoroughly in parapsychological literature and as well, within theological and anthropological discussions concerning religious techniques.

Essential to the parapsychological perspective of shamanic elements and techniques is the assumption that the phenomena under investigation are lawful, natural, and which can at some point be explained by the scientific discovery and revision of the current scientific worldview. A key alternative route of investigation of the psi properties of shamanic practices would be to examine a controversial revision of the scientific worldview proposed by Dean Radin (1997).

Radin’s (1997) revision involves current science to come to the realization that the ancient concepts of sacred forces and magical talents may be explained through the theory of a conscious universe. Radin (1997) states that the theories of quantum mechanics and specifically non-locality theory support the notion that psi phenomena are physically possible due to the capacity of the conscious mind to connect with and manipulate the chaos of quantum mechanics in order to impose a conscious will upon the physical world, be this through the technique of telepathy, remote viewing, clairvoyance, precognition, or psychokinesis. If such a claim is accurate then further research and discussion shall be needed on the explanation and effects that are produced during ASC and SEEs.

6.                  Conclusions.

The aim of this paper was to inspect the persistence of shamanic elements and their techniques within Western culture through the use of psychopharmacological substances, ritualistic practices, and cognitive training. It has been shown that the appropriate training techniques for inducing an ASC work in coaction towards attaining a SEE within various contemporary society settings. Shamanic elements of healing and their therapeutic applications were examined in order to demonstrate that their traditional uses have developed and emerged as brand new aspects of psychedelic, medical, and therapeutic culture. The investigation of topics such as magic and intellectual property rights was able to illustrate that current knowledge can benefit from an understanding of shamanic social techniques and the symbolic power behind language and ideologies.

This symbolic power of language though is the essential feature of the arguments against the ideas postulated in this paper. Terminology clearly must be dealt with in any attempt at future research related to the formation and occurrence of SEE within current scientific models. The parapsychological worldview as an alternative explanation may cause further disturbances in the debate of terminology over the physical and statistical notions of the vary properties of the universe.

7.         References

Aghajanian, G.K., and Marek, G.J.

   1999 Serotonin and hallucinogens. Neuropsychopharmacology 21(25):16S-23S.

Dobkin de Rios, Marlene.

1984 Hallucinogens: Cross-Cultural Perspectives. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.

Dobkin de Rios, Marlene and Balaji Munkur.

   1977 On the Serpent Cult and Psychoactive Plants. Current Anthropology 18(3):556-558.

Hayden, Brian.

2003 A Prehistory of Religion: Shamans, Sorcerers, and Saints. Smithsonion Books, Washington. 

James, William.

  1982  The Varieties of Religious Experience. Viking Penguin Inc, London.

Krippner, Stanley.

1991 Research Strategies in the Study of Shamanism and Anomalous Experience. The Anthropology of Consciousness 2(1-2):13-19.

Meyer, J. S., and L. F. Quenzer.

2005 Psychopharmacology: Drugs, The Brain, and Behavior. Sinauer Associates, Inc., Sunderland, Massachusetts.

Móró, Levente.

2010 Hallucinatory altered states of consciousness. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 9:241-252.

Norlander, Torsten, Henrick Bergman, and Trevor Archer.

1999 Primary process in competitive archery performance: Effects of floatation REST. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology 11(2):194-209.

Pekala, R. J., J. Steinberg, and V.K. Kumar.

1986  Measurement of phenomenological experience: phenomenology of consciousness inventory. Perceptual and Motor Skills 63(2):983-989.

Radin, Dean.

1997 The Conscious Universe:  the scientific truth of psychic phenomena. HarperEdge, San Francisco.

Rock, Adam J., Jessica M. Wilson, Luke J. Johnston, and Janelle V. Levesque.

2008 Ego Boundaries, Shamanic-Like Techniques, and Subjective Experience: An Experimental Study. Anthropology of Consciousness 19(1):60-83.

Schmid, Janine Tatjana, Henrik Jungaberle, and Rolf Verres.

2010 Subjective Theories about (Self-) Treatment with Ayahuasca. Anthropology of Consiousness 21(2):188-204.

Schultes, Richard Evans, and Albert Hoffman

   1979 The Plants of the Gods. McGraw-Hill, New York.

Suedfeld, Peter, and Bow, Roderick A.

1999 Health and therapeutic applications of chamber and flotation restricted environmental stimulation therapy (REST). Psychology & Health 14(3):545-566.

Suchman, Mark C.

1989 Invention and Ritual: Notes on the Interrelation of Magic and Intellectual Property in Preliterate Societies. Columbia Law Review 89(6):1264-1294.

Winkelman, Michael.

1991 Therapeutic Effects of Hallucinogens. The Anthropology of Consciousness 2(3-4):15-19.

A Pseudo Definition of Consciousness @ 3:10 AM

Don't believe the human eye

In sunlight or in shade

The puppet show of sight and sense

Is the Devil's Masquerade

- Principia Discordia

I gained nothing at all from Supreme Enlightenment,

And for that very reason it is called Supreme Enlightenment.

– Gotama Buddha.

Recognizing consciousness for what it is is hard, for why wouldn't it be? No one has ever solved it. Intellectuals to this day argue about not only what consciousness is, but even over the probabilistic timelines in our primordial primate past when the first simian recognized that 'This is mine, my territory, my space, my ego, MINE!'

We often do not stop at random and walk up to the closest bug and stare deeply into its five complex eyes that consist of hundreds of lenses and ask ourselves, 'Mr. Bug, do you willfully choose to point those lenses around? Or do you simply react to physical motion in an automatic realm of robothood?'

Self-recognition seems to be commonly one of the necessary and sufficient conditions (more on these another time) often used in the philosophical treatments that have been trying to establish a specialized jargon that all scientists and fellow academics can agree upon using. The debate of what words to use when defining consciousness is central to what I believe consciousness to actually be.

So, therefore it goes that since I believe consciousness to be something, it must then be a tangible thing. Something measureable and predictable, containing some form of manipulability, and all the other verbal categories that you may associate with this. Nagal's discourse,What it is like to be a bat?, had a diamond bullet that needs mentioning in this discussion of consciousness. Consciousness contains a wide range of intrinsic features that have been termed, Qualia, which is the way that external and internal sensations look and feel to you. The concept of qualia causes strange loops of thought to occur where it may be possible that what you hold in your mind to be the color "Red" may in fact not be the same shade of "Red" as anyone else's, and yet you continue to function as a sane individual.

Consciousness within the neurological field seems to take on a materialistic biological role as the sum of all the physical sensations that one perceives through experience. Those sensations are converted into chemical bonds and electrical signals that then voyage across the complex neurological circuits of the nervous system to reach the specially evolved areas of the cortex where the brain takes the stimulus information to be processed by the attention and memory systems that then allows for the selective construction and preservation of experience to be considered Real and Immediate, and all of this happens in milliseconds.

My brain then must have made up reality entirely on its own? Since transferring my ideas and thoughts to others is limited to language, I never really know whether others know really what I'm talking about. William James put it elegantly when he said; "The breach from one mind to another is perhaps the greatest breach in nature". Which isn't that bad of a thing mind you. The good thing about attempting to define consciousness is that it isn't just about thought. Consciousness involves emotion, feeling, and empathy. I once heard that, 'We are not thinking beings with emotion, we are emotional beings that think'.

Emotion is another one of those necessary and sufficient conditions that resonate within the consciousness jargon pool. Emotion has been the main drive behind the prehistoric attempts in the study of consciousness, Gods, and demons, in an attempt to understand what it is and who they are. Shamans, Mystics, Monks, and Priests have willfully caused themselves harm and ecstasy through such acts as; fasting, Asana yoga, sensory deprivation and social isolation, the Kabbalah, pranayama, Tantric yoga, and other various masochistic practices in order to remove their egos and dismantle their realities with the goal of taking control over their own nervous systems and reprogramming their individual reality tunnels to match their cultural and ideological schema of things.

Oddly enough, I have a sense that the various occult systems from within the anthropological and theological record hold a stronger connection with the cognitive and computation theories of consciousness than the biological. This reasoning of mine comes from the concepts that these occult systems are simply other techniques of physiological and neurological experiments attempting to multiply and accelerate the development and evolution of our own consciousness. Israel Regardie described Magick as "a mnemonic system of psychology to train the Will and Imagination".

This strong connection between the mystical view of consciousness and the cognitive systems view of consciousness comes from their ability to incorporate the theories and concepts of quantum state-vectors and the non-locality principle into their definitions and theories of consciousness. Einstein showed us how the material universe is made up of smaller elements inside the larger. Quantum Consciousness, as Roger Penrose describes it, is the thought that the mental universe can be whatever we shape it to be. It's the larger inside the smaller. This line of thought then allows for a view of panpsychism to be applied, which is the claim that everything, including nonliving systems, has some degree of consciousness. Pansychism is favored amongst Strong AI theorists and can surprisingly be viewed in more traditional religions compared to the more popular book religions.

All this being said, I shall end with the words of two pioneers, and a music video, on the conscious thought about consciousness. Since my own musing obviously require more meditations and less aphorisms.

"The trick is to concentrate on the reality projected through the printed page. Every sentence is a signal from another world, a nervous system different from yours with which you can interface synergistically"

–        Robert Anton Wilson

"The influence of the senses have in men overpowered the thought to the degree that the walls of time and space have come to look solid, real and insurmountable … Yet time and space are but inverse measures of the power of the mind. Man is capable of abolishing them both."

– Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Farm Trooper Quoteage

A lone Farm Trooper has spent his spare time, between Hoth placements and stellar runs on a clunky EX-F, scanning the verse for random signals. Here are a collection of what his eyes have read, dictated at his ranch on Corellia.

The Log Lady's Sage Words Of Wisdom.

"How does creamed corn fit into the universe? What is creamed corn? Is creamed corn a symbol for something else? I think so."

Looking down at my watch and seeing that my break is almost over, I head to the bathroom to relieve myself. My eyes wander up and down the common graffiti until I notice a quote written in charcoal black that I haven’t seen before. “The Crowd is Untruth.” With a jiggle and a shake I gave a little laugh.

While washing my hands I stare at my reflection in the mirror. Thick black glasses, five o’clock shadow, a white collared shirt covered by a blue and white striped sweater.

How many other men look likes this?

I dried my hands and left the café.

Walking along the street I glance at the passerby’s, the clean-cut suits, the popped collars, the lulu lemons, and the long brightly colored scarves. Yet, over and over again I keep repeating the quote from the stall in my head.

“The Crowd is Untruth.”

Arriving at the office I walk by that cute secretary Louise, with her pink hair in buns and reading the newest issue of Vice, and give her a smile and head down the hall to my cubicle. I’ve always wondered why she works in our office, for she doesn’t seem the type.

Passing Mark I get the common reaction.
“Ben, oh my god man, they are coming out with Street Fighter four for PS3 and XBOX. Dude we are so getting a case and I’m kicking your digital ass.”
“Hahaha, no shit. You can try but I’m sure you’ll lose like you always do.”
“We’ll see soon enough.”

Back at my desk I settle in for another 6 hours of punching in the numbers, crunching the spreadsheets, and being a regular Excel wizard.

“The Crowd is Untruth.”
“What was that Ben?”
“Nothing Mark. Just something I read earlier.”

Google search brings up the author of the quote in seconds, Soren Kierkegaard. The article is titled “That Individual” from Kierkegaard’s book On Himself.

Wherever there is a crowd there is untruth, so that (to consider for a moment the extreme case), even if every individual, each for himself in private, were to be in possession of the truth, yet in case they were all to get together in a crowd – a crowd to which any sort of decisive significance is attributed, a voting, noisy, audible crowd – untruth would at once be in evidence.

This hit me at once as an insight I’ve known but never been able to place into words. We can’t all be in the right with our own goals and ethics towards how others run their lives. I read on to see how he states how man is akin to a deity when one attains the truth through God. I am no man of God but I see the concept of man being God. Even Kierkegaard was concerned with the growing importance of earthly and material goods within people’s lives and he says how this moves man away from his kinship with God as the helper.

It does away with it or transforms it into a fable, and puts it in place the modern (or, we might rather say, the old pagan) notion that to be a man is to belong to a race endowed with reason, to belong to it as a specimen, so that the race or species is higher than the individual, which is to say that there are no more individuals but only specimens.

That makes no sense to me. We are a species aren’t we? Darwin and evolution taught us that. Humanism and all that. I reflect upon something that had been hidden deep in my mind since my college days. That we are single threads within a tapestry and what is one thread compared to the whole? I look around the office and everyone is busy with something, each thread working within the pattern. Kierkegaard goes on to state how the crowd provides a blanket of blamelessness and cover from their cowardice from being an individual. Such an example being that even in a crowd against Christ no one would step up and spit upon him. Obviously Kierkegaard lived in a less atheistic era, for I know of a few who would pay for the chance to spit upon Christ given the opportunity. Yet thinking about it, even with that act I believe, they would use as a means of social advantage and bragging rights to gain more respect within their crowd. “The Crowd is Untruth.”

If… there were an assemblage of thousands or more and the truth was to be decided by ballot, then this is what one should do…: one should in godly fear give expression to the fact that the crowd, regarded as a judge over ethical and religious matters, is untruth, whereas it is eternally true that every man can be the one. This is truth.

I cannot agree to this. It sounds too fascist to me. If the crowd is untruth when voting and deciding on these ethical, religious and political matters then does this imply that only one who knows the truth should act upon it regardless of public opinion, or fool the crowd into believing that what they are doing is following one’s inspired truth. Hitler did this and that truth he followed killed millions because of fear and hatred towards the Jewish people, he caused a world war over power and domination to spread the word of “One People, One Leader, One Reich, GERMANY!” I must finish this and see what it leads to.

Kierkegaard leads on to how the way for an individual witness of the truth to spread it in a grass roots fashion by talking personally with others in the act of not educating them, but allowing them to decided for themselves on how to be their own individual. He bashes the anonymous authors who peddle their untruth opinions on the moral, ethical, and religions matters that they would not have the courage to state as an individual. This is rampant in our Information Age full of Internet news, blogs, message boards and forums. Everyone has an avatar to hide behind. I am guilty of this myself. I post my comments and insults behind a mask of identity, joining the crowd with confidence of no retaliation.

The communicator of the truth can only be a single individual. And again the communication of it can only be addressed to the individual; for the truth consists precisely in that conception of life which is expressed precisely by the individual.

What truth is this? I see it now as it unravels. All those major changes in my life and thoughts have always been achieved through conversations with those closest, those persuasive souls for imposing their ideas upon me and allowing me to choose which path I should follow. It’s how I fell into this career path, how I choose to live my life of common entertainment and earthly pleasures. These days I have no moral goals to achieve. Even my idea of politics is what I feel to be the common consensus of what is right and just. I assumed that the past men and women who have thought and fought for these rights must have been driven by the truths that they held.

Yet, these individuals change the mindset of the crowd by treating them as a crowd and not as individuals allowed to choose for themselves. For the political will within those advocates assume that they must persuade the crowd as if they were full weak and impotent individuals. Now I must finish this reading before lunch break starts.

“The individual” is the category through which, in a religious respect, this age, all history, the human race as a whole must pass… My task is one which at least does not expose me to any such danger of being trampled underfoot, for my task was as a humble servant… to provoke, if possible, to invite, to stir up the many to press through this defile of “the individual,” through which, however, no one can pass except by becoming the individual – the contrary being a categorical impossibility. And yet, if I were to desire an inscription for my tombstone, I should desire none other than “That Individual” – if that is not now understood, it surely will be.

Like a wall of bricks falling upon my head, like a hot coal on my seat, I jump up and look around, heads all focused upon their screens busy typing away and following the corporate mandate of obeying the crowd of our customers and fulfilling their orders and commissions efficiently.

“Ben you okay? You look a little out of it. Taking off for lunch early?”
“Mark, I just got some bad news, tell the boss I’m off home and will be back tomorrow.”
“Okay, feel better man.”

I walk towards the door and pass by Louise.

“Hey there Ben, you look like you just had a kick to the soul. You wanna talk about it over lunch? I can ditch early, no problem.”
“You’re right I have. If you’d like to join me you can. I was just going to head home early and take some time to think. But talking about it might help.”
“Ok, let’s go.”

Walking down the street I couldn’t say much, I felt as if surrounded by a herd, I just kept walking in step with those in front of me and beside Louise. We passed by many decent places to stop and eat but I was so lost in thought that I couldn’t direct my feet towards their doors.

Finally Louise grabs my arm and says,

“Ben, stop for a second would you. You look like a zombie in fear. If they feel fear that is, I always thought of them as just simple cowards.”
“Why did you say that?”
“Say what? Zombies are cowards? I don’t know just came into my head.”
“Well that’s kind of related to what got me all stirred up. Lets stop here and grab a coffee and go head to that bench over there and I’ll tell you.”

We went into the café and I bought a coffee for Louise and myself. We walked over to the bench and sat down. I recounted my experience with the quote earlier that morning and how when I got back to work I looked it up and read that article. How I never really thought about things such as that and how I’ve always been content with being part of the crowd, a normal and productive member of society.

“Hahaha, Ben I never thought reading some philosophy would stir you up so much. It makes me happy to hear this. I’ve been working on my degree for 5 years now and still am surprised and excited when I get inspired emotionally and mentally by the writings of some past philosopher. Maybe what you need is a change of perspective. A little more elaboration of the ideas and a chance to talk about with others, allow you to make up your own mind about your life and choices. Here’s my number and if you want to talk just give me a call, I need to head back to work. Thanks for the coffee Ben.”

With those words she got up and left. I was left their alone, thinking to myself. And it hit me again.

I am a single biological linguistic individual with no value within a crowd, but the choices I make, the life I lead as an individual I should aspire to and find value in. Knowing that I can make a choice and be content in those choices is my own eternal truth.

I walked home with a smile. Once home I slept.

The next morning at work I asked Louise for suggested classes, I told Mike to be ready for a night of digital battles, and I sat down to a new world with faith in my choices.