Psychedelics and the science of self-experience

SummaryAltered self-experiences arise in certain psychiatric conditions, and may be induced by psychoactive drugs and spiritual/religious practices. Recently, a neuroscience of self-experience has begun to crystallise, drawing upon findings from functional neuroimaging and altered states of consciousness occasioned by psychedelic drugs. This advance may be of great importance for psychiatry.

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7. Altered states of consciousness

Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction ◽

10.1093/actrade/9780198794738.003.0007 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 100-116

Author(s):

Susan Blackmore

Keyword(s):

Normal State ◽

Altered States Of Consciousness ◽

Psychoactive Drugs ◽

Altered States ◽

States Of Consciousness ◽

Body Experiences ◽

The World ◽

Altered State Of Consciousness ◽

Near Death Experiences

‘Altered states of consciousness’ discusses the states of consciousness during sleep, dreaming, hallucinations, out-of-body experiences, near-death experiences, meditation, and after taking psychoactive drugs. Psychologist Charles Tart defines an altered state of consciousness (ASC) as ‘a qualitative alteration in the overall pattern of mental functioning, such that the experiencer feels his consciousness is radically different from the way it functions ordinarily’. This certainly captures the idea of ASCs, but also creates problems, such as knowing what a ‘normal’ state is. In both mystical experiences and long-term meditation, people describe seeing through the illusions of duality and seeing the world as it truly is.

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Profane Illuminations: Robert Anton Wilson’s Hedonic Ascesis

Gnosis Journal of Gnostic Studies ◽

10.1163/2451859x-12340113 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 6 (2) ◽

pp. 209-232

Author(s):

Erik Davis

Keyword(s):

Altered States Of Consciousness ◽

The Self ◽

Altered States ◽

States Of Consciousness ◽

Wide Range ◽

Peter Sloterdijk ◽

Psychedelic Drugs ◽

Meta Programming ◽

Aleister Crowley ◽

American Counterculture

Abstract The writer Robert Anton Wilson (1932–2007) played a significant intellectual role in the American counterculture in the late 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Drawing from a wide range of discourses, as well as his own occultural fictions and personal experiments in “hedonic engineering,” Wilson presented a pluralistic view of reality that combined a pragmatic skepticism with a creative and esoteric embrace of the “meta-programming” possibilities of altered states of consciousness. In his 1975 Illuminatus! trilogy, written with Robert Shea, Wilson wove anarchist, psychedelic, and occult themes into a prophetic conspiracy fiction written with a satiric and willfully pulp sensibility. Ritually experimenting with psychedelic drugs and sexual magic – experiences related in his 1977 book Cosmic Trigger – Wilson developed a wayward if deeply self-reflexive theory and dialectical method of visionary practice, one that, amidst the paranoia, presented its own deconstructive and libertarian vision of gnosis. This essay contextualizes and unpacks Wilson’s visionary pragmatism in terms of Foucault’s roughly contemporaneous notion of “technologies of self,” later elaborated by Peter Sloterdijk as “anthropotechnics.” It also traces the specific debts that Wilson owed to other esoteric and psychedelic technologists of the self, including Aleister Crowley, Timothy Leary, and John Lilly.

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Psychedelic Drugs: A Study of Drug-Induced Experiences Obtained by Illegal Drug Users in Relation to Stanislav Grof's Model of Altered States of Consciousness

Imagination Cognition and Personality ◽

10.2190/a2rx-xv10-nhue-3612 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

pp. 41-57 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Anette Kjellgren ◽

Torsten Norlander

Keyword(s):

Drug Users ◽

Illegal Drug ◽

Altered States Of Consciousness ◽

Altered States ◽

Drug Induced ◽

States Of Consciousness ◽

Psychedelic Drugs

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Introduction

10.1093/oso/9780190671181.003.0001 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Jonathan Weinel

Keyword(s):

Electronic Music ◽

Visual Media ◽

Altered States Of Consciousness ◽

Altered States ◽

States Of Consciousness ◽

Psychedelic Drugs ◽

Aims And Scope ◽

Relationship Of ◽

The Relationship ◽

Visual Technologies

This introduction to Inner Sound: Altered States of Consciousness in Electronic Music and Audio-Visual Media outlines the background, aims, and scope of the book. The chapter begins by introducing altered states of consciousness through a description of visual hallucinations, which may have provided a basis for some of the oldest-known artworks. Next, a brief historical overview of altered states is given, from ancient shamanic traditions and cults, to modern-day use of psychedelic drugs such as LSD. The use of altered states in these contexts has resulted in a variety of associated art, literature, music, films, and video games, which in recent years have been rendered with the aid of new sound and audio-visual technologies. These works provide the main focus of Inner Sound, which explores the relationship of altered states of consciousness with electronic music and audio-visual media, in order to develop a conceptual theory of ‘Altered States of Consciousness Simulations’.

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