This paper reviews the frequent phenomenon of altered states of consciousness in disparate cultural psychotherapeutic contexts. The historical antecedents of contemporary Western psychodynamic psychotherapy are examined and the central importance of altered states in the therapeutic effects of religious institutions such as the Dionysian rite and the Asclepia is illustrated. The continued...
Abstract The author explains why it is important at this juncture in time to acquaint researchers and clinicians in the field of hypnosis with the current serious research in altered states of consciousness, and vice versa. In a 1975 SCEH symposium, the author brought together both well-established and young researchers coming from orientations as widely differing as neurophysiology, cognitive...
Abstract In this paper a new ego-psychological thmry is proposed for the understanding of altered stah of consciousness. The diehob mies of primary and secondary process, ego activity and ego receptivity, and automatization and de-automatization of ego functions in daydreaming, in the inspirational phase of creativity, in hypnosis, in psychedelic stabs, and in meditation are discussed; so are...
This paper represents a reanalysis of data from earlier studies sup porting the hypothesis that cultural patterning of altered states of con sciousness (trance) conforms to a monothetic general evolutionary scale of sociocultural behavior. Global correlations using holocultural method ology show trance type to be positively correlated with four selected evolutionary variables, two related to...
This essay examines the complementary functions of biopsychology and phenomenology in the interpretation of the religious significance of altered states of consciousness. Two physiological models of consciousness are examined and correlated with phenomenological theories of interpretation. The first model charts consciousness along a continuum of central nervous system arousal. The second model...
Medicine. San Francisco. He is Director of the Psychosomatic Medicine Center of Gladman Memorial Hospital, Oakland, and in private practice in Berkeley. During graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley, he was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, studied at the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich, Switzerland, and became Director of the Institute for the Study of Consciousness, Berkeley. He has...
The study compares altered states of consciousness induced by the hallucinogens (--)delta9-trans-Tetrahydrocannabinol (delta9-THC) and N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) using two placebo control groups. A total of 24 subjects received 250 mug delta9-THC p.o./kg body weight and 26 subjects were treated with 250 mug DMT i.m./kg. Placebo was given to 24 subjects. The effects were assessed by a...
In a controlled study on 38 volunteers the effects of 250 mcg/kg N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) i.m. were assessed. 26 subjects received DMT and 12 placebo. The altered states of consciousness and the somatic changes were measured by several questionnaires administered after the experiment. In spite of the low dose as compared to previous studies significant differences to placebo were found in...
The term "psychedelic" applied to "altered states of consciousness" would imply that such subjective anomalies are direct expressions of normal psychological functioning. The anomaly in such experience would depend in the first instance on sensitization to qualities of immediate subjective state. Such sensitization should in itself be considered nonadaptive, cutting off the "intentionality" of...
The following hypotheses were investigated in a study of memory recall and an altered state of consciousness: (a) A direct relationship was expected between the magnitude of correct responses and task complexity. (b) Semantic context variation was expected to cause greater impairment in verbal processing than variation in syntactic constraints. (c) Under N2O fewer correct responses in verbal...