Primordial consciousness and its language undergirds numerous phenomena of everyday life. In addition to dreaming and mother-infant bonding, which were described in chapter 4 . Several of these are described, including the manifestly pathological (psychosis), and more ordinary phenomena including belief systems, ordinary and extreme, altered states of consciousness whose manifestations can seem...
This chapter draws on the inspiringly insightful writings of D. W. Winnicott to show how modern culture&s;s uncritical treating of children as if they are &s;mini-adults&s; may well be perpetrating untold harm on children&s;s development. Rudolf Steiner&s;s model of child development has many similarities to a Winnicottian view. In his archetypal developmental cosmology, and similarly to...
This chapter seeks to present the rationale for transpersonal approach and how it aligns with the research paradigm that is relevant to transpersonal psychology. It addresses the approach to dreamwork and provides a brief detour into the role of symbols. The role of the symbol was of paramount importance to Jung and its central place in his psychology is well known. The concept of...
Abstract: This chapter explores how electroacoustic music takes the listener on a journey through unreal, imaginary, or hallucinatory sound-worlds. The chapter commences with a general explanation of electroacoustic music, and how it may allow illusory representations of real and unreal sounds and spaces. Following this, various compositions of electroacoustic music are discussed, which are...
Abstract: This chapter provides an introduction to consciousness, and explores how our subjective experiences change during a variety of altered states of consciousness. An overview of cognition is given, outlining the processes involved in the construction of our experiences within the ‘stream’ or ‘theatre of consciousness’. Next, the main varieties of altered states of consciousness are...
Abstract: This chapter explores altered states of consciousness in interactive video games and virtual reality applications. First, a brief overview of advances in the sound and graphics of video games is provided, which has led to ever-more immersive capabilities within the medium. Following this, a variety of games that represent states of intoxication, drug use, and hallucinations are...
Abstract Inner Sound explores how altered states of consciousness have shaped the design of electronic music and audio-visual media. The book begins by discussing consciousness, and how this may change during states such as dreaming, psychedelic experience, meditation, and trance. Next, a variety of shamanic traditions are reviewed, in order to explore how indigenous societies have reflected...
Correlations between memories and dreaming has typically been studied by linking conscious experiences and dream reports, which has illustrated that dreaming reflects waking life events, thoughts, and emotions. As some research suggests that sleep has a function of memory consolidation, and dreams reflect this, researching this relationship further may uncover more useful insights. However,...
The fleeting dream images of sleep onset afford a rare glimpse at how experience is transformed from the perceptually grounded consciousness of wakefulness to the hallucinatory simulations of dreaming. These images, or microdreams, are briefer, simpler, and more accessible to phenomenological scrutiny than are the long REM dreams traditionally recorded in the sleep lab. This chapter shows that...
One of Freud’s assumptions on dreaming, that “dreams are the guardians of sleep”, was proven wrong by sleep researchers. Freud’s notion was that one of the functions of dreaming is to preserve sleep. The researchers found the reverse to be true, namely that “sleep is the guardian of dreams”. Dream consciousness uses more energy than waking consciousness; it uses so much energy that its reserves...