05.01-- Abstract No:802
This paper suggests a new paradigm for consciousness (c) research. It begins by arguing that the crucial step that must now be made is to distinguish between 'outer' empiricism, the methods of the natural sciences, and 'inner' empiricism, the exploration of subjectivity. Examples will be given of errors made in the past in attempting to impose the methods of the natural sciences on phenomenal space i.e. use outer empiricism alone. These have included even the denial of reality to the subjective sphere, an error with a long and undistinguished history, as will be outlined. Both species of empiricism are necessary for c research.
The next section of the paper outlines the role of each of its constituent disciplines in this research; briefly, tasks are allocated to QM, neuroscience, the cognitive sciences, anthropology, computer science, the philosophy of mind, and 'inner empiricism' . The distinction between computational 'mind', the province of the cognitive sciences, and subjectivity is taken as fundamental. An outline is then given of disciplines that have engaged correctly in the applied experientialism necessary for exploration of subjectivity. Those chosen are the advaita tradition in Hinduism, Gurdjieff's 'work', Christian mysticism represented by Thomas Merton, and Hinayana Buddhism. It is argued that the mind/subject distinction is common to all of these; the exercises (physical, emotional and intellectual) used in each for the development of subjectivity are then mentioned. If time permits, one such may be attempted by the attendees.
Next, a physics framework encompassing enough to cater to the data from inner empiricism and outer empiricism will be outlined; it arises from von Neumann's foundations of QM, and the capacity to draw the dividing-line between system and observer at any point. Finally , the notion of C arising from applied experientialism will be interrelated with current cognitive neuroscience; in particular, the 'empirical self' in the traditions will be seen as consonant with Gazzaniga's notion of the interpreter.
05.01-- Abstract No:808
In this paper I will argue that Phenomenology as practiced by Husserl and Merleau-Ponty can significantly enrich the science of consciousness. My case study is spatial perception. According to a view described as the 'Literalist View' of vision (Akins 1996; Ballard 1996) , visual perception depends on there being a detailed representation of the world inside the perceiver's brain. Perception is to be explained by supposing that properties of the world are represented by similar properties in the brain, and these brain representations in turn give rise to experiences with similar or isomorphic characteristics. For example, spatial perception, according to this view, depends on an internal spatial map on which the 'light' of selective attention can act. In contrast, both Husserl (1989) and Merleau-Ponty (1962) , in their methodical descriptions of the lived experience of space, argue that perceived space is constituted not through a unified spatial map, but rather through the experience of moving one's own body. These descriptive accounts of the lived experience of space suggest new ways of interpreting some recent studies from cognitive neuroscience on the nature of spatial perception and selective attention (Rizzolatti et al. 1994, 1997; Milner & Goodale 1995) . In turn, these studies suggest certain revisions in the phenomenological account of space. Thus the study of spatial perception provides a good example of how phenomenology and cognitive science can be 'mutually enlightening' (Varela et al. 1991; Gallagher 1997) in the understanding of consciousness.
References
Akins, K. 1996. Introduction. In K. Akins (ed.) Perception. New York: Oxford University Press.
Ballard, D. 1996. On the function of visual representation. In K. Akins (ed.) Perception. New York: Oxford University Press.
Gallagher, S. 1997. Mutual enlightenment: recent phenomenology in cognitive science. Journal of Consciousness Studies 4: 195-214.
Husserl, E. 1989. Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and to a Phenomenological Philosophy. Second Book: Studies in the Phenomenology of Constitution. Trans. R. Rojcewicz and A. Schuwer. Dordecht: Kluwer.
Merleau-Ponty, M. 1962. Phenomenology of Perception. Trans. C. Smith. London: Routledge Press.
Milner, A.D. & Goodale, M.A. 1995. The Visual Brain in Action. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Rizzolatti, G., Riggio, L. & Sheliga, B.M. 1994. Space and selective attention. In C. Umiltà & M. Moscovitch (eds.) , Attention and Performance XV. Conscious and Nonconscious Information Processing. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Rizzolatti, G., Fadiga, L., Fogassi, L. & Gallese, V. 1997. The space around us. Science 277: 190-191.
Varela, F.J., Thompson, E. & Rosch, E. 1991. The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
05.01-- Abstract No:809
In this paper I will argue that the nature of the relationship between structures of experience and natural explanations can be made explicit beyond classical dualistic claims. The price is to retain only descriptions of experiential content which are methodologically grounded on an explicit method, such as pheneomenology (in the Husserlian tradition) . Such descriptions do not stand in isomormorphic pairings to brain processes, but in what I call triple-braided mutual constraints. The components of this triple are: (1) a sufficiently formal description, (2) a sufficiently embodied biological realization, (3) a sufficiently direct account of experience. I will illustrate how these three component are actually necessary for a satisfactory account of time consciousness.
Varela, F. 1997. The naturalization of phenomenology as the transcendence of nature. Alter, Revue de Phénoménologie (Paris) No.5, pp.39-58.
05.01-- Abstract No:1245
This paper challenges the claims of Dennett and others that introspective knowledge should be characterised as 'fiction'. A fictional world is created for entertainment or enlightenment but not as a specific adjunct to activity, whilst our introspective world often does constitute an adjunct to activity. These introspections may succeed or fail in regard to their intended purpose, and by learning to distinguish between the two we can increase the _validity_ of our introspections.
If current science does not accept such introspections (e.g. the existence of a self or of a 'Cartesian Theatre') as valid, or fails to discover ways of viewing them that accept them as valid, this is a limitation of current science, not a defect of the introspections themselves.
05.01-- Abstract No:1301
[abstract to follow]
05.02-- Abstract No:752
Tart has proposed the state-specific science model as a method of researching discrete altered states of consciousness (d-ASC) , such as the advanced meditative states that expert meditators report. To obviate a methodological problem that confounds consciousness research, that being a subject's privileged access to his own consciousness, Tart suggests that the scientist himself enter the d-ASC that has been targeted for research. Therein the scientist would conduct such activities as public observation, consensual validation, theorizing, and the testing of resultant hypotheses. In the several decades since his proposal, the state-specific science method has been applied with minimal success to the research of such d-ASCs as hypnotic trance, drug intoxication, and lucid dreaming. An examination of the applicability of the state-specific science method to the research of advanced meditative states partially explains why the method has not been applied with greater success. Advanced meditative states are reported to be characterized by qualities of non-replicabilty, transience, non-discursivity, and/or vulnerability to the effects of experimentation. An exceedingly rare meditative skill is required before a meditator can reproduce a meditative state at will. A similarly exquisite level of skill is required to sustain the duration of a meditative state. It is unlikely that a state-specific scientist would acquire the meditative skill required to reproduce a meditative d-ASC at will and for a specified duration, as would be needed to conduct state-specific research. Moreover many meditative d-ASCs are reported to be mutually exclusive with discursive thought. Such d-ASCs would terminate with the onset of the discursive thought that is required for the activities of public observation, consensual validation, theorizing, and hypothesis testing that the state-specific model envisions occurring in-state. Furthermore, many meditative d-ASCs may be vulnerable to the effects of experimentation; the very act of in-state experimentation may alter the state, as when the single-pointed concentration that a meditative d-ASC may require is broken to attend to an experimental procedure. If the state-specific science model has been applied with some success to some states and not others, perhaps this suggests that the method is not a panacea for the general research of altered states of consciousness, but rather a method whose applicability is itself determined by the intrinsic characteristics of the state that is being researched.
05.02-- Abstract No:767
Summarising specific methodologies of current third-person perspectives on consciousness, this paper examines, compares and suggests an Advaitic approach to the problem of linking subjective awareness and subjective conscious experience.The paper argues that there need to be an inevitable recognition of the first-person methodologies in order to understand the non-reducibility of 'I-consciousness'. Contextual references are made to the Advaitic notion of intentional and non-intentional consciousness, 'anubhuti' (pure pre-cognitive experience) as distinct from 'anubhava' (discrete conscious experience of a physical/psychological function) and meditational techniques in Advaita.
We might be phenomenologically fully 'aware' of what consciousness is. But when it comes to the abstraction of the mechanism behind a conscious experience, or a theoretical linkage, the third-person-account definitions range variously from perspectives of artificial intelligence to neuroscience and social anthropology. The 'binding problem of consciousness' posits the discussion about various field theories, models of self and phenomenology of meditation. A holistic approach to consciousness is definitely promising to articulate its tangible representations whether it be sociological or quantum mechanical. Since the multilevel complexity of consciousness is also being widely appreciated, the problematic brings forth time and again the necessity to check the suitability and adequacy of the methodology employed.
In this paper I try to present and argue for a methodological shift in consciousness studies based on the ontology developed by Adi Sankaracarya.
05.02-- Abstract No:824
Scientists seeking to understand 'consciousness' appear to ignore colleagues who say that the qualities ascribed to external reality only dwell within us and that what we conceive of as 'reality' is enfolded in human consciousness. Reality is a manifestation of our thoughts and not a property of the external world, but involves our presence as conscious observers. The universe achieves a concrete existence as a result of our perceptions. Our concept of the reality created by our brain and senses cause us not only to misunderstand consciousness, but render us unable even to imagine what it might be.
Neuroscientists are just beginning to examine the misapprehensions of our senses and how these lead us to act and think as though we have an accurate understanding of consciousness. However we may perceive reality in the waking state of consciousness, it is not the autonomous separate 'things' our senses behold. Pribram and Bohm's holographic analog for the 'implicate' order beyond our senses illustrates how reality is an illusion. They argue that our minds not only enfold matter, but our bodies and the entire material universe as well and that the cosmos, matter, life, and consciousness itself are all projections of 'the ground of all that is', in ways which scientists have yet to discover, though Pribram speculates that the mystics may have discovered a way to see the implicate order, by learning how to 'abrogate the brain's retrieval systems and neuroelectrical codes.' Such scientific speculations challenge many cherished concepts, including language itself, because in the 'implicate' order ere is no space, time, causality, matter, or mind.
Because human thought is a by-product of our brain and senses, it is ever changing and limited and, thus, the Sufis say that the old subject-verb-object paradigm is not a valid paradigm for scientists to understand ultimate questions. Our sensory prison and language cause us to live on the surface of things and to not be aware of absolute reality. To understand consciousness, scientists must learn a totally different paradigm. Instead of always trying to satisfy themselves by studying the natural world, scientists must come to learn how to investigate inwardly. They must stop equating sensory experiences with true knowledge, which can be acquired only by directly cognizing infinite existence through focusing attention and energy on a specific point in the heart to activate a hitherto unsuspected capacity or 'knowing'. Knowing humanity in all its hidden dimensions must be the fundamental principle for all endeavors in science and religion. Sufism, the science of Self-knowledge, is the tradition Pribram thought might exist to teach humanity how to abrogate the brain to behold the implicate order.
The Sufis say that both true science and true religion are but reciprocal stages of the same search for truth about existence itself. One focuses on what we take to be the 'outer', the other on 'inner' reality, but these are simply artificial boundaries created by our 'feeling' mind. To know the unity underlying science and religion, the reality of existence, requires a different paradigm--heart consciousness. And, Sufism is that reality.
05.02-- Abstract No:875
Joel S. Goldsmith's teachings on meditation and mysticism have become readily available to students of consciousness through the publication and distribution of his numerous books and taped lectures since his death in 1962. Goldsmith's concept of consciousness emphasizes the primary role of meditation as a tool for awareness beyond the ordinary linear domains of the physical and mental into the mystical realm of illumination and inspiration. Specifically, Goldsmith suggests that mystical awareness is obtained by a surrender of the analytical human desire to logically label, dichtomize and explain what we know as reality. During meditation, the sense-making mind is suspended and the meditator becomes aware of the illusory nature of the three dimensional world of humanhood where bipolar powers exist and operate. The primary function of the mystical prayer is to experience a conscious realization of the one power and presence of the universe. Mystical experience is not obtained via metaphysical activities such as affirmation or good humanhood. Thus, one of the keys of mystical experience is the surrendering of the verbal, linear, bipolar, sense-making mode of consciousness so that the holistic oneness with all of being may be experienced. Thus, "the only desire of the mystic is to live consciously in the presence of infinite love." Joel Goldsmith's metaphysical versus mystical analysis is examined in the light of contemporary thought regarding bimodal consciousness.
05.02-- Abstract No:938
William James, in Varieties of Religious Experiences (1961, p. 305) , observed that:
. . . our normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different . . . No account of the universe in its totality can be final that leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded. Current models of consciousness, while explaining ordinary perception, are inadequate to explain heightened inner experiences that transcend ordinary waking consciousness. We propose a model of consciousness that encompasses both perception of outer stimuli and transcendental inner experiences. While the West considers heightened inner experiences ephemeral and transitory, the East has developed meditation techniques to systematically take the attention from surface thinking to more fundamental, expanded states of consciousness. The West has contributed to our knowledge of these states by objectively investigating their physiological correlates. Because the functioning of the nervous system underlies specific subjective experiences, physiological patterns can index changes in subjective states. The most extensively investigated meditation technique is the Transcendental Meditation technique. A large body of research suggests that distinct physiological and phenomenological patterns mark transcendental experiences during TM practice, specifically, extended periods of apneustic breathing with skin conductance orienting at their onset. These markers are distinctly different from those seen during waking, sleeping, and dreaming.
While empirically delineated, these transcendental experiences need to be conceptually integrated with ordinary experiences. A model, called the junction point model, integrates ordinary and transcendental experiences. The junction point model, delineated by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, posits that a fundamental state of consciousness sometimes appears as waking consciousness, sometimes as dreaming consciousness, and sometimes as deep sleep consciousness. In this model, the activities of waking, sleeping, and dreaming are the "filmiest screens, " which James spoke of, hiding the transcendental state.
The junction point model derives its name from one of its predictions, namely that the transitions or junction points between waking, sleeping, and dreaming are windows into the fundamental level of consciousness posited to underlie them. This prediction is based on the common observation that waking, sleeping, and dreaming are subjectively and physiologically distinct. Being distinct, in the natural transition from one state to another there could be a point that is like neither the former nor the following state, but is the common state posited to underlie them. This prediction is supported by similar EEG patterns observed in the junction points between waking, sleeping, and dreaming. This paper reports data that further probed these junction points. In normal subjects' sleep, the markers of transcendental experiences during TM practice (breath and autonomic markers) were observed during sleep onset and in the junction points between sleeping and dreaming. Without the junction point model these data are inexplicable. In terms of this model, these data suggest that this posited fundamental state can be experienced intentionally during TM practice, or occur spontaneously for shorter periods in the natural transition between states of consciousness.
05.02-- Abstract No:1027
Coping with stress appears to be one of the greatest challenges currently facing the medical profession.The inability to cope successfully with the enormous demands of medical school and medical practice may lead to a cascade of consequences at both a personal level -- affecting doctors' intra- and interpersonal lives (emotional/ spiritual health as well as their physical health) ; and at a professional level -- influencing their effectiveness as doctors by diminishing the quality of doctor-patient relationships. Preparation for the physician role should occur on many levels, including care of the personal well-being of students in training.
This study focused on premedical and medical students in an attempt to prevent and/or reduce the harmful effects of preparing to be a physician. Efficacy of a seven-week mindfulness-based stress reduction intervention on premedical and medical students using a well-controlled statistical design were examined. Findings indicate that training in mindfulness meditation can effectively (1) reduce self-reported state and trait anxiety, (2) reduce reports of overall psychological distress including depression, (3) increase scores on overall empathy levels, and (4) increase scores on a measure of spiritual experiences. These results were replicated and held across different experimenters and during exam period.
Although this study found significant results consistent with the hypotheses, there are many limitations and suggestions for future research. Despite limitations, however, results document the potential efficacy of a stress management intervention based on mindfulness meditation to enhance premedical and medical students psychological/spiritual well-being as well as help cultivate skills to use in their future roles as physicians.
05.02-- Abstract No:1088
This paper proposes that "higher states of consciousness"-rather than being merely fleeting, mystical, or idiosyncratic-may become stable, universally available stages that represent the natural continuation and dramatic extension of human development in adulthood1.
Developmental psychology identifies two fundamental tiers of cognitive development: a "prerepresentational" sensory-motor tier during infancy, and a "representational" tier from early symbolic mentation to advanced abstract reasoning during adolescence. Major qualitative advances in cognition beyond this second tier are not generally seen in adulthood. Typically proposed "postformal" operational stages appear to complete this second tier rather than go beyond it.
We propose that higher states of consciousness as described in several ancient wisdom traditions-especially the ancient Vedic tradition of India as brought to light by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi-constitute a "postrepresentational tier" as far beyond conceptual thought as thought is beyond the sensori-motor domain. Just as the emergent symbolic mode allows gaining control over the sensori-motor mode (with the latter becoming more automatic and efficient) , the emergent postpresentational mode allows spontaneous control over thought (with the latter becoming more effective) .1
The fundamental ontological constraint of the representational tier is that the knower knows himself only indirectly through thoughts and feelings. We posit that the postconceptual ("self-referral") mode permits immediate self-knowing without symbolic mediation. In this "self-referral" mode (also termed by Maharishi "Transcendental Consciousness") , all mental activity standing between knower and known completely subsides, and they converge in one wholeness of awareness directly awake to itself as "Being". In the first fully stabilized higher state (termed "Cosmic Consciousness") , this self-referral mode is maintained along with and as a silent "witness" to ordinary waking, dreaming and deep sleep. (Also, subsequent higher states are proposed.)
Just as informal and formal instruction in language/symbol-use frees attention from control of immediate sensory stimuli, practices that facilitate transcending of thought-in particular the Transcendental Meditation (TM) Technique-may free attention from the habitual domination of thought, promoting a shift to the self-referral mode of higher states.
Extensive research supports this model. (1) Experiences of higher states appear similar in nature and cognitive/personality correlates in nonmeditators as meditators (i.e., TM practitioners) , supporting their potential universality. The TM technique increases frequency and intensity of these experiences but does not alter their nature or sequential unfoldment. (2) Ten-year longitudinal research indicates transcending through TM unfolds rarely achieved cognitive/self development levels at the upper limit of the second tier in route to higher states1, 2. (3) Research indicates a distinctive electrophysiological signature of experience of Transcendental Consciousness (the self-referral mode) during TM which becomes continuously maintained outside the practice during waking and even deep sleep in long-term practitioners.3
References:
1 Alexander, CN, Davies JL et al. (1990) . In CN Alexander & EJ Langer (eds) , Higher Stages of Human Development (pp. 286-340) . New York: Oxford University Press.
2 Alexander, CN, Rainforth, M et al. (1991) . J Soc Behav Pers 6: 189-247.
3 Mason, LI, Alexander, CN et al. (1997) . Sleep 20 (2) : 102-110.
05.02-- Abstract No:1111
The electrophysiological correlates of waking, dreaming and sleeping states of consciousness and their corresponding phenomenological differences have been well-established (Niedermeyer and Lopes Da Silva, 1987) . Less documented are so called 'extraordinary' states of consciousness beyond waking, dreaming and sleeping described across-cultures (James, 1929; Walsh and Vaughan, 1993; Varela, 1997) .
The ancient Vedic tradition of India specifically describes 'higher states of consciousness' characterized by a distinctive state termed 'transcendental consciousness' (i.e. silent inner-awareness without thought) (Maharishi, 1995) . The focus of this study is the maintenance of transcendental consciousness along with deep sleep said to be a criterion of stabilized higher states of consciousness. Previous studies have found increased theta-alpha (7-9 Hz) electroencephalography (EEG) activity (Farrow and Hebert, 1982) during reported periods of transcendental consciousness during the practice of Transcendental Meditation. We predicted that subjects reporting experiences of higher states of consciousness during deep sleep would display a typical theta-alpha EEG pattern of transcendental consciousness along with the delta activity (0.3-3 Hz) which defines stage 3 and 4 deep sleep.
Three groups volunteered for home sleep EEG using Oxford Medilog 9000 recorders. The experimental group consisted of eleven (9 females, 2 males) healthy long-term practitioners of Transcendental Meditation (mean = 17.8 years., s.d = 4.9) reporting higher states of consciousness. The first control group consisted of nine (8 females, 1 male) short-term practitioners of meditation (mean = 1.45 years., s.d = 0.8) not reporting higher states of consciousness, and the second control group consisted of eleven (11 females) healthy non-meditators. Medical screening for sleep disorders, psychiatric illnesses and physical diseases, included sleep state misperception, insomnia, depression, pain, and fibrositis. An EEG montage of C4-A1, C3-A2, electro-oculograms (EOG) , electro-myogram (EMG) (mental and submental) was employed and standard visual sleep scoring.
No significant difference was found between the groups in sleep architecture and time spent in sleep stages, 2, 3, 4 and rapid eye movement (REM) , REM latency, sleep onset, and movement time, for the night. The experimental group had significantly greater stage 1 than the short-term practitioners and non-meditating controls for the night. The experimental group exhibited 1) theta-alpha activity simultaneously with delta and decreased EMG. Spectral analysis (Fast Fourier Transform) data of the first three cycles showed that 2) the experimental group had significantly greater theta2 (6-8 Hz) -alpha1 (8-10 Hz) relative power during stages 3 and 4 than the combined control groups (t (30) =5.5, p=0.0000008) with no difference in time in delta. 3) There was a graded difference across groups during stages 3 and 4 in theta2-alpha1 power, with the experimental group having greater relative power than the short-term practitioners, who in turn had greater power than non-practitioners (t (30) =5.08, p=0.00002) . 4) Experimental subjects exhibited significantly more epochs with highly reduced EMG during stage 3 and 4 sleep relative to the short-term practitioners as determined by the lowest quartile of EMG relative power (t (18) =2.8, p=0.002) . 5) Experimental subjects also hadincreased REM density during REM periods compared to short-term practitioners (p=0.04) .
The electrophysiological profile of subjects reporting 'higher states of consciousness' appears to lend physiological support to the ancient descriptions of higher states of consciousness.
05.02-- Abstract No:1115
Descartes' seminal theory of self as single, simple and abiding throughout all of one's experience seems to resonate with common sense. But Hume argued that common sense notwithstanding, nothing corresponding to Descartes' concept is actually locatable in our experience. Kant supported and strengthened Hume by arguing that Descartes' the concept is necessarily empirically vacuous, and that nothing corresponding to it could ever therefore in principle be given in experience. But he also supported Descartes and common sense by arguing that the concept of self as single, simple, and abiding was a necessary--if vacuous and paradoxical--presupposition of all of our knowledge and experience. Components of these various conflicting arguments have proven so powerful that no generally accepted theory of self has been generated in Western philosophy over the past two centuries, and the most widely accepted view is that common sense is mistaken, and that the self, whatever it is, must be some kind of (ultimately fictitious) logical, psychological and/or sociological construction.
Eastern philosophical traditions add an empirical component not generally found in Western discussions: systematic first-person procedures for examining the contents of consciousness. They also claim that these procedures can produce experiences of built-in, but typically unnoticed components of awareness that can display the nature of otherwise obscure aspects of ordinary awareness. One widely reported experience is particularly relevant for theories of self. This is the experience of 'pure consciousness' reportedly obtained when attention withdraws from all phenomenological objects of experience, and mental activity settles down completely, leaving consciousness alone by itself, independent of all empirical qualities whatsoever.
It is easy to see that this experience is uniquely capable of fulfilling central criteria for experience of self derivable from the otherwise conflicting analyses of Descartes, Hume, and Kant. The pure consciousness experience, as empirically qualityless, is phenomenologically unique, and it is the only experience compatible with all other possible experiences, as self is supposed to be. Furthermore, the experience appears to display an ubiquitous but ordinarily subliminal component of our everyday awareness, thus making both the obscurity and the wide appeal of the ordinary notion of self as simple and abiding easy to explain. There thus appear to be strong reasons, derived from Western philosophical analysis, to identify the experience of pure consciousness as experience of self.
This conclusion needs to be qualified, however. The term 'self' is quite properly used to refer to many different things, most of which (mind, body, personality, etc.) are full of empirical content, and there is no reason to take the empirically qualityless pure consciousness experience as being experience of these sorts of things. This creates no difficulty for the present analysis, however. For there are important logical and psychological differences between these referrents of the term 'self', all understandable as aspects of the concrete empirical 'me', and the much more abstract and problematic sense of 'I'. And it is precisely this latter problematic aspect of self that the pure consciousness experience is uniquely capable of clarifying.
05.02-- Abstract No:1135
Although considered to be 'the mystical dimension of Islam', Sufism is actually a discipline which requires a knowledgeable teacher as guide for individualized training and research. The goal of Sufism is self-knowledge, and through self-knowledge, to knowledge of the Creator. The process of development which occurs in sincere students of Sufism involves a substantial shift in awareness and a change in the experience of consciousness. These changes are positive, beneficial, and permanent, and are accompanied by measurable mental, emotional, spiritual and physiological changes. Buddhist and Christian as well as the numerous Sufi Arefs have all spoken of an expanded, non-personal, non-local awareness, which transcends personal experience. Various traditions have used terms such as 'Cosmic Consciousness, Pure Consciousness, Transcendent Consciousness, Universal Consciousness', to describe this higher level, more inclusive consciousness.
To the Sufi, True Consciousness, total awareness, is attained when the ego is annihilated, so that a person may become one with the Sea of Existence, one with the Divine Beloved, God. It requires the loss of the boundaries which enclose us, as a drop of water loses its boundaries when it becomes one with the sea. The Oveyssi School of Sufism has, over the last 1400 years, developed very effective and efficient methods of encouraging and producing such a consciousness.
It is the purpose of this paper to describe the characteristics of the state of consciousness achieved by more advanced students, to discuss the methods used to obtain these results, and to present an experiential exercise which provides a glimpse into a consciousness-altering experience.
Students learn in an environment of tranquility and peace. Students receive and practice basic breathing and slow-motion physical exercises, which seem similar to a combination of Tai Chi and Yoga, but are entirely different and lead to different results. Specific bioelectromagnetic exercises are utilized to strengthen and develop specific electromagnetic centers in the body. The traditional Islamic prayers are practiced five times a day, in addition to specific prayers. Concentration, contemplation, visualization, and meditation exercises are also practiced. One of the most powerful, as well as famed, methods used for attaining a higher level consciousness is the Sufi Zikr, used for more than a millenia, which is a form of chanting accompanied by a gentle, swaying physical motion. The audience will be asked to participate in a demonstration of the Sufi Zikr.
05.02-- Abstract No:1176
In the study of Mysticism, there have emerged two distinct and opposing viewpoints. The unity thesis argues for a common core to mystical experience that is unmedaited by language or interpretation. The plurality thesis argues that the any shared reality to mystical states is minimal relative to the social construction involved in the identification and recognition of such states. The plurality thesis derives its strongest support from Constructivism, which claims that all experience, including mystical, is constructed or 'mediated' through the individual's conceptual framework consisting, in part, of the complex epistemological interplay between beliefs, expectations and values (Katz, 1978) . To experience is to construct; all perception is interpretation. This collapses experience and interpretation, a distinction necessary for the unity theorist. If all experience is constructed, then varying traditions must yield different mystical experiences. Unity theorists have argued that pure conscious experience, itself contentless, cannot by definition be constructed. It is literally an experience of "no-thing." On the other hand, constructivism explicitly denies the possibility of PCEs (Pure Consciousness events) on a priori grounds. However, unity theorists argue that constructivism fails to rule out the possibility of PCEs and contradicts mystical claims (Forman, 1990) . Furthermore, the unity thesis provides an explanation for novelty and accounts for an extraordinary degree of unanimity among mystical descriptions that are unlikely to be derived from social constructions. Additionally, the unity thesis is metaphysically advantageous for its' ontological simplicity in the manner of GUT and SUSY theories in physics. By recognizing phenomenological and ontological validity to PCEs, the unity thesis supports the further mystical implications that: 'The self is not limited' and 'There are no boundaries or limitations to the self' (Seth, 1979) . This is also exactly what many mystics guide one to expect. Although the unity thesis presents a superior explanation for mystical experience, it is explicitly mute with regard to everyday experience. Instead we must arrive at an explanation for normal experience through a reversed reasoning. If mystical perception is achieved by some process of 'forgetting' or eliminating concepts from consciousness, then it is plausible to reason that normal experience is maintained by adding concepts to consciousness. That personal experience is created by concept-formation is a mystical insight adequately summarized as, 'You make your own reality'. Curiously, that is the constructivists' central premise. Here the mystic and constructivism converge. While the unity thesis explains foundational reality, the constructivist premise accounts for the process of personal experience. One describes the source, the other the process. Both corollaries are necessary to explain the superset, Reality, which we all find ourselves immersed in.
05.02-- Abstract No:1201
Positron emission tomography (PET) using [F-18] -- fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) allows us to directly investigate the interactive organization of the human brain, by virtue of the coupling between cerebral glucose utilization and neuronal activity [2]. Hence, relationships between metabolic alterations and higher mental activity have begun to be examined in both normal and psychopathological conditions. In a large prospective study Dittrich [1] has shown that there are three common etiology-independent dimensions of drug- and non-drug-induced Altered States of Consciousness (ASC) : 'Oceanic boundlessness' (OSE) , 'Visionary restructuralization' (VUS) and 'Fear of ego-dissolution' (AIA) .
To explore the relationship between psychological dimensions of ASC and regional brain activity, we have investigated the effects of various psychoactive drugs (d-amphetamine, racemic ketamine, S- and R-ketamine and psilocybin) on cerebral metabolism in healthy volunteers using FDG-PET and psychometric rating scales (APZ and IPP) [3 - 6]. 14 brain regions which are part of a cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical (CSTC-) network thought to be involved in sensory and cognitive information processing were selected for analysis. Normalized PET data from placebo and corresponding drug conditions were subjected to a factor analysis and factor scores for each individual subject were computed (n=106) . Surprisingly, this computation revealed that the interactive organization in the CSTC -- network (based on a five-factor solution) during ASC was very similar to that seen under placebo, indicating that the functional integrity of interrelated brain regions (factors) , which might be interpreted as functional 'units' or 'modules', is not disrupted in ASC. According to their content, the factors were labeled 'fronto-parietal cortex', 'temporal cortex', 'occipital cortex', 'striatum' (including the caudate nucleus and putamen) and 'thalamus'.
Multiple regression analysis between psychological dimensions of ASC (APZ scores) and factor scores (normalized metabolic activity) revealed (1) that Oceanic boundlessness relates to metabolic increases in the frontal-parietal and temporal cortex and decreases in the occipital cortex; (2) that Visionary restructuralization (including hallucinatory phenomena) is associated with metabolic activation in fronto-parietal, temporal and striatal modules, and decreases in the occipital cortex, and (3) that Fear of ego-dissolution is primarily associated with elevated metabolism in the thalamus.
These results indicate that the basic architecture of interconnected functional modules is very similar between ASCs and normal waking state, but that the contribution of the individual modules differs markedly. Particularly, loss of ego-boundaries and alterations in the perception of time and space occurred with excessive activity of the frontal cortex (hyperfrontality) in ASC, giving support to the holonomic brain theory [7] which suggests that the frontal cortex is involved in integrating covariant external and internal information.
Bibliography
1. Dittrich, A., et al., Germ.J.Psych., 9, 319-339 (1985) .
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05.02-- Abstract No:1216
Consciousness is a heterogeneous set of mental processes sharing the property of being experienced. Among these processes two sets of functions appear: The primarily executive functions of conscious control of actions, and the primarily perceptive function of sensory qualities. It is hypothesized that these different aspects of consciousness are reflected in brain activity of different location. The two aspects are dissociated in relaxation meditation (Yoga Nidra) , with a decreased experience of conscious control and an increased sensory experience. The neural activity patterns of each of these aspects of consciousness were investigated by assessing subjects during rest and meditation.
Seven experienced yoga practitioners, mostly teachers, were investigated using EEG and O15-labeled water (GE Advance, 3D mode, 2x2x4.25 mm in 35 planes, 90 sec, 10 min apart) . Four scans were performed at well defined passages of meditation two characterized by sensory experience and two by abstract perception. Four scans were performed at non-meditative resting states. SPM was used to assess flow (p<0.01) . Wilcoxon signed rank test was used for EEG power spectra (p<0.05) . The investigation was approved by the local ethical committee.
The results showed the cerebral activity of the normal conscious state to be supported differentially by bilateral activity in dorso-lateral and orbital frontal cortex, anterior cingulate gyrus, inferior parietal lobule, striatum, thalamus, brainstem, cerebellum and in the temporal and inferior frontal predominantly left gyri. The meditative states were supported differentially in the hippocampus, anterior parietal lobe and the occipital lobe.
Thus, we find that perceptual aspects of consciousness without perception involves areas of the brain known to take active part in visual and somatosensory processing. On the other hand attention for action involves areas which play a key role in fronto-subcortical and fronto-cerebellar loops.
We therefore conclude that different aspects of consciousness are subserved by different brain regions. We further hypothesize that consciousness is a global phenomenon, and that the areas involved in any given instance reflects the aspects of the conscious process taking place.
05.02-- Abstract No:1227
There is no compelling reason to assume that reflection ("self"-reflection) is mere fabrication, or that it crucially distorts the thematic posit that funds our sense of self. Rather, our sense of self may represent a certain adventitious "sheen" available to conscious reflection. Be this as it may, however, the reflective representation, faithful or disloyal, could be a disclosure of the self only if it were possible to speak of consciousness it/self; only, that is, if it rendered the "self" of consciousness it/self. And this it patently cannot do. The transparentism here adopted is rooted in Buddhist insights according to which consciousness does not "have, " but rather is, a "blind spot" in the sense that it in no way appears to "itself." And this, of course, engenders a cascade of implications with regard to the nature of consciousness and its alliance with "things"--the "things" of neurophysiology (neural events and processes) as well as the mental "thing" denominated the self.
05.02-- Abstract No:1273
A science of consciousness presupposes that we allow consciousness to speak for itself, and not attempt to tell it what it must be (the problem with reductionsim in the mind/brain area) . If we take this approach then we inevitably involve ourselves with a phenomenological method; we describe states of thought, awareness, transcendental modes of perception etc., but this is a phenomenology from above, that is, one that is wholistic, synthetic in an expanded Kantian sense, because open to mystical experience in all its forms. I call this the transductive method, and transduction is distinguished from deduction, since it sees the totality in principle, from induction insofar as it goes much frirther in grasping the outlines of the Absolute, and from reduction, because it does not impose an artificial, a priori limitation on consciousness that drags it down to the so-called material level.
The transductive method studies "objects" that include mystical consciousness itself, altered states, aesthetic, poetic, nature, and interpersonal experiences. It follows the pnmacy of the mystical as the norm of its verification contextual horizon, a horizon that is open to mystery. It discovers clues to the ultimate nature of consciousness in Quantum Mechanics, and particularly in the breakdown of dualism, i.e., the subject/object relation, and in the phenomenon of quantum non-locality. In these clues, especially in the latter, it finds a predictive pointing to the efficacy of a mystical, or transductive outcome.
The transductive method calls upon mystics and sages to give their testimony of primary experience, like Eckhart, Ruysbroeck, Teresa of Avila, and John of the Cross. It will explore divine union, Tibetan dzogchen, advaita of Upanishadic mysticism, the core truth of the great mahavakyas, the four statements that sum up Indian contemplative wisdom, and the fana and baqa of the Sufis. This imput will lead us into a transductive, or mystical model of consciousness that regards it as an infinite field of unified awareness. We will discover that we inhabit rather than have or owil consciousness itself we share consciousness with trillions of other near and far neighbors. Consciousness is a community of identities. This vast community is multidimensional, for there is the Absolute, or the Divine; then there are special realms, forms, light, regional, and local awareness. Regional is species consciousness.
Consciousness is an infinite community of awareness, a dynamic, interdependent reality. Ontologically, it is a unity with distinctions, or the metaphysical actuality of irreducible distinctions within the ultimate unitary nature of the Absolute itself. In terms of human destiny, mysticism, altered states, the mahavakyas etc. predict an identification with absolute awareness. We are, in some sense, this absolute consciousness when we achieve ultimate awareness. We can achieve this expanded life, maintaining our unique, individual perspective, while sharing the same absolute center, the Divine Consciousness itself
05.05-- Abstract No:846
States of consciousness form as a synthesis of discrete, yet cortically distributed, levels of arousal combined with specific contents. Functional states tend to maintain a self-generating equilibrium, a homeostasis. Altering conscious to provide a wide range of beneficial states (stress-reducing relaxation, improved sleep, intuitive, creative, meditative, healing, and expanded-learning states, etc.) necessarily involves either changing levels of arousal or cognitive content or both. The extended reticular-thalamic activating system (ERTAS) model suggests a neural mechanism responsible for regulating generalized levels of arousal (basic rest-activity cycle, sleep cycles, ultradian rhythms, etc.) as well as individual explicit (behavior- or cognition-specific) patterns of arousal. Neurologically, the specific contents of consciousness are said to be cortical. These cortical attributes are the result of social-psychological conditioning and elemental cognitive acuity. Effective induction of propitious altered states of consciousness via cortico-thalamic adaptation requires a multidimensional approach involving sensory-information stimuli, social- psychological reconditioning, and education. Chief among the sensory- information techniques for inducing beneficial altered states is the procedure of placing an individual into an environment of greatly reduced stimulation for brief periods (less than 2 hours) . The two most frequently used methods are lying on a bed in a dark, soundproof room and flotation (dry or wet) in a buoyant liquid at skin temperature in a light-free, soundproof chamber. The ganzfeld technique is another effective sensory-information method to induce advantageous altered states of consciousness. In the ERTAS model, consciousness changes as cortico-thalamic projections adjust to reduced sensory information coming to the midbrain reticular formation and regulate rhythmic EEG patterns throughout the cortex. During this adjustment period, the ERTAS is particularly vulnerable to other stimuli. Sensory information such as aroma, color, music, touch, and binaural beating can all serve to further direct changes in consciousness via cortico-thalamic adaptation. Because consciousness is a syntheses of both arousal and content, altered states of consciousness can be further inspired by changes in a percipient's social-psychological conditioning and cognitive skills. Social-psychological conditioning tools can modify attitude, expectancy, motivation, etc., and educational approaches can expand cognitive skills. Group interaction, counseling, guided visual imagery, affirmation, introspection, reframing, and goal orientation are all safe and effective methods of modifying an individual's social- psychological conditioning and limiting belief systems. Within the ERTAS model, projections between the pre-frontal cortex and the medial dorsal nucleus as well as collateral interaction with the nucleus reticularis allow for a change in social-psychological conditioning to not only directly alter the content of consciousness but also alter the arousal level associated with such content. Cognitive skills can be enhanced through educational programs such as directed reading, lectures, multimedia presentations, planned group discussions, etc. Equipped with a greater cognitive acumen, individuals are capable of experiencing expanded points of view, i.e., new thoughts, unique ideas, wide-ranging concepts (the contents of consciousness) . Cortico-thalamic adaptation of these new perspectives results in the experience of propitious states of consciousness.
05.05-- Abstract No:897
A patient's experiences with a protracted visual hallucination demonstrates through a progression of six images an amazing parallel to the visual pathway (reproduction of these images will accompany this presentation) . The patient who was hospitalized for alcohol withdrawal reported a series of hallucinations that went through six separate stages. Stage one began 24 hours after his last drink. Unformed clouds of color were seen with eyes closed. Stage two evolved from this to geometric shapes, initially simple then complex. These were brilliant yet stationary. Addition of movement initiated the third stage:three dimensional depth filled objects reminiscent of canyons or rows of statues. Stage four had the sense of movement with rapid evolution into more complex shapes and visualization of distant horizons. A fracturing of this movement into faces, formed limbs, and body parts constantly shifting marked the fifth stage. The final sixth stage was an amalgam of letters, word images, lines, voices, each stage lasted from 40 to 90 minutes.
Just as "jacksonian" motor seizures produce an excitation of the motor cortex (evidenced by movement of a limb) ; in a like manner these visual hallucinations produced visual ly conscious experiences that parallels visual pathways. Stage one indicates the retina with its capacity to have unformed shapes of color. projecting through the lateral geniculate nucleus to the primary visual cortex.'Here the visual impulse are organized allowing the awareness of shape line and contour (stage two) Complexity of shape with three dimensional sense are represented by layer one through four of the visual cortex (stage three) Adding movement involves the complex visual pathways projecting out to the superior colliculus with vestibular involvement. Area 17 of the cortex with stereoscopic vision comprises stage 4. The interplay of occipital association area with pathways to other area (speech, word association, etc) demonstrates stage 5 and then finally stage 6. This withdrawal delirium produced a pathologic awareness of visual processing. This illustrates vividly that consciousness (visual in this example) can identify actual neural pathways and their organization.
REFERENCES
Edelman, GM "Bright Air, Brilliant Fire: On the Matter of the Mind." Basic Books c 1992
West, JB editor" Physiologic Basis of Medical Practice", Vision, pp 970-998; William and Wilkins c 1990
05.05-- Abstract No:1215
The Association of Transpersonal Psychology was founded in 1969 by Abraham Maslow, Anthony Sutich, Stanislav Grof, June Singer and others. Transpersonal psychology is based on the insight that those experiences transcending our usual identification with who we think we are, have ontological status and are a valid field of scientific research. These non-ordinary states of consciousness, accessed via ancient, and also new disciplines and techniques, represent a dimension greater than ourselves which, at the same time, is our origin and destination. Transpersonal experiences open us up to this dimension. They have a deeply transforming effect on the individual, and often lead to an enhanced spiritual understanding of human existence, as well as quite unorthodox insights into uncharted realms of consciousness. The multiple areas informing transpersonal research, e.g. cross-cultural anthropology, indigenous sciences, research into "entheogens" (sacred plants and substances) , spiritual disciplines, mystical experiences etc., prompt transpersonal psychology - complementary to conventional presuppositionsof science - to regard subjective experience as containing valid scientific data. Therefore, transpersonal psychology seeks to integrate and foster experiential methods of accessing various states of consciousness.
In the impressive and pioneering words which were written roughly 30 years ago by Anthony Sutich, one of the founders of transpersonal psychology, it's purpose is to integrate: "those ultimate human capacities and potentialities that have no systematic place in positivistic or behavioristic theory ('first force') , classical psychoanalytic theory ('second force') , or humanistic psychology ('third force') .
"The emerging Transpersonal Psychology ('fourth force') is concerned specifically with the empirical, scientific study of, and responsible implementation of the findings relevant to, becoming, individual and species-wide meta-needs, ultimate values, unitive consciousness, peak experiences, B-values, ecstasy, mystical experience, awe, being, self-actualization, essence, bliss, wonder, ultimate meaning, transcendence of the self, spirit, oneness, cosmic awareness, individual and species-wide synergy, maximal interpersonal encounter, sacralization of everyday life, transcendental phenomena, cosmic self-humor and playfulness; maximal sensory awareness, responsiveness and expression; and related concepts, experiences and activities". (Quote taken from the first issue, first volume, of The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, Spring 1969, p.15, 16) .
The paper to be presented will elaborate on the significance of first-person approaches as regards consciousness research. It will complement the discussion about issues pertaining to the conference title, "TOWARD A SCIENCE OF CONSCIOUSNESS", with a perspective integrating first- and third-person approaches to consciousness studies. In order to demonstrate this integration, the theoretical background of several examples of first-person approaches will be introduced. These examples will serve to support the idea that experiential techniques canbe a valid means of study concerning consciousness research.
Many techniques and theories discussed in consciousness studies are based on cross-cultural research on various Western and Eastern disciplines and traditions that inform contemporary research. One very promising field in this regard is transpersonal psychology.
Transpersonal psychology is based on the insight that only a combinationof practical experience and theoretical/empirical research will eventually lead us to a complete and comprehensive understanding of consciousness. This insight, being one of the presuppositions of transpersonal psychology, will be the focus of the paper. Roughly 30 years of publication activityin the transpersonal field provide ample evidence for the expanded perspective on consciousness that transpersonal psychology and its experiential techniques offer.
This claim will be discussed in the paper.
05.05-- Abstract No:1264
Recurrent, complex, interrelated patterns, processes and temporal variations will be described which are inherent in three selected situations which result in altered states of consciousness (ASCs) . Knowledge gained from proposed studies may then be used for research, development and training applications to provide reliable replication and support further investigations into healing, other nonlocal phenomena and biophysical aspects.
ASCs have been observed as components of transmitted or received known and/or "subtle" energy phenomena. These ASCs may occur due to: (1) external sensory induction, deprivation or over stimulation, (2) internally self-induced by body and mind disciplines, (3) accidental or intentional injury or near-death trauma, (4) inherited CNS or hormonal influences, or (5) combinations of the previous four provocations.
Studies to be proposed and described:
1. Familial Periodic Paralysis (FPP) : Subjects have unique inherited CNS characteristics, i.e., cerebral dysrhythmia (EEG high amplitude, slow activity of 4-6 Hz) and low serum potassium or sodium. Episodes may be accidentally or deliberately induced. Inciting factors may include sudden rest after exertion, high caloric intake and/or overeating, stress, and alcohol. There is strong evidence of various ASC-associated episodes with FPP onset, i.e., channeled speech and writing, seeing "auras", sensing peoples' thoughts and emotions, out-of- body experiences, etc. (H. Reimann, J. Eisenbud, N. Terhune)
2. Recurring Spontaneous Psychokinesis (RSPK) : RSPK cases offer unique opportunities for experimental studies of psychokinesis, due to their recurrent nature and focusing effects. Subjects often have CNS disorders, from hereditary factors or trauma, and are usually young people exhibiting seizures, dissociative states, and behavioral abnormalities. Clustering of diagnosed epilepsy episodes has statistical significance in this phenomena (W. G. Roll) .
3. Intense Physical and/or Emotional States: Persons who exhibit strong allergic responses (who are often chemically and/or electrically sensitive) may inadvertently affect tape recorders, computers, lights, TVs and sensitive electronic equipment during a reactive episode (C. W. Smith) . In addition, it has been reported that some individuals are affecting electronic equipment when in an intense or traumatic emotional state (R. Morris) . Effects on electrical and electromagnetic field detectors have been noted from these persons. Also, occasional electrical energy pulses from healers, during directed healing sessions, have been observed and recorded (E. Green) .
Sensitive investigative tools, conventional and exploratory, will be briefly discussed which have been developed for detection, quantification, imaging and potential training purposes. Tiller's Biological Radiation Detector, the Copper Wall Project technology, and Brain Activity Mapping (2-dimensional electrical [EEG] and 3-dimensional magnetic [MEG] images) are examples of approaches which have emerged for determination of known and unknown body energy radiations and brain event-related activity patterns during various ASCs.
It will be pointed out how environments, methodologies and equipment applications, developed in the above recommended studies, may provide more consistent replication, control, amplification, and exploration of the known and unknown "subtle" energies associated with life processes, as well as shed new light on aspects of health, healing and the nature of ASCs.
05.05-- Abstract No:1281
Roger Walsh (1990) discussed a resurgence in the most ancient of humankind's health disciplines, shamanism. Mircea Eliade (1964) described the shaman as a person who "journeys" in an altered state of consciousness, to gather information to assist individuals and communities with their concerns regarding health of body, mind and spirit. Michael Harner (1982) , has pioneered the contemporary teaching of shamanism, shamanic healing and counselling in modern society.
Switaj (1996) reported teaching a group of contemporary urban women the technique of Shamanic Journeying (HMSJ) as described by Michael Harner (1982) . In this study (Switaj, 1996) ninety percent of the participants were able to enter and experience an altered state of consciousness, Shamanic State of Consciousness (SSC) and embark upon shamanic journeys. All participants reported experiencing feelings of joy, pleasure, and sense of playfulness while on their journeys. They found the experiences of entering the altered state of consciousness and learning to journey to be fun and practical. HMSJ was reported to be a useful tool, enabling the participants to gather information to deal with their concerns and problems of personal development, self esteem, emotional conflicts, finances, physical health as well as their concerns related to others, their children and husbands. Most notable among the reports were those of a woman with chronic arthritic pain who had cessation of pain while journeying and for five years after, according to the recent follow-up study. Another woman, haunted by fears of being "depressive" was able to develop an alternative perspective and sense of control in the midst of her depressive episodes.
This research (Switaj, 1996) was a qualitative approach, using a computer based text analysis instrument to investigate the reports of women who had acquired and applied the techniques of HMSJ to address questions related to personal issues. Both this research (Switaj, 1996) and the recent five year follow-up study with original participants (Switaj and Geeza, in progress) are adding to our knowledge regarding the acquisition and use of altered states of consciousness by providing: support for recent clinical claims that SSC and HMSJ have the potential to enhance personal growth, health and healing in the whole person; an innovative use of a current computer based qualitative research tool to gather and analyse reports of phenomenological experiences; and research protocols to investigate changes in health and wellness reported as resulting from the acquisition and application of altered states of consciousness, specifically SSC.
05.05-- Abstract No:1237
In an effort to better understand the phenomena of the NDE (near-death-experience) and other END's (experiences near death) , exploratory research was undertaken as part of a doctoral program. This included observational, empirical, and phenomenological data collected from critically ill patients who were in the Adult Intensive Care Unit of a large urban hospital. As usual, a definition of terms was a necessary component of the thesis. Definition of consciousness and related terms became a major endeavor. The bewildering state of the art, the myriad of definitions and models provided in the literature, and more recent vigorous and prolific discussions did not specifically address the experiences of those who were ill and/or near death. As an exercise in 'grounded theory', the data themselves were consulted. This paper looks at the results of the scrutiny of the data gathered for this dissertation and presents the conditions and/or characteristics of consciousness that were found. A new model or metaphor for consciousness is offered, as are the results of studies of initial 'goodness-of-fit with the literature'. Another "Consciousness is . . ." will be presented with the hope that others might comment, guide, learn, and/or share their insights, research, or experiences in the common goal of defining that which is the object of our regard.
05.06-- Abstract No:814
In recent years, prenatal research has demonstrated that fetuses are far more sophisticated than previously thought, findings generally ignored by the medical and psychological establishment in part because the neurological structures traditionally associated with mentation were not believed to be functional. Recent research on memory suggests that consciousness may not be dependent on the central nervous system, or even on the body. Using each major theory of memory and neurological research to examine the prenatal data, this paper concludes that two sources of consciousness are present before and during birth: a somatic source whose functioning seems to be bound to the physical body and to evolve slowly as the central nervous system evolves, and a fully mature (formal operations) source of consciousness whose functioning appears to be more or less independent of a cellular substrate as currently understood. Both 'voices' are present in the records of regressed patients. Recent research findings from children in normal states and older regressed subjects are examined through the lens of each memory theory for their adequacy in accounting for the data, especially those veridical accounts suggesting sophisticated pre- and perinatal functioning. Verbatim transcripts and veridical memories showing complex mentation and extrasensory knowledge suggest a non-physical source of fetal consciousness interacting with a physically-based source to form an integrated sense of self. Such a conclusion would fit with the new paradigm emerging in the physical sciences.
05.06-- Abstract No:878
In our studies at the Exceptional Human Experience Network (EHEN) we have identified a unique process; a progressive, multidimensional, reiterative pattern of human consciousness development evidenced by self-reports of expanding levels of greater awareness. This Exceptional Human Experience Process (EHE Process) begins with an anomalous event or Exceptional Experience (EE) . As the focus shifts away from the phenomenon of the EE itself and toward exploring the greater personal insights and meaningfulness it can engender, it is internalized (i.e. humanized) and becomes an Exceptional Human Experience (White, 1997) . By definition, an EHE has the potential to shift an experiencer's conscious awareness into an abiding Knowledge that self, all life, and cosmos (i.e. God, Universe) are Creations and Creators of One.
White (1997) and Brown (1997) have identified a series of five complementary stages (subjective and objective, respectively) of the EHE Process based on our inductive synthesis and subsequent analysis of EHE autobiographies and EE/EHE account narratives held in our EHEN files. Progressively, over a series of challenges, critical junctures, and crossroads the EEer moves or shifts focus away from exploring the initiating EE (i.e. an EE of a particular strength or potency that is recognized as "exceptional;" crosses a subjective "signal detection" threshold of selective attention) to one that explores (through a graduated series of cognitive dissonances) increasing levels of personal meaningfulness and is perpetuated by additional EHEs, search for greater meaning, and flashes of insight. Although a detailed "map" of the terrain complete with 13 descriptors (e.g. potentiating/ depotentiating activities, challenges, junctures, and transitional crossroads) (X) each of the five stages is presented to demonstrate shifting awareness, this depiction can only scratch the surface and represents the hypothetical "best case" of a hierarchically-ordered, unidimensional scenario.
In actuality, the EHE Process is observed, -- and experienced -- as a multidimensional, reiterative process. It presents to experiencers, researchers, and practitioners unique sets of challenges that are not common nor predictable with psychosocial and even psychospiritual models of human consciousness development. For example, take the instigating exceptional, "anomalous" experience itself. The EEer has no personal familiarity with the EE, nor how to anchor it, nor communicate feelings of fear, wonder, shock. In a society that rushes to support victims of crises and trauma (which also can spark greater conscious awareness) , our society is quite unsympathetic and even hostile to the EEer. Further, even when after the initial experience has been potentiated, and the EHEer has experienced more EHEs of different types, the cultural response is to search for a cause, a convenient label ("stress" by default) from which to depotentiate and derail the whole emerging EHE Process. EHEers may hang suspended between two worlds. Only from within the Experiential Paradigm can we as researchers, educators, and scholars shift our own expectations and approaches, and begin to view EHEs in a new light. These points and others specific to our evolutionary model and its import will be discussed.
05.06-- Abstract No:885
Quantum physics gives evidence that reality is a unified whole, but to experience that unity is difficult. For that, people turn to the spiritual traditions and find that those traditions emphasize service. Why is that? It is not because one should be good, pious, or a moral exemplar; it is because service opens the door to the experience of an aspect of reality that is barred from ordinary consciousness. Service is a way of knowing connection.
True service is not 'doing good' but doing what is called for by a task that benefits others. This serving-the-task is different from all other activities because it does not originate in acquisitive or protective aims. Such aims call forth a mode of consciousness--the instrumental--whose focus is on the object qualities of reality, its disconnected aspects. The instrumental mode insures our survival as biological organisms and, accordingly, has come to dominate our experience. It emphasizes linear Time, the logic of objects, and the discrete, isolated physical self. Instrumental consciousness makes for great science but does not provide meaning.
Meaning arises through connection. To experience connection we need a different mode of consciousness and this requires that the survival self cease to be dominant and that intention be govered by the needs of the task: consciousness must be Other-centered. It is not a matter of goodness but a straightforward problem in epistemology. What we can know depends on our intention and the degree of our self-concern.
Service can free us from the confinement of our usual self-centered consciousness and give us access to a larger context and a larger identity. The experience of connection is subtle and cannot be transferred by words. But we can know it. Upon that intangible knowledge rests the meaning of our lives and the sustainability of our planet.
05.06-- Abstract No:932
The purpose of the paper is to explore the relevance of the theory of Jungian archetypes for consciousness, in light of recent attacks on the concept of archetype by Noll et al, and recent developments in cognitive science. The paper also proposes a strategy for empirical questioning of the concept.
Contemporary analyses of consciousness often focus on the reducibility/irreducibility debate, the "hard problem", softer problems, computabilty and related issues. Jungians "solve" the problem by extending consciousness into the domain of the "objective psyche", a synonym for the collective unconscious. As a transpersonal psychology, Jungian analytic theory takes the view that the question of the locus of consciousness, e.g., neural networks, microtubules, etc., is irrelevant to the shape of the conscious landscape. Consciousness must be understood in terms of its own special dynamics. Ken Wilber's "spectrum of consciousness" model is one such view. Michael Washburn's "dynamic ground" is another. Many problems attend the confirmation of transpersonal constructs, such as "archetype", on empirical grounds.
The viewpoint of this paper takes consciousness as a transpersonal domain. It is not sufficient to locate consciousness within brain, body or person. Even use of the term "locate" is odd and quirky when consciousness is seen for what it is -- a transaction between matter and energy. In this instance the energy involved is psychic, or libido, which has its encoding in neurophysiology, but this is terra incognita at this time. The transpersonal dimension continually appears, sometimes in quite unexpected forms. Consciousness seems to be "located" in the universe, more than in individual bodies.
Consciousness reflects Bohr's complementarity principle in that it represents inner and outer poles of reality. Without overstretching the Bohr analogy, the archetype is complementarity par excellence.. Jung described the archetype as "a vessel we can never empty and never fill", meaning that the archetype an sich could give rise to an inexhaustible store of images. Are archetypes, then, a primal "given", clinical/literary realities only, or a hypothetical construct amenable to research? Can archetypes be investigated in a newer paradigm of science?
The notion of consciousness is itself embedded in various archetypes and archetypal images (an important distinction) . The power and numinosity of archetypes is explored. A theory is proposed for the archetypal images that seem to evoke consciousness itself: fire, cave, egg, etc., and their implications for contemporary consciousness research is outlined. The perspectives of gestalt and chaos theory are offered as a strategy for theorizing and data collection beyond the clinical and speculative.
05.06-- Abstract No:1154
Being conscious is to be cognized of the relation between the individual and the Absolute, according to several of the oriental thought systems. The primary concern has been to promote the practices by which the individual self attains its amalgamation with the "Absolute Self" and it is in this process that the consciousness arises and the "individual self" thus becomes conscious. For some, every act of cognition involves object consciousness, subject consciousness and cognition-consciousness or self-conscious awareness. The emphatic relation amongst "The cognizer, the cognitive act and the resultatnt cognition", even though diversely treated by these schools, points to a resemblance with some Western thinking, at least superficially, and needs to be looked into closely. According to orientalists, "Being conscious and consciousness bear an identity: which in the context of contemporary happenings in the West needs to be examined. The presentation aims at making an analysis of some of these representative points of view.
05.06-- Abstract No:1183
In this paper I attempt to answer the question 'How does Consciousness manifest itself, and how can it be developed?' Though the hard problem of Conscious still remains untouched, an examination of the question mentioned will contribute to our understanding of how to relate with this phenomenon that is so immanent within us all. In the latter part of the nineteenth century Dr. R. M. Bucke in his work Cosmic Consciousness examines the topic and shows that there are four different types of consciousness, and that they are related to each other, or rather that each progressive stage is derived from or evolves from the proceeding state. This theory provides an evolutionary timeline for consciousness, and a basis upon which we can relate our current understanding and the direction in which to look for future development.
The first stage of consciousness is the 'Perceptual Mind' made up of 'percepts' or sense impressions. The second is 'Simple Consciousness'; which perceives its surroundings and can act in relation with it. The third is 'Self Consciousness'; which is the ability to perceive the self from outside. At this stage begins the formation of concepts and is where most of humanity currently resides. The fourth stage is 'Cosmic Consciousness' a stage in which the mind glimpses and conceives the ultimate reality of existence. This is the stage of intuition. Every person is situated in one of these stages, and the whole of humanity is evolving upwards through time.
With these stages in mind I next examine the ability of man to progress from a lower stage to a higher stage. This is done by following the concepts of those who have achieved such higher stages of consciousness, including Christ, the Buddha, Walt Whitman and others. One explanation of this development from the Buddhist tradition is the triangle of Atman, Manas and Buddhi; which represent the methods of attaining the ultimate realization in consciousness, Atman. This attainment of Atman is realized through the development of knowledge or love or through both.
In literature on the state of 'Cosmic Consciousness' there are some basic principles for development which remain the same. Firstly, a person must modify his actions, beliefs and disbeliefs because they affect the ability to realize the higher consciousness. Secondly, ones situation in life directly affect the ability to go into higher consciousness. Thirdly, desires, beliefs, concentration, and focused action are used to bring the truths from that higher state of consciousness to our present level of consciousness.
Dr. Bucke's theory provides a valuable construct by which we may measure our progress and determine our present condition and desired direction, with regard to consciousness. It affords the peg upon which we can hang a variety of other experiential theories and measure them one against another. In short it provides the science of consciousness with a relational framework by which it can be understood.
As science has begun to divulge the secrets of the world as seen objectively, scientists are now looking towards more subjective areas of experience. Unfortunately, consciousness is still a very personal and subjective experience, often ineffable and obscured by the obvious, which makes it an illusive topic of study. This science of consciousness is essentially personal, but when studied critically it afford us valuable insights into our own nature.
The four stages of Dr. Bucke's theory express an evolution in consciousness. Each has its own method of perceiving reality, and its own set of contributions to the development of the creature. It has only been in the last hundred years with the theories of Husserl that subjective experiences are beginning to be studied and can be systemized into a science. This understanding comes as a realization that each person is a part of the divine and that within each individual there is a divine part. Through these parts man becomes one with the divine spirit and begins to draw off of it for his own development and the development of others. Some of the laws that are used to develop the self, are a firm belief that a power greater than self exists, and that each person is part of that great divine power.
This evolution is helped in its process by individuals who experience those higher states of consciousness, and communicate it to those around them. Christ, the Buddha, Confucius, and Socrates are included in the list of those great indivually enlightened world teachers. Just as man has been brought out of the stone ages to civilization by the moral instruction of these teachers, so the ethics which they put forward is the social foundation upon which our instituations are founded. With the evolution of the consciousness of man sciences developed and organizations were erected for the usefulness and betterment of human kind. As man has been brought from the dark ages to enlightenment by the teachings of enlightened men. So the move from 'Self Consciousness' to 'Cosmic Consciousness' is possible through a number of methods. The great composers, mystics and poets have dwelt in these realms and give us the path that leads to this forwarding of Consciousness.
This stage includes the formation of concepts, which allow the mind to solidify numerous pieces of information into concepts which allow us to know our world to an even greater degree.
Consciousness seems to be a part of all living organisms, and it develops as a result of several factors. Bucke states that there are four stages of consciousness, that all living things possess consciousness in one of these stages, and that it is dynamic and alive. Examples are taken from the experiences of man and are studied using the models and methods of science. The stages of consciousness and the methods used to raise it, give strong evidence that there is a fourth and higher state of consciousness to which only a few individuals have reached. Yet a greater understanding of its attributes and the principles upon which it is attained is necessary for the progression of the human race. and we can plainly state that evolution has been working for millions of years to allow us to reach the state we are at, and that in time will develop to the next state as a society and race. The progress of man has been made possible by those who have attained to those higher levels and shared their knowledge with others. . Correct beliefs be held in order to transcend
05.06-- Abstract No:1194
Synthesia is defined as the stimulation of one sense creating a sensation in another. A 'blending of senses'. It is the mind's innate ability to extract and create color from tone and tone from color. To experience synesthesia is to experience the everyday. To be aware of synesthesia is to be touched by the hand of creation. It is more than a blending of senses, it is the experience of the wholeness of consciousness, the ultimate healing.
When Beethoven composed his ninth symphony, the Ode to Joy, he created one of the most profound expressions of mankind's search for the one truth, a wholeness with self and God. With the event of the Big Bang and the origin of the universe, came the effects of separation and isolation. Parallel to the Big Bang theory is humanity's sense of division and isolation resulting in the inner need to reclaim wholeness. Humanity's inability to live this wholeness has manifested itself in expressions of fear, as in humankind's long standing relationship with abuse and illness. As with Beethoven, humanity is able to create outward expressions of the need for wholeness but cannot manifest them inwardly. We continue to live with a separated consciousness which, considered in the light of synesthesia, is contrary to how we truly function.
Kadinsky, the German expressionist, liked to title his works as if they were musical compositions. 'Generally speaking color is a power which directly influences the soul. Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand which plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul.
It is therefore evident that color harmony must rest only on a corresponding vibration in the soul'.
The intent of both artists is parallel to that of synesthesia; a creation in one modality manifested in another creating musical and artistic expressions of a more pure and whole consciousness. Joseph Campbell characterized this wholeness throught he mandela which he defined as: 'A symbol representing the effort to reunify the self circle . . . a circle that is coordinated or symbolically designed so it has meaning of a cosmic order. When composing manadalas you are trying to coordinate your personal circle with the universal circle'. The mandala is an ideal medium for the intentional stimulation of synesthesia and the healing that it evokes. It is the use of wholeness to create wholeness.
The functions of consciousness cannot be separated any more than can parts of the universe. Each piece has a purpose, but operates within the larger whole. As humankind moves into the twenty first century and a more global purpose, the idea of the seperated consciousness needs to give way to a new paradigm of divine harmony, the wholeness of consciousness. Humanity can then become aware of the creative healing phenomena known as synesthesia. Joseph Campbell The Power of Myth, by Joseph Campbell
w/ Bill Moyers, Doubleday, New York, NY
Wassily Kandinsky The Rainbow Book, edited by F. Lanier Graham
Random House, New York, NY
Thanks to Gladys Ostrom, Ph.D. Creative Artistic Training
Vantage Press, New York, NY
05.06-- Abstract No:1292
Is consciousness restricted to the brain? What evidence is there for transpersonal consciousness? We will address these questions within the context of data collected over a 20 year period in which investigators have explored the possible role of intention at a distance on human physiological activity. Situated within the context of research on distant healing, the lecture will examine the findings from 30 controlled experiments as they relate to an integral model of consciousness.
05.06-- Abstract No:1293
Contemporary cultural values that influence the field of scientific inquiry often overlook the importance of epistemological pluralism in deepening awareness of both subjective and objective dimensions of consciousness. This presentation discusses modes of knowing appropriate for studying different dimensions of consciousness, and psychological factors that shape our perceptions of the field, pointing to an integral view of consciousness that includes personal, interpersonal and transpersonal perspectives.
05.06-- Abstract No:1294
Transpersonal psychology, with its key notion that consciousness can undergo development, casts a unique light on cognitive science views of qualia and classical introspection. In turn, certain cognitive approaches to perception and cross modal synesthesias may offer non reductive understandings of transpersonal development. The intersection of those two perspectives can also address the more general issues of the ontological status of spiritual experience and the emergence of consciousness in the natural order.
05.07-- Abstract No:803
Many states of consciousness are an integral part of the process of psychotherapy. Some of these states of consciousness are induced by the therapist. Some of these states of consciousness appear spontaneously in the patient as they move forward in their psychotherapeutic, educational and growth experience. It is the opinion of the author that most good therapists, irrespective of their particular orientation, induce altered states of consciousness in their patients. Some do this in awareness and some do it intuitively, without awareness. The purpose of these altered states is that they provide a mental environment in which the patient can receive healing information and experiences in a much more open and less defended manner.
The ongoing, expanding awareness essential for any psychological healing and growth is itself part of the shifting states of consciousness in psychotherapeutic patients.
During the process of psychotherapeutic work, as patients move forward, unusual altered states of consciousness often appear spontaneously. If the therapist is not aware and comfortable with these altered states, some very destructive scenarios can follow. The therapist and the patient may believe that something bizarre and pathological is happening, and therefore attempt to suppress the process. In this suppression the forward movement of the patient will very often be stopped so that there is no danger of the threatening state reappearing. This may be such a serious misinterpretation of what is happening that the therapist will be convinced, and may convince the patient, that they are bordering on a very dangerous enterprise, that they are at the edge of psychosis.
Clinical examples will be presented, such as Judy, who felt that in order to release her creative energy, she had to remember the pattern of her early, traumatic influences. She was terrified that she would go through a psychotic state in order to recapture her memories. Her two previous therapists, confusing altered with psychotic, confirmed her belief. Her process was stagnated and she did not improve. In her work with me, as she tentatively began to enter the state that she called psychotic, it became clear that it was an alternative, trancelike state which facilitated her memory. Assured that she wasn't going crazy, she was able to recapture memories, liberate her creativity, and win a major literary prize with her first work.
This presentation will attempt to describe some of the altered states of consciousness which appear in psychotherapeutic practice. A series of simple exercises will be presented that will induce a number of altered states of consciousness in the audience. These experiential moments will amplify the material that has been presented. It should therefore become clear that these states are not pathological, but simply a part of the cornucopia of awareness that human beings are capable of. A redefinition of altered states of consciousness will be presented, emphasizing that there are no 'normal' and no 'altered' states. There are simply usual and unusual states of consciousness that depend very much on where an individual focuses their attention. This focusing is strongly influenced by individual and cultural factors. Examples of what would be considered unusual states of consciousness in Western culture but are considered quite normal in other cultures will be presented.
05.07-- Abstract No:819
Jung's use of South Indian theories of consciousness changed radically as he grew older. At first he carefully acknowledged discoveries of Upanishadic not ions of consciousness--which will be argues that Jung never adequately understood. But his last works reject all links to and dependencies on India and especially its most characteristic studies of consciousness. His final rejection is weighted against what he misunderstood and how that misunderstanding has lingered to the present.
05.07-- Abstract No:822
Our efforts to investigate the psyche as a whole -- including both consciousness and the unconscious -- can be clarified if we recognize that there are at least three fundamentally different ways of approaching our subject. These three ways derive from the three persons of ordinary speech, 'I', 'you' and 'she/he/it'.
Psyche appears in very different ways when viewed from first, second or third person vantage points. Each vantage point delineates a unique field of experiencing, and of ways of thinking and feeling about that field. In addition, within each field, both the basic structure of consciousness and the way the unconscious manifests emerge out of the unique quality of that field -- as a first, second or third person field.
From a perspective that includes both the unconscious and consiousness, original consciousness is second person, a consciousness-with, always with and in relation to another. It emerges our of unconscious states of participation and identification. Its original site is the earliest experiences of intersubjectivity in the mother-infant relationship.
Third person consciousness, which is consciousness-of, appears later in development. As a fully autonomous field of experience, the third person vantage point is probably historically unique to the modern Western psyche. The unconscious is conspicuous mainly by its absence from the third person field. Cognitive neuroscience approaches that study psyche 'from outside in' take this vantage point and thus -- although they generate our understanding fo the neuro-cognitive bases of consciousness -- tend to ignore or dismiss the unconscious wellspring at the root of psyche.
The first person vantage point enables the appearance of consciousness-towards, or epistrophic consciousness. (I borrow the Neoplatonic term epistrophe to designate a consciousness that engages in a continual turning around towards its own subjective experiential origins) . Ephistrophic consciousness-towards emerges, with maturity and practice, as lucidity in relation to unconscious states of presencing and affective-imaginal reverie. Note that in reverie, as in second and third person viewpoints, there is a relationship with an other, but in this case encountered as 'inner'.
A privileged way of taking the second person vantage point is through the practice of psychoanalysis -- in its Jungian, Freudian and other forms. The first person vantage point is accessed mainly through a variety of meditative practices. Natural science approaches take the third person point of view. The various vantage points and fields of experiencing are often entangled in practice, causing more confusion.
By applying these practices, we may discover that each mode of consciousness -- with, of, and towards -- emerges from its unconscious background in five stages of increasing complexity. I designate these hierarchical stages as follows: (1) (abiding) primordial sensitivity, (2) (expanding) emergent sentience, (3) (pre-personal) awareness, (4) (personal) experience, and (5) (symbolic/semiotic.transparent) reflectivity. Awareness, experience, and reflectivity are intentional -- that is, they are directional ways of being conscious of, or with, or towards. Sensitivity and sentience are pre-intentional. Awareness is pre-personal. Experience is personal but pre-conceptual.discursive.
We will not arrive at a description of psyche, in its conscious nd unconscious fullness, until we differentiate between different modes and levels of conscious structure and unconscious manifestation, as they emerge from contemplative, psychoanalytic, and natural science practices. This proposal is hopefully a contribution to such a project.
05.07-- Abstract No:911
The paper is an attempt to apply the phenomenological approach and to see the logic of depersonalization which is both an intriguing psychopathological sign and philosophical mystery. I will argue that depersonalization is the clinical presentation of impairment of activity of self and that phenomenological essence of depersonalization may be designated as virtuality.
The present research is founded on a longitudinal (2-9 yrs) assessment of 72 patients with depersonalization. The method combines phenomenological, psychopathological and developmental approaches within the theoretical frameworks of Galitsh, Jaspers, Schneider, Scheler, Kronfeld and Laing.
The results confirm that the consciousness of objects, the consciousness of the Self, and the Self develop in the context of the whole process of the human being's becoming. The core Hegelian idea that activity or creativity is an attribute of consciousness and selfconsciousness shapes a background for understanding depersonalization as a selfconsciousness disorder. Among four main criteria of selfawareness /by Galitch and Jaspers/ -- self-activity, self-unity, self-identity and self as distinguished from the world -- activity is primary and the other criteria may be viewed as the forms of its appearance. Activity as the process of agency unites parts of self in the whole. Activity provides a feeling of identity over time in that my current actions imply my past and future actions and give me the experience that I am the same in the different moments of life. Activity forms a boundary between self and world because to act in the world is necessarily to confront the world. Activity constitutes the self as whole, real and "mine". And activity constitutes the world as familiar, real and "mine". Activity gives the self a feeling of reality.
Lack of activity leads to the lack of personal identity and the lack of "familiarity" and reality of the world which are experienced as feelings of unreality and estrangement from the self and the world that is depersonalization. In this context the core feature of depersonalization -- the feeling of unreality while clearly understanding this feeling is not true -- was termed virtuality or quality of virtual reality. The characteristics of this virtuality as expression of impairments of self-activity, resulting in "as if" reality, is in the focus of the paper. The experience of virtual self generates the estrangement from the world and accordingly experience of a virtual world. Firstly it appears as free-floating anxiety then it "fabulizes", transforming into delusion, hallucinations or other psychotic manifestations.
Depersonalization may be viewed as a disorder of development of selfawareness, as a pathologically distortion of puberty crisis of identity. The becoming of depersonalization is sequence from the uncertain disturbances of body-perception to the feeling of estrangement of outer world and then impairment of body-conception and finally to the feelings of spiritual alienation, the loss of personal identity. "Double nature" of depersonalization, on one side having a vital "physical" root and on the other side addressing metaphysical experiences, is also discussed.
The conclusion is that possible hierarchy of depersonalization can be based on the correlations between four rows of phenomena: a/. levels of I-World interrelations /stages of development of selfawareness/; b/. the modalities of self-activity; c/. types of depersonalization; d/. clusters of syntropic psychotic disorders.
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05.07-- Abstract No:958
From the very beginning there has always been present the attempt to find a unifying theoretical basis for all these single sciences, consisting of a minimum of concepts and fundamental relationships, from which all the concepts and relationships of the single disciplines might be derived by logical process.
Albert Einstein -- The Fundaments of Theoretical Physics
The multidisciplinary approach in consciousness studies has produced a dazzling amount of research and theory regarding the unification of mind, body, and consciousness. The plethora of activity, however, leaves unsolved, perhaps even aggravates, the basic riddle of the relationship of consciousness to the brain, together with their bodily, emotional and neurophysiological connections. From a psychotherapeutic point of view, the current questions are only the tip of the "riddled" iceberg.
Very few of the best known models approaches the need, or even sets up the questions, for a psychologically satisfying, "multi-tiered, " interactive conceptualization. By "multi-tiered" I mean an explanatory system having evolving, dynamical interactions that are a) neurological b) emotional c) psychological (psychotherapeutic) and d) alternative-clinical (self-healing/spiritual) . They should have demonstrable feedback loops with consciousness, and with each other -- thus helping to clarify and explain human behavior on a broad scale.
A multi-tiered, evolving, interactive model is needed to fully understand functions of consciousness manifested and used in daily life, as well as in psychotherapy. In the observations that follow, all the above will be looked at with the goal of their integration, but I will examine most closely the currently incompatible relationship between the neurological and psychotherapeutic levels.
Their incompatibility stems from their means, which is prescribed by their ends. Neuroscience examines neurophysiological functions, hoping to elucidate patterns that will ultimately meet scientific standards, and thereby provide proof of its positivistic view of consciousness. Psychotherapy examines, phenomenologically, personal-social dynamics of conscious and unconscious processes (not the neurofunctional aspects) and their consequences in relationship to emotions, thoughts and behavior. Its purpose is to understand how interpersonal distress, and more recently, physical illness, arise from conflicting motivations.
Neuroscience and psychotherapy explain consciousness for entirely different reasons, therefore, they use entirely different approaches, each means suitable for its own purposes. In general, they are not perceived as making complementary contributions toward the totality of a better understanding of consciousness. However, that will ultimately be the only way to break the fragmentation that currently exists in consciousness studies, in the point of view adopted here.
With mutual disrespect, the contributions of cognitive science and psychotherapy have both largely opposed and ignored one another -- despite initial attempts at merger by Freud, which he abandoned. However, a biopsychoneurological approach to mental life and personality has boiled beneath the surface and has been episodically revived throughout the history of psychology (Alexander 1960; Cannon 1929; Murphy 1947; Selye 1956.)
Although it is undoubtedly a formidable task to explain the complications of consciousness from a multi-tiered, complementary viewpoint that merges neuroscience and psychotherapy, it is probably not unattainable. The main problems of their collaboration in contemporary research revolve around five points developed below. Some remedial concepts are also presented.
05.07-- Abstract No:1022
The paper treats conceptual problems regarding the thinking of Melanie Klein. I start out from the following position: Philosophical discussions of the primitive often assume that the analysis of the primitive is a prerequisite for an analysis of what is more fully developed. This may be explained, among other things, by the fact that such discussions tend to be based both on a genetic view and on an atomistic treatment of the problem. To an atomist, an infant and an adult share a common "core". When an atomist wishes to study the more fully developed adult self, he does so by "adding" further elements in order to "build up" the more complex structure of the adult self. I am critical of this way of analysing the primitive. My view is a more holistic one, in which the primitive is not regarded as conceptually prior to the more fully developed. The postulated "core" changes when you "add" elements like linguistic ability and a more fully developed thinking ability. It is then embedded in a fuller conceptual world, and influenced by it.
An infant has, for example, some social behaviour, and acts pre-socially in different ways. However, the infant and the adult have different social contexts. Both the infant and the adult participate, for example, in non-intentional communication, but this kind of communication is different in the child from what it is in the adult. In the adult, non-intentional communication is related to other forms of communication, including linguistic communication, while in the infant it is not. I pursue an analogous argument regarding the self-images of the infant. To me, aspectual thinking provides a holistic form for analysis, requiring that interrelations between different aspects of the self be taken into account, as well as relationships between different self-images. In my opinion the self of the infant is not "preserved" in an unchanged state in the adult, and discussions of the self-images of the infant must therefore be kept separate from discussions of the self-images of the adult. Although we may find elementary aspects of the self and elementary self-images in the infant, these aspects of the self and these self-images lack the interrelations with other aspects of the self and other types of self-images which are present in the adult. I relate my position to the field of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. I intend to work on conceptual problems concerning the following areas:
1. Conceptual problems regarding the view that the self of the infant in some way is preserved in the adult.
2. Conceptual problems regarding the view that one can use observation of children to understand adults.
3. Conceptual problems related to our attempts to describe the behavior of the infant.
I will exemplify all this in an analysis of some aspects of Melanie Klein's thinking which I find extremly interesting but conceptually problematic.
05.07-- Abstract No:1098
This paper is an attempt to develop a model of inner experience by separating the field of consciousness into a number of constituent parts or doma