Download or read book Altered States of Consciousness written by Marc Wittmann and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2023-11-07 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What altered states of consciousness—the dissolution of feelings of time and self—can tell us about the mystery of consciousness. During extraordinary moments of consciousness—shock, meditative states and sudden mystical revelations, out-of-body experiences, or drug intoxication—our senses of time and self are altered; we may even feel time and self dissolving. These experiences have long been ignored by mainstream science, or considered crazy fantasies. Recent research, however, has located the neural underpinnings of these altered states of mind. In this book, neuropsychologist Marc Wittmann shows how experiences that disturb or widen our everyday understanding of the self can help solve the mystery of consciousness. Wittmann explains that the relationship between consciousness of time and consciousness of self is close; in extreme circumstances, the experiences of space and self intensify and weaken together. He considers the emergence of the self in waking life and dreams; how our sense of time is distorted by extreme situations ranging from terror to mystical enlightenment; the experience of the moment; and the loss of time and self in such disorders as depression, schizophrenia, and epilepsy. Dostoyevsky reported godly bliss during epileptic seizures; neurologists are now investigating the phenomenon of the epileptic aura. Wittmann describes new studies of psychedelics that show how the brain builds consciousness of self and time, and discusses pilot programs that use hallucinogens to treat severe depression, anxiety, and addiction. If we want to understand our consciousness, our subjectivity, Wittmann argues, we must not be afraid to break new ground. Studying altered states of consciousness leads us directly to the heart of the matter: time and self, the foundations of consciousness.
Download or read book Altered States of Consciousness written by Charles T. Tart and published by . This book was released on 1972 with total page 589 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Altering Consciousness history culture and the humanities Volume 2 Biological and psychological perspectives written by Etzel Cardeña and published by Abc-clio. This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Altered consciousness is one of humanity's most mystical and life-altering aspects. These remarkable changes in mental state have understandably been a topic of general interest and scientific inquiry across time. Beyond simply satisfying our curiosity, however, studies focused upon altered consciousness can also bring valuable insights into our experience, biology, and culture. This unprecedented set of books will intrigue anyone interested in psychology, biology and neurology, science, history, arts and the humanities, and literature on consciousness, from general readers to scholar and researchers. An impressive collection of international contributors address altered states of consciousness from the perspectives of history, evolution, psychology, culture, literature, human biology, contemporary science, and society, seeking to illuminate the causes, effects, and meanings of altered consciousness. The first volume provides an introduction and centers on the importance of altered states in history, culture, and the humanities, while the second volume presents biological and psychological perspectives on altered consciousness and examines their potential for healing and pathology.
Download or read book Music and Altered States written by David Aldridge and published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers. This book was released on 2006 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An international collection examining the opportunities for using music-induced states of altered consciousness. The observations of the contributors cover a wide range of music types capable of inducing altered states. It will interest practicing music therapists, musicologists, and ethnomusicologists, students and academics in the field.
Download or read book Consciousness written by Susan Blackmore and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Consciousness, the last great mystery for science, remains a hot topic. How can a physical brain create our experience of the world? What creates our identity? Do we really have free will? Could consciousness itself be an illusion? Exciting new developments in brain science are continuing the debates on these issues, and the field has now expanded to include biologists, neuroscientists, psychologists, and philosophers. This controversial book clarifies the potentially confusing arguments, and the major theories, whilst also outlining the amazing pace of discoveries in neuroscience. Covering areas such as the construction of self in the brain, mechanisms of attention, the neural correlates of consciousness, and the physiology of altered states of consciousness, Susan Blackmore highlights our latest findings. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
Download or read book The Book of Highs written by Edward Rosenfeld and published by Workman Publishing. This book was released on 2018-04-17 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Blow Your Mindfulness An encyclopedia for the curious and courageous, The Book of Highs catalogs the hundreds of ways humans can alter consciousness, minus drugs and alcohol. Drawn from cultures around the world, here are positive techniques—Self-Hypnosis, Alterations of Breathing, Fervent Prayer, Spinning. And here are “negative” techniques—Self-Flagellation, Sleep Deprivation, Fire Walking. Methods derived from religious and mystic traditions—Transcendental Meditation, Tea Ceremony, Tantric Sex. Methods that use devices, from the domestic Metronome Watching, to the state-of-the-art Brain-Wave Biofeedback, Electrodermal Activity (EDA), Ganzfeld Effect, and Psychedelic Bathtub. Whether you’re looking for a life-changing adventure—like Skydiving—or something to do every day, just to change things up—like Zen Morning Laugh—The Book of Highs will get you there.
Download or read book The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness written by Susan Schneider and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2017-03-16 with total page 848 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Updated and revised, the highly-anticipated second edition of The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness offers a collection of readings that together represent the most thorough and comprehensive survey of the nature of consciousness available today. Features updates to scientific chapters reflecting the latest research in the field Includes 18 new theoretical, empirical, and methodological chapters covering integrated information theory, renewed interest in panpsychism, and more Covers a wide array of topics that include the origins and extent of consciousness, various consciousness experiences such as meditation and drug-induced states, and the neuroscience of consciousness Presents 54 peer-reviewed chapters written by leading experts in the study of consciousness, from across a variety of academic disciplines
Download or read book Altering American Consciousness written by Caroline Jean Acker and published by Univ of Massachusetts Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Virtually every American alive has at some point consumed at least one, and very likely more, consciousness altering drug. Yet, if the use of drugs is a constant in American history, the way they have been perceived has varied extensively. Just as the corrupting cigarettes of the early twentieth century ("coffin nails" to contemporaries) became the glamorous accessory of Hollywood stars and American GIs in the 1940s, only to fall into public disfavor later as an unhealthy and irresponsible habit, the social significance of every drug changes over time. The essays in this volume explore these changes, showing how the identity of any psychoactive substance -- from alcohol and nicotine to cocaine and heroin -- owes as much to its users, their patterns of use, and the cultural context in which the drug is taken, as it owes to the drug's documented physiological effects. Rather than seeing licit drugs and illicit drugs, recreational drugs and medicinal drugs, "hard" drugs and "soft" drugs as mutually exclusive categories, the book challenges readers to consider the ways in which drugs have shifted historically from one category to another. -- From publisher's description.
Download or read book How to Change Your Mind written by Michael Pollan and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2019-05-14 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now on Netflix as a 4-part documentary series! “Pollan keeps you turning the pages . . . cleareyed and assured.” —New York Times A #1 New York Times Bestseller, New York Times Book Review 10 Best Books of 2018, and New York Times Notable Book A brilliant and brave investigation into the medical and scientific revolution taking place around psychedelic drugs--and the spellbinding story of his own life-changing psychedelic experiences When Michael Pollan set out to research how LSD and psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) are being used to provide relief to people suffering from difficult-to-treat conditions such as depression, addiction and anxiety, he did not intend to write what is undoubtedly his most personal book. But upon discovering how these remarkable substances are improving the lives not only of the mentally ill but also of healthy people coming to grips with the challenges of everyday life, he decided to explore the landscape of the mind in the first person as well as the third. Thus began a singular adventure into various altered states of consciousness, along with a dive deep into both the latest brain science and the thriving underground community of psychedelic therapists. Pollan sifts the historical record to separate the truth about these mysterious drugs from the myths that have surrounded them since the 1960s, when a handful of psychedelic evangelists inadvertently catalyzed a powerful backlash against what was then a promising field of research. A unique and elegant blend of science, memoir, travel writing, history, and medicine, How to Change Your Mind is a triumph of participatory journalism. By turns dazzling and edifying, it is the gripping account of a journey to an exciting and unexpected new frontier in our understanding of the mind, the self, and our place in the world. The true subject of Pollan's "mental travelogue" is not just psychedelic drugs but also the eternal puzzle of human consciousness and how, in a world that offers us both suffering and joy, we can do our best to be fully present and find meaning in our lives.
Download or read book Animals and Psychedelics written by Giorgio Samorini and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2002-08-01 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Italian ethnobotanist explores the remarkable propensity of wild animals to seek out and use psychoactive substances. • Throws out behaviorist theories that claim animals have no consciousness. • Offers a completely new understanding of the role psychedelics play in the development of consciousness in all species. • Reveals drug use to be a natural instinct. From caffeine-dependent goats to nectar addicted ants, the animal kingdom offers amazing examples of wild animals and insects seeking out and consuming the psychoactive substances in their environments. Author Giorgio Samorini explores this little-known phenomenon and suggests that, far from being confined to humans, the desire to experience altered states of consciousness is a natural drive shared by all living beings and that animals engage in these behaviors deliberately. Rejecting the Western cultural assumption that using drugs is a negative action or the result of an illness, Samorini opens our eyes to the possibility that beings who consume psychedelics--whether humans or animals--contribute to the evolution of their species by creating entirely new patterns of behavior that eventually will be adopted by other members of that species. The author's fascinating accounts of mushroom-loving reindeer, intoxicated birds, and drunken elephants ensure that readers will never view the animal world in quite the same way again.
Download or read book Quantum DNA Healing written by Althea S. Hawk and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-03-16 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How consciousness and quantum energies affect your genetic expression and the development of disease and chronic health conditions • Draws on cellular medicine, genetics, quantum physics, and consciousness studies to define the real underlying mechanisms of disease and how they can be addressed • Explains how consciousness influences quantum DNA to erase the genetic imprint of illness, allowing your body to remember how to function efficiently and effectively • Shares the author’s discoveries that enabled her to successfully heal the cellular dysfunction at the root cause of her cancer, tumors, chronic inflammation, and toxicity • Explores consciousness tools to re-encode DNA and includes detailed scripts for techniques that readers can apply to their own healing journeys Drawing on new advancements in quantum physics, cellular medicine, genetics, and consciousness studies, as well as her own journey of self-healing from a number of challenging health conditions, Althea S. Hawk reveals how you can consciously influence your DNA and re-encode it to improve your health and alter your genetic destiny. Sharing the discoveries that enabled her to successfully heal from her cancer, tumors, toxicity, and inflammatory-related conditions, the author explains how genes are not solely responsible for creating disease. She shows how human physiology interacts with the quantum energies of our external and personal environments and how the resulting information triggers the development and persistence of disease and chronic conditions. We each inherit susceptibilities, but it is our unique experience of these environmental factors, as well as our beliefs, thoughts, and emotions, that alter the way our genes are expressed. Detailing how our DNA is both quantum-energetic and biological-chemical, Hawk explains how your environment and your consciousness influence your quantum DNA, which in turn interacts with your biological DNA. By working directly with energetic information that affects how your quantum and biological DNA communicate, you can alter the expression of your genes by re-encoding the gene sequences on your physical DNA, erasing the imprint of illness and enabling your body to remember how to function properly. Hawk explores consciousness tools and mind-body techniques to re-encode your DNA, such as sound and breathing work, DNA marker removal, recalibration of Akashic information, and cellular communication exercises that readers can apply to their own healing journeys.
Download or read book The Dream Drugstore written by J. Allan Hobson and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2002-08-23 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An investigation into the brain's chemistry and the mechanisms of chemically altered states of consciousness. In this book, J. Allan Hobson offers a new understanding of altered states of consciousness based on knowledge of how our brain chemistry is balanced when we are awake and how that balance shifts when we fall asleep and dream. He draws on recent research that enables us to explain how psychedelic drugs work to disturb that balance and how similar imbalances may cause depression and schizophrenia. He also draws on work that expands our understanding of how certain drugs can correct imbalances and restore the brain's natural equilibrium. Hobson explains the chemical balance concept in terms of what we know about the regulation of normal states of consciousness over the course of the day by brain chemicals called neuromodulators. He presents striking confirmation of the principle that every drug that has transformative effects on consciousness interacts with the brain's own consciousness-altering chemicals. In the section called "The Medical Drugstore," Hobson describes drugs used to counteract anxiety and insomnia, to raise and lower mood, and to eliminate or diminish the hallucinations and delusions of schizophrenia. He discusses the risks involved in their administration, including the possibility of new disorders caused by indiscriminate long-term use. In "The Recreational Drugstore," Hobson discusses psychedelic drugs, narcotic analgesia, and natural drugs. He also considers the distinctions between legitimate and illegitimate drug use. In the concluding "Psychological Drugstore," he discusses the mind as an agent, not just the mediator, of change, and corrects many erroneous assumptions and practices that hinder the progress of psychoanalysis.
Download or read book Inner Sound written by Jonathan Weinel and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Inner Sound, author Jonathan Weinel traverses the influence of altered states of consciousness on audio-visual media, explaining how our subjective realities may change during states of dream, psychedelic experience, meditation, and trance.
Download or read book Enhancing Human Performance written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1988-01-01 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In its evaluation, Enhancing Human Performance reviews the relevant materials, describes each technique, makes recommendations in some cases for further scientific research and investigation, and notes applications in military and industrial settings. The techniques address a wide range of goals, from enhancing classroom learning to improving creativity and motor skills.
Download or read book Altering Consciousness written by Etzel Cardeña and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2011-05-18 with total page 838 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This authoritative, multidisciplinary overview of altered states of consciousness (ASC) shows how their study is necessary to gain a fundamental understanding of human culture, history, and biology. Altered consciousness is one of humanity's most mystical and life-altering aspects. These remarkable changes in mental state have understandably been a topic of general interest and scientific inquiry across time. Beyond simply satisfying our curiosity, however, studies focused upon altered consciousness can also bring valuable insights into our experience, biology, and culture. This unprecedented two-volume set will intrigue anyone interested in psychology, biology and neurology, science, history, arts and the humanities, and literature on consciousness, from general readers to scholars and researchers. An impressive collection of international contributors address altered states of consciousness from the perspectives of history, evolution, psychology, culture, literature, human biology, contemporary science, and society, seeking to illuminate the causes, effects, and meanings of altered consciousness. The first volume provides an introduction and centers on the importance of altered states in history, culture, and the humanities, while the second volume presents biological and psychological perspectives on altered consciousness and examines their potential for healing and pathology.
Download or read book Neurochemistry of Consciousness written by Elaine K. Perry and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2002-01-01 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This pioneering book explores in depth the role of neurotransmitters in conscious awareness. The central aim is to identify common neural denominators of conscious awareness, informed by the neurochemistry of natural, drug induced and pathological states of consciousness. Chemicals such as acetylcholine and dopamine, which bridge the synaptic gap between neurones, are the 'neurotransmitters in mind' that form the substance of the volume, which is essential reading for all who believe that unravelling mechanisms of consciousness must include these vital systems of the brain.Up-to-date information is provided on: Psychological domains of attention, motivation, memory, sleep and dreaming that define normal states of consciousness. Effects of chemicals that alter or abolish consciousness, including hallucinogens and anaesthetics. Disorders of the brain such as dementia, schizophrenia and depression considered from the novel perspective of the way these affect consciousness, and how this might relate to disturbances in neurotransmission. (Series B)
Download or read book States of Consciousness written by Charles T. Tart and published by Dissertation.com. This book was released on 2000-12 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: States of Consciousness, a classic by world authority Charles T. Tart, is a basic understanding of how the mind is a dynamic, culturally biased, semi-arbitrary construction and system. A systematic exploration of how and why altered states can come about and their possibilities. As a student of his remarked, “For the first weeks of class I didn’t understand what those diagrams were about, but I’ve realized the book is all about the way my own mind works!” Useful in understanding some of the important ways your mind works before you start altering it.
