Altered States of Consciousness

Altered States of Consciousness PDF Author: Charles T. Tart
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Consciousness
Languages : en
Pages : 589

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Book Description

Altered States of Consciousness

Altered States of Consciousness PDF Author: Charles T. Tart
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Consciousness
Languages : en
Pages : 589

Get Book Here

Book Description


Altered States of Consciousness

Altered States of Consciousness PDF Author: Marc Wittmann
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262546086
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
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.

Consciousness

Consciousness PDF Author: Susan Blackmore
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198794738
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 169

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Book Description
Some of our most burning questions surround consciousness: What creates our identity? Do we really have free will? Is consciousness itself an illusion? The rapid rate of developments in brain science continues to open up debate on these issues. This book clarifies the complex arguments and illuminates the major theories on consciousness.

Music and Altered States

Music and Altered States PDF Author: David Aldridge
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
ISBN: 1843103737
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
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.

The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness

The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness PDF Author: Susan Schneider
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119002206
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 848

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Book Description
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

Inner Sound

Inner Sound PDF Author: Jonathan Weinel
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190671181
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
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.

Altered States of Consciousness and Mental Health

Altered States of Consciousness and Mental Health PDF Author: Colleen Ward
Publisher: SAGE Publications, Incorporated
ISBN: 9780803932777
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
This volume presents various perspectives on altered states of consciousness and mental health and places them within the boundaries of cross-cultural psychology. Part One considers theoretical and methodological issues in the study of altered states of consciousness; Parts Two and Three link altered states of consciousness and mental health by focusing on both its therapeutic and pathological aspects. The final section concentrates on models highlighting a variety of paradigms and diverse methodological approaches.

Alterations of Consciousness

Alterations of Consciousness PDF Author: Imants Barušs
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
ISBN: 9781433832673
Category : Altered states of consciousness
Languages : en
Pages : 275

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Book Description
The second edition of this pathbreaking investigation into the nature of cognitive reality explores various manifestations of consciousness, from sleeping and dreaming, to hypnosis, trance, hallucinations, and experiences related to death.

The Dream Drugstore

The Dream Drugstore PDF Author: J. Allan Hobson
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262582209
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
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.

Altered Consciousness in the Twentieth Century

Altered Consciousness in the Twentieth Century PDF Author: Jake Poller
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429590288
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 441

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Book Description
The twentieth century saw an unprecedented spike in the study of altered states of consciousness. New ASCs, such as those associated with LSD and psilocybin mushrooms, were cultivated and studied, while older ASCs were given new classifications: out-of-body experiences, near-death experiences, psychokinesis, extrasensory perception. Altered Consciousness in the Twentieth Century analyses these different approaches and methodologies, and includes exciting new research into neglected areas. This volume investigates the representation of ASCs in the culture of the twentieth century and examines the theoretical models that attempt to explain them. The international contributors critically examine a variety of ASCs, including precognition, near-death experiences, telepathy, New Age ‘channelling’, contact with aliens and UFOs, the use of alcohol and entheogens, analysing both the impact of ASCs on the culture and how cultural and technological changes influenced ASCs. The contributors are drawn from the fields of English and American literature, religious studies, Western esotericism, film studies, sociology and history of art, and bring to bear on ASCs their own disciplinary and conceptual perspectives, as well as a broader interdisciplinary knowledge of the subject. The collection represents a vital contribution to the growing body of work on both ASCs and the wider academic engagement with millennialism, entheogens, occulture and the paranormal.