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Although unusual, this must happen to many people.
After all, our brain is constantly creating the sounds we hear and
putting meaning to them. If this were not so all spoken sounds would
remain meaningless. Similarly we are constantly constructing an image
of the world from the impressions given by our senses or our inner
workings of the mind. In connection with the loss of sensory input,
the impressions we gain via senses other than our physical ones, are
likewise ordered by our mind into forms of perception that will have
some sort of meaning to us. The radio and TV signals in the atmosphere
are meaningless to us until we interpret them through the circuit of
the receiving set.
Something illustrating this happened to me while
working with a friend, John, who owned a hotel. I was mending
something for him on a flat roof of his private house. Meanwhile he
had driven away to the hotel. About twenty minutes after he had gone I
heard him shout my name with great urgency. In fact he called me
twice. I was puzzled and thought he must have returned without me
noticing. As the tone of voice carried urgency I climbed off the roof
and went in search of him. Moments later the telephone rang in his
house. It was John, still at the hotel. He had just turned the water
on for the first time after a spell of cold weather, and bad pipe
bursts were apparent all over the hotel. He had rushed to the phone to
call me for help. In some way I had 'heard' him call before he reached
the telephone.
The hotel was about a mile away on the other side of
the town. There was obviously no way I could have heard his voice with
my physical ears. So whatever signal John's anguished desire for my
presence created, my mind had turned it into what appeared to be his
actual voice calling me. That was understandable to me, while the
subtle energies generated by John's anguish, although obviously
apprehended by some part of my mind, were not sensible to me. That
John had not actually spoken my name until he reached the telephone is
an important detail. Through it we gain some clarity of how this
subtle side of our mind works. It was not a sound that I had in some
way psychically heard at a distance. It was a powerful emotion and a
desire to contact me in John that my mind sensed and presented as an
actual sound of my name being called.
For the sake of carrying this into realms about which a
lot of confusion exists, let us say that John is no longer a physical
being. He has no body, and so therefore has no voice, no hands to
signal, and no legs to move across the surface of the world. For the
sake of the example let us define John as a bodiless self awareness
who has impulses and realisations as we do, but with no means of
expressing them in the dimension of physicality we know through the
size, composition and senses of our body. Therefore we cannot see
John, we cannot hear him or sense him with any of our five body
senses. He doesn't have any shape or weight, and he doesn't take up
any space in the generally accepted way. Like a radio signal without
any means of translation into physical sound, John apparently doesn't
exist - at least not if we look for him with our eyes, ears, nose,
touch or taste. This strange experience of existing and yet not being
seen occurred to me once during an out of body experience in which I
stood in front of my mother. I could witness all that she was doing
and what was happening in the room, but was deeply frustrated because
despite calling her name, she appeared to have no awareness of me at
all. See: the example in spiritual life in dreams
Considering the example of my hearing John calling me
while he was a mile away, his unspoken call was known by me. So there
is the possibility that John as a bodiless mind could also be known by
a similar process. Whatever desire or communication he generated as a
personal impulse might be sensed by my mind and translated into a
sensory experience. In the actual event I 'heard' him. Or to put it
another way the part of my mind that can create apparent speech in
dreams was possibly at work and caused a waking experience of
'dreaming' or hallucinating the sound. Sometimes the word
hallucination is defined, as in the Concise Oxford Dictionary, as 'the
apparent or alleged perception of an object not actually present.'
Hallucinate is defined as 'produce illusions in the mind of (a
person).' And the etymology of the words is from the Latin
'hallucinari' - to wander in mind, and the Greek 'alluso' - to be
uneasy. But if we accept the experience of 'hearing' a distant person
when they call silently but with anguish, then hallucination does not
mean an illusion. It means the creation of a consciously knowable
experience from something that was not perceptible with physical
senses. It means the translation into apparently audible sound, of
something that was previously intangible to the physical senses.
Time has been taken to explain this at length because
many altered states of consciousness produce phenomena which seems
irrational unless we understand clearly that what we experience as
common in dreams - the production of apparently real sounds,
sensations, sight, taste, smell and emotions - is the simplest answer
to what is seen, heard, felt or experienced during an ASC such as
occurs in sensory deprivation. See: lucidity - awake in sleep;
paralysis while asleep - or trying to wake; yoga and dreams.
When sensory input lessens, there is greater likelihood
we will be aware of impressions arising from this mental realm. There
is quite a big difference however, between the sensory deprivation
produced artificially by placing a person in a sound proofed room or
special sensory deprivation chamber, than there is through the
dropping of sensory impression during sleep. Artificial sensory
deprivation frequently produces great confusion or deepened feelings
of despair or depression. Researchers have often thought of this as
meaning that beneath the surface of the human psyche there was a
fundamental chaos, only ordered by the physical brain and its rational
components. For instance individuals who had experienced some form of
psychosis but had recovered, would often exhibit marked worsening of
their condition of placed in sensory deprivation. From the experience
of those who have deeply explored their own unconscious contents
however, such statements only suggest that the person still carries
many internal traumas and unresolved conflicts - perhaps deeply etched
memories of childhood, such as a difficult birth.
I have seen that prior to my own inner explorations and
meeting with childhood traumas, if illness led me to become delirious
I would be totally lost in the whirl of emotions and imagery that
arose. In later years however, after meeting many aspects of myself in
a healing way, and again delirious, although the imagery arose as
before, it was no longer threatening or overwhelming. If one has never
experienced this meeting with one's own childhood self, even if one
has taken drugs or experienced hallucinations through other means, it
is very difficult to understand the immensely powerful role such past
experiences play in producing current hallucination and mood swings.
In a certain sense, people who have never cleaned out the Aegean
Stables of their own childhood, are under a constant ASC caused by
internal trauma. Such permanent ASC's produce a view of the world
related to the underlying traumas or habit patterns. A common example
is that the opposite sex may be forever figures of tension or threat.
Even though the sleep form of sensory deprivation is
generally less threatening than the artificial, in either case one
comes face to face with ones own internal content. For any real
exploration of self which goes beyond the limits of the physical
senses and cultural norms, these internal contents - our own history -
must be met and integrated. It is this meeting that gives the fuel or
material for the emergence of a wider awareness growing out of the
limitations of everyday experience. See: dweller on the threshold.
What Produces An ASC?
When Charles Tart, the writer/editor of the book
Altered States of Consciousness, investigated the subject in the 60's,
it was difficult when the evidence was gathered in, to say exactly
what can stimulate an ASC. The reason being that almost anything can
be the trigger. It has been said that to list the triggers becomes
comic in that one has to include almost everything from scratching
ones ear to taking a drug such as alcohol or LSD. Even something as
common as a drink of coffee can produce an altered state. Sometimes
there is apparently no obvious trigger at all. My experience of
hearing John's voice calling occurred without me even knowing what it
was, until the telephone call. Perhaps many experiences of altered
state happen in this way and go unnoticed.
There are classic ways of producing ASC's however, and
each culture has its own traditional methods. But because there are so
many different 'places' an ASC can take us - everything from apparent
time travel to contact with the dead - it has to be understood that
some of the techniques relate to specific areas of experience. Alcohol
for instance has a general tendency to make one less capable
physically. Some of the best known techniques are listed below.
- Meditation and prayer in their
many forms. See: meditation - goals of.
These may use imagery and fantasy; the mental repetition of a
phrase, question or prayer; the stilling of the thoughts and
emotions; the evoking of love and passion for a god or God; the
directing of attention along particular pathways. This latter may be
done by concentrating deeply on a question or problem. In this way
one calls on what is 'out of sight' within the psyche to respond.
- Body postures, movements and
dance. Experiments with some body postures in
particular setting have produced marked changes in states of
awareness. See Body Posture and Religious Altered States of
Consciousness by Felicitas D. Goodman which appeared in The Journal
Of Humanistic Psychology, Summer 1986. Also see Magnetism And Magic
by ***. Allowing spontaneous body movements, as occurs in many forms
of sacred practices such as early Pentecostalism, Shaktipat in
India, Subud in Indonesia, can quickly lead to pronounced ASC's.
See: movements during sleep. Given movements, such as the
dance of the Dervishes, is also a way many cultures use to produce
particular forms of ASC. In many of these practices, the results may
be due to the movements or posture helping the person to let go of
their thinking and will, enabling an easier emergence of mental
phenomena usually suppressed by dominant processes. The whirling of
the Dervishes is particularly expressive of this.
- Consciously directing the
breathing in some way. See: yoga and dreams.
Because the breathing is so intimately connected with body
processes, mood and emotion, consciously changing it can be a
powerful form of producing an ASC. In general, fast full breathing
is an accelerator. It speeds heart, over oxygenates, and reproduces
the sort of physical state of excitement, high activity and high
emotion such as laughing or crying. It reduces the muscular and
psychological barriers we may habitually hold to prevent ourselves
openly expressing emotions through the physical movements of sobbing
or laughing. This is why it is used a great deal in popular therapy
movements such as 'Rebirthing'. IT may produce the release of long
held emotions or spontaneous fantasy, including powerful body
movements and emotions. The fantasies are explained in many ways,
such as memories of past lives, release of childhood trauma. This
needs careful handling. See: tools for exploring the mind.
In the opposite direction slowing the breath brings control of
emotions, a slowing of the mental processes, and when used
successfully produces an ASC where the thoughts stop and one moves
into a completely different experience of oneself.
- Use of stress, such as fasting,
isolation, warfare, disorientation, etc. Any form of
stress can trigger a marked ASC. Fasting was often used probably
because it is a fairly controllable form of stress, and might even
produce a sense of dying. Many people have an ASC following a car
accident, or during any natural upheaval such as an earthquake or
flood, or after a medical operation. In R. D. Laing's book "The
Politics of Experience." the experience of Jesse Watkins is
quoted. The barriers between Jesse's known self, and wider self had
been broken down by a change of job and lifestyle, overwork,
fatigue, a dog bite, and a visit to hospital. Jesse describes part
of his experience as follows:-
"I had a feeling at times of an enormous journey
in front, quite, er, a fantastic journey, and it seemed that I had got
an understanding of things which I'd been trying to understand for a
long time, problems of good and evil and so on, and that I had solved
it inasmuch that I had come to the conclusion, with all the feelings
that I had at the time, that I was more, more than I had always
imagined myself, not just existing now, but I had existed since the
very beginning, from the lowest form of life to the present time, and
that that was the sum of my real experiences, and that what I was
doing was experiencing them again. And that then, occasionally I had
this sort of vista ahead of me ... ahead of me was lying the most
horrific journey, the only way I can describe it is a journey to the
final sort of business of being aware of all - everything. It was such
a horrifying experience to suddenly feel, that I immediately shut
myself off from it because I couldn't contemplate it, because it sort
of shivered me up - I was unable to take it..."
- Penetrating ones dreams through
learning to move beyond their surface imagery to the underlying
emotions, past experiences and realisations from which they emerge,
is a classic way of experiencing ASC's. The reason
for this has already been described above in the example given of
the image on the screen of a computer which links to a program on
the hard disk. The dream image has direct links with memories or
processes that are not on the screen of waking awareness until
accessed via the image. See: examples inyoga
and dreams.
Example: Once I had got into the dream image I was
working on my emotions started flowing easily in response to what I
was considering in the dream. This wasn't like crying about something,
but more like a stream of feelings that let me really know what my
deepest reactions were. This led me to experience something I will
have to describe in pictures, but was really more like directly
knowing something without any pictures or fantasy. Also I don't know
why looking at the dream led me to this. Perhaps it was simply that I
had opened my eyes to it in some way. What happened was that I seemed
to go through the ground to what lies underneath. I don't literally
mean under the earth, but underneath people, underneath the events in
life, what is usually hidden, only I felt it as like going into a vast
place underneatheverything.
The first thing I saw was my youngest son. He was
crouched just below the surface, unable to break through to the
outside - what we call everyday life. This was a revelation because it
explained so much about his behaviour. It showed me exactly what
difficulties he was facing. Lots of people never get to even glimpse
this hidden world of beings and energies, but my son had always known
it and been held by it, almost like he had never been born from it.
Seeing him at first deeply concerned me. But I understood that this
was his life. Although it was difficult he would learn things denied
to most people. He would know them instinctively because he was a
native to this underneath world, the place inside us. So I stored the
memory and moved on.
I found that I could think of anyone I knew and gain
insights into what they were like inside. This was because this place,
or condition I was in was like a space underneath a town. From here
you could get into anyone's house. You could touch the roots of trees
and all living things, because they all emerged from here. My own
sense of myself was different too. I knew without doubt that I had
existed throughout all time. If I asked a question about the past, I
knew just what had happened then, the whole struggle of humanity to
grow, to meet itself. I knew because I had been a part of it all.
Then I came to what I called the Temple Of The Animals.
Again I have to describe it as a picture, a scene, but it was more
like an attunement. Here all that lived was gathered together. Not
only as rank upon rank of animal in a great amphitheatre, but gathered
in being linked as one mind, one spirit, knowing each other. So that
when I walked into the temple I met this vast spirit which was as
ancient as life, and had experienced all that life had done, and knew
all the wisdom of its immense experience. And this great spirit looked
upon me and knew me. It entered my own spirit looking to see if I knew
how to love my mate and care for my children. It did this, as I
understood it, because central to all that life had done in its many
forms, was this great theme of self giving in caring for offspring and
mate. It had learnt how to love, and if I had not learnt that lesson,
I couldn't receive the blessing it could give. As it was it judged I
had sufficiently learnt the lesson of giving myself. Then I received
the blessing of sharing a small part of its wisdom and ancient love.
A. T.
- Herbs, drugs, and various forms
of diet have been associated with altered states of consciousness
since the beginning of history. Some people believe
that drugs such as psilocybin were the source of all religious
visions. This seems unlikely considering how many things can lead to
an ASC. The readiness with which some drugs, or herbs containing
hallucinatory drugs, can lead to powerful ASC's, does however, make
them one of the major pathways toward the wealth of experience
provided by ASC's. As with anything which can provoke powerful
hallucinations and emotions, there are dangers attached to the use
of such drugs. When we want to drive a car, which is also a
dangerous undertaking, society provides means of learning how to
safely handle the vehicle, but such drugs are easily accessible, and
yet there is no schooling in their safe usage. See: drug
initiation; hallucinations and hallucinogens; tools for
exploring the mind.
- Not interfering with the workings
of ones psyche is probably the simplest and most fundamental form of
allowing ASC's. This approach is taught in many of
the traditional schools such as Buddhism, Christian mysticism,
Islamic mysticism, Subud, and most recently by Carl Jung in his
methods of accessing the unconscious. In Buddhism Vipassana
meditation is the way of not interfering, not giving oneself a goal
in meditation. One simply observes what the mind and emotions do
when one stops forever editing or directing. In Christian mysticism
the book The Cloud Of Unknowing describes a similar process, but
from a very different standpoint.
Carl Jung clearly describes the
approach. In describing what some of his patients did to outgrow what
appeared to be insoluble problems, he writes, "What then did
these people do in order to achieve the progress which freed them? As
far as I could see they did nothing but let things happen... The art
of letting things happen, action in non action, letting go of oneself,
as taught by Master Eckhart, became a key for me... The key is this:
we must be able to let things happen in the psyche. For us, this
becomes a real art of which few people know anything. Consciousness is
forever interfering, helping, correcting, and negating, and never
leaving the simple growth of the psychic processes in peace. It would
be a simple enough thing to do if only simplicity were not the most
difficult of all things. It consists solely in watching objectively
the development of any fragment of fantasy. Quoted from Jung's
commentary in the book Secret Of The Golden Flower, by Richard
Wilhelm, published by Routledge and Kegan Paul.
The possible reason for the efficacy of this approach
may be twofold. Firstly through simple self-observation one gradually
arrives at a form of insight which leads to a transcending of ones ego
as it stood prior to the insights. One may even arrive at a massive
ASC - an insight into the impermanence of the ego, and the experience
of liberation arising from it. Also, considering that dreams are
spontaneous, and according to some theories, self-regulating, any
success at non interference will give greater freedom to the process
which produces dreams.
My own experience with many people suggests there is an
inbuilt process in us which attempts to move toward a form of self
realisation beyond the boundaries of the ego and the sense
impressions. As this pushes ones inner content to the surface, and as
such content may include very painful infantile experience, most of us
persist in 'interfering' - or as Jung says, 'helping, correcting, and
negating'.
While ASC's, such as those arising in an LSD session,
may appear strange, wonderful or frightening, recent attempts to
understand the forces at work producing them suggests they arise from
something other than random fantasy. In most cases investigation
usually links them either with a self-regulating process in the
psyche, or with the overall process of personal growth, such as we
face when passing through adolescence. Writing of the latter, Marie
von Franz says, "Thus our dream life creates a meandering pattern
in which individual strands or tendencies become visible, then vanish,
then return again. If one watches this meandering design over a long
period of time, one can observe a sort of hidden regulating or
directing tendency at work, creating a slow, imperceptible process of
psychic growth-the process of individuation. Gradually a wider and
more mature personality emerges, and by degrees becomes effective and
even visible to others.... The organising centre from which the
regulatory effect stems seems to be a sort of "nuclear atom"
in our psychic system. One could also call it the inventor, organiser,
and source of dream images. Jung called this centre the "Self"
and described it as the totality of the whole psyche, in order to
distinguish it from the "ego," which constitutes only a
small part of the total psyche."
The variety of ways in which an ASC manifests are
enormous. In fact the term ASC is something of an umbrella covering
the many different forms of experience people have beyond the normal.
Some of the possibilities are listed below:-
- Spontaneous mental images while
awake which later prove to reflect reality in some way whether past
present or future.
Example: While at work I was waiting for the process in the
photographic tanks to run its course and started thinking about
whether one could make the mind receptive. I tried and immediately had
a clear picture in my mind of a friend's daughter, Diana. She was
someone I seldom ever thought about, so I thought it interesting she
would come to mind as soon as I tried to be receptive. Suddenly the
picture changed and was replaced by a baby. Again it changed, rather
like a slide show, and now the baby had a crown on its head and was
obviously a boy.
This all impressed me because I couldn't see any
personal associational links between what I had been thinking and
Diana, and then between Diana and a baby. So when, about ten days
later I had reason to telephone Diana's mother, and after dealing with
business told her I wanted to check something, and asked if Diana was
pregnant. She laughed, and when I asked why said, "We don't know.
She has just gone to the doctor today to find out." It turned out
Diana was pregnant and she later gave birth to a son. Justin E.
- The hearing of sounds, or people
talking to one, without any physical presence being responsible for
the sounds or voices.
Example: I had been meditating a great deal without any
apparent results. This led to the question of just how did God
manifest if you opened your life to the spirit. One night I had woken
because I needed to go to the toilet. Just as I was approaching my bed
again I heard a voice speaking to me. It was very clear and seemed to
come from everywhere in the room. It said, "You have asked the
question of how God manifests in a human life. Now watch closely."
This was an extraordinary experience and nothing like
it had happened to me before, so I was naturally fascinated to see
what happened. I couldn't sleep that night, expecting something else
as dramatic to occur. Nothing did, but shortly afterwards I began to
experience the release of painful emotions and memories from years
back. It was like being cleansed. This went on for years and led to a
full meeting with God. Pam.
- Experiencing the past as if it is
happening.
- Holding an object and have an
inner perception of its past, along with the people and events it
was involved with. Some people with this ability have been working
with archaeologists with marked results.
- Being a catalyst for massive
healing change in someone else's body or mind. See the book
I Believe In Miracles by Kathryn Kuhlman for
examples.
- Producing
a change in the seeming reality of the present environment.
In his book The Holographic Universe, Michael Talbot describes an
experience of his own where this happened, and gives cases of other
people. This form of ASC involves a transformation of what we
experience as reality. So a person producing the ASC might make it
appear as if the room one was sitting in was suddenly a meadow.
- Extending awareness to any point
outside ones own body. Reports have said that both
the Russian and American secret investigation services were using
people to remote view each other's activities. Projection of
consciousness - OBE, or out of body experience - is something many
people have at some time, so is a common form of ASC. See: out
of body experience.
- Realisation of oneself as an
integral part of the universe, and as having existed infinitely and
eternally. See: spiritual life in dreams;
spiritual path in dreams.
- Insight into how past events
prior to your own are intimately connected with your present life.
This is often called memory of past lives, but if carefully examined
might better be called memory of connection with lives prior to this
present ego.
- Ability to connect with an
apparently infinite mind, containing all that has ever existed, and
the potential of all that will. See: Examples in
inspiration in dreams. Aurobindu, exploring this form of ASC
has written that this level of awareness is not as it first appears
an infinite mind, and is not God. Rather it is the sum total of all
that has happened so far. Therefore, as the example about music in
inspiration in dreams shows, this collective consciousness
holds an available living presence of everybody who has ever lived,
which can be drawn upon in further creativity or expression.
- Going
beyond paradox. In this ASC a state of
consciousness is reached where all the opposites of life are
resolved, where everything is true and untrue at the same time. It
is what Buddhists call the Void, in which there is no form, no ego,
no certainty, no past, no future, no beginning to move from and no
goal to reach. Although it can be a disturbing experience when first
met, it has the possibility of bringing enormous liberation. This is
because our ego and our usual values are usually embedded in
concepts that can only ever be either this or that; only ever be
partially true; only ever only be a fragment of reality. One might
for instance develop ones identity out of being male or female, out
of being honest or a villain. The Void strips all this away. Nothing
one can think, nothing one can aim at as a standard, is anything
more than an insignificant molecule of information in the vast ocean
of energy and consciousness. It doesn't matter whether we think
about the sun or a mote of dust, a thought is never ever more than a
definition from a particular viewpoint of something that is
multidimensional and beyond any final definition.
- An experience of energy flowing
from the base of the trunk, or the feet, right to the top of the
head. As this happens one is aware of the mind
suddenly functioning in a way one may never have experienced before.
It is as if we have flown high and now have an overall view of
things, therefore reaching insights one could never achieve before.
This is because all the information is available so easily and
quickly, as if one were an eagle flying and taking in vast areas at
the same moment. See: aura.
- Meeting the great AUM or AMEN,
the essence of life itself, which may announce itself as "I AM
THAT I AM".
- Sensing the presence of the dead,
and perhaps receiving information from them in some form.
The information may be in the form of a feeling, such as that we are
loved. Or it may be in the form of insight or words.
- Finding lost objects, dowsing for
water or other minerals, extending the sense in a variety of ways.
- Experiencing great creativity.
This is sometimes like being possessed so powerfully by the creative
impulse that while it is upon one there is nothing else one wishes
to do. So people may go for long periods without eating, drinking or
sleeping. See: creativity and problem solving.
- Being able to meet fire without
being burnt, injury without being injured, wounds without pain,
poison without reaction, death without fear.
- Insight into those around you.
This is like one suddenly is able to see not simply the physical
form of people and the colour of their skin and clothes, but in some
strange way one also 'sees' what they are thinking and feeling, what
quality of person they are, what attitudes they carry, what
relationship they have with others, what cosmic forces have shaped
their body, what dead people are connected to them, what the state
of their physical body is - i.e. what health status. This may
include the seeing of the aura or energy fields.
- Creating an electric current or a
burning force, or an energy that can move physical objects or heal
people of some illnesses.
- Causing what one meditates to
appear on ones body . Padre Pio, the stigmatist,
caused to appear on his hands the nails he meditated upon in the
hands of his saviour. Some people are able to make any image quickly
appear on their skin. In his book My Six Convicts - chapter
16, Dr. Donald Powell
Wilson describes how Hadad, one of the convicts he studied, was able
to make any shape appear as a welt on his skin. But Hadad also
demonstrated to several doctors at Leavenworth Penitentiary, how he
could cause a three day halt in the seizures suffered by cases of
severe epilepsy in the prison's psychiatric ward.
In older cultures, ASC's were frequently sought as a part of the
person's spiritual life; as a way to heal psychological or physical
illness; as a way of solving a problem, such as where to hunt or
whether and where to fight an invader. I believe it is Charles Tart
who says in the early part of his book Altered States Of
Consciousness, that in fact such older cultures felt that if a
person could not experience an ASC they were in some way crippled. It
is a great misfortune or misunderstanding that in our Western culture,
people seek such experiences often for no other reason than 'an
experience', something to provide a distraction. It is dangerous to
play with the creative forces of your own personality. But it is a
great blessing to approach them to seek your own essential spirit and
expanded possibilities.
See: Near Death
Experience. |
