The Chemistry of Spirit
The miracles and visionary states which form the basis of most of religion have roots in a set of non-ordinary states of consciousness (Grof, 1997). Many of these non-ordinary states were induced using psychedelic substances (like the amanita muscaria mushroom), many occurred by means of other tools or techniques (like fasting, or meditation), and still others, so it is said, occurred rapidly and unexpectedly in a manner not unlike the sudden-onset of psychosis seen in certain cases of schizophrenia. Yet, regardless of its means of induction, this set of rare and exceptional human experiences can be thought to occupy a location on a spectrum of consciousness, a location far and away from the discrete range of our typically-experienced ordinary states of consciousness. The rarity of the states existing on this outermost range of human experience should not dissuade us, as scientists, from attempting to study and understand them. Their rarity may limit the objective or quantitative measurement afforded the more ordinary states of consciousness, yet, with the progression of an organized understanding of the potential of human perception will, most likely, come an improved means of inducing the exceptional state. With a reliable and precise method of changing the state of a person’s consciousness, a formalized quantitative record of the subtle perceptual systems which facilitate that change, and the maintenance of its subsequent state, may be charted. Likewise, a map of the wider spectrum of all consciousness, and the specific natures of its individual bandwidths, could come to be charted as well; a topography drawn for an inward territory.
The reliable and precise methodology for inducing an exceptional state of consciousness conducive to objective study would, most likely at first, be from some established spiritual tradition. The meditative fasting mentioned before, for instance, could be drawn from a Tibetan Buddhist tradition, the sacramental use of amanita muscaria from a Siberian shaman’s healing practice. The methods employed to traverse the spectrum of consciousness utilized by these differing traditions can be studied using controls, so that the efficacy of their induction ability could be scaled, allowing for comparison between traditions It is my prediction that individual methods are bound to individual states and that by traversing the bandwidths of varying states of consciousness, you would essentially be traversing a set of varying methods of altering consciousness. Specific exceptional abilities, too, would most likely be bound within certain bandwidths of consciousness. With a scale measuring the efficacy of different methods, individual techniques within those different methods could be contrasted with the most effective being synthesized, in order to possibly modify or improve other methods.
In this practice, we scientists are essentially barging through the doors of the cathedral, the restraint of sanctity and respect which once restricted us from bringing our microscopes under God’s robe, finally “lifted.” We demand the truth behind the rituals, the actual phenomenon which led to their repetition could similarly be replicated in a laboratory setting. If we could finally take the guru out from his ashram, the healer from his clinic, the shaman from his moloka, could we isolate their ability in the lab or is the location an integral and necessary precursor to the experience? This is certainly true of the psychedelically-induced state of consciousness, for which the term “set and setting” was coined to describe the importance of emotion and surroundings to navigation of the inward states. Indian and Asian meditators also describe aspects of their surroundings as influencing the nature of their meditative insight; being in the presence of a guru, for instance, can supposedly induce powerful changes in consciousness. Similar, too, is the attention paid to emotion by many of these Eastern traditions; desire and its control, for instance, being one of the centrally defining precepts of Buddhism. This calming of passion, and the focusing of the furious frenzy of our undisciplined thought, is both part and parcel of the meditative practice of Buddhism and most likely translates to the psychedelic experience; a skillset which may allow for the control and isolation of components within the “Set” half of Set and Setting. Of those potential variables which fall under “Set” are several components shared with meditative practice, of varying traditions. The most immediately apparent of these being:
1) Focusing of Attention (w/ Concave or Convex Lens)
2) Regulation of Emotion
3) Hypersensitivity (or the lowering of Latent Inhibition)
Focusing Of Attention
…
Certain types of auditory hallucinations (eg:, two or
more voices conversing with one another or voices maintaining a running commentary
on the person's thoughts or behavior) have been considered to be particularly
characteristic of Schizophrenia. --DSM-IV, p. 309
Here, from the DSM-IV, is a reference to hearing voices, a core identifying symptom of schizophrenia, to be used for its diagnosis. The concept of suddenly perceiving two unseen individuals in the middle of an engaging conversation is especially interesting to me. It is as if the person were turning the tuning dial of radio, raising the frequency of the antenna, when all of the sudden a talk radio station comes across the speakers - two or more individuals having a conversation which we could not hear who, all at once, we CAN hear! The perception of the voices in the case of a radio is dependent upon a certain bandwidth, or station, on a much larger spectrum of frequencies. Just a slight change in the tuning of the antenna causes the voices to suddenly appear or disappear from our perception. This understanding of radio frequencies and their reception serves as a powerful analogy for the spectrum of consciousness.
Auditory hallucinations are usually experienced as voices, whether
familiar or unfamiliar, that are perceived as distinct from the person's own thoughts.
The hallucinations must occur in the context of a clear sensorium; those that occur
while falling asleep (hypnagogic) or waking up (hypnopompic) are considered to be
within the range of normal experience. --DSM-IV, p. 306
We know that consciousness, too, is governed by frequency and that a person’s state of consciousness can be reliably predicted by experts trained to “read” the EEG waveforms recorded, as a person drifts off to sleep, for instance. These frequencies of consciousness exist along a spectrum, not unlike the discrete bandwidth of the electromagnetic spectrum which we traverse when tuning to our favorite station on the radio. This spectrum of consciousness is divided by some EEG experts 40 times or more - with levels of state specificity far beyond the initial crude divisions of the Alpha-Gamma states. There are many “stations” of consciousness which we tune in to and out of each day.
To carry the metaphor further, our car radio receivers have limits; the tuning dial only goes up or before the boundaries of the equipment’s capacity is reached. Yet certain “exceptional” or rare radios can extend beyond the typical frequency ceiling, like a HAM radio which can explore and receive frequencies far beyond the bounds of a typical shortwave receiver - and some of these outlying frequencies carry consciousness or, rather, act as a carrier medium for information, speech, and culture.
Is it not reasonable to consider our perception, too, as having and upper and lower limit? And that, again similar to individual radios, individual people can also vary in where the “ceiling” and “floor” of their perception lies. The boundaries of what we are able to sense are very personalized - with some people being far more sensitive to their surroundings than others. And is it any wonder that one of the defining characteristics of schizophrenics is the symptom of “hypersensitivity,” or, in addition to claiming to hear things that we do not hear, they show the ability to hear things that MOST people do not hear, or which are barely perceivable to the normal person.
It seems that these two symptoms of the disorder: hearing things that few people hear and hearing things that nobody around hears, may actually be representative of differing degrees of the same hypersensitivity. That is, the distinction of these two symptoms may simply be between sounds which few people can hear and sounds which far fewer people can hear. Mutual hallucinations suggest legitimacy to this spectrum view and its degrees or “bandwidths” of sensitivity.
The reliable and precise methodology for inducing an exceptional state of consciousness conducive to objective study would, most likely at first, be from some established spiritual tradition. The meditative fasting mentioned before, for instance, could be drawn from a Tibetan Buddhist tradition, the sacramental use of amanita muscaria from a Siberian shaman’s healing practice. The methods employed to traverse the spectrum of consciousness utilized by these differing traditions can be studied using controls, so that the efficacy of their induction ability could be scaled, allowing for comparison between traditions It is my prediction that individual methods are bound to individual states and that by traversing the bandwidths of varying states of consciousness, you would essentially be traversing a set of varying methods of altering consciousness. Specific exceptional abilities, too, would most likely be bound within certain bandwidths of consciousness. With a scale measuring the efficacy of different methods, individual techniques within those different methods could be contrasted with the most effective being synthesized, in order to possibly modify or improve other methods.
In this practice, we scientists are essentially barging through the doors of the cathedral, the restraint of sanctity and respect which once restricted us from bringing our microscopes under God’s robe, finally “lifted.” We demand the truth behind the rituals, the actual phenomenon which led to their repetition could similarly be replicated in a laboratory setting. If we could finally take the guru out from his ashram, the healer from his clinic, the shaman from his moloka, could we isolate their ability in the lab or is the location an integral and necessary precursor to the experience? This is certainly true of the psychedelically-induced state of consciousness, for which the term “set and setting” was coined to describe the importance of emotion and surroundings to navigation of the inward states. Indian and Asian meditators also describe aspects of their surroundings as influencing the nature of their meditative insight; being in the presence of a guru, for instance, can supposedly induce powerful changes in consciousness. Similar, too, is the attention paid to emotion by many of these Eastern traditions; desire and its control, for instance, being one of the centrally defining precepts of Buddhism. This calming of passion, and the focusing of the furious frenzy of our undisciplined thought, is both part and parcel of the meditative practice of Buddhism and most likely translates to the psychedelic experience; a skillset which may allow for the control and isolation of components within the “Set” half of Set and Setting. Of those potential variables which fall under “Set” are several components shared with meditative practice, of varying traditions. The most immediately apparent of these being:
1) Focusing of Attention (w/ Concave or Convex Lens)
2) Regulation of Emotion
3) Hypersensitivity (or the lowering of Latent Inhibition)
Focusing Of Attention
…
Certain types of auditory hallucinations (eg:, two or
more voices conversing with one another or voices maintaining a running commentary
on the person's thoughts or behavior) have been considered to be particularly
characteristic of Schizophrenia. --DSM-IV, p. 309
Here, from the DSM-IV, is a reference to hearing voices, a core identifying symptom of schizophrenia, to be used for its diagnosis. The concept of suddenly perceiving two unseen individuals in the middle of an engaging conversation is especially interesting to me. It is as if the person were turning the tuning dial of radio, raising the frequency of the antenna, when all of the sudden a talk radio station comes across the speakers - two or more individuals having a conversation which we could not hear who, all at once, we CAN hear! The perception of the voices in the case of a radio is dependent upon a certain bandwidth, or station, on a much larger spectrum of frequencies. Just a slight change in the tuning of the antenna causes the voices to suddenly appear or disappear from our perception. This understanding of radio frequencies and their reception serves as a powerful analogy for the spectrum of consciousness.
Auditory hallucinations are usually experienced as voices, whether
familiar or unfamiliar, that are perceived as distinct from the person's own thoughts.
The hallucinations must occur in the context of a clear sensorium; those that occur
while falling asleep (hypnagogic) or waking up (hypnopompic) are considered to be
within the range of normal experience. --DSM-IV, p. 306
We know that consciousness, too, is governed by frequency and that a person’s state of consciousness can be reliably predicted by experts trained to “read” the EEG waveforms recorded, as a person drifts off to sleep, for instance. These frequencies of consciousness exist along a spectrum, not unlike the discrete bandwidth of the electromagnetic spectrum which we traverse when tuning to our favorite station on the radio. This spectrum of consciousness is divided by some EEG experts 40 times or more - with levels of state specificity far beyond the initial crude divisions of the Alpha-Gamma states. There are many “stations” of consciousness which we tune in to and out of each day.
To carry the metaphor further, our car radio receivers have limits; the tuning dial only goes up or before the boundaries of the equipment’s capacity is reached. Yet certain “exceptional” or rare radios can extend beyond the typical frequency ceiling, like a HAM radio which can explore and receive frequencies far beyond the bounds of a typical shortwave receiver - and some of these outlying frequencies carry consciousness or, rather, act as a carrier medium for information, speech, and culture.
Is it not reasonable to consider our perception, too, as having and upper and lower limit? And that, again similar to individual radios, individual people can also vary in where the “ceiling” and “floor” of their perception lies. The boundaries of what we are able to sense are very personalized - with some people being far more sensitive to their surroundings than others. And is it any wonder that one of the defining characteristics of schizophrenics is the symptom of “hypersensitivity,” or, in addition to claiming to hear things that we do not hear, they show the ability to hear things that MOST people do not hear, or which are barely perceivable to the normal person.
It seems that these two symptoms of the disorder: hearing things that few people hear and hearing things that nobody around hears, may actually be representative of differing degrees of the same hypersensitivity. That is, the distinction of these two symptoms may simply be between sounds which few people can hear and sounds which far fewer people can hear. Mutual hallucinations suggest legitimacy to this spectrum view and its degrees or “bandwidths” of sensitivity.