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Consciousness
(From
Cooperstein, M. A. (1990). The myths
of
healing: A descriptive analysis and
taxonomy of transpersonal healing experiences.
Unpublished doctoral
dissertation, Saybrook Institute, San
Francisco, CA.)
Ordinary Consciousness
Charles
Tart (1975a), in applying a systems approach to consciousness, refers to
ordinary consciousness as a construct resulting from the
interaction of attention/awareness with cognitive structures. The
configuration of the system of consciousness is shaped by physical,
personal (e.g., genetic), and interpersonal (social, cultural) factors
that reinforce certain potentials while suppressing others in the
formation of an individual's world view. Tart (1977) describes
"ordinary" consciousness as a culturally-defined discrete
state of consciousness delineated (within this society) by a high
level of ratiocinative processing and a lower level of imaging
ability.
Pattison and Kahan (1986)
argue that a "normal" state of consciousness does not
exist and stress the personal quality of consciousness:
"`Consciousness is the name we give to a unique organismic
experience which we personalize',...the experience of a set of ego
operations to which a personalizing action is applied" (p.205,
italics added).
Marsh (1977) describes
ordinary consciousness as an awake, structured (i.e., with
foreground and background) state of alertness. Attention is focused
and directed mainly toward external stimuli, although some internal
sensations are perceived. The attributes ordinarily assigned to
conscious contents are "organized, meaningful, clear, real, with a
[personally] familiar sense of time and place. And there always is
the impression of flow, or movement" (p.132).
Deikman's (1974)
neurophysiological model presents two primary modes of consciousness: active
and receptive. Ordinary consciousness is associated with the active
mode, the main psychological features of which include (1) focal
attention, (2) object-based logic, (3) intensified perception of
boundaries, and (4) a dominance of form over color and texture; these
combine to express (5) a striving, goal-oriented state in which the
satisfaction of survival needs--biological and social--and the avoidance
of aversive conditions are actively pursued. Language is described as
"the very essence of the action mode" (p.70) and is associated
with analysis as "we manipulate our environment through
language-direct strategies"
(p.70).
In contrast, the receptive
mode is delineated by passivity and maximizing the intake of stimuli,
rather than actions directed towards analyzing or acting upon the
environment. Characteristics of the receptive mode include (1) diffuse
attention, (2) paralogical thought processes, (3) decreased boundary
perception, and (4) dominance of sensory over formal attributes.
Deikman (1974) suggests
that, due to the value placed upon biological survival, the active mode
has come to dominate the receptive, although the latter is functional
during infancy: "The developmental preference for the action mode has
led us to regard the action mode as the proper [or `ordinary'] one for
adult life while we have tended to think of the more unusual receptive
states as pathological or `regressive'" (p.69).
To summarize,
"ordinary" consciousness is a culturally-relative construct
(Pelletier & Garfield, 1976) that refers to a relatively stabilized
set of cognitive processes applied to everyday subsistence operations. In
Western culture it is distinguished from nonordinary consciousness by the
following features: (1) dominant verbal-analytical thought processes
incorporating object-based logical operations; (2) attention/awareness
that is directed primarily toward the environment, although a background
awareness of emotion, imagery and body sensations exists; (3) intact,
operational external reality-testing; (4) a personalize (egoic) awareness
of self-as-object (i.e., the shape, size, discreteness and boundaries of
one's physical and psychological self are experienced as familiar and
continuous over time, place and situations); (5) the regulation of
emotional responses and their restriction to a socially-sanctioned range;
(6) awareness of one's orientation relative to external spatial and
temporal coordinates; (7) object reality is perceived congruent with the
cultural consensus; (8) a dominance of perceptions of form (shape) over
those of qualities; (9) a correspondence between one's sense of time and
external activities within the socio-cultural environment that is
experienced as a "flow", or movement; (10) the exercise of
personal (egoic) control (or "will") over thoughts, emotions,
and actions; (11) the contents of consciousness (e.g., memories,
discursive thought) are recognized as identical with the concept held of
one's self; (12) language is an effective medium for the communication of
experiences; (13) meanings may be attached to external and internal
(subjective) events/experiences, but with greater emphasis placed upon the
former.
Nonordinary Consciousness
In distinction to ordinary
consciousness, Ludwig (1972) lists features associated with nonordinary
consciousness: (1) deviations from normal operations among cognitive
processes, including disturbances of attention, concentration, memory, and
reality-testing; (2) alteration in time sense; (3) a perceived loss of
personal control; (4) decreased control over emotions, effecting extremes
of emotional responsiveness/expression; (5) body image changes involving a
dissolution of the boundaries between self and others, depersonalization,
and mind-body dissociation; (6) perceptual distortions experienced as
increased visual imagery, hyperacuteness of perception, and perceptual
aberrations; (7) increased meaning or significance attached to subjective
experiences, ideas, or perceptions; (8) increased primary process
thinking; (9) the failure of language to adequately communicate an
experience to someone who has not undergone a similar experience; (10) a
renewed sense of hope, physical rejuvenation, or "rebirth"; (11)
increased susceptibility towards accepting and/or automatically responding
to specific suggestions involving alterations of personal experience.
Altered Consciousness
& States
Nonordinary consciousness
that (1) involves one or more of the characteristics listed above, that is
(2) sufficiently long-lasting enough to be recognized by the experient (or
an objective observer), and that (3) constitutes a qualitatively different
departure from the subjective experience than is typical or ordinary for
the individual, is referred to as an altered state of consciousness
(Krippner, 1972a; Ludwig, 1972; Tart, 1971). Goodman (1986) further
differentiates altered states into "those that occur principally in
response to biological cues, such as sleep or orgasm, and those induced
primarily with the aid of cultural signals, such as the meditative states,
hypnosis, or the religious or ritual state" (p.83).
Transcendence
Transcendence refers to
the variety of (presumed) natural, holistic, complex, organismic, and
potentially integrative processes of consciousness (LeShan, 1975;
Maslow, 1980) which are not fully explainable by reduction to
physiological reactions or conditioning alone. In addition to its
denotation as a process, transcendence may be experienced as (1) a brief,
transitory condition of consciousness, (2) a stable but discrete, altered
state of consciousness developed through one of a variety of consciousness
training disciplines (Deikman, 1972a), or a type of comprehensive,
integrated, "higher", or more "expanded" awareness
that may represent the ordinary state of consciousness in certain
"enlightened" individuals (e.g., see Bucke, 1961; Rama,
Ballantine, & Ajaya, 1979; Yogananda, 1987).
Among the qualities
associated with transcendence (see James, 1902/1972; Neher, 1980) are the
following:
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The
capacity to become absorbed in an intense focus of concentration to the
point of decreased (a) self-reflexive awareness, (b) attachment to one's personal
identity, (c) awareness of space and time, (c) effects
of social and cultural conditioning, and (d) sense of
personal limitations.
-
There is an increased
capacity (a) to immerse one's self
in a focal object, concept, or process
through intense identification, (b) to perceive unities rather
than dichotomies; to experience feelings of (c)
detachment and objectivity, (d) emotional equilibrium
and integration, (e) feelings of
well-being, and (f) unconditional,
unselfish, or altruistic love.
Transegoic and Transpersonal Consciousness
Transegoic consciousness
refers to the transcendence of many or all egoic, external
reality-testing operations without selectively focusing upon changes
in the perception of one's sense of self, or identity. In a more selective
sense, transpersonal consciousness (see Glossary) highlights the personal
aspects of transcendence in terms of changes in the individual's ordinary
(personal) self, or the self-as-construct (i.e., the
"biographical" self [Grof, 1988]). This is experienced not only
as decreased external reality-testing, but may be accompanied by varying
degrees of change in one's ontological orientation, decreased effects of
socio-cultural conditioning, and alterations in personal identity.
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