ABSTRACT
Whatever consciousness is, it is not single or simple. There is, presumably, such a thing as full unconsciousness, the nearest approximation to which in reasonably common experience is the state of being anaesthetized for a surgical operation. There may, if the mystics are to be believed, be such a thing as full consciousness. But as well as these two extremes there are a number of different states, such as sleep (with its various depths and gradations), wakefulness, drunkenness, daydreaming, ‘highway hypnosis’, concentration and so on. Some of these states are known as ‘altered states of consciousness’ (ASCs) – altered because they vary from the paradigm state of waking consciousness. Apart from hypnosis, the most important ASCs are dreaming, daydreaming, creative states (especially the inspirational phase of the creative act), psychedelic states caused by mind-altering drugs, meditation, mystical rapture and shamanic ecstasy, states of dissociation and hallucinatory psychotic states. Even if all or most of these are odd states, it needs to be stressed that they are common. In fact, one study found that 89 per cent of the 488 societies for which there were adequate ethnographic data had institutionalized ways of entering trance states, chiefly through religious rituals.
