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What is an altered state of consciousness?

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What is an altered state of consciousness?

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What is an Altered State of Consciousness?

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What is an Altered State of Consciousness?

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Altered States of Consciousness: Definition, Examples & Quiz

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Altered States of Consciousness: Definition, Examples & Quiz

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What Is Consciousness?

What do you think of when you hear the phrase 'altered states of consciousness?' Some people have thoughts of Buddhist monks in their temples. Others think of psychedelic drug use at concerts in the 1960s. But before we define what makes up an altered state, it is important to establish what consciousness is. If you are viewing this lesson, you are conscious; you are currently experiencing the world around you, including the words you're hearing or reading and what they mean, as well as your environment, thoughts, feelings, and body. It is also possible to lose consciousness altogether, such as during a coma. While in a coma, a person is unconscious. That person does not act or react normally and cannot be woken.

Altered Consciousness Defined

An altered state of consciousness is a temporary change in one's normal mental state without being considered unconscious. Altered states of consciousness can be created intentionally, or they can happen by accident or due to illness.

Do you remember the last time you had a very high fever? Sometimes during high fevers, sick people can feel dreamy, have hallucinations, or simply be unable to react to their environment in a normal way. Many illnesses can cause altered states of consciousness, such as those that cause sleep or oxygen deprivation. There are also many common experiences that can create altered states of consciousness, such as sleeping or daydreaming, childbirth, sleep deprivation, sexual euphoria, or panic.

Often, people intentionally try to alter their conscious state. There are many reasons people try to attain an altered state of consciousness, including religious and spiritual reasons, relaxation, and even hypnosis to increase health. Let's take a look at a few of the more common altered states of consciousness a person may experience.

Examples of Altered States

Everyone has experienced dreams and can relate to this common altered state of consciousness. Although we are not 'awake' during sleep, we are still conscious and can react to our surroundings. We may awaken from a loud noise or somebody shaking our leg. During sleep, we experience images, sounds, and feelings that are not real. Many dreams are forgotten after waking, but we all know that dreams can feel very real when we are in them. If you have ever had a dream about falling, you can probably recall the influence of this altered state of consciousness.

Daydreaming is also considered an altered state of consciousness. Many people daydream when they are bored. Like dreaming, daydreaming can feel very real and cause realistic images, memories, and feelings, as well as the reactions that go with them.

Psychologists believe that hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness that allows a person to be more open to suggestion. Although people can perform hypnosis for comedy and magic shows, psychologists can also be trained in hypnosis. Psychologists can use hypnosis to help contain unmanageable feelings or to help a person reach a goal, such as losing weight or quitting smoking. Psychologists use hypnosis to suggest new feelings, thoughts, and behaviors to clients while they are in this altered state.

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altered states of consciousness: definition & examples - video & lesson transcript | study.com

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Altered States of Consciousness: Definition & Examples - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

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What do you think of when you hear the phrase 'altered states of consciousness?' Some people have thoughts of Buddhist monks in their temples. Others think of psychedelic drug use at concerts in the 1960s. But before we define what makes up an altered state, it is important to establish what consciousness is.

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What is an Altered State of Consciousness?

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What is an Altered State of Consciousness?

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PSY 101 - Introduction to Psychology by Jeffry Ricker, Ph.D.

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As anyone who has consumed too much alcohol already knows, what is going on at the conscious level can change during the waking state. When intoxicated, people tend to be less able to inhibit socially inappropriate behaviors, to evaluate situations correctly, to focus their attention, and to make rational decisions. In other words, when intoxicated, people are in an altered state of consciousness - an altered state of the conscious level of awareness - which may be defined as a condition of the conscious level in which there are significant changes from the normal waking state in cognitive and behavioral functioning. These changes include, but are not limited to, the following:

the mental processing of information are shallow and uncritical;

self-perceptions and perceptions of the environment are distorted;

self-control and normal inhibitions diminish, and may even disappear.

It's important to remember that the characteristics of an altered state of consciousness include only what is going on at the conscious level: the characteristics of the preconscious and unconscious levels are not included when describing an altered state.

Sleep is an altered state of consciousness that we generally experience every day. We can describe the characteristics of sleep in terms of the three sets of changes defining an altered state (see the previous paragraph):

1. We are unable to engage in complex thinking (i.e., we process information poorly).

2. We are not self-aware (we don't perceive ourselves as physical bodies lying in a bed) nor do we perceive the world around us accurately.

3. We are unable to exhibit self-control (i.e., we can't regulate our behaviors, emotions, and cognitions), especially with respect to social rules.

Thus, during sleep, the characteristics of the conscious level of awareness have undergone significant changes from the normal waking state.

In defining what is meant by levels of awareness and by an altered state of consciousness, we begin to see how important and how difficult it is to define psychological concepts clearly. The way in which a concept is defined is important because the definition determines how we think about the concept as well as the actions we take with respect to it. For example, the way in which medical doctors define the concept of death will influence at which point they stop trying to resuscitate a person (e.g., Miller, 2009).

An important difficulty for defining psychological concepts for the purposes of scientific research is that many of the terms are also used in everyday life. This can cause confusion among laypeople because researchers often use a term, such as intelligence, in a way that differs from its use in everyday life. For example, there are at least two meanings of the concept of unconscious in everyday life:

(1) When we say that "Stephanie has repressed memories in her unconscious," we mean that she is unaware of memories that exist "somewhere" within her mind. In this case, the term unconscious refers to a level of awareness containing mental content that is either very difficult or impossible to attend to.

(2) When we say that "Stephanie is unconscious," we mean that she shows no awareness of the external world around her, such as when she has been given a general anesthetic during major surgery. In this case, the term unconscious refers to an altered state of consciousness: the person is aware mostly of internal mental events and unaware of the external world.

In this course, the term unconscious will always refer to a level of awareness - one that differs from the conscious level; and, hence, it will not refer to an altered state of the conscious level.

Because of the fact that many psychological concepts have multiple meanings, researchers try to carefully define their concepts. There are two general types of definitions used by researchers: subjective definitions and objective definitions. These will be discussed in the next section.

Study Questions for Section 2-2

1. How would you define in your own words the concept of "altered state of consciousness"?

2. What are some examples of significant changes in the three types of functioning listed above when people are in the altered state of sleep associated with sleepwalking?

3. How are levels of awareness similar to and different from altered states of consciousness?

4. What are the two meanings of "unconscious" used in everyday life?

5. In what way are we defining "unconscious" in this course?

Practice Quiz for Section 2-2

Answers to first three study questions are .

References

Click HERE to find the details about the articles, books, etc., referred to in this section.

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Section 2-2: What is an Altered State of Consciousness?

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Save to PDF As anyone who has consumed too much alcohol already knows, what is going on at the conscious level can change during the waking state. When intoxicated, people tend to be less able to inhibit socially inappropriate behaviors, to evaluate situations correctly, to focus their attention, and to make rational decisions.