Very close to the clearly defined boundaries of human consciousness lies an area lurking in itself a mass of unknown and unusual. Altered states of consciousness represent a hidden area of human psychic activity, which even at the current stage of development of psychological science is an uncultivated virgin soil. The functions and nature of this phenomenon, despite the abundance of clinical and experimental data, continue to be thoroughly unexplored. Dreams and dreams, sleep and slumber, hypnosis and hypnotic states, sensory deprivation and historical states of dissociation, depersonalization, pharmacologically induced mental disorders, etc., having a clear natural origin, are presented not as variants of the manifestation of something in common, but as separate phenomena. In each case, the processing of the material led to conclusions that have applied value and practical application.
There have been so few attempts to systematize and organize into a clear system all the material accumulated over the years that all research in this area borders on the first discovery.
Before proceeding to the study of the concept of “altered states of consciousness”, it is worthwhile to understand what consciousness is the most important concept for us both in philosophy and psychology. First of all, it means the ability to perfectly reproduce reality using specific forms and mechanisms at different levels of reflection. Consciousness can manifest itself as an individual (personal), as well as a social phenomenon. An attempt to systematize knowledge of consciousness was carried out by Sigmund Freud. Its clear hierarchical system played an important role in the development of human knowledge in this area, but at the present stage even it shows failure in many areas and requires radical improvement.
The state of consciousness is clearly fixed, but nevertheless it can undergo a number of changes, being at different levels of states. The most familiar and mundane is the waking consciousness that accompanies us in everyday affairs, worries, and even on vacation. What follows is a dream. This is the only natural state of altered consciousness, which not only accompanies an important physiological process of restoration of all body forces, but also immerses a person in the dream world.
A special form of a dream state is hypnotic, in it consciousness can reside in subjective fantasy. Artificially induced hypnotic altered states of consciousness make a person be in a semi-awakened state, which is accompanied by outbreaks of intensification of consciousness.
Severe shock, stress, a mental crisis, emergency situations, and even anger or fear can trigger a condition when the consciousness submits to a certain force. The appearance of changes in the nature of sensations, feelings, and behavior can signal that a change in the state of consciousness is occurring.
As a result of some systematization, it was possible to produce a typology of these phenomena. Altered states of consciousness of the first group are artificially caused. For their appearance, it is necessary to use psychoactive substances (for example, psychedelics) contained in hallucinogenic mushrooms, dope, marijuana, etc. They can also appear under the influence of certain procedures (sensory deprivation, holotropic breathing). The next group included psycho-technical conditions arising during religious rites, autogenic training, lucid dreams, hypnotic trance, and meditative actions. There is also a group of spontaneously arising states under ordinary conditions. The reason may be significant stress, listening to music, a sports game.
The study of this problem is important for anthropology, psychiatry, clinical and transpersonal psychology.