Article 6

Mysterious Consciousness

       We are aware of everything that is around us. Right? There are many things that we don’t detect. Many things that we don’t know are there, many feelings, many thoughts that we have no idea about. Our brain can detect many things that we don’t even notice.      

       Consciousness is a psychological construct meaning it cannot be measured. Other psychological constructs are intelligence and emotion. Most regularly conscious is defined by awareness. One has to note that there are many different types of awareness. Selective attention is to focus on a particular stimulus. This makes our senses keener, for example selective attention allows us to pick out the speech of a person in a loud party. There are three levels of consciousness. The first is preconscious , these are ideas are ideas that we are not aware of at a moment but are able to be recalled later. The unconscious level is for the most part unavailable to awareness or it is “hidden” from us. Finally the non conscious level is what many of our biological functions rely on like blinking or breathing. Sleeping is what we call an altered state of consciousness, in which a person’s sense of self or sense of the world changes. Our dreams can take us to numerous worlds and adventures and it is all happening in our mind. There are five stages to sleep. Stage 1 is light sleep where it is believed that dream like images occur. After that we go to stage 2, 3 and 4. Stages 3 and 4 are what we call deep sleep. The final stage is called rapid eye movement or REM. Its name comes from the fact that our eyes move rapidly during this stage. It is here where we have our most vivid dreams. Other altered states of consciousness are meditation in which people narrow their consciousness so that he stresses of the outside world fade away. Biofeedback is a system where information is received of what is going on in the body. People who do this are usually ones training to control a body function like heart rate. Finally hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness during which people respond to suggestions and behave as though they are in a trance. Other ways to experience altered states of consciousness are through consciousness altering substances.

(Stages of sleep)

       Consciousness altering substances, most commonly known as drugs are very popular. There are three categories and of these substances; stimulants, depressants and hallucinogens. Stimulants are physically addictive and like the name says it, they stimulate the brain. Substances like caffeine, nicotine and amphetamine are stimulants. Depressants are also physically addictive and substances that fall into this category are alcohol, heroine and opium. Morphine (which is used as a pain killer) is also a depressant. Hallucinogens are their own category. Unlike the other substances, they are not physically addictive. Popular substances that fall into this category are marijuana and LSD.

(Stimulants and other Consciousness altering drugs)

       Throughout history humans have been obsessed with hallucinogens. Hallucinogens for religious purposes are most common. An example is the Native American church which uses peyote (a cactus) for a religious use. They are not the only ones, Brazilian religions such as the Santo Daine and the Unio Vegetal use a hallucinogen called Ayuahuasca which stimulates the production of DMT, a chemical produced by the pineal gland. The Mayans and Aztecs used magic mushrooms to have religious/ divine experiences. In the 20^th century psychologists were interested in the effects of hallucinogens. Some could imitate psychological disorders which would help psychologists understand the disorders and help the patients through it. It was also discovered that hallucinogens were able to cure alcoholism. Today since substances like LSD are illegal, experimentation is under tight government control and there is only 10-15 experiments allowed. Psychedelics like LSD are used to “expand the mind”. LSD imitates the brain chemical serotonin which is a neurotransmitter. This stimulates perception, emotion, appetite, etc. LSD can be a cure for cluster headaches (many times worse than a migraine). Albert Hofmann, the creator of LSD, was looking for a cure for headaches when he invented it. It has also been observed that LSD can increase the creativity of the user and have good personality changes. For example, LSD was given to a group of senior students and then had them solve a problem that they had been working on for months. They were able to solve those problems because they readdressed them in a fresher more relaxed way. Why is LSD illegal then? One of the reasons why it is illegal is because it was stolen from the lab and given to thousands of people which created a social revolution that no one had seen before. People were simply abusing the drug.  Also it is very unpredictable. A dose of LSD can send the user to paradise or give the user “a trip to hell”. This is why there is strict government control over experiments, because even experts don’t know for sure what will happen when a dose of LSD is administered.

(Albert Hofmann, the inventor of LSD)

       There are positives and negatives when it comes to the use of Consciousness altering drugs. Who wouldn’t want to get out of this world and experience a psychedelic experience that would expand the mind? A small dose can send someone to whole other worlds, have divine experiences and even push up their creativity. Hallucinogens can even help psychologists understand disorders a little better. Like when LSD was injected in rats and they started to mimic schizophrenia, this could eventually lead to a cure for schizophrenia. The problem with these substances is that they are abused by the population. Nothing in excess is healthy and this is why most of these substances are illegal. In my opinion hallucinogens are something that could help our society scientifically.

       Our brain is an adventure. We can visit other worlds by simply going to sleep or stimulating it with ether a technique or a substance. There are many different mysteries hidden in the depths of our unconscious mind. We may have the meaning of life hidden in there and we may not even know it.