A Neuropsychological Model of Altered States of Consciousness

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be vague and variable. Sometimes the metaphor simply represents an initiatory experience that brought about a new perspective. Often, along with this metaphor of a door or gateway, spatial metaphors are used to refer to other dimensions of reality, experience, or consciousness. It is tempting to apply a constructivist interpretation and claim that these metaphors are cultural in origin. The door opening has been well known in the psychedelic subculture since Aldous Huxley wrote his famous essay, The Doors of Perception, in 1954. However, I suggest that there may be another reason for this metaphor, based on the subjective experience of psychological and neurochemical changes human beings undergo when they experience altered states of consciousness.

A NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL MODEL OF ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS Rick Strassman’s intuition that there could be a shared biological mechanism for altered states of consciousness induced through meditation and psychedelics is potentially a fruitful line of inquiry for future research. Moreover, archeology and cultural anthropology appear to lend supporting evidence for a shared neurochemical basis of altered states. From his many decades of studying cave art and ethnographic data on modern indigenous peoples, who maintain a culture related to cave art, David Lewis-Williams developed what he calls a “neuropsychological model” to explain cave art dating back over 10,000 years ago.30 Briefly stated, Lewis-Williams asserts that this art depicts the visionary experiences of shamans who entered altered states of consciousness (ASCs). Viewing consciousness as a spectrum, he identifies several states, such as waking (problem-oriented) thought, daydreaming, hypnagogic states, dreaming, and unconsciousness. In addition, he distinguishes three levels of intensified inward consciousness.

In stage 1, a person experiences what Lewis-Williams calls “entoptic phenomena.” These are geometric visual percepts such as dots, grids, zigzags, curves, and meandering lines.31 Entoptic phenomena include what have been called phosphenes (images caused by the structure of the eye) and “form constants” (images derived from the

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optic system beyond the eye). Entoptic phenomena, phosphenes, and form constants have been extensively documented in the psychological and ethnographic literature. They are thought to be “hardwired” into the human nervous system and appear the same to anyone who experiences the first stage, regardless of culture. In stage 2, “subjects try to make sense of entoptic phenomena by elaborating them into iconic forms, that is, into objects that are familiar to them in daily life.”32 Often objects that appear in this stage are described as repeating architectural designs or features made of jewels or gems stretching out toward an infinite horizon.33 Stage 3 is characterized by what Lewis-Williams calls “iconic hallucinations,” images derived from the personal experiences and culture of the subject. Often entrance into this stage is experienced as a passage through a tunnel or vortex and arrival into a different spiritual realm of experience beyond or outside of the body.

A strength of Lewis-Williams’s model is that it accounts for how ASCs are both culturally determined and innate in human physiology.

Extensive ethnographic data demonstrate that some form of institutionally sanctioned altered state appears to be the social norm, rather than the exception. In an ethnographic survey conducted of 488 societies, 437, or 90%, were reported to have “one or more institutionalized, culturally patterned forms of altered states of consciousness.”34 Such states can and have been attained through numerous methods, such as by psychotropic plants, sensory deprivation, sleep deprivation, fasting, extreme pain (as in the Lakota Sun Dance), trance dancing (San and !Kung Bushmen), hypnosis, intense concentration, and meditation.

Lest the reader think that such profoundly altered states are only possible through the introduction to the brain of some psychoactive substance, I should mention here some preliminary results from a current research project I am conducting on the contemporary practice of vipassanā meditation as taught by S. N. Goenka. In an anonymous online survey of people who have undertaken at least one tenday intensive course in vipassanā, when asked, “During a vipassanā course, have you ever had an unusual experience, such as the following (tick all that apply)?,” 45 out of 94 (47.87%) claimed to have experienced an “altered state of consciousness,” 19 reported having “visual hallucinations” (20.21%), 22 reported “visions” (23.40%), and

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FIGURE 4.4 During a Vipassanā course, have you ever had an unusual experience, such as the following (please tick all that apply)?

Unusual sensation

58.51%

Strange or unexplained sounds

15.96%

Unusual thoughts

39.36%

Visual hallucinations

20.21%

Mystical/religious/ spiritual experience

25.53%

Altered state of consciousness

47.87%

23.40%

Visions Encounter other beings

7.45%

No, I have never had an unsual experience

25.53% 0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Percentage of respondents

7 reported encountering “other beings” (7.45%) (see figure 4.4). Even these preliminary findings demonstrate the potential for nonordinary experiences during meditation. For example, in this survey, when given the option “to explain or describe any unusual experiences you had during a vipassanā course,” one respondent replied with a classic description of Lewis-Williams’s stage 2: “I experienced beautiful, impossibly vivid visions of cities in the sky during the first three days of my first course.”

Another strength of Lewis-Williams’s model is that it offers a powerful explanation for the cross-cultural appearance of entoptic visual phenomena during profound alterations in human consciousness.35 One possible weakness in the model is that it is not particularly fine-grained.

The typology does not include what we could call “substage 1” altered

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states (such as subtle alterations in visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, or kinesthetic perceptions), or states possibly going beyond stage 3, such as unitive states like the “clear light” or “pure consciousness,” which seem to appear somewhat frequently in mystical and psychedelic literature. Other weaknesses include a neglect of other experiential aspects of ASCs, such as changes in cognition and emotion, as well as a failure to account for these alterations in terms of human neurochemistry. However, in recent decades the scientific and medical communities have restarted studies on the effects of psychotropic substances on human psychology,36 which promise to shed light on these psychological and physiological aspects.37 I discuss some of these experiments in more detail in chapter 7.

One of the most intriguing findings of recent research is the discovery that DMT naturally occurs in trace amounts in human tissue.38 Rick Strassman has postulated that some individuals might naturally possess higher amounts of this compound, and that certain stressful events such as massive trauma could cause the human body to release larger quantities of such endogenous chemicals, leading to the profound changes in consciousness that are reported during such nonordinary events as so-called “alien abductions” and “near-death experiences.”39 Thus the door opening metaphor commonly used by participants in my study might represent a shift in consciousness from stage 2 to stage 3 of Lewis-Williams’ model. Since the feeling of being transported to “somewhere else” in an altered state appears to be a cross-cultural, psychological universal, possibly related to the physiological hardwiring of the human brain, one could hypothesize the existence of certain naturally occurring chemicals in the brain, like DMT, that can act in similar ways as LSD, psilocybin, or mescaline.

After discovering Lewis-Williams’s neuropsychological model, I felt I had found the connecting thread that could explain the similarities, pointed out by Erik Davis, Alex Grey, and Paul Williams, between the psychedelic experience and visions described in such Mahāyāna sūtras as the Ga‫˂ؾ‬avyūha and Avataؐsaka. Psychedelics and Mahāyāna Buddhist “trances” (samādhi) appear to induce similar alterations in consciousness.40 In the case of psychedelic experiences through the ingestion of LSD, psilocybin, and mescaline, anecdotal data confirm the appearance of entoptic phenomena (stage 1) that may then be imag-

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ined as iconic images (stage 2), which can in some cases progress into the experience of being transported to another realm or dimension of reality (stage 3). Likewise, the visionary accounts in some Mahāyāna sutras may be the literary “residue”41 of actual experiences undergone by some early practitioners who entered altered states of consciousness induced through various technologies, such as intense concentration, visualization, fasting, and sleep and sensory deprivation. For some, these practices led to entoptic phenomena (stage 1) and then iconic images of culturally significant objects such as buddhas and their jeweled lands appearing in every direction (stage 2); those who then entered the next stage (stage 3) would experience traveling to these buddha lands and hearing buddhas preach the Dharma.

The possibility of Huxley’s influence on the door opening metaphor has already been mentioned. However, the constructivist explanation of a cultural trope and the neurophysiological explanation based on Lewis-Williams’s model of ASCs are not mutually exclusive. The enduring metaphor might be related to both. While it is sometimes applied to the experience more literally as a passage to “somewhere else,” at other times people use it more loosely to indicate an initiation into new modes of consciousness or a “spiritual reality.” Given the intensity of altered states induced through psychedelics and the appropriate set and setting, such a spiritual interpretation of the experience might seem natural. I discuss the problematic relationship between experience and interpretation more in chapter 7.

It is clear from my survey and interviews that many convert American Buddhists who have tried psychedelics found them to be a “door” or “gateway” to their Buddhist practice. Moreover, some have continued to use psychedelics. Although from a more traditional or “orthodox” Buddhist perspective, the use of such drugs may be seen as a violation of the fifth precept against intoxicants, it appears that many American convert Buddhists do not consider this precept to be an essential part of the Buddhist path. The following chapter explores the reasons some Americans tried psychedelics and then chose to discontinue their use as their Buddhist practice matured.