- seCtIon FIVe: BoRDeRLAnDs
materialists, identity theorists, and some functionalists? If such theories are cor-
rect, then we should be able to understand ASCs fully by studying the physio-
logical effects and behaviour, and there should be no mystery left over. Yet for
many people this does not do justice to what they feel. They enter a deep ASC and
everything seems different. They struggle to describe it, but somehow the words
are not enough. They know what they are experiencing but cannot convey it to
anyone else. They know that their conscious experience has changed in ways their
behaviour and words cannot convey. Are they right?WHAT IS ALTERED IN AN ASC?
‘What is altered in an altered state of consciousness?’ is a strange but interesting
question. Optimistically, we might say that ‘consciousness’ has changed. If this is
so, studying what is altered should reveal what consciousness itself really is. Sadly,
everything we have learned so far shows how difficult this is. We do not know how
to measure changes in something called consciousness in isolation from changes
in perception, memory, or other cognitive-emotional functions, so to study ASCs
we must start by studying how these functions have changed.
All the definitions given above, as well as comparing ASCs with a normal state,
mention a change to ‘mental functioning’. So which kinds of functioning are
involved?
Farthing (1992) provides a list: 1) attention, 2) perception, 3) imagery and fantasy,
4) inner speech, 5) memory, 6) higher-level thought processes, 7) meaning and
significance, 8) time perception, 9) emotional feeling and expression, 10) arousal,
11) self-control, 12) suggestibility, 13) body image, and 14) sense of personal
identity. In one way or another, this list probably covers all mental functions, sug-
gesting that ASCs cannot be fully understood without understanding changes to
the whole system. Some ASCs involve changes to all these functions, while others
primarily involve just one or two, and we shall meet many examples of these in
the rest of this chapter. For now, we might pick out just three major variables that
often change during ASCs: attention, memory, and arousal.
Attention can change along two main dimensions: direction and focus. First,
attention may be directed ‘inwards’ or ‘outwards’. For example, in daydreaming
sensory input is largely ignored and attention is focused on trains of thought
and imagery. Good hypnotic subjects may ignore the world around them and
concentrate entirely on the hypnotist’s suggested fantasies. Many methods for
inducing ASCs manipulate this dimension either by reducing sensory input, as
in meditation or deep relaxation, or by overloading it as in some ritual practices.
Second, attention may be broadly or narrowly focused. Someone high on mari-
juana may attend finely to the leaf pattern on the carpet for many minutes at a
time. Such a change in attention can seem to profoundly affect subjective states,
but the effects cannot be cleanly separated from the associated changes in per-
ception, memory, and emotion. For example, the leaf pattern might look quite
different from normal, become of overwhelming significance, bring up long-lost
childhood memories, and raise deep emotions – or gales of laughter.Second, memory changes occur in many ASCs and are linked with effects on
thinking and emotion. For example, many mind-altering drugs reduce short-
term memory span. This has a debilitating effect on conversation if you cannot