Altered States
The Light Show Within
"Normal memories, the 'perceptual release' theory [formulated by Hughlings Jackson in 1931] assumes, are suppressed by the flow of sense information from the outside world. New information inhibits the emergence and awareness of previously processed information. If the new input is decreased or impaired while awareness remains, stored images may be released and experienced as hallucinations or dreams."
- Louis Jolyon West
"The daylight (sensory input) is reduced while the interior illumination (the general level of arousal of the central nervous system) remains bright, so that images originating within the rooms of the brain may be perceived as though they came from outside the windows of the senses."
- Ronald K. Siegel
"Numerous studies in sensory deprivation show that once a well-reinforced thinking process which dominates in everyday life stops, the mind is overwhelmed by a flood of non-ordinary imagery. In one study conducted at McGill University in Montreal by psychologist Donald Hebb, student volunteers experienced what we call childish emotional responses and hallucinations after twenty-four hours."
- Regush
"From real studies on suggestibility in sensory deprivation conditions, Vernon found that suggestibility in all ways could be increased after two to three days and become four times greater than before. But he also found that it was lost no longer than two days after the experimental conditions were terminated, if gains were not consolidated thereafter.
"Why should one become suggestible in such conditions? Vernon explains that the brainstem reticular formation acts as a way station for all messages coming in and going out of the brain. Normally it inhibits some messages and enhances others, thus dictating which ones get paid conscious attention. Conditions of sensory deprivation probably reduce the amount of information passing through the reticular formation..."
- Denise Winn, The Manipulated Mind
"If this is the case, then the 'importance' of any given sets of neural events may be greatly enhanced. Said more simply, under the conditions of sensory deprivation, the human may be able to content himself with ideas or cognitions that he would otherwise simply dismiss."
- Prof. Jack Vernon, Inside the Black Room
(2) Hallucinogens
Analogous to the perceptual-release theory of hallucinations, "the daylight (sensory input) is reduced while the interior illumination (the general level of arousal of the central nervous system) remains bright, so that images orginating within the rooms of the brain may be perceived as though they came from outside the windows of the senses."
- Ronald K. Siegel
"Hallucinogens produced vivid descriptions. First, organized geometric patterns appeared. Slowly they took on blue tints and began pulsating. Thirty minutes into the voyage, lattice and tunnel forms increased significantly, along with some kaleidoscopes. When nearly two hours had passed, colors shifted to red, orange and yellow. Explosive, rotating lattice tunnels predominated, overlaid by complex images drawn from the subject's life. The scenes and forms all danced together around a bright light in the center of the image."
- Brian Van der Horst
Form Constants (produced by hallucinogens)
1) Bright pulsating light
2) Images of tunnels and/or tubes
3) Varied but intense colors
4) Rotating or spiraling images
5) Geometric patterns
6) Erratic moment of imagery
7) Subject becoming part of imagery or participating in the experience
8) Multiple "tv screens" often displaying autobiographical data
9) Integration of memories into the experience
10) Various "complex imagery" (i.e., recognizable (often cartoonlike) human, animal and other forms)
Large, domed rooms are common
- Categorized by Ronald K. Siegal
"The shapes formed by the spirit-fire are only empty colors and forms. The light of human nature [hsing] shines back on the primordial, the true."
- The Hui Ming Ching
(3) NDE's (Near Death Experiences)
"Although 'death' narratives do not always follow an identical sequence of events, many of the described phenomena are consistent with details from abductions. Similarities include: (1) a bright light; (2) a humming (musical or annoying); (3) a sense of 'floating' out of body; (4) moving through a 'tunnel' or 'tube'; (5) approaching a 'door' or border of some sort; (6) encounter a 'being of light'; (7) telepathic communication with the 'being'; (8) a rapid review 'as on a TV screen' of events in the witnesses life; (9) a kind of 'moral examination' (roughly akin to the abductee's physical exam) which involves past deeds; (10) a moral 'message' of some kind; (11) a 'return'; (12) an aftermath in which the witness experiences varying degrees of personality change."
- Alven H. Lawson
NDE's may also involve bodily dismemberment such as that experienced in shamanistic trances.
"The bright light is characteristic of many types of metal imagery; it is due to stimulation of the central nervous system that mimics the effects of light on the retina. It can also occur when the electrical activity in the brain is altered in such a way that the threshold for perception of phosphenes (electrical activity in the visual system) is lowered and bright lights are seen in otherwise dark surroundings. This point of light creates a tunnel perspective and individuals will report viewing much of their imagery in this regard."
- Ronald K. Siegel in Science and the Paranormal
Temporal Lobe Transients
"...The brain can discriminate and respond to different kinds of very subtle, external magnetic fields, without the individual necessarily being aware of it, except through their imagery."
"We attempted to determine if the light flashing frequency in conjunction with, that is, synergistically, a magnetic field being applied to the brain would enhance suggestibility and imagery. What we found was there was indeed a change in imagery, and that the imagery was specific to those kinds of properties that are unique to temporal lobe activity; feelings of floating, movement, certain complex visual sensations."
- Michael Persinger
"There is little doubt that the class of experiences that comprise mystical experiences in general, and NDE's in particular, is strongly correlated with temporal lobe activity....Kate Makarec and I have found that all of the major components of the NDE [near death experience], including out-of-body experiences, floating, being pulled towards a light, hearing strange music, and profound meaningful experiences can occur in experimental settings during minimal electrical current induction to the temporal region due to exogenous spike-and-wave magnetic field sources."
"The hypothesis that temporal lobe excitability is tied to these kinds of experiences goes back to the clinical literature, in which we know that there are ceratin personality and subjective experience features that are associated with electrical foci in the temporal lobe, specifically epileptic foci....We found that the normal population shows these symptoms, too, and that they appear to lie along a continuum."
"The personalities of normal people who display enhanced temporal lobe activity... usually display enhanced creativity, suggestibility, memory capactity and intuitive processing. Most of them experience a rich fantasy or subjective world that fosters their adaptability. These people have more frequent experiences of a sense of presence during which time 'an entity is felt and sometimes seen;' exotic beliefs rather than traditional religious concepts are endorsed."
- Michael Persinger in Report on Communion by Ed Conroy
Arnold Mandell at UC San Diego has identified the septo-hippocampal-amygdaloid circuit of the limbic system which can be sent into oscillation by feedback from drumming, sensory deprivation and drugs. The result is a state of temporal lobe epilepsy in which the individual experiences transcendent states (auras) and often feelings of possession or terror. Smells, such a brimstone or heavenly fragrances, are often involved indicating the involvement of the limbic system which is also known as the rhinocephalon or "smell brain". These events are often accompanied by feelings of intense meaningfulness or great portentousness.
- Barry L. Beyerstein, Notes from a lecture before the BC Skeptics Society (22 April 1994)
"...Movement, odd visual experiences, the profoundness, the fact that it's true reality, the intense meaningfulness, the cosmic significance of it all, the desire to proselytize, to spread the word, the sense of the personal, as if one is particularly chosen- these are all classic temporal lobe signs."
"...The whole context of feeling that there's another self giving you information, whether it's identified as the Great Spirit, an extraterrestrial, or just another personality, that whole operation is extraordinarily similar to temporal lobe phenomena."
- Michael Persinger
The effect of electromagnetic fields on the temporal lobe have been used to explain some of the phenomena associated with close encounters with "UFOs".
According to Peter Fenwick, sensitives selected by the London Society for Psychical Research showed a high incidence of head traumas at some point in their lives. Michael Persinger has noted that the soft neural signs associated with mystical experience correlates with temporal lobe transients which "color" attitudes, beliefs and behaviors. Four percent of the population is "fantasy prone" according to Banber(?) and Wilson's scale. A study of a science fiction group showed a correlation between fantasy imagery, temporal lobe transients. and esoteric beliefs.
- Barry L. Beyerstein, Notes from a lecture before the BC Skeptics Society (22 April 1994)
"The cerebellum is the source of sexual excitement and of orgasm. If man's evolution is the result of a conflict between the old and new brain, resulting in a degree of reconciliation, then is it not conceivable that glimpses of higher consciousness are the result of a momentary integration of the old and new brains?
"Elmer and Alyce Green of the Menniger Foundation discovered that hypnogogic images are accompanied by strong theta rhythms, which suggests that the cerebellum is the source of theta rhythms. Their research into biofeedback also showed that, while relaxation states are accompanied by alpha rhythms, deeper states of reverie produced long trains of theta rhythms. This led them to speculate that states of creativity might be accompanied by theta rhythms, since so many poets and scientists have received sudden bursts of inspiration when they were in states between sleeping and waking."
- Colin Wilson, Mysteries : An Investigation into the Occult, the
Paranormal, and the Supernatural
"The transcendent state is characterized by 'resting-state alpha' and relatively high-amplitude, synchronous slow-wave activity in the median of the central cortex accompanied by regional (commonly temporal) gamma (30-hertz-plus) brain-wave activity."
- Murray Cox in Omni, October '93
Hyperlinks