Altered States of Consciousness: Experiences Out of Time and SelfA groundbreaking study of what altered states of consciousness—the dissolution of feelings of time and self—can tell us about the mystery of consciousness, perfect for readers interested in psychedelics, brain science, and meditation. During extraordinary moments of consciousness—shock, meditative states and sudden mystical revelations, out-of-body experiences, or drug intoxication—our senses of time and self are altered; we may even feel time and self dissolving. These experiences have long been ignored by mainstream science, or considered crazy fantasies. Recent research, however, has located the neural underpinnings of these altered states of mind. In this book, neuropsychologist Marc Wittmann shows how experiences that disturb or widen our everyday understanding of the self can help solve the mystery of consciousness. Wittmann explains that the relationship between consciousness of time and consciousness of self is close; in extreme circumstances, the experiences of space and self-intensify and weaken together. He considers the emergence of the self in waking life and dreams; how our sense of time is distorted by extreme situations ranging from terror to mystical enlightenment; the experience of the moment; and the loss of time and self in such disorders as depression, schizophrenia, and epilepsy. Dostoyevsky reported godly bliss during epileptic seizures; neurologists are now investigating the phenomenon of the epileptic aura. Wittmann describes new studies of psychedelics that show how the brain builds consciousness of self and time, and discusses pilot programs that use hallucinogens to treat severe depression, anxiety, and addiction. If we want to understand our consciousness, our subjectivity, Wittmann argues, we must not be afraid to break new ground. Studying altered states of consciousness leads us directly to the heart of the matter: time and self, the foundations of consciousness. |
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Altered States of Consciousness: Experiences Out of Time and Self Marc Wittmann Limited preview - 2018 |
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A. D. Craig A. J. Ayer Alexandrine altered areas Arstila attention Behavioral bodily body boredom brain activity brain research Cambridge clinical Cognitive Sciences conscious experience consciousness Correlates described disorders drugs ecstatic ego-subject emotions ence example expand experienced extraordinary extreme F. X. Vollenweider feeling felt fMRI fMRI studies focused Freiburg Frontiers functions future hallucinogens happens hashish Hasler heightened ideas individual insular cortex intensively intervals Journal Karl Jaspers linked lived longer means memory mental mind wandering Mindfulness Meditation modulated moments mystical experiences near-death experience Necker cube ness Neural neuronal Neuroscience one’s orientation ourselves out-of-body experiences Pam Reynolds passing past patients perceived perception period perspective Philosophical physical present present-time processes psilocybin Psychology reports retrospect Revault d’Allonnes rience Schizophrenia scientific seconds seizure sensations sense situations space spatial spiritual Stefan Schmidt stimuli temporal duration temporal experience test subjects thoughts timelessness tion tive Tomas Tranströmer trans University Press visual Walach Wittmann Zurich