CHAPTER VI
DEVELOPMENTAL FORCING
Everything in its Season
- Ecclesiastes
6.1 SPONTANEOUS DEVELOPMENTAL FORCING:
SCHIZOPHRENIA
Take a gear shift car out on the road and while going at a slow speed in first gear, try to slip the gear into third or overdrive without going through second: the car will sputter and likely stall; this is akin to developmental forcing. Take the same car, "rev" it up to top speed in overdrive, then try to engage the car in the lowest gear. You will hear lots of noise and commotion, and maybe strip your gears; this is akin to developmental abuse. In both cases we are trying to do something unnatural, something against the grain, something which will only result in injury to the car and poor performance.
This chapter is about similar types of malpractice with regard to developmental states in either a) (developmental forcing) trying to escalate from a given stage to more than one stage higher (often through mechanical or artificial means), or b) (development abuse) trying to use the characteristic powers or fruits of a given stage for display purposes when the individual is actually engaged in tasks of an earlier stage.
A reader advocates developmental plethora as suggesting abnormal fulness, repletion, or excess. Developmental plethora results in an excessive need to discharge energy at a simpler level instead of to transform it into more complex forms. In developmental plethora (with traumatic forcings into higher stages) there is marked loss of ego control, a weakening of ego function which invites affective excess, and an abandonment to the preconscious element which is seen as being in control, instead of under the control of the ego. This capitulation of the conscious mind leads to excessive and uncontrolled outbursts of energy in dissociated states and experiences. Examples range from mob behavior, through poltergeist phenomena and other primitive psychic effects, the weird experiences of possession, and the "nightmare" aspects of dissociated activity in schizophrenia and dreams.
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Developmental forcing (under which are classified schizophrenia, possession, hypnosis, drug abuse, and possibly alpha wave biofeedback) differs from normal developmental processes (such as meditation) in that
1) the ego is not in control,hese characteristics range in a hierarchy from very undesirable to nearly neutral in our value judgment. For example, there is much less difference between meditation and alpha wave biofeedback than between the latter and schizophrenia. Biofeedback and to some extent drugs, may be useful in providing an introduction to psychedelic glories, just as the more natural "peak-experience" does, but the wise man, having received the map, uses his own efforts to explore the territory. Drugs may point the way, but are not the way.
2) some agency outside of the ego is in control,
3) mechanical means are often employed instead of conscious cerebration,
4) the affective tone is poor or at least not elevated.
A differential evaluation of disapproval is given to the various categories herein to be enumerated. The goal in any form of advancement is to distinguish escalation from forcing. The problem in shifting gears in a car is to do it smoothly when you are ready to shift. Where do you make the cut - between the shift that jerks you into the windshield or one that stalls the car? It is history that many a religious leader has been "jerked" into a higher state of consciousness, showing dissociated behavior and loss of ego control during the often terrifying transition period because, developmentally, he was not quite ready for the move. The list of such people is long and includes: George Fox, Emmanuel Swedenborg, Jeremiah, Sri Ramakrishna, John Bunyan, Ezekiel, The Cure of Ars, St. Francis, Jacob Boehme, among many others. Interestingly enough, a look at schizophrenia tells us the reason why.
Just as the baby developing within the womb is surrounded by a placenta, we are all shielded from external reality by an envelope which protects us from it, the proper dissolution of which we call illumination, and the premature rupture of which we call madness.
Development, hence, consists (in post-uterine as in prenatal existence) in growth and specialization which will allow for the appropriate penetration of the placental envelope so that the individual can gain greater freedom and interaction with the external world. But if this placental shell is ruptured too soon, then chaos results, and special means are required to save the individual and nurse him back to healthy development.
The placental envelope performs several functions: 1) it shields the nascent individual from recognizing elements in an environment with which he at present lacks the specialization to cope, although he presumably will be able to in the future; 2) it prevents him from exercising the freedoms and possibilities of a larger domain; 3) it represents a triumph of safety and security, over liberty and opportunity. The interest of development enables the individual to move out
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of this primitive stage, hopefully prepared for new and wider experience, hopefully at the proper time, as the chicken breaks out of the shell.
In identifying this premature rupture of the protective placenta specifically as schizophrenia, we point out first the second column (or identity-crisis) characteristic of the disease, and next the testimony of some who have suffered this extremity and recovered to give us an eye witness account.
The Periodic Developmental Stage Theory unifies and explains some concepts otherwise apparently unrelated. Such powers should come from columnar properties common to several stages (2, 5, 8) in the second column. As a demonstration of the usefulness of the theory, let us cite such an example.
Autism is a crippling mental disease occurring during the second (autonomy-preoperational) developmental stage; Dementia Praecox (or adolescent schizophrenia) is also a crippling mental disease occurring during the fifth (identity-formal operations) developmental period; senile schizophrenia is a third crippling mental disease seen during the eighth (ego-integrity-illumination) developmental period. All three of these maladies are characterized by the failure of the ego to surmount an identity crisis, and to integrate the self, during a (second column) identity stage. They are thus, developmentally related to the recurring identity crises which characterize second column stages, at successively higher levels. The unifying, clarifying application of the periodic developmental stage theory is clear.
While we do not know what developmental strains cause the rupture of the envelope surrounding the ego, the process seems related to failure of the individual to integrate the personality during a second column or "ego" period, thus resulting in an identity crisis. The syndrome of healthful development is that you apparently have to get an ego before you can diffuse it. If, for some reason, it diffuses before full cognitive control is established, one escapes into the chaotic conditions of the "not-me," an immature manifestation of the uncontrolled collective preconscious, seen in various stages of mental disturbance termed Schizophrenia.
We should pause here before further investigation to be sure what is understood by "full cognitive control." St. Augustine pointed out that memory is the first aspect of intelligence. Myers (1961:37) in discussing this very aspect puts it: "Memorability of an act is a better proof of consciousness than its complexity" (i.o.). It is the loss of memory as in drunkenness which signals complete loss of control, and it is this concept which we shall employ in measuring control.
This painful experience of the premature rupture of the psychic placenta has been identified by a number of writers, not to mention Kierkegaard, who called it "the sickness unto death". Higgin (1973)
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in a more recent treatise calls it the "centroversion crisis" in which "the ego is exposed to a somewhat painful process starting in the unconscious which permeates the whole personality". Neuman (1964) in defining the word "centroversion" states that it is "a tendency to compensate in an individual or culture when some imbalance has developed." The imbalance here of course is too much intellectual rationality, which invites in turn the emergence of the irrational and numinous element. Centroversion according to Higgin also explains Jung's "syncronicity " or the tendency of an idea whose time has come to occur independently to the best contemporary minds. He also glimpses the preconscious aspects by referring to the phenomenon as "numinous".
Now let us turn for further elucidation to
an unusual personal account from a psychologically minded minister who
underwent this difficulty, and recovered to tell the tale.* In a remarkable
and neglected book, The Exploration of the Inner World,
Anton Boisen (1936:30ff) describes the concerns, phobias, and monomanias
of the distressed person.
1) (p30) The sense of the mysterious: "Acute disturbances begin with some eruption of the subconscious which is interpreted as a manifestation of the supernatural. . we have then the bewildered state which is called "schizophrenia" . . . The deeper levels of the mind are tapped and in many cases the mental processes are quickened. . . it is as if the conscious self had descended to some lower region where it is no longer in control but at the mercy of primitive and terrifying ideas." "Such observations are in line with Jung's conception of a "racial unconscious."2) (p32) The sense of peril: "Ideas of an impending world change of some sort with great issues at stake .... in the patient exalted ideas as to his own role."
3) (p34) The sense of personal responsibility: Concealment reaction is found in four forms:
a) Externalization of conscience (accusing voices; mind being read by others; being poisoned or drugged);
b) Transfer of Blame: (electrical currents shooting through body, hypnotic control as explanations of unacceptable thoughts, circumvention of one's plans through outside organized conspiracy);
c) Fictitious self-importance (feelings of reference, delusions of grandeur);
d) Incapacitation (physical illness or old age).
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4) (p36) Erotic involvement: disturbed about sex problems, socially unsanctioned sex manifestations in public, reports he is being accused of vilest sexual crimes.
Whether
the experience is the jerk of developmental escalation as with St. Paul,
or the schizophrenic trauma of developmental forcing as with the author
Boisen, the general attitude toward the individual undergoing such a change
is that of the Roman governor in Acts when he said to Paul: "Thou
art beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad." Boisen traces this
trauma in a famous religious leader, George Fox, (1936:59-132), and shows
how ineffectual the various healing ministries would be today in George
Fox's case. He says (1936:53):
This survey of the wilderness of the lost tends to support the hypothesis with which we started, that many of the more serious psychoses are essentially problem-solving experiences which are closely related to certain types of religious experiences.Seen in this way, such episodes are like shock-treatment, in which people like Fox, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, St. Paul, Bunyan, and Swedenborg, are the successes, and the inmates of the hospital back wards the failures. Boisen highlights this approach (1936:158) by noting that of several types of schizophrenic development, the eruptive, an acute disturbance which reorganizes the personality, has the best prognosis of cure.
But Boisen is not the only writer who can testify to this experience of schizophrenia as rupturing an envelope which protects most of us from naked reality. There are several others.
Myers (1961:38-42),
in a chapter on derangements of personality points out that there is a
hierarchy of the degrees of interference with fully conscious control,
beginning with the fixed idea, then hysterical anaesthesia, finally, the
emergence of secondary or split-
personalities.
This is a sequence of increasing deterioration in the conscious control,
first of an idea, second of a body function, and third, of the entire psyche.
It testifies to Myers' insight that he started his book on psychic phenomena
with a chapter on dissociated behavior.
K. Wapnack
(1969) declares:
Writing of the mystic's renunciation of his societal attachments which insulate him for the experience of God, Underhill (1960) uses the image of the mollusk with its hard shell, thereby illustrating the nature of the person's shell of attachments. Likewise, Schactel (1959) employs Hebb's image of a cocoon to describe the world of embeddedness that seals off the person's capacity for growth. Borrowing this imagery, it can be seen(page192)
that the schizophrenic is one whose protective shell has been suddenly and Prematurely broken (i.i.o.).He also adds (1969):
In writing of his own experiences of the terror of his confrontation with the unconscious Jung (1961) stressed the importance of his external life in protecting him from too sudden exposure to the inner world of the unconscious: "Particularly at the time when I was working on the fantasies, I needed a support in "this world" and I may say that my family and my professional work were that to me."Naranjo and Ornstein (1971:107-8) put it this way:
Moreover we may be justified in considering many cases of schizophrenia as the outcome of spontaneous plunging of an immature person into the realm of that kind of experience which when properly assimilated, distinguishes the genius from the average man.Krippner (1972:204) says in this context:
A similar situation characterizes the level of reality at which many schizophrenic individuals exist. Their perceptions, too, are divergent and unconventional. However, they function very poorly in society - if at all - as a result of their nonordinary reality, and find it a handicap rather than a gift. An exception is the rare creative person who is also schizophrenic and who has managed to put his bizarre experiences to use in art or literature. At one time it was felt that creativity and mental illness were closely linked (e.g., Lombroso, 1891). Research data, (e.g., Witty, 1930) has largely dispelled this notion and it is generally felt that psychopathology distorts and blocks creativeness rather than serving as a facilitator (e.g., Kubie, 1966).
Edmunds (1968:24) declares:
Numerous psychiatrists hold the opinion that the paranoiac is capable of utilizing extra-sensory perception in his characteristically keen discernment of another's thoughts which refer to him.
We have now seen that the essence of developmental forcing results
in a change in ego-function, and that schizophrenia
can be considered as spontaneous developmental forcing in which that change
involves loss of ego control resulting in the disorganization and
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splitting of the personality. Since it may be more or less permanent,
it is the most serious type; but there are transient conditions also which
demand our attention, the most spectacular of which is possession.
6.2 POSSESSION
The possession of a human being by a demon or disincarnate spirit smacks so much of witchcraft, primitive animism, and outmoded superstition that it is particularly objectionable to Western researchers as an explanation or topic for psychological analysis. The alternative psychoanalytic construct that repressed and despised aspects of the psyche become so numerous and so strong in the subconscious that they take over the conscious persona is also a possibility, provided we credit the collective preconscious with enlarged powers. Nevertheless, the first construct appears useful in understanding noted cases of mediumship, which appears to be some kind of a way-station between the frightening dissociation of schizophrenia, and the professional benign control of dissociation by a medical hypnotist.
Myers, the great authority on mediumship, devotes a chapter to the subject in his Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death, and notes the close relationship of trance possession to motor automatisms in the following definition (1961:345):
Possessionis a more developed form of motor automatism in which the automatists own personality does for the time altogether disappear, while there is a more or less complete substitutionof personality; writing or speech being given by a spirit through the entranced organism (i.o.).
This kind of trance activity has been known since ancient times;
the Bible, in particular, is full of such accounts. Socrates believed that
this was the source of creative genius. The key question then generally
asked is: "What (good or evil spirit) is controlling the medium?" While
possession has some similarities to the creative inspiration, automatic
writing and peak-experience and satori, it differs in a most important
respect, namely that the individual is not only not conscious, but the
spirit seems to have vacated the consciousness, leaving it at the mercy
of whatever comes along.
Possession is not the same as the conscious excursion of the spirit in ecstasy, rapture, OOB experience, or other mystical adventure, for here the consciousness while sometimes out of the body, and certainly somewhat dissociated, is still able later to relate what has happened
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to it during the interval when the body lay cataleptic. The same conscious awareness is not reported in possession.*
While most mediums, especially those of a spiritualistic bent, seem to turn up little but banality in their control utterances, (as if the gigantic computer associated with the collective preconscious had executed a "print dump" order), there are a few mediums who have reported significant veridictical material. Perhaps the most prominent of these is the data collected under the membership of "Mrs. Piper" (Myers, 1961:347).
It is significant that her "sitters" and the alleged disincarnate spirits attending her either were or had been men of distinction in psychical research. Apparently the keenness of the intellects of the sitters and the controls in these instances may do much to improve the quality of the communication, since it is not only the preconscious of the medium which is being tapped. Mrs. Garrett, (1968) another noted psychic, reported that after it was discovered that she had mediumistic powers, she found it necessary to "be developed" by sitting with Hewitt McKenzie, another eminent psychic researcher. We are unsure as to whether there is a gradual education of the uncontrolled "not-me" aspects of the preconscious to a more docile aspect, or whether the "education" is merely a change of locus within the vast area of the preconscious, (as when several users pool their stored memory drum data on a giant computer). Or it may be that parts of the persona become more personalized and discreet, resulting in a fragmentary personality, or two or more persons. It was William James' conclusion (Myers 1961:382) that Mrs. Piper "has supernormal powers." Myers himself was one of her "sitters" and believed in the genuineness of her phenomena; it is interesting that after his death, he was one of the alleged controls in the phenomena of the next medium, Mrs. Leonard.
Another noted mediumship far above the usual was that of Mrs. Leonard
(Smith 1964). As Smith says in the opening lines of the book (1964:11),
"A great medium is a rare phenomenon, rarer than a great painter or a piano
virtuoso." Mrs. Leonard apparently developed her psychic powers so that
her sittings (some of which were with Sir Oliver Lodge) had unusual "power"
and clarity, and her control, a discarnate entity
named "Feda" was very accurate. We cannot in this short space give adequate
examples of this ability, but we shall discuss one of the most unusual
of Mrs. Leonard's powers - that of "direct voice." Direct voice occurs
when (on rare occasions) the supposed disincarnate "deceased" speaks with
his own voice through
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the medium, instead of communicating with the control who then speaks
through the medium. There is nothing much in the fact that this happens,
but what is significant is that the content of the D.V. messages reveals
an entirely different personality than that of the control. In the direct
voice protocols (Smith 1964:238), the "direct voice" supplies words when
Feda asks, corrects Feda in content and pronunciation, contradicts Feda,
expostulates with Feda, is unheard, misheard, or only partly heard by the
control. Some examples:
Feda: It's like being put in charge of a department of boars.
D.V.: Borstal.
**********
Feda: Admiral Idea, he says.
D.V.: Admirable.
**********
Feda: A man once said Feda was a spectrum.
D.V. : Spectre.
**********
Feda: What do you call it - n empty sone?
D.V.: Zone.
No one can read these pages without being powerfully impressed with
the conclusion that the direct voice communicator and Feda the control
are two distinct entities, and that of the two the communicator is more
sophisticated and educated. It is as if the medium were a piano, and there
are two players, one much more skilled than the other. The direct voice
communicator knows where to find the words in the medium's mind that Feda
does not. In other words, he has a bigger vocabulary - certainly one of
the prime aspects of personality survival. Smith (1964:229) also provides
an explanation of how and why "direct voice" occurs, and its relationship
to the whole mediumistic seance.
A third and final example of an unusually "high" control for a medium is the recent "Seth Material" from the mediumship of Jane Roberts (1970, 1972). If we are to believe Seth, he is a highly evolved entity, far above the usual table-rapping type; certainly his material, while somewhat formal and platitudinous, is generally in keeping with his claims. Seth's statements however, like those of other mediums, can be interpreted in one way as communication from the beyond and can also in another way be represented as communication from parts of the preconscious within.
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Roberts (1970:53) quotes the control Seth saying: "I do depend upon Ruburt's willingness to dissociate. There is no doubt that he is unaware at times of his surroundings during sessions." And again in the preface Roberts (1970:viii) quotes from The World of Psychic Phenomena by F. S. Edsall as follows: "The development of trance personalities or controls seems to depend on subconscious experiences related to the medium's background or environment."
In appraising the work of mediums, we should note that in a dissociated way, they are also creative, for through their dissociation, elemental energies become focused. Muldoon and Carrington (1951:20) point up this parallelism in stating "With mediums the imagination becomes a creative power of the first order."
Among the automatisms exhibited by mediums and others, the facility of automatic writing deserves some passing attention. In automatic writing, the medium does not usually lose consciousness, and the "possession" extends only to the hand doing the writing. A great deal of trash has been produced in this way, but it must be admitted that Blake, Madame Guyon (see Underhill 1960:66), Rulman Merswin, and St. Teresa (Underhill 1960:194) were outstanding exceptions. In some celebrated cases (Coleridge, Wordsworth), it becomes difficult to distinguish the seizure of poetic inspiration of genius from automatic script. We can only conclude that automatic writing is a feature of the continuum of psychic development, and not a characteristic of any particular stage.
In line with Van Rhijn's hypothesis (Chapter 1), we can posit the close connection between dissociation and illness. Dissociation produces illness; indeed, we may almost say that dissociation is illness. Those thoughts and actions which cannot be handled with full symbolic cognition, nor yet acted out through archetypes and sign, must eventually become externalized on the body, which as illness or disease is their residual manner of manifesting.
Roberts (1970:30), says:
Again Roberts (1970:170) speaking of illness in trance, says:
In his discussion on health, Seth has always maintained that illness is the result of dissociated and inhibited emotions. The psyche attempts to get rid of them by projecting them into a specific area of the body ... If really large areas of the self are inhibited, a secondary personality can be formed, grouped around those qualities distrusted and denied by the primary ego.
All illness is almost always the result of another action that cannot be followed through. When the lines to the original action are released and the channels opened, the illness will vanish.(page 197)
Let us assume for the moment that mediumistic utterances can be taken at their face value, and let us examine critically the content of the messages in contrast to material on similar subjects produced by prophets, mystics, religious leaders, and "third-force" writers. One might assume that those who purport to speak from the other side of the veil might have some startling disclosures, some irresistible proselyting abilities, or some grand eloquence and majesty unequalled by mortal rivals. But this is not the case. The most eloquent descriptions of the afterlife, of man and his destiny, of the relation of man to the universe have not been written by spirits, speaking through a medium, but by inspired humans, in an advanced stage of development. The trance utterances, to be sure, give some hope that consciousness may survive physical death, but this doctrine is taught by many religions, and can be adduced, as we have seen in this book, by psychological analysis. Despite the elevated quality of the material produced through the mediumship of Mrs. Piper, Mrs. Leonard, and Mrs. Roberts, it certainly cannot compare with the New Testament, Paradise Lost, or the writings of Blake, Whitman, Emerson, or Maslow. Everyone is entitled to make of this what he will, but to this writer, these facts are eloquent concerning the restraints imposed by mediumship. And this brings us back to the central fact of possession, that while there may be benefits, there are also severe debits.
Edmunds (1968:21) explains it as follows:
This accounts for the limited value of the information usually given out by a medium although she may sincerely believe she is contacting a high spiritual source, for it will almost invariably be found that the new information unknown to others practically never comes through, but is limited to the total contents of the medium's and the sitter's minds.We have focused on mediumship because it is the most progressive and possibly useful aspect of possession. In reviewing the pros and cons of mediumship, one must ask oneself what has been accomplished. Perhaps some good has been done if any persons are persuaded that life is not as circumscribed by the counting house as Scrooge imagined it to be before being visited by a trio of ghosts. But what has happened to the medium? Has the experience facilitated or complicated her development? The grave loss of control of her own organism can hardly be desirable. Why are an overwhelming preponderance of mediums women? Is there some sexual aspect at work here? What would happen otherwise to the medium? Is this some sanctioned expression of the dissociated elements of the self which otherwise might later explode into schizophrenia? In our analysis of the developmental forcing of schizophrenia we referred to the rupturing of a placenta. Certainly there has been a similar rupture of a placental envelope in these cases.
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We have
reviewed examples of noted mediumship where (if one cares to believe the
allegations) the medium was controlled by high disincarnate types, whose
words make sense and give some larger meaning, but such cases are in the
minority. Being a medium seems like hitchhiking a ride: you may be lucky
and get to your destination, but you may also put yourself at the mercy
of undesirable elements. The medium in effect allows her spirit to be invaded
for profit, as the prostitute does her body. No one who values the regnancy
or integrity of the human being can be happy at either outcome though men
may, for expedience, accept the ministrations of both.
6.3 HYPNOSIS
Possession
and hypnosis are both trance states; in the former the general belief is
that the altered state is induced by some supernatural agency, while in
the latter it is obvious that it is induced by the hypnotist. Research
on hypnotism is therefore in a position to provide a much more psychologically
oriented explanation for trance states than constructs about possession
can. Walde (Prince 1968:57) after telling us that hypnosis is a trance
phenomenon defines hypnosis thus (Prince 1968:61):
Hypnosis is the presence of an induced trance or altered state of consciousness in which the subject automatically and uncritically carries out the suggestions of the person inducing the altered state.
Walde
further notes (ibid)that
"Most often it is unacceptable wishes that are gratified in the hypnotic
situation." He summarizes (Prince 1968:64):
Hypnosis is the mobilization of a group of ego mechanisms designed to obtain subject gratification of usually unacceptable wishes, to avoid intolerable stress situations, and to avoid super-ego condemnation while doing so.A recent and authoritative review of hypnosis research is that of Barber (1970b). He points out (1970b:281) that the pivotal aspect of hypnosis is trance. He further states (1970b:136) "The subject is said to be in a hypnotic trance if he manifests a high level of response to test-suggestions." After pointing out the circular reasoning involved in this definition, and after a lengthy review of the literature he concludes (1970b:191):
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An extensive series of experiments has failed to find a physiological index which differentiates the hypnotic state per se from the waking state.
Those interested in the subject will wish to consult Barber further, especially for his explanation of hypnosis (1970b:279ff) in a chapter too long to be summarized here. What does concern us is that trance, no matter how induced, represents a kind of developmental forcing, in the opening up of the psyche to the collective preconscious in a way which tends to remove control from the individual, and to replace it with the irrationality, suggestibility, and psychic effects of the numinous element. Such situations may allay pain and produce other temporary benefits, but they do not result in creativity or in the psychedelic control of the preconscious seen in meditative states, nor the powers and glories of mystic ecstasy.
More psychologically acceptable than possession, and more concerned with the ultimate benefit of the patient is the concept of hypnosis, especially that supervised by medical staff personnel. (The exhibition for entertainment purposes of persons under hypnosis is regarded here as degrading to the dignity of the human being). Medical hypnosis attempts the alleviation of suffering or other unhealthy condition or habit by implanting direct or post-hypnotic suggestions into the patient's subconscious. It has been useful since the time of Mesmer in revealing the suggestibility of the subconscious, and thus in providing such modern investigators as Troward with clues regarding the relationship between conscious, preconscious, and subconscious aspects of the psyche.
The negative aspect of hypnosis is that the patient, in order to reduce a symptom, surrenders the control of his conscious mind to the hypnotist. Under professional care of a medical hypnotist the danger of malpractice is minimized. But potential ego-development may have been damaged for mere symptom relief, and in a society which deems developmental maturity as a summum bonum that may be too high a price to pay. Such a stricture applies with much less force to techniques of auto-hypnosis. Such techniques essay a mechanistic procedure instead of a cerebral one, and may be similar to and in a category with alpha wave biofeedback.
Krippner
(1972) describes time distortion under hypnosis:
The capacity of accomplishing a large amount of work in a short period of time as in "speed reading" and in the calculus problem-solving experiment under hypnosis appear to be related to the findings of hypnotic time distortion experiments.(page 200)Cooper and Erickson (1954) did the pioneer work on hypnotic time distortion. They used hypnosis to slow down the subjective perception of time in fourteen subjects. Three to twenty hours of training were required (depending on the subject) to develop the ability to lengthen one's experience of time. Cooper and Erickson found that a subject's ability to experience time distortion depended on his attaining a high degree of immersion in
the world which was suggested by the hypnotist, and on an accompanying inattentiveness to his actual surroundings. In other words, he temporarily abandoned ordinary reality and entered non-ordinary reality.They reported that the subjects in this condition could accomplish in a short time interval far more work than usual. In one experiment, for example, a college student who had clothes designing talent designed a dress in ten seconds when she was hypnotized, but experienced the session as being an hour in length. She said that she ordinarily took several hours to design a dress. Cooper and Erickson suggested that time distortion could be utilized for creative mental activity in those fields in which a person is highly skilled.
Most creative persons accomplish a larger amount of work than others during the same amount of time. They, no doubt, accomplish this feat in various ways - time distortion may be one of their techniques.
McCord and Sherrill (1961) reported an experiment using one subject - a professor of mathematics. McCord hypnotized the mathematician and gave him the suggestion that after the hypnotic session ended, he would be able to solve calculus problems with a higher degree of accuracy and more rapidly than he had ever solved them before. The hypnotic episode was then terminated, the mathematician was given the calculus problems, and was asked to solve as many as possible in twenty minutes. The subject worked with great speed, skipped steps in the mathematical processes, performed some of the calculations "in his head" which he would normally have written out, and wrote other more complex calculations down at a rapid rate of speed. In twenty minutes he accomplished without loss of accuracy what would normally have taken him two hours. He reported that he enjoyed doing these calculus problems and that he felt his unconscious mind had participated more than usual in the calculations.
Some of the most scientific explications of medical hypnosis* have
been made by Gill and Brenman (1959) and Brenman and Gill (1964). In the
earlier volume they discuss hypnosis and related states, such as transference,
dreams, dissociation, etc. They point out (1959:16) that subjects often
seem to experience change in position of the body in space, when in fact
the body is motionless, which will immediately remind readers of the OOB
experiences related in Chapter I. They discuss hypnosis as an altered state
of consciousness (1959:145ff) in
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line with psychoanalytic theory. They end (1959:294ff) with a very interesting chapter on "Trance in Bali" which they conclude is a variety of hypnosis. In their book on hypnotherapy (1964) they give a historical discussion of the rise of hypnotic ministrations, and finish with a chapter on the therapies of hypnosis and four case studies.
While we believe there are better and more effective methods than hypnotism
for the alleviation of pain and the promotion of mental and physical health,
we admit that under proper guidance it can be an effective tool in the
health professions. Under such circumstances the surrendering of control
of the will to another is the most serious problem, which is of course
much mitigated under conditions of selfhypnosis. Research in hypnosis,
like research with mediums and research with psychedelic drugs, should
be encouraged, since all research in these areas may throw more light on
the relationship of the individual to the general mind.
6.4 PSYCHEDELIC DRUGS
The most widespread and currently popular method of developmental
forcing or mind expansion is the ingestion of psychedelic drugs. One must
admit at the outset that this process is very ancient, and also widespread
throughout the world.
The modern interest in psychedelic drugs is therefore not a new discovery, as much as a revival of older practices; for example Coleridge and Poe occasionally used laudanum (a preparation of opium) to stimulate their creative powers. In the modern era no less a novelist than Aldous Huxley experimented with mescaline and its doorway to another world (Huxley, 1956). A most interesting account of his activities in this regard will be found in Tart (1969:45-72).
Blewett (Masters and Houston (1966:320) is quoted as saying:
In order to serve this computer function, the cortex must also serve as a sorting or filtering mechanism, such that one idea or quantum of information at a time is called into awareness. .. This inhibiting or shutting out was discussed by Bergson and by Smithies who states: "Usually ideas of mind-brain relation are thought wholly of in terms of excitation. Brain events excite certain mental events in the mind. However, it is also possible that some brain events normally actively inhibit the spontaneous activity of the mind. When this inhibition is in turn suppressed by the specific action of the psychedelic drugs, then the spontaneous activity of the human psyche becomes released or revealed. . . "
Patrick Trevor-Roper (1970) puts it thus:
(page 202)
Mescaline and other hallucinogenic drugs seem to cause an interruption of the 'association fibres' in the posterior lobe of the brain, which mould the unconscious cerebral images of the seen world into the conscious percept, altering it in the light of our experience and needs, so that it falls into line with our established schemas, with all the attributes we think proper for the object we now recognize. Mescaline thus allows us to see a far truer image than the ordered stereotype that our association-fibres normally permit us to apprehend.Krippner (1972) in talking about mescaline, says:
A provocative study was carried out at The Institute of Psychedelic Research at San Francisco State College by Harman and his associates (1966) using 27 subjects who were professional workers in architecture, engineering, commercial art, furniture design, mathematics, and physics. Each subject was asked to bring a problem of professional interest that required a creative solution. Some of these subjects had worked on their chosen problems for months without obtaining a satisfactory solution. During the sessions, each subject worked in silence individually on his own problem, but with two or three other subjects in other parts of the same room. They were given 200 milligrams of mescaline in the morning when a session began. About half of these subjects later reported that they had accomplished a great deal more than they usually accomplished during a work day. But about 20 per cent said that they were not able to concentrate on their problem because the psychedelic effects brought to mind personal memories and insights. The other 30 per cent of the subjects fell in between these two extremes.When the subjective reports were analyzed they yielded eleven factors:
a reduction of anxiety and inhibition under mescaline,
the capacity to restructure a problem in a larger context,
an increased fluency of ideas,
an ability to associate dissimilar ideas,
a heightened capacity for visual imagery,
an increased ability to concentrate,
an increased empathy with external processes and objects,
a heightened empathy with people,
a greater accessibility of unconscious material,
an increased motivation to obtain a solution, and
an increased capacity to visualize the completed solution.
An
example of the last factor is an architect's visualization of a shopping
center he was trying to design:
I looked at the paper I was to draw on. It was completely blank. I knew that I would work with a property 300 feet square ... Suddenly I saw the finished product. I did some quick calculations. It would fit the property and ... would
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meet the cost and income requirements. . . It was contemporary architecture with the richness of a cultural heritage. It used history and experience but did not copy it. . . I visualized the result I wanted and subsequently brought the variables into play which could bring that result about ... I could imagine what was wanted, needed, or not possible with almost no effort. In what seemed like ten minutes, I had completed the problem, having what I considered (and still consider) a classic solution."
From the foregoing it can be seen that there is no question but that psychoactive drugs help many people break out of the placental envelope, but whether they are benefited by this premature rupture is a moot question, and many of those in a position to know feel that such actions are attended with great dangers.
Concepts
direct percepts as much as percepts impinge on concepts. To
create a conception or intuition, certain principles must be assumed and
organized into a structural scheme which seems to point in the direction
of the conception to be created. By transcending ordinary reality, these
principles can be further elaborated, clarified, or even changed. These
principles must be compared and tested with principles already known in
hopes that a consensus or validation may be arrived at. The validation
may lead to a creative insight. In the case of Don Juan and other Indian
sorcerers, it could lead to a diagnosis of illness or a prescription for
healing. For others, it might lead to a painting, an invention, or a sculpture.
However, the role of structure and discipline while using psychedelics
cannot be overemphasized. Indeed, Castaneda (1968)
was taught by Don Juan that the psychedelic allies could be destructive
as well as beneficial.
Krippner (1972:226) declares:
This principle is implicit in much of Eastern philosophy (e.g., Satprem, 1964; Suzuki, 1964). Ben-Avi (1959:1819), while discussing Zen Buddhism, counsels that illumination and growth "must be rooted in the immediate, the concrete experience of the individual" because abstract formulations often encourage dualistic thinking and intellectualizations that retard one's development. Further, it is significant that most Zen masters and Yogis are extremely critical of psychedelic drugs, are mildly critical of hypnosis, and de-emphasize the role of dreams in fostering creativity. For these practitioners of meditative disciplines, who spend most of their adult life in altered conscious states, one's creativity emerges naturally as one's life develops. The creative person produces items of great beauty just as a flower creates a magnificent spectacle of color as it unfolds.(page 204)
For them, creativity is viewed as a process rather than a product.
Krippner
(1972:212) says:
Cohen (1964) summarized the research data on creativity and psychedelic drugs in the following manner: "Whether LSD does or does not increase creativity remains an open question. No systematic research is available to help in finding an answer. All that can be said at this time about the effect of LSD on the creative process is that a strong subjective feeling of creativeness accompanies many of the experiences." The findings regarding psychedelics are equivocal (Krippner, 1968), but it appears that in some cases that these drugs have helped certain artists, architects, and writers to explore nonordinary reality, to bring back their discoveries, and put them to use.The objections to the use of psychedelic drugs seem to be as follows:
1) illegal or adulterated drugs of questionable purity may haveTorda (1969) investigated character structure differences between 50 sixteen to twenty-nine-year old LSD users and fifty matched controls using the biological personality assessment, Wechsler-Bellevue, Rorschach, TAT, and figure drawing tests in conjunction with clinical assessment. Her results show that the LSD users had strong oral trends of pleasure seeking, low frustration tolerance, imagination, creativity, generosity, and optimism. Anal trends in LSD users included perfectionist, obsessive-compulsive, and self-scrutinizing
damaging effects;2) the danger of a "bad trip" or dissociated behavior leading to
physical harm or mental damage is possible. As de Ropp (1968) says:The normal course of development demands that man must learn to enter and live in the fourth room before he can safely ascend to the fifth. If he enters the fifth room unlawfully, either by the use of drugs or by any other means, he may suffer permanent damage as a result of the force of the impressions poured into his unprepared awareness.
3) The impairing of future developmental progress is a possibility.
4) "The Lotus Eaters Syndrome" may take effect (the experience will prove so pleasurable that it will distract the individual from efforts toward needed growth).
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tendencies. LSD users reached genital maturity but retained a hyperpunitive
superego. She concluded:
Compulsive needs for pleasure and outstanding achievements were coupled with undeveloped skills to provide need fulfillment and with the conviction of being entitled to need gratification exceeding their invested efforts.
Perhaps the fairest judgment on psychedelic drugs is that of Voltaire:
"Once a scientist, twice a pervert." It may well be that a very few experiences
with the drugs in the case of mature adults may at rather small risk give
them intimations of a life which religion has failed to provide, and may
therefore constitute a sort of map. This was obviously the conclusion for
William James in his famous taking of nitrous oxide described in Varieties
of Religious Experience (1902):
Our normal waking consciousness. .. is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the flimsiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different ... No account of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded.
Blofeld (1970:33) describes it as follows:
The possible use of drugs such as mescaline which produce psychedelic effects is an example ..... Mescaline does in many cases imbue the user with an absolute conviction of the existence of a spiritual goal of the kind postulated by mystics. Therefore, using it one or twice with proper preparation and under suitable conditions might benefit newcomers to the path; on the other hand, its continued use would be disastrous - bliss so easily attainable would be likely to reconcile them to life as it is, and induce them to be content with drug-induced experiences instead of actually treading the path.
Wilson (1971:139) puts it thus:
This explains the attraction of drugs - particularly psychedelics - for intelligent people. They have an intuition that if a peak experience could be summoned at will, or maintained for half an hour, it would be possible to learn to recreate it without drugs. There is a fallacy here. Most drugs work by reducing the efficiency of the nervous system, inducing unusual states of consciousness at the expense of the mind's power to concentrate and learn.(page 206)
Watts (1972:344) after "being reluctantly compelled to admit that LSD had brought me into an undeniably mystical state of consciousness" then shows his maturity level by concluding (1972:347), "My retrospective attitude to LSD is that when one has received the message, one hangs up the phone."
Osborn (1966:180-1) says:
It is claimed that these drugs have the effect of expanding the consciousness and in some instances producing a mystical experience. However, the effect differs from person to person. This alone should put us on our guard against their use.It might well be that under skilled guidance and after suitable preparation the drugs could free the mind from its sensory anchorage. What happens after this temporary detachment of consciousness from its focus in the brain would surely depend on the general character and spiritual quality of the individual taking the drug.
Our personal attitude is one of extreme caution regarding the use of psychedelic drugs in order to gain a mystical experience. We, therefore, while interested in the effect these drugs produce, as we are in all psychological processes, do not regard them as the open Sesame to the "kingdom of God." If in the normal way of living a glimpse of reality is vouchsafed to use, well and good, but enlightened living is fully conscious living and alert awareness of the sensory environment as an expression of Infinite Life in process of manifestation. This requires complete detachment, an attitude of steady love, and the acceptance of duties under all the difficult circumstances which it is our karma to endure. This is the ancient path of non-egoic functioning as taught by the Seers and Sages of all times.
To us it seems almost fantastic to envisage a race of people engaged in the pursuit of mystical experiences by means of drugs. This is to make the mystical experience an object of desire, whereas spiritual living is to transcient desire.
(White 1972:282) quotes Otto (1950) who, in turn, quotes G. Ray
Jordan as stating:
My own idea is that the general LSD quality may be much like what Rudolph Otto describes as the "numinous," provided that we remember that for Otto the numinous is demonic as well as divine, and may be present in less developed cases of the weird, the uncanny, the fascinatingly strange, as well as in the mystics' exalted communion or union with God.
Klavetter and Mogar (1967) tested and supported A. Maslow's
hypotheses that (1) LSD can trigger a peak experience, and (2) the effects
on psychological growth will be of therapeutic benefit and in the
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direction of self-actualization. 119 Ss received LSD in a controlled setting for a fourteen-month period and completed a questionnaire to investigate behavioral and attitude changes approximately nine months later. Results also support the findings of independent investigations involving patient evaluations of the LSD experience.
After a section reviewing the effect of psychedelic drugs on creativity Barber (1970b:54) states that the hypothesis has neither been confirmed or disconfirmed. There are some positive and some negative results, but more carefully controlled experiments need to be done.
Another
source supporting the fact that genuine experiences can occur under LSD
is that of Masters and Houston (1966:302) who have this to say:
In the psychedelic drug-state there also may occur major and minor forms of mysticism, these being roughly equivalent to Stace's descriptions of the extrovertive and introvertive varieties. The drug subject is also prone, however, to another experiential possibility of mystical awareness, one which is nothing more than an analogue of mystical experience differing from the religious analogues already described mainly in the degree of identification and the intensity with which the subject responds to persons, objects, and various drug-state phenomena. These mystical analogues we do not regard as authentic mystical or religious experiences. At best they are experiences of intense empathic communion often rendered more impressive still by such accompanying drug-state phenomena as ego loss and body dissolution. That these are profoundly moving and impressive experiences explains in part why it is that they are so often confused with authentic states of mystical awareness.
Wilson
(1971:573) has this to say about the drug:
All this would suggest, then, that serotonin is a chemical that is connected with concentration and with Faculty X. It also explains precisely why occult powers such as mediumship,(page 208)
telepathy, and ESP are in some ways the opposite of Faculty X. They are certainly related to the state of "receptivity" produced by mescaline or LSD; and Faculty X is related to the state of concentration that depends on serotonin. I do not write "produced by serotonin" because I believe that our serotonin production may depend on the amount of concentration we habitually engage in. John N. Bleibtreu writes in his biochemical study The Parable of the Beast , "So far ... all that we really know is that minute quantities of serotonin affect mental states, alter perceptions, and that new dimensions of conventional reality accompany changes of level of serotonin in the brain," and he adds that serotonin is crucial to rational thought. This would seem to support my guess that concentration is accompanied by a rise in the serotonin level in the brain and increased activity of the pineal gland, and that serotonin is the Faculty X chemical.Earlier, Wilson (1971:ii) described the importance of Faculty X which he declares is the key to the whole future of man (p. 62):
Man's consciousness is as powerful as a microscope; it can grasp and analyze experience; ... but microscopic vision is narrow vision. We need to develop another kind of consciousness (Faculty X) that is the equivalent of the telescope. This is Faculty X and the paradox is that we already possess it to a large degree, but are unconscious of possessing it.Another writer who supports the importance of serotonin is Edmunds (1968:26) who, speaking of pineal gland hormones, says:
One of the three isolated has been termed A.G.T. for short, and has a structure very closely related to harmaline, the active agent in caapi, a potion of jungle vine which Peruvian Indians take to induce hallucinations and delusions, and which is derived from serotonin, another of the three hormones isolated. This provides an interesting link with adrenochrome and adrenolution, which are end products of adrenaline metabolism on the body, which are also linked chemically to serotonin and A.G.T., and which are known to be powerful hallucinogenic agents.
The difference here appears to be that some psychoactive drugs permit
the expression of preconscious thoughts and experiences but leave them
apart from the conscious self, or even make it harder to relate the two,
(we call this dissociation). Others (like reserpine) facilitate the integration
of this psychic middle layer with the conscious mind, thus promoting maturation
and adaptation to reality, also to internal peace, since less energy goes
into regression and
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denial and more is consequently available for development and adjustment.
Maturation
and developmental thrust of escalation appear to be blocked when the conscious
ego cannot scan the whole scope of the self (in line with van Rhijn's hypothesis).
Some psychoactive drugs seem to lower only the barriers of inhibition,
and relax the psyche's censor, resulting in benign and passive pleasure
and in the relaxation of tension. Other methods in various degrees attempt
either to make the barriers clear and recognizable, or make the denied
verbal content available to the conscious. In the development of theory,
necessary experimentation has had to focus on specific means and techniques,
and as it piles up "one can't see the forest for the trees." The function
of a theoretical framework such as this one is to put all the trees into
somewhat of a meaningful relationship with each other.*
6.5 ALPHA WAVE BIOFEEDBACK
We now come to a technique which, admittedly, has little potential harm, and may have considerable potential good. Basically, alpha wave biofeedback promises to help the conscious mind gain control of a meditative state in which one generates alpha waves (brain waves between about eight and thirteen hertz (cycles per second). These waves are associated with meditative states found in yogis and Zazen masters; (this does not prove that meditative states are caused by alpha waves, which may be the effect). The author admits to misgivings before placing alpha wave biofeedback technique in the present category. It was finally done because, at best, biofeedback represents a purely mechanical technique. Of the four objections to psychedelic drugs, only the last one, pursuit of pleasure, has any force in this instance. Basically, therefore, biofeedback may be regarded at worst as a harmless diversion, with many possible constructive effects.
The Brain, Its Electrical Activity, Alpha Waves,and Biofeedback **
In 1874
Richard Caton discovered the first relatively simple form of electroencephalogram
and with it he monitored the electrical activity generated in the brain.
He conducted experiments with monkeys and rabbits where a galvanometer
and electrodes were placed on the surface of the animal's brain. His recordings
included variation of the current when aroused from such special conditions
as sleep or
**This section is due to graduate student Nancy Donaldson. For update on this subject, consult Barber and others (1970), Stoyva and others (1971). These Aldine Annuals come out each year.
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exposure to light. Berger made the first recordings of the human brain in 1924 and published his results in 1929. Berger is generally credited with establishing much of the foundation for continued use of the electroencephalogram, including the use of that name to describe the work. (Brazier: 1968).
In most individuals, one of the brain's hemispheres is usually dominant over the other. Each of the four main lobes of each hemisphere has individual functions and activities. Brainwaves, like atoms, can be defined but are yet still a matter of models, theories, and speculations. Brainwaves seem to be generated by differences in potential between individual cells or cell groups. They seem to occur in random sequence, alternating in size and rapidity of fluctuations. Nonsynchronous activity between cells or groups tends to register on the EEG as fast patterns of low amplitude. As the activity of neighboring cells becomes synchronous, the amplitude rises and frequency drops. Accordingly then, lower frequency of brain waves indicates that the electrical impulses coincide.
There is wide agreement in the research literature that the alpha rhythm represents a kind of synchrony in the firing of neurons in the cerebral cortex. Eleanor Criswell (1969) speculates that: "If we reduce cortical activity and still the mind, we are allowing more primitive brain structures to have more free play ... more unification. "
Green,
et al (1971a) say:
The immediate value of feedback instrumentation is that it gives the subject an immediate indication of his progress in learning to control a given physiological variable ... This makes it possible to detect and promote through training voluntary changes in physiological variables that are particularly related to and indicative of changes in states of attention, consciousness and awareness - the beta, alpha, and theta brain rhythms.(page 211)The beta rhythm (13-26 hz) is associated with what we might call active thinking, or active attention - attention focused on the outside world or on solving concrete problems; the alpha rhythm (8-13 hz) is associated with a more internally focused state; the mind is alert but not focused on external processes nor engaged in organized logical thinking; the theta rhythm (4-8 hz) is usually associated with unconscious or nearly unconscious states; it appears as consciousness slips toward unawareness or drowsiness, and is often accompanied by hypnagogic or dream-like images. A fourth frequency band the delta rhythm (0-4 hz) is primarily associated with deep sleep.
In actuality there is no such thing as training in brain-wave control; there is training only in the elicitation of certain
subjective states which are accompanied by oscillating voltages in the central nervous system detected on the subject's scalp.
Biofeedback
training is a term that is almost becoming a household word. According
to Peper and Mulholland (1970:10), "one of the requirements for learning
is knowledge of results. We need feedback that informs us 1) when we have
made a response; 2) whether or not the response is correct, i.e., 'obtains
a goal'." Biofeedback training seems to offer the potential for much psychophysiological
investigation. Stoyva and Kamiya (1968) say that alpha training makes joint
use of operant conditioning, verbal report, and physiological measures.
Hoover (1971) points out that in discussing biofeedback training, semantics
become a problem in the use of the terms "controlling" one's brain waves.
In biofeedback training a person is not learning to directly control the
neuronal electrical activity in the cerebral cortex. Rather he is learning
to control the subjective or mental events that are indicated by the presence
of alpha or theta. In using the word "control" then, it should be thought
of in this way rather than the usual meaning of the term.
Through a combination of experimental psychology, computer technology, and electrophysiology, it has now become possible to increase knowledge of the brain's functions and consciousness and it seems that it may be possible to perceive and control some of the brain functions. We surely now have no doubt that the brain forms the sole connecting link between body and mind. The primary subject of concern is the possibility of learning to be aware of the presence of one type of brain wave, the alpha type, and the possible psychological and physiological benefits that may occur from such learning and control.
Kamiya has been investigating the alpha wave and its potential for many years. He has found that the alpha wave is the most prominent rhythm in the whole realm of brain activity and that the waves tend to come in bursts of a few waves to many hundred. In 1958, he compared EEG's made during waking and sleeping. In these comparisons, he became fascinated with the alpha waves that came and went in the waking EEG's and wondered if subjects could be taught awareness of this internal state. He summarizes his work (Stoyva and Kamiya 1968:201):
(page 212)
The basic working assumptions in the Kamiya alpha control studies and in similar experiments is this. If a measurable physiological event (s) is associated with a discriminable mental event (s), then it will be possible to reinforce in the presence of the physiological event, and in so doing: a) enable S to discriminate better whether the physiological event and the associated mental event are present, b) perhaps, also, enable S to
acquire some degree of control over the physiological event and the associated mental event.
To
determine if this type of learning was possible, Kamiya placed a subject
in a darkened room with his eyes closed. His EEG was monitored continuously.
He was told that a bell would ring from time to time, sometimes when he
was in state A (alpha) and sometimes when in state B (non-alpha). The subject
was to guess which state he was in and then he was told whether he was
right or wrong. The first day he was right about fifty percent of the time,
no better than chance The second day he was sixty-five percent right, the
third day eightyfive percent right and the fourth day, right on every trial,
four hundred times in a row. Kamiya reported these results and added (1968:
58), "But, the discrimination between the two states is subtle, so subtle
that on the 401st trial, the subject deliberately guessed wrong to see
if we had been tricking him." The bell was then discontinued to see if
there was a connection between the physiological states of alpha and non-alpha
and the threshold of hearing. The subject continued to discriminate between
A and B.
Kamiya repeated his tests with eleven others; eight reached a significant proportion of correct guesses within seven sessions of about one hour each. None of these reached the level of the first subject. The results suggested a conditioned introspective response had been established. Subjects were asked to describe the difference between the two states. They all (Kamiya 1968:58) "described various kinds of visual imagery or 'seeing with the mind's eye' as occurring in the non-alpha state. The alpha state commonly was reported as 'not thinking', 'letting the mind wander,' or 'feeling the heart beat."' Discrimination of alpha dropped drastically when the trained subjects were asked to recite the alphabet backwards.
Following the training, the subjects who had learned to discern the two states, were able to enter and sustain either state upon command. Whatever learning processes had occurred were psychologically identifiable. Verbal reports from subjects in these experiments reveal that the high alpha state is accompanied by very pleasant feelings. They also report alpha frequency seems to be related to a general relaxation of the mind. Whatever satisfaction comes from the state is not easily describable to most participants in the experiments. Kamiya has also made some generalizations about those people who seem most able to learn how to produce and control their alpha waves. People who have had interest and some experience in some type of "meditation" seem to learn more readily. People who use words like "images, dreams, wants, and feelings" seem to learn alpha control more readily. And people who have participated in sensitivity groups and who are good at establishing close interpersonal relationships seem to be effective at learning alpha control.
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Barbara Brown (1970b) has also experimented with alpha wave control and its implications in psychophysiology. In one study she attempted to identify aspects of consciousness as moods and feeling states. The results showed that effective enhancement of alpha activity was more regularly associated with pleasant thoughts and feelings. The uniqueness of the experiment lay in the fact that there was no external stimuli or reinforcement for the subject-instrument feedback circuit. There was no stimulus or response within the feedback circuit that could be isolated as such.
The characteristics and attributes of this phenomenon classify it as an awareness or cognitive function. Once learning has occurred the ability to produce alpha does not seem to be decreased even with increased amounts of time between practice sessions. When the relationship between a feeling state-biologic activity-light signal is established, then the external portion of the circuit becomes unnecessary. The entire process becomes internalized, and voluntary control can then be used exclusively.
Kamiya also reported that many subjects described themselves as being tranquil, calm and alert when in the alpha state. At least half of his subjects reported that the alpha state is very pleasant. Many subjects who attain a high alpha level desire to repeat the experiments and therefore, subjects usually participate as volunteers rather than as paid subjects. Kamiya also found in monitoring rest periods between trials, the subjects tended to maintain an increased alpha level even when they were not directed to do so. This perhaps indicated that there are pleasant feelings associated with the alpha state.
It is possible that both the euphoria and the alpha waves are mere epiphenomena indicating that the subject is in an altered state of consciousness which is particularly conducive to terminal access to the collective computer, and hence to telepathy, healing, precognition, and the rest of the psychic powers. Watson (1973:257) suspects that the connection between telepathy and the alpha rhythm is crucial, and cites the Russian experiments of Popov which indicated that each time telepathy occurred, alpha rhythms were found. He concludes (1973: 256) "It seems certain that both telepathy and psychokinesis occur only under certain psychological conditions and that these are the ones marked by the production of brain waves of a particular frequency!" The theta rhythm seems to be the physiological correlate of psychokenesis, and the alpha rhythm does the same for telepathy.
In concluding the proper place of alpha wave biofeedback in the continuum of this chapter, one is struck by the fact that the symptoms of the state are much more cognitive than otherwise, and that it tends to resemble more that of meditation than it does that of dissociation. All evidence of the earlier suggestibility of the trance state has been lost, except the "passivity", and far from there being an excursion of
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the ego,
it is obviously present, and functioning. In these characteristics the
alpha state can hardly be said to represent a type of developmental forcing,
and perhaps the worst that can be said of it is that it is a technique
in search of a rationale. Indeed, the evidence from research in this section
is so persuasive that it suggests that the presence of alpha might be regarded
as the boundary marker between the dissociative trance of developmental
forcing, and the more positive states of creativity and psychedelia.
6.6 RELIGIOUS, PENTECOSTAL, AND GROUP PEAK EXPERIENCES
Last, and completely blameless as techniques, are group practices as religious ritual, pentecostal experiences, group encounter, peak experiences, and other methods of artificial acceleration into the psychedelic state. These have been placed as an end anchor in this chapter not because there is any serious loss of control on the part of the participant (and should there be, the group is helpful), but because there is an element of forcing in the artificial acceleration of some participants into the psychedelic state. When this transcendence is escalatory from the preceding sixth stage, it is of course, conscious and beneficial. When this process resembles a jump from the fifth or lower stage to sudden psychedelia, there may be more serious dissociated behavior. And rarely, in the case of a latent schizophrenic mistakenly admitted to such groups, the premature breaking of the envelope may produce a schizophrenic outbreak. It should be remembered that these are adult games.
We mention this area, but do not discuss it, because it has been covered so well and so thoroughly in the general psychological literature by Rogers (1965), Maslow (1954), and many others including the very extensive efforts at Esalen in Big Sur, California. There seems to be no question that for those who are group-minded, the sensory awareness techniques are not only therapeutic, but lead to a high mental health and psychedelic activity. Many techniques, such as Gestalt Therapy, Rolfing, Reality Therapy, and others all seem capable of creating such effects. An account of these activities is given by Gustaitis (1969).
6.7 CRITIQUE
In this chapter we have analyzed the concept of developmental forcing, in which experience of a higher stage is forced on an individual previously unable to assimilate it. As a result the ego, at least temporarily, loses all or some degree of control; mechanical,
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not cerebral means, are employed, and the affect is often untoward or poor. Because the degree of developmental forcing differs with individuals, there is a distinct hierarchy going from the morass of schizophrenia (which is interpreted as spontaneous developmental forcing), to the far more neutral aspects of biofeedback.
In such a taxonomy, relationships are indicated by arranging the experiences in a continuum along a parameter of increasing control by the ego. To do so has forced the display of value judgments (or prejudices, depending on the reader's bias), and if these have offended anyone, suitable apologies are extended. This is a new and difficult area being opened up, and it is probable that as the first and not the last word on the subject, this early account is incomplete and imperfect
The writer has grave doubts that artificial means to secure self-actualization do not cause more trouble than they cure. It is all well to feel that one is in the throes of the greatest experience in the world, but two ounces of alcohol can sometimes accomplish the same trick. The question is: "What happens after the experience is over?" Is the cognitive part of the mind really changed so that the interactions of everyday life have become transformed?
One of the best psychological reasons which can be given against continued drug use is that the use of drugs in young people for psychedelic reasons is developmentally premature, and risks grave consequences. Weil (1972) states: "We are born with a drive to experience episodes of altered consciousness," and that until we develop better alternative methods (which he advocates) drugs will continue to offer a quick avenue toward this end. "Since we cannot get rid of drugs by passing laws against them, we must accept them for what they are - a temporary means to a higher consciousness that can be better achieved in other ways."
Meditation Compared with Developmental Forcing
There is one aspect of meditation which involves the possibility of developmental forcing, and since it also involves the Periodic Developmental Stage theory, we had best examine it. This has to do with the consequences of a young person below the sixth stage becoming involved in meditation. According to the developmental theory, strictly speaking this is developmental forcing since it would involve an escalation of more than one degree. Unfortunately, there are no research data available at present on this subject.
We hazard the following guess:
The damage due to "developmental forcing" under these circumstances will be minimal; the episode will be felt as a peak-experience, an incongruous psychic experience, an experience unassimilated into
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the psyche,
depending upon the relative level and dysplasia of the individual involved.
1) A person in 6-6, 6-5 will have a peak experience.2) A person in 5-5 may have a peak experience, but it will have "jolt" and he will more probably have an incongruous psychic experience.
3) A person in 5-4 or 4-4 may have an incongruous psychic experience, but it is more probable that it will be unassimilated in accordance with Van Rhijn's hypotheses (Chapter I).
This
supposition leads naturally to the question of psychic or psychedelic training
for children, and to accounts of psychic experiences reported by them.
Looking at the training aspect first, we sought an interview with an adolescent devotee of Nicheren Shoshu Academy, a Japan-based Buddhist organization which prescribes chanting the sutras for two hours per day, morning and night. After about three years of faithful chanting, she reports that chanting makes you "more confident and relaxed, gives you energy, makes you happier and more responsible." The frequent group activities, plus the individual chanting, seem to fill up her social life and she does not date. Both the girl and her younger brother have become models of adolescent behavior since taking up the training, and even their school grades seem to have improved. One aspect of their behavior noticeable to neighbors is that they are happier, and less moody. While there is no evidence here of psychic openings, there is evidence of progress in mental health, and of the on-schedule accomplishment of adolescent developmental tasks. The practice also appears to make easier the traditional friction involved in the breakaway from parents during this period.
We have discussed the dangers of developmental forcing at length, and focused upon its central drawback which is loss of control of the cognitive will. But it must be admitted that there is a somewhat similar type of reaction which takes place when in the ideal condition there is a symbiosis between the conscious and preconscious parts of the psyche. Often the conscious mind accedes to some whim intuitively generated from the preconscious which later proves to have been exactly the right thing to have done. But this is more like the influence that a wise and loving wife has over a strong and forceful husband. It is not an abject surrender of sovereignty to another power, but a much more subtle blending which utilizes the best aspects of both. Such an individual is at peace with all aspects of his being, and they in turn, all cooperate to protect and maintain his happiness and well being.
Precisely this kind of situation is seen with those inspired with genius. They seem to be possessed by the better part of themselves. Socrates speaks of this kind of possession by his "daemon,"
(page 217)
and Myers (1961:76) puts it: "The differentia of genius lies in an increased control over subliminal mentation."
Myers (1961:82) sees close relationship between a genius and psychic powers. He says (ibid)"The man of genius is what he is by virtue of possessing a readier communication than most men possess between his supraliminal and subliminal self."
Such "positive"
possession does not, of course, involve the loss of control of the ego
so much as its transcendence. The function of the eight stages (see
Table II) is evidently to nurture the ego in the world of experience
through an acme of self-concept until it is strong enough voluntarily and
gradually to diffuse and be transcended in ultimate reality. What we have
called "possession" in the earlier parts of this chapter is then seen as
an abortive mimicry of this grand syndrome in which the ego is given away
before it is ever formed. Since the transcendence of the ego in self-actualization
is the final stage in this great drama of life, we have reserved a final
chapter for its consideration.
Author's Note: Since writing the previous chapter, it has become obvious that the material therein deserves further attention. In particular, it appears that the experiences may be divided into three groups, in which dissociation and trance form the prototaxic component, myth and art the parataxic component, and the cognitive processes such as meditation form the syntaxic component. To discuss this subject fully, the author projects a new book, Trance, Art, and Creativity.