It is not uncommon for religious or spiritual practices to involved altered states of consciousness. These may be induced by intense concentration, chanting, clapping, drumming, prolonged rhythmic movement, hyperventilation, or psychotropic substances. The psychotropic substances may include such things as peyote (used to induce visions in Native American Church services), LSD, jimsonweed, and marijuana.
In one rather interesting experiment involving LSD and religion involved twenty divinity students. During a traditional Good Friday service, half of the students were given a placebo and half were given LSD. Of the ten students who took the LSD, eight reported that they experienced powerful mystical experiences.
Researchers have identified three basic stages of altered states of consciousness. During Stage 1, people report seeing patterns such as grids, sets of parallel lines, bright dots, thin, meandering lines, and zigzag lines. Many archaeologists have noted that these patterns seem to have inspired the prehistoric art found at ancient religious sites such as Newgrange in Ireland, the painted Paleolithic caves in Europe, and many Native American rock art sites. Archaeologists Geraldine Stout and Matthew Stout, in their book Newgrange, write:
“Some suggest that the people who decorated the passage tomb at Newgrange drew on the imagery of ritualized altered states of consciousness.”
Geraldine Stout and Matthew Stout also report:
“One experiment with hallucinogens produced a pen-and-ink drawing that combined spirals and lozenges uncannily similar to those on the entrance stone.”
In Stage 2, the brain interprets these patterns as culturally appropriate emotional or religious manifestations. In his book
The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art, David Lewis-Williams writes:
“The spectrum of consciousness is ‘wired’ but its content is mostly cultural.”
David Lewis-Williams also writes:
“It is important to remember that these experiences are the result of the way in which the human brain and nervous system are neurologically constructed and the ways in which they operate electro-chemically in altered states of consciousness. To this extent, the experiences are universal. The precise ways in which they are rationalized are culturally situated and hence differ in some ways from society to society.”
As individuals pass from Stage 2 into Stage 3, they often report that they pass through tunnel or vortex. A bright light is at the end of the tunnel or vortex. There may also be images of people, animals, and strange monsters as well as a sensation of flying.
Stage 3 is sometimes described as a world of ever-changing hallucinations. The images and sensations are more intense than those experienced in dreaming. In some cultures, people feel themselves changing into animals.
This is not an altered state of consciousness, a hallucination, or a dream: it is an open thread located at the intersection of Religion and Politics. Have you ever experienced an altered state of consciousness?