Just try to focus on 10 consecutive breaths without interruption and you will realize how hard it actually is. The easiest way is to concentrate on your breathing and when you get lost in thought you just gently return to your breath without judging yourself.Īlthough I say “the easiest way” it’s not easy. Often, we just get lost in thought and don’t even realize we are lost in thought. However, many of us have difficulties meditating in the beginning. Meditation is one of the best-known ways to induce a non-ordinary state of consciousness. Therefore, subjectively, any experience may or may not lead to an altered state of mind. However, the individual, more than anything else, determines when a state of mind is altered, or non-ordinary. There is a lot of debate about what falls under the category altered state of consciousness and the term itself.

Pharmacological (psychoactive substances).

Psychological (mediation, music, hypnosis).

Physical and physiological (fasting, sex, dancing).

Spontaneous (daydreaming, near-death experience).

In his book, Dieter Vaitl, for example, suggests a classification into five categories: What is an Altered State of Consciousness?Īlthough there are a variety of different definitions, an altered state of consciousness, also called a non-ordinary state of consciousness, can certainly be defined as a conscious experience that is significantly different from ordinary waking consciousness.Īltered states of consciousness can be induced through various sources.

Dreaming / Lucid Dreaming / Daydreamingĭrugs have been used for altered states of consciousness for as long as humans existed.īut we have also been using other means to change our state of mind, apart from ingesting psychoactive substances.

What is an Altered State of Consciousness?.

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