Altered states of consciousness (ASC) as an aspect of human life (some reflections based on research in psychological anthropology)

A. A. Belik

Doctor of Historical Sciences, researcher at the Miklouho-Maclay Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences

Andrey Alexandrovich Belik (1955–2014) was an outstanding scientist and a leading expert in the field of psychological anthropology, the history of cultural and social anthropology, anthropology of religion, Doctor of Historical Sciences, professor at the Department of Ethnopsychology and Psychological Problems of Multicultural Education at Moscow City University of Psychology and Education, leading researcher at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, professor at the Center for Social and Cultural Anthropology at Russian State University for the Humanities. For several years (2010–2014), he led the section of the Altstates.Net project dedicated to the cultural anthropology of ASC, preparing a number of materials on this topic.

Belik, A. A. Altered states of consciousness (ASC) as an aspect of human life (some reflections based on research in psychological anthropology). — Altstates.Net, 2011.

Altered states of consciousness (ASC) as an aspect of human life (some reflections based on research in psychological anthropology)

A. A. Belik

Abstract

This article is based on research conducted mainly by psychological anthropologists in the United States and Canada and is devoted to the role and functions of altered states of consciousness (ASC) in modern and traditional societies and in a specific type of human activity (cultural or social). Of great importance in this article is the reference to the history of the emergence of the analysis of ASC as a scientific problem in the philosophy of Kant and Hegel. Referring to the origins of the analysis of ASC makes it possible to consider a complex of issues related to ecstatic states in the context of the interaction between the rational and the sensual as the most important aspects of human activity.

The author attaches great importance in the study of ASC to the works of American anthropologists — first and foremost, E. Burgignon, who identifies the interaction between the physical basis and the content of the mental state as the most important aspect of the study of ECs, which allows her to reformulate the problem of the soul and body (mind and biology) into a consideration of man as a holistic “psychobiological system in a cultural environment.”

In the process of considering ASC, the author pays great attention to “weak,” “relatively mild” ecstatic states of an affective nature, such as Maslow's “peak experiences,” and, based on Maslow's statement, proposes to identify a minimal ASC, a kind of “quantum” of ecstasy. At the same time, the article asserts that ASC is an integral quality of human activity and demonstrates the functional purpose of this phenomenon in personal activity.

Anthropological studies have demonstrated a close connection between the phenomenon of attachment, ASC, and biochemical transformations in the human body, and have revealed the mechanism of empathy for images of people created by humans in art. At the same time, anthropologists have proven the thesis of a similar response to physical, cultural, and personal reality by the individual. In this regard, much attention is paid to the possibility of using ASC to regulate organic processes and achieve psychobiological synchrony between biological and mental processes in humans.

The author considers AC as the core of a person's sensory-emotional relationship with the world and suggests that further research on this issue would be productive both for the theoretical construction of a model of an active person and for a number of practical applications in the field of disease prevention and various pathological phenomena in modern society.

[AI Translation]

Full version of the article is available at the Russian version of Altstates.Net.