Bulletpoint Consciousness - An Introduction (ch 20 to 22)

How can we distinguish between reality and imagination? CH.20

    In daily life we ​​often distinguish between the outside world and what goes on in our heads. We do this without knowing that we use a skill for this. This skill is called 'reality monitoring' or 'reality discrimination'.

    A hallucination is an experience that: (1) occurs in the absence of a stimulus,
    (2) has a great influence on the real perception, and (3) can not be controlled voluntarily. Although hallucinations are often aligned with pathology, there are several reasons to reject this. Firstly, it is not clear how hallucinations can be distinguished from other experiences and secondly, hallucinations are common in the population. Third, there are cultural differences in attitudes to hallucinations. In many cultures, hallucinations are valued because it could be closer to ghosts or gods

    Some hallucinations occur spontaneously and others are caused by drugs, illness, hunger, lack of sleep or the use of rituals.

    We often have hallucinations just when we almost fall asleep. Maury called these hallucinations 'hypnagogic images' or 'hypnagogic hallucinations'. Consciousness during sleep paralysis occurs when normal paralysis during REM sleep begins too late, the person just falls asleep or when paralysis takes too long when someone is awakening.

What does the paranormal all encompass? CH.21

    Paranormal experiences are common and many people believe in it. Moreover, paranormal experiences have many implications for science. Paranormal experiences have been described for several centuries, especially during the nineteenth century spiritualism was very popular.

    Rhine and Rhine tried with the term 'extrasensory perception', ESP, to find evidence against materialism and behaviorism. ESP covered three types of communication that require no senses, namely (1) telepathy (where information is passed on from one person to another), (2) 'clairvoyance' (here comes information from objects or events that are remote) and (3) 'precognition' (information coming from the future). Rhine and Rhine used the term 'psi' when they talked about paranormal activities.

    Psychokinesis (PK) stands for the ability to influence objects or events without touching them or using a different force. Nowadays PK's research is mainly about micro-PK, the so-called effect of the human mind on microscopic or mechanical systems. The parapsychologists who are convinced of the existence of PK make explicit claims that the consciousness is involved.

    Paranormal activity probably does not exist. Despite the fact that a lot of research has been done, we still can not give certain information about this subject.

Which drugs affect consciousness and how? CH.22

    The 'other form of consciousness' formulated by James is now called 'changed states of consciousness', abbreviated as ASCs. However, there are many problems with the exact definition of ASCs. This makes it difficult to state the state of consciousness (SoC).

    Farthing states that we need to look at fourteen points if we want to know what exactly changes when someone experiences an ASC. The three most important factors are (1) attention, (2) memory and (3) alertness. Thinking about the above three terms (attention, memory and alertness) means that we can imagine a kind of three-dimensional space in which all possible ASCs are positioned. Tart described a simple space with two dimensions: irrationality and the ability to hallucinate. A second two-dimensional space was described by Laureys. His dimensions are completely different from the dimensions described by Tart, namely: the level of arousal and the awareness of the environment and the self.

    Psychoactive drugs affect mental functioning or consciousness. These drugs can be classified into different categories, for example stimulants, antidepressants, cannabis and psychedelics.