Could you describe a non-altered state of mind and how much time the average person spends in it? Between daydreaming, highway hypnosis, meditation, eight hours of sleep a night to include hypnagogic and dream states, coffee, cigarettes, beer ... and in some cases various intentionally sought states of mind (that may or may not be formally recognized by the individual and might be labelled "disassociative" by those who don't know any better, also longing, grieving, dreaming, elation, ecstacy, anxiety, depression ... etc etc
While it doesn't explain those cases in which external stimuli have been documented, it's possible that both exogenous and endogenous chemicals and the altered subjective states/experiences which they catalyze in humans may be an evolutionarily adaptive mechanism that brings novel information/knowledge into human culture. In other words, this noted capacity for humans to experience self-initiated and spontaneous altered states may be an adaptive mechanism.
How would you prove (or disprove) this?
Or, for those who disdain reductive explanations, it may be a mechanism that was bestowed upon humans by some Other(s) for the same purpose: to advance the species/culture.
How would you disprove (or prove) this?
“If the only way we can access the unconscious mind is via dreams and free association, we aren’t going to get anywhere,” he said. “Surely there must be something else.”
Individual experience may vary ...
The human brain is perhaps the most complex system there is, and the emergence of a conscious self is its highest achievement."
I think it's just the start. A place to rest that most people end up staying too long in.
