02.12.06

Experiment with altered forms of Consciousness

Posted in Suggestions at 7:19 pm by Ode to Joy

There are few things as exciting as changing the nature of your physical & mental relationship to the world.  Last summer I read a book called Geomancy which looked at common threads in the design and implementation of sacred spaces in different world systems and religions.  Common to most of them was some form of altered consciousness, either created by having a user climb a hill, or sit for a long period of time in a space with little light (or tons of colored light - stained glass cathedrals for example), or somesuch similar technique. 

This book resonated with me as I’ve always been a big believer in pushing yourself to physical and mental limits for purely pleasurable purposes.  Once in a while for example, I like to either go without sleep or food for a long period of time.  If you go two days without sleep for example, and then sleep next to an alarm that is going off every 15 minutes, you’ll find yourself dropping back into REM sleep over and over again, and can have a full day of vivid dreams.  If you go without food, you’ll find your mind becomes sharper and you’ll become more imaginative as well.  Vacations can often be boring I believe because people over satisfy themselves, eating and sleeping too much.  

Physical exercise can alter the conciousness as well.  Many people have talked about the joys of the natural high they experience.  I would suggest trying different types of exertion though to see what they do to you.  For example, really work out your legs a lot by going for a really long hike for example.  Then another time, really work your arms and not your legs.  See what it does to the way you think and feel.

Food can be a great drug as well.  Try eating a ton of sugar for example, or go without sugar for a long period of time.  The second week of the atkins diet for example can be an amazing experience mentally as you all of a sudden have tons of even energy without the highs and lows the day usually brings.

As my brother once pointed out, one of the most dynamic ways to alter your consciousness is to have an encounter with someone else.  Interacting with someone you’ve never met is a complex and engaging process which requires you to rethink who you are and what your boundaries should be.  Old friends are great, but after a while they won’t challenge you like a new person in your life will.

If you don’t have living, breathing people to interact with, don’t forget the communities available in books or online.  Once in a while, instead of reading a mystery novel, read a really difficult book put together by someone really trying to piece together the universe.  Check out The Book of Disquiet by Pessoa for example, or the Codex Seraphinianus by Luigi Serafini, an encyclopedia of an imaginary world written in an imaginary language.  The challenges school gives you as a child can still be exciting when you’re older. 

Time speeds up  I believe as you grow older precisely because you get the resources to prevent your conciousness from being altered in these simple ways.  If things go well, you have a group of friends, enough food to eat, time to sleep, and can smooth out the edges of an otherwise rough physical existence.  As you simplify your environment and your world though, your consciousness fades into the background, and your mind is less challenged.  Keep your brain alive!  Change your world up today!

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