Patrick McNamara - What Are Altered States of Consciousness?

Altered states of consciousness are non-normal states of mental awareness or experiences. These include dreams, hallucinations, induced mental alterations such as by meditation, alcohol, drugs or disease. What can altered states of consciousness tell us about the essence of consciousness itself?



Patrick McNamara is Director of the Evolutionary Neurobehavior Laboratory in the Department of Neurology at the BU School of Medicine and the VA New England HealthCare System.


Closer to Truth presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.

[theotormon]

Title was a bit bait-and-switch but the interview was still extremely interesting.

[pedrotenoriomendes]

This was the theme of my final work in the graduation in psychology. A very important theme, but so underestimated, and suffers a lot of preconceptions too.

[twentytwenty]

My regulatory and inhibitory capacity part of my brain made myself altered in a way that made me addicted to this show and want limit my small self to it.

[mehdibaghbadran]

Our scenes, likes, pain, happiness, love, fates, kindness, blindness, ears, they’ve, positive side, or negative sides, this phenomena, will forced us to understand, how different energies will effected inside of us !

[jeremyduguay]

He ask “how does that work“ and I know he doesn’t know but he some how has a clever answer. Amazing! I’m blown away.

[realcygnus]

It ALL falls apart under materialism when for example someone with as little as literally only 5 or 10% of a brain has a normal or even above avg IQ. Its MUCH more bizzare than finding perhaps only a radiator & battery under the hood of a well running car. But we have a word for it which makes us feel like we understand it.

[mfast]

The illusion is just a separation of self and others.

[dhoyt]

Bob, eat mushrooms like our ancestors and finally get closer to truth. Debating this question between two people who have not had altered states is insane.

[samhangster]

The word Altered implies that there is a correct way to experience reality. I prefer Stanislav Grof’s wording of Non-Ordinary states of Consciousness, and I think this should be standardized.

[Iamthepossum]

Hi, this video is not on altered states of consciousness, but is the same footage uploaded for the “What is the self”
Video clip you created. Do you have his comments on altered states? Many thanks for your work ❤

[chyfields]

The persistent illusion of the self (00:30) can be so compellingly illusionary whilst sleeping as to cause wet dreams.

[mbiriviri]

“Fibers in that center turn on other centers—it’s as simple as that” You forgot to mention we have no idea how those connections actually manifest as behavior, memory, etc. —-that’s how not simple it is. Robert should challenge his experts more...
And you can’t ask a psychologist if self is an illusion - he’s in the self business! He’d be the last person to
also isn’t this mid-titled?

[GearsinMotionGraphics]

The "SELF"....is a battle between Life. The high's in a Lowe's of trying to find a middle ground of ONE.

[AgarioSplitrunner]

An altered state of consciousness (ASC), also called altered state of mind or mind alteration, is any condition which is significantly different from a normal waking state. By 1892, the expression was in use in relation to hypnosis, though there is an ongoing debate as to whether hypnosis is to be identified as an ASC according to its modern definition. The next retrievable instance, by Dr Max Mailhouse from his 1904 presentation to conference, however, is unequivocally identified as such, as it was in relation to epilepsy, and is still used today. In academia, the expression was used as early as 1966 by Arnold M. Ludwig and brought into common usage from 1969 by Charles Tart. It describes induced changes in one's mental state, almost always temporary. A synonymous phrase is "altered state of awareness"

[catherinemoore]

Excellent argument from the interviewee.

[IgnatiusEPJ]

This would be consonant, I think, with Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalytic theory. Reality principal, secondary process, symbolic order, death drive - same thing. Where this is damaged, you get an increased cathexion of the primary process, the pleasure principle, the imaginary order, Eros.

[Bill..N]

The notion of a discreet self (Or soul) that exists independently of the brain and its sensory inputs, is an unsupportable and baseless belief.. NONETHELESS, it's importance should not be underestimated.. Such faith based beliefs have played a critical role in the survival of our species..One opinion..

[mediocrates]

I go with "illusion if personal identity" for a couple of reasons: illusion is not delusion, it's real but inaccurate and can be made more accurate by understanding how mechanisms of perception change fact into feeling. Personal identity is not self: i'm seeing a driving function/transfer function dynamic between the brainstem+cerebellum and cortex where the driving function forms a parallel memory address system; different driving functions call up different memory sets, making a different illusion of identity. A bit of semantic finery here; a subtle distinction between self and personal identity.

[jorgeb.esteban]

"Inmediate desires that get you in trouble"....hmmm...I think that's a longer discussion as suppose to the final statement of the conversation.

[lureup]

But who or what is the self that can observe all of these I wish he would have asked, where it resides biologically 🤔