Altered States of Consciousness: There’s Nothing Supernatural About It | Jamie Wheal | Big Think

Altered States of Consciousness: There’s Nothing Supernatural About It | Jamie Wheal

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Altered states of consciousness are documented across cultures, from shamans to Silicon Valley coders. As different as these experiences seem, there are four neurological features they all have in common.Transcendent experiences that were once attributed to gods, angels, muses, or even possession, are now being demystified by neuroscience. Jamie Wheal, Director of Programs at the Flow Genome Project, explains that each culture has unique rituals and narratives when it comes to non-ordinary experiences of consciousness or ‘altered states’, whether that’s mediation, flow state, psychedelic experiences, or others. A farmer in India, a peasant in Mexico, and a coder in Silicon Valley will all have vastly different ways of approaching altered states, and will give vastly different descriptions once they come out the other side – perhaps they saw a vision of Ganesh the elephant God, received a message from the Virgin of Guadalupe, or produced a brilliant line of code while in a Matrix-like binary blur. However, those experiences are more alike than we think. Jamie Wheal and Steven Kotler devised a functional framework so they could compare non-ordinary experiences across cultures. Here, Wheal explains that they identified four common elements of altered states of consciousness, which they coined as STER: selflessness, timelessness, effortlessness and richness. Jamie Wheal and Steven Kotler's book is Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, the Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work.

Jamie Wheal and Steven Kotler's book is Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, the Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work.
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TRANSCRIPT:

Jamie Wheal: So when you're considering non-ordinary or altered states one of the first questions is what do they feel like? What's actually going on in those places and spaces? And one of the challenges in coming up with a good and consistent answer, not just for a specific state like meditation or a flow state or a psychedelic the state, is what qualities do they all share? Because each of those communities of practice over decades, centuries and even the millennia have accumulated their own storytelling or content about what the state they access are, what they mean and where you're supposed to go through them. So for instance, if you were a Buddhist meditator you will be instructed in all sorts of stages and levels and progressions of non-ordinary states of consciousness ranging from waking state all the way to white light void to Buddha consciousness, et cetera.

I if I am a peasant farmer in India and I have a non-ordinary state experience I might experience Ganesh, the elephant God in a rice patty. If I'm a peasant in Mexico I might experience the version of Guadalupe Hidalgo. If I'm coder in Silicon Valley I might experience the matrix and code mode, this is ones and zeros streaming all night as I bang away on my keyboard. And the reality is is that underneath those experiences are far more alike than the wrapping paper, the narrator wrapping paper of what people see based on culture, custom and biography. And what we attempted to do was create a functional framework that lets us talk about these things as apples to apples and really see the similarities. And what we realize is that because of the neurobiology there are four qualities that tend to arise pretty consistently regardless of which door you go through to get into these non ordinary states. And they are selflessness, timelessness, effortlessness and richness or STER for short.

And selfishness tends to happen because the areas of our brain, specifically the prefrontal cortex but including additional networks that connect, often turn off or completely light up. Either way they knock out our everyday waking sense of self-consciousness and self-awareness. So we end up momentarily lost our inner voice, lost our inner critic, lost our Jiminy Cricket and we are in a state of not thinking about our thinking.

[Kianquenseda]

in 1978 I had an extraordinary experience that at first I thought it was the Holy Spirit. Later I found out about Abraham Maslow and Peak experience, and the Yogic term Samadhi. Now I know that what I experienced was my self in my purest state. It was beyond joy, bliss, high or any term I know of. To discover yourself is the most wonderful thing.

[thenatureofmind]

Zen already expressed this. A Zen master said we may attain something wonderful but it's nothing special. It's just our true nature.

[TyDyck]

I really love Big Think. It is quickly becoming one of my favorite channels. Very digestible and succint, while wonderfully explaining subjects traditionally considered very difficult or complicated. The charisma of their relaxed confidence is a type of gentle genius devoid of ego that I endeavor to embody one day. There is a beautiful elegance to simplicity.

[andrejansen]

STER. Selflessness, timelessness, effortlessness and richness. Yes, I have felt this during meditation a couple of times. It's profound. Would recommend.

[Mariomario-gtoy]

this is great science. is one of the reasons why im so interested in neuroscience/psychology. interesting to see the reasons why people believe these things and transcending cultural boundaries

[humanity.]

This fits right in line with my personal flavor of spirituality. Whether you are being chased by a bear, or you just think that you are, your mind and body will still respond the same. With this insight, we can use visualization and a conscious suspension of disbelieve to imagine narratives that are helpful to our mind and body. Just be sure to remember what is imagination and what is not. ;)

[UsedToBeConsumer]

great explanation, it explains why when i get stuck in something complex i take a little nap and between waking and sleeping i keep dreaming about a solution that seems to me later to be so obvious.

[georgomuller]

Regardless of the means to reach it or the narratives many groups have been giving it for millennia, such a experience should come into the lives of EVERY HUMAN BEING IN THIS PLANET. It's totally life transformative. I'm a completely different person since I started practicing meditation. Everything becomes clearer, more joyful and you can accomplish so much more with so much less effort when your ego is not in the way.

[Hombolicious]

I would like to hear more from this man. He takes a very reasonable approach to the explanation of the subject which he is talking about.

[KarenParkerArtist]

And that is exactly how I explain it to people. It can't be "supernatural", if we can do it consistently. And across time and across cultures, we do. Shamanic practice or events are noted in written and oral histories just, as Mr. Wheal said, wrapped in different papers.

[Slarti]

Describes very well the Dhyana states I experienced when I practised Buddhist meditation as well as when I used to swim lengths, practise classical guitar and coding(I am a software developer).
All of these experiences were similar and they all felt deeply happy and satisfying.

[Viscid]

The flow state is not the psychedelic state, and explaining the flow state does not provide a sufficient enough explanation about the psychedelic state. The flow state does not feel remotely as profound as the psychedelic state, nor do we experience visions in the flow state. Jamie Wheal is unfairly conflating the two.

[jacemachine]

The last time I was this early I was a zygote.

[Jarbacca]

Is someone walking around in the background with metal? You guys hear that among his speaking?

[lifesabuzzwhoopwhoop]

Love theories that are spoken as statements as if they're facts.

[TheSwamper]

I wonder if the rich state is similar to when a musician is in the zone.

[brandontea]

How very interesting that this have already been mentioned in the teachings of Tao...

[stewartquark]

Still dont understand why people who have no real experience in such matters insist on researching or examining them. I love Beethoven but doubt very much I can compose a tune as did he merely because I favor him

[rodraymond]

It is not the brain that causes the oneness, it is you and the brain will just follow.

If you don't sit and be still then the brain will just in a normal state.

[georgebenichou]

j 'ai vécu dans un état de superconscience pendant 30 ans .je vois que personne ne sait expliquer cet état de conscience ils n 'ont aucune idee ou il l 'ont vécu pendant quelques minutes seulement et ils en ont été marqué !!! si vous saviez vous laisserez tout tomber pour retrouver cet état. car comparé à cela rien au monde ne tient la comparaison !!! je pourrais écrire un livre .cela restera secret.! c 'est trop facile de savoir cela .cela ne vous donnera pas la capacité d 'être cela et puis c 'est inimaginable ni imitable !!!! c 'est le travail de plusieurs vies d'efforts et de sacrifices .il n 'y a pas de cadeaux dans la nature tout est mérité !!!