Blog number one

Chapter One: Creativity and Altered States.

When we think altered states of consciousness we generally tend to think about only being affected by drugs and alcohol so in the first chapter, it’s nice that there is a clarification as to what an altered-state of consciousness is.

I thought the paranormal section was a little interesting, only because I’ve known a few people who are into that kind of thing. They’re ghost hunters per say. So, they certainly believe in paranormal activity. Then Richard Dawkins wants to say that there is “no evidence whatsoever” but how many people report actually report paranormal activity? It’s much too easy to doubt things we don’t understand.

I think the definition of creativity in the book is pretty solid. I’d have to agree with the way it’s put and how it’s stated. I think creativity is more than “the use of imagination to transmute the inner world into external reality” because sometimes the external reality infiltrates the internal. I also don’t think creativity needs the acceptance and validation of others. A creative expression should be as individual as possible and not matter what anyone things. I also like how it’s stated that creativity has a destructive component as well, because it does.

In the connections part, once they started explaining things in Freudian terms, my faith in the author began to dwindle. Being a former Psychology major (it’s now my minor) I had my fair share of Freud. So, once Freud was used as credibility, in my eyes, the book lost some. I feel that every artist has his or her own creative process that may or may not coincide with the way the book explains on page thirteen throughout the first two paragraphs.

Chapter Three: Structures of the mind.

In terms of our skin seeing, I have had similar experiences to that. At least I can put a name to the experience. I think there are so many things our bodies and mind are capable of that I think the idea of perception is generally very interesting. Our brain, consciousness, and perception kind of go hand in hand together. All three interconnect and I feel that you cannot have one without the other.

I also find it interesting that Hughes points out, in the human body, in terms of altered state experiences, that most of them occur in the right side of the brain and there is an increased usage of cognation in that area of the brain. Since the right side controls that side, it only makes sense, but the fact that there is an increased cognition in the right side of the brain during altered-states means something is definitely happening.

I also found the section on multiple personalities to be interesting, but I also wonder if these people really feel or really do have multiple personalities. So basically, those who experience childhood trauma use the alternate personalities as a coping mechanism, and I wonder what would have happened to Sybil if she would have been treated as soon as she began developing the personalities.
If multiplicity as written by a victim is about “hiding, pain, and survival” it makes me wonder why people would want to deal with their situations that way.

Tart, Chapter Six: Stabilization of a State of Consciousness.

Yeah, so these “four major ways of stabilizing a system that constitutes a d-SoC” immediately reminded me of B.F.Skinner. Tart basically put threw a new label on Operant Conditioning and put some of his own concepts in there.

For instance, the example on page 63, the way Tart describes how to try to get a person to be a good citizen is too close to Operant Conditioning. The citizen is being conditioned with activities that constitute a good citizen (reinforcing stimulus), rewards (positive reinforcement), punishments (negative reinforcement), limiting opportunities sounds like getting “grounded” which also falls under (negative reinforcement and perhaps shaping as well).