Hughes, Pearce, Walsh

There is definitely the idea of mind over body in all of these readings. The one that struck me the most was the readings in Pearce. "Carl Jung told of a young lady patient, disabled by anemia,whose body weight had dropped to seventy pounds. Hypnotized, she was told of her enormous strength. Her head was then placed on one chair, her heels on another, her body easily spanning the gap in a straight line - a feat the best of athletes have difficulty doing" (Pearce 110). If a person thinks certain ideas then they can be done. Somewhere I heard or read about two men who were in the wilderness starving. However, the one man lasted longer, because he would imagine that he would have dinner every night. The other individual kept thinking that he was starving to death, and the effects happened much faster to him. Even in Hughes the mind plays a huge role. Music can't take anyone into an altered state of consciousness, that individual must want to go there. Diseases do play a role in altered states of consciousness, but not everyone who has a disease is considered creative. The mind allows people with diseases to overcome it, or indulge in it. In Walsh it is explained how a person goes to an altered state of consciousness and how the experience is dependent upon many factors. The state of mind and the amount of control are crucial for strong experiences. The mind is the key. John Milton says, "The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven (Walsh 237). This shows that the mind holds all of the power. Everyone says life is what you make it, which is true. However, really a person's life is what his or her mind makes it. I really liked how Walsh compared states of mind with Shamanism. This definitely shows that not two experiences are alike, because nobody can ever be in the exact state of mind. It is like a science fair project that not all variables can be accounted for. The human mind is a powerful device, but through Hughes, Walsh, and Pearce my understanding of altered states of consciousness is increasing.