The Inner Landscape - modes of consciousness.

Almost everyone is directly familiar with experiences like dreams, altered consciousness (like drunkenness), and experiences when one doesn't feel in control ("flight or fight" impulses, sudden rage or desire, etc.). This is because consciousness is not a unified experience, it is not always the same, and neither is it consistent or fully controlled. Consciousness changes throughout the day. It stays fairly consistent when we are awake and changes most dramatically when we go to sleep, take drugs or use our imagination. I'll call these everyday (awake) consciousness, sleeping consciousness and altered consciousness respectively. To me, these seem to be the three main facets of consciousness.

In literature and art, the multifaceted nature of consciousness has long been recognised.

"This mistaken and unhappy notion that a man is an enduring unity is known to you. It is also known to you that man consists of a multitude of souls, of numerous selves. The separation of the unity of the personality into these numerous pieces passes for madness." Herman Hesse - Steppenwolf

In science too, the notion that our consciousness is not unified but multiple is recognised. The brain is a system of inter-linked parts, mainly characterised by three main brains - the "reptilian" brain, limbic system and cerebral hemispheres. Each of these brains may have a consciousness of their own, which may seem strange to the others.

Everyday consciousness is that mode of consciousness that seems the most "normal" to us. It is clear, regular and seems to be who we "really" are. It is the form of consciousness that allows our biological survival, it is the mode of consciousness we primarily operate in, working, eating, and doing all the other everyday things that are necessary for living. It is by no means clear how consciousness works, but we are conscious anyway and don't much think about "why" or "how". Consciousness is also solitary, we can never be in someone else's head, though we can draw analogies between their experience and ours, and live with them on this common ground that we seem to share.

"We live as we dream - alone." Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness

However, it is possible this confinement to ourselves, this solipsism may end with the advent of certain technological changes that involve brain mapping and uploading.

When we do reflect on the "whys" and "hows" of consciousness, we find that our own minds are not clear to us. We can look at our own hands, for example, and see how they grasp, how the bones interlock, how the muscles move, but we cannot see inwards, we cannot observe our mental operations. Nevertheless, it is useful to try, and such reflection has resulted in many artistic, spiritual and scientific achievements. We understand ourselves better as a result.

Not everyone is willing or interested in understanding their waking consciousness, and it is as if their minds atrophy as a result. These people live more confused lives, not understand why they behave or feel in certain ways, and exist more subject to suggestion for outside and impulse from within. But those people who are more willing to ask questions about their mundane minds may themselves be willing to ignore other aspects of their consciousness, which in turn allows these other parts of their mind to fall into ruin.

Sleeping consciousness is something we experience for around 8 hours everyday - 1 third of our whole lives. If a person lives until s/he is 90, s/he will have slept for 30 of those years. Sleeping consciousness is very complex. We do not spend all of that time dreaming and all sleep is not the same. There are two major stages of sleep: non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and rapid eye movement (REM). These have dramatically different characteristics.

Non-Rapid Eye Movement Sleep: About 80% of adult sleep is NREM sleep. NREM sleep is divided into four stages:

  • Stage 1—the drowsy transition from waking to sleeping (hypnogogia) Stage 2—intermediate sleep, when arousal is more difficult Stage 3—the beginning of "deep," or slow-wave, sleep Stage 4—the deepest sleep, when there is little contact with external sensations

During NREM sleep:

  • Brain activity decreases. Blood pressure decreases. Respiration (breathing) decreases. Heart rate slows. The time spent in deep sleep—stages 3 and 4—decreases throughout our lifetime. By age 75, stage 4—the deepest sleep—may be completely absent.

Rapid Eye Movement Sleep : REM sleep is often known as the dreaming stage of sleep, although dreams actually occur during all sleep stages. Unlike NREM sleep, REM sleep involves a high level of mental and physical activity, including:

  • Increased brain activity Increased and variable blood pressure Increased and variable heart rate Increased blood flow to the brain Increased and variable respiration In the newborn baby, more than 50% of sleep may be REM sleep. By the age of 2 years, the proportion of REM sleep decreases to 20% to 25% and remains constant throughout adulthood.

Sleep Architecture: Sleep usually begins with a cycle that consists of 80 minutes of NREM sleep followed by 10 minutes of REM sleep. This 90-minute cycle is repeated three to six times each night. With each cycle, the amount of slow-wave sleep decreases and the proportion of REM sleep increases. Research indicates that different sleep stages may serve different functions. Although the reasons for the different types of sleep are still being studied, it is clear that we need each type.

For most people, the everyday mind has little interest in what the sleeping mind was experiencing, and vice versa. It is as if two people are sharing one body at different times of the day, but rarely, if ever, communicating with each other. It isn't clear why we dream, yet we pay very little attention to these sleeping experiences. If we live until we are 90, we would have ignored 30 years of our lives. Other than the occasionally powerful dream of nightmare, we forget or dismiss our sleeping experiences.

How can we do this? Why do we not devote some time and energy to trying to remember these experiences? I am not suggesting that people spend large amounts of time interpreting their dreams. I don't think dreams need interpreting or deciphering. But I do think we should reflect upon our sleeping consciousness, and try to understand the experience of sleep, just as we try to understand the experience of waking. Clearly, sleeping and waking consciousness influence each other. If we sleep badly, we are awake badly. If our waking minds are not stressed, our sleep is peaceful. This mutual influence needs exploring, not ignoring. A whole third of our lives should not be forgotten and ignored as mere fancy.

It is in some ways hypocritical or foolish for us to denounce the sleeping consciousness as unimportant if we seek out other forms of consciousness during our waking hours. Most of us seek altered consciousness throughout the day. Drinking a cup of coffee, a pint of beer or eating a bar of chocolate, having sex, praying, meditating, imagining, exercising, being afraid or in pain, all of these things alter our minds to some degree. Some of us push these to extremes by getting very drunk, exercising into "the zone", or feeling a lot of pain. Other seek out specific chemical compounds usually termed "drugs".

Like "altered consciousness" this is an umbrella term that covers many different things. My initial interest in them was to induce pleasure. Though I had some interest in other forms of consciousness, my main drive was hedonistic. I experienced drugs an an alternative to a popular and well known drug that I don't much like - alcohol. However, not all drugs are pleasure inducing, and some have the opposite effect. It become clear to me in conversations with Che and other friends that the way some chemicals altered consciousness was valuable. Like a dream or an intense sensation or imagination, drug-induced consciousness offers a different perspective on living, on thinking, on relating to others. Che termed this other perspective "the inner landscape", and it is now clear to me that this world is as important and valuable to understand and sustain as the outer, everyday world is.

Insight or inspiration through drugs has rarely occurred like a revelation, but why should it? These are not magical potions or connections with god, but chemical bridges and blockers that alter the circuitry of the mind, sending the flow of thought and impulse into new currents and waves. Reflecting on these changes allows one to consider different forms of perception and sensation and enrich the conscious experience of life generally. Religious, spiritual and creative experience can offer this too.

"To be shaken out of the ruts of ordinary perception, to be shown for a few timeless hours the outer and inner world, not as they appear to an animal obsessed with survival or to a human being obsessed with words and notions, but as they are apprehended, directly and unconditionally..." Aldous Huxley - The Doors of Perception

The inner landscape, the interior experience of the mind is just as important as the exterior experience. Just as we sustain our exterior experience by interacting with others, taking care of our biological needs and taking care to live with good health and comfort, so too should we sustain our interior experience or dream, hallucination, imagination, delirium. If one does not sustain the sleeping and altered forms of consciousness through reflection, through exercise, experiment and understanding, they will atrophy. Dreams darken into greyness, forgetfulness. Creativity ceases, expires, imagination is replaced by the ersatz entertainment industry. We allow our minds to shrink, we forget a third of our lives, we ignore the opportunities chemicals can offer, or worse, we condemn them and try to shut them out of our minds.

The inner landscape is the place the world can't see or touch unless you allow it. Many religious and spiritual people share many of the beings and places that inhabit their inner landscapes. These inherited inner landscapes structures the everyday conscious with values and projects. The two worlds overlap in the experiences of the mystic, the insane and the magician. Many artists have painted or written or sang the inner world that they imagine and dream and chemically induce.

Certainly, there are those who seek to escape everyday consciousness because the everyday is too painful, ugly or stupid to bear. I do not think this is a contemptible or condemnable thing to do, but unfortunately it is very difficult to sustain a permanent retreat into the inner landscape, as the outer world makes great demands on people which typically prevents total escape from it. There are others who are hedonists, alienists and extremists who wish to spend a great deal of time in the inner landscape which, unless it is bringing harm to others, can only be problematic because of the neglect the everyday consciousness suffers.

Drugs are a valuable method by which one can expand the inner landscape and explore the labyrinth which twists around the central mystery of consciousness. It is this understanding of a multi-faceted consciousness, of the equal value of the inner and outer worlds that motivates me to keep a dream diary, to document trip reports, experiment with chemicals and consider ideas and practices at odds with my own.

Arguments for the Legal and Social Acceptance of Recreational Drugs.

Arguing that tobacco etc kills more people than other drugs isn't a good argument. More people use these drugs than ones presently illegal, so more people die from them. True, illegal drugs would be less likely to kill you if they were legal, & true, certain illegal drugs are likely to never kill you (it is impossible to OD on street doses of LSD for example & even huge doses in lab. conditions don't kill). However, cannabis (for example) is just as likely to damage your lungs as tobacco (if not more so as most weed smokers hold the smoke in for longer & draw deeper). Of course vapourisers avoid this trouble.

Four better arguments for legalisation follow for all drugs except crack. I'm not interested in government classifications in discussion - they are relative & often simply wrong.

Crime

Making drugs illegal makes users criminals and puts them at risk when buying from criminals. It allows criminals to make money, it allows criminals to mix otherwise safe substances with dangerous substances to save money. Pure heroin does not kill when the correct dose is taken, only impure heroin can do that. If ecstasy were legal, buyers would know what they were getting in a pill, they wouldn't have to guess. If drugs were legal, they could be tested, controlled, taxed and taken out of the hands of criminals.

Anti-paternalism.

Our culture is paternalistic, it treats us like stupid children telling us what to do & not to do because it believes some things are harmful. This is really just moral monstrosity because often these things aren't harmful & if they are, precautions can be taken. This paternalism is an affront to our freedom on the most direct level. Furthermore our culture causes additional harm through criminalisation, ignorance & sensationalism, which would not be there were we to be enlightened about these issues.

Psychonautics.

Read Alexander Shulgin's PIKHAL & TIKHAL for starters. Following this read Huxley's Heaven & Hell & then read about some of our greatest poets, painters & writers who have created & explored the human mind & condition through drug inspired art. Experimenting with ones consciousness & perception is interesting, useful, fun & thought-provoking. I have had several amazing or personally fulfilling experiences with (legal) substances largely unknown to the public. I have solved personal, emotional & philosophical problems & experimented creatively & sexually in these altered states. True, experiments can go wrong. I have had some unpleasant ot just boring occasions too, but one learns from this also. True, many of these artists were unhappy, immoral or even destroyed. But many weren't. What is also true is that with the correct understanding & precautions one can make good use of a wide variety of chemicals in the same way one takes medicine or eats food. This takes me to my next point:

Risk.

Sure there are some risks involved. Are they as large as those involved in sports? what about extreme sports? Sometimes they are, sometimes not. However, drug users are criminalised for taking risks equal to sporting risks which are sanction & encouraged or even enforced in school! I've hurt myself more playing sport than taking drugs. I've had my mind damaged more by watching TV or ging to a shopping mall than eating MDMA. We are allowed to take risks on the one hand & not on the other. Why? No reason.

I charge this culture with hypocrisy, Puritanism, ignorance & an authoritarian paternalism.

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