Altered State of Consciousness
The phrase Altered State of Consciousness is a generic term used by early researchers to denote a state of consciousness above and beyond one's day-to-day Normal Consciousness.[1]
Syncretic Terms
Connection > Altered State of Consciousness, Descent of the Holy Spirit, Divine Marriage, Divine Union, Drawing Down the Moon, It, Lightning Strike, Mysticism, Shamanic State of Consciousness, Starlight Vision, The Dreaming, Trance, Union
Noes
Some think that connection is the root of all(!) great scientific discoveries. Evidence appears to exist, but is largely forgotten these days.
Altered states of consciousness have been responsible for all great successful scientific discoveries. Science really has its genesis in the phenomenon of intimate, immediate and even normally inaccessible states of consciousness. Nikola Tesla's induction motor was born early in this century out of a spontaneous vision of incredible exactitude. F. A. Kekule was similarly struck in his discovery of the idea of the benzene ring, which began modern organic chemistry. So much so that he published an account of his ouroboros-type revelation in the 1890 proceedings of the German Chemical Society, ending with the memorable sentences: “As though from a flash of lightning I awoke [and] occupied the rest of the night in working the consequences of the hypothesis .... Let us learn. to dream gentlemen."
Henri Poincare similarly left us a record of his ultraconscious finding of automorphic functions-s0 important in modern mathematics. The discovery of the laster by an American scientist in a visionary experience in a park at dawn is a well-known .twentieth century addition to the evidence.
Finally, the quantum physicist Max Born, in a letter of his of 1967, wrote that he had experienced during his lifetime "perhaps a dozen flashes of ideas which proved to lead to scientifically significant...results.” He compared the quality of his experience: to that of Kekule and added that ".I know for certain that in the few cases where I have discovered something of importance it came like a flash, and a minute before I knew nothing of it” [2]
Footnotes
- ↑ Tart, Charles T. “The Changing Scientific Attitude in Psychology.” In Consciousness and Reality: The Human Pivot Point, edited by Charles Muses and Arthur M Young, 73–85. New York: Discus Books, 1972.
- ↑ Muses, Charles, and Arthur M Young, eds. Consciousness and Reality: The Human Pivot Point. New York: Discus Books, 1972. p. 89
