Two hundred and forty-nine subjects, averaging thirty-five to a group, participated in two sessions consisting of two different four minute stimulus conditions. The subjects completed an inventory, the Phenomenology of Consciousness Questionnaire, immediately afterwards in reference to each of these conditions. The questionnaire assessed the phenomenological state associated with each condition in terms of nine different dimensions of consciousness. The results indicated that the phenomenological parameters that define a state of consciousness are stable under several different conditions. Baseline, identity, and altered states of consciousness that are associated with specific stimulus conditions can be defined and differentiated in terms of intensity variations within, and pattern effects among, the dimensions of conscious experience.

All rights reservedNo part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher To my parents, John and Susan Pekala PrefaceThis book presents an approach to quantifying consciousness and its various states. It represents over ten years of work in developing, testing, and researching the use of relatively simple self-report questionnaires in the retrospective assessment of subjective or phenomenological experience. While the simplicity of the method allows for subjective experience to be reliably and validly assessed across various short stimulus conditions, the flexibility of the approach allows the cognitive psychologist, consciousness researcher, and mental health professional to quantify and statistically assess the phenomenological variables associated with various stimulus conditions, altered-state induction techniques, and clinical procedures.The methodology allows the cognitive psychologist and mental health professional to comprehensively quantify the structures and patterns of subjective experience dealing with imagery, attention, affect, volitional control, internal dialogue, and so forth to determine how these phenomenological structures might covary during such stimulus conditions as free association, a sexual fantasy, creative problem solving, or a panic attack. It allows for various phenomenological processes to be reported, quantified, and statistically assessed in a rather comprehensive fashion that should help shed greater understanding on the nature of mind or consciousness.The methodology also allows for states of consciousness associated with hypnosis, progressive relaxation, biofeedback, drug-intoxicated states, shamanistic trances, psi-related experiences, and various other altered-state induction procedures to be not only accurately measured, vii viii Preface but also statistically assessed and visually displayed. Hence, it provides a heretofore unavailable phenomenological methodology for mapping and diagraming the structures and patterns of consciousness and identity, discrete, and altered states of consciousness (Tart, 1975).The approach espoused in this book can be useful not only to those individuals interested in quantifying and mapping the terrain of inner space, but to psychologists, psychiatrists, other mental health professionals, artificial intelligence researchers, computer scientists, anthropologists, and related individuals interested in how the mind processes, stores, and retrieves phenomenological data and organizes and structures those data into states and altered states of consciousness. Byasking subjects what they experience during varlous stimulus conditions, the researcher or clinician can determine how the mind processes phenomenological information and compare this information with neurological, psychological, electrophysiological, and/or c1inical data.The book is divided into four parts: Backg...

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State manifestations of the trait of absorption--a trait associated with differential responsivity to hypnosis, meditation, marijuana intoxification, and electromyograph (EMG) biofeedback--were assessed to determine (a) if absorption correlates with various (sub)dimensions of phenomenological experience, and (b) if individuals of differing absorption ability experience different states of consciousness. In two experiments 249 and 304 participants completed Tellegen's absorption scale and experienced several stimulus conditions. Each condition's phenomenological state was assessed by means of a retrospective self-report questionnaire and quantified in terms of intensity and pattern parameters. The results indicated that absorption correlated with increased and more vivid imagery, inward and absorbed attention, and positive affect; decreased self-awareness; and increased alterations in state of consciousness and various aspects of subjective experience. In addition, individuals of high absorption ability, relative to lows, experienced a different state of consciousness during ordinary, waking consciousness that became an altered state with eye closure and an hypnoticlike induction. The usefulness of the results for understanding altered-state induced procedures such as hypnosis is discussed.