l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l v v v v v v v v v v
blood pressure -----------------> increasing risk of stroke etc caused by stress, diet, or
l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l l v v v v v v v v v v
schizotypal nervous system - -----------> increasing risk of schizophrenia
Therefore, a normal body mechanism can bring about a state of dysfunction. The
continuity is that of normal individual variation with predisposition to disease greater in some than in others. Systemic diseases are normally multiply determined. There is a normal "nervous type" associated with schizophrenia comparable to those other traits underlying other psychological disorders, and the "dispositional" aspects are inherited. This graded continuum of liability to schizophrenia could be called "schizotoxia."
Schizotypy scales identify 3 behavioural components:
1) cognitive: active florid symptoms, e.g delusions and paranoia; 2) affective: passive, introverted symptoms, e.g. anhedonia; 3) antisocial nonconformity.
These scales are linked with cognitive, psychophysiological (galvanic skin response,
GSR) and neuropsychological (hemisphere) research. There are many nervous properties which relate to temperamental or personality variations that are under some genetic control, e.g. extraversion, anxiety proneness.
For example,one theory suggests a weakening of the inhibitor system (Bergson’s filter
theory (see note 2)). Thus possibly, schizophrenia is a failure to limit the contents of consciousness. This openness to stimulation, open mode of attention to the environment, also links to high creativity, and to the shamanic traditions. Ambiguous, critical, emotion-laden communications from another might have a greater than normal impact because the person is unduly sensitive to, and therefore more likely to distort, the meaning. This happens quite often during adolescence as part of the emotional growth pattern. 3.2.Neurochemistry of Shamanic States, Psychosis and the Pineal Gland.
The shamanic state of conciousness is often precipitated by psychotropic plants such
as ayahuasca, peyote, and amanita muscaria. These drugs activate the serotonergic (5HT) receptors in a similar fashion to the pineal betacarbolines. I have discussed elsewhere that the pineal betacarbolines are linked with psychic states of consciousness and with the shamanic out-of-body state through the similarity of the harmala alkaloids and pinoline (Roney-Dougal, 1986,1988,1990,1991,1993, 1999). Now I am presenting a link between the pineal gland and the psychotic state of consciousness. I consider that our society does not recognise the potential of people who experience this state of consciousness, and so we are creating a severe disabling illness totally unnecessarily by not treating these people appropriately in the manner that tribal and subsistence economy people do. It is time we recognised the potential shaman in the psychotic. 3.2.1.Geomagnetic Fields, Depression and the Role of Melatonin
One of the key factors in linking the pineal with psychosis is the work of Kay (1994).
Admission to mental hospital varies with season and time of the month, and mental illness is more common the further north you go, i.e., into long light summers, and long dark winters. Seasonal variation in the incidence of depressive illness has been recognised since Hippocrates (Lewis, 1934). Onset of depressive illness, admission to hospital, prescriptions of antidepressant medication and incidence of suicide have all been found to show a bimodal annual distribution with peaks in spring and autumn.
Kay (1994) has found, in a 10 year study of admission rates to Lothian psychiatric
hospitals, that two weeks after a geomagnetic storm there was a significant rise (36.2%) for male admissions for depression phase of manic-depression and a smaller non-significant rise for women with psychotic and non-psychotic depression. There was no correlation between intensity of storm and admission rates, i.e. if any sort of storm happens, mild or severe, you get increased admission rate, which is consistent with a threshold event affecting predisposed individuals. The effect of geomagnetic storms could range from mild irritability to full-blown depression. Monthly total psychiatric admissions have been positively correlated with solar radioflux levels and indices of geomagnetic ionospheric disturbance.
Kay suggests that geomagnetic storms partly account for the bimodal annual
distribution of depression by acting either through desynchronisation of pineal circadian rhythms, or via an effect on 5HT-ergic and adrenergic systems leading to depressed mood and secondary disruption of pineal melatonin synthesis. Alteration in geomagnetic field (GMF) activity is associated with decreased serotonin NAT activity and decreased melatonin synthesis. Geomagnetic storms in spring enhance the suppressing effect of increasing daylight on melatonin synthesis, leading to a phase advance in the circadian rhythm, while the effect of storms in autumn tend to be partially compensated by the pineal response to decreasing light intensity. This is consistent with a Southern Hemisphere peak for psychotic depression admissions in September and October, and a peak in Sweden in April.
The main innervation of the pineal is via adrenergic systems so magnetic fields may
affect pineal functioning via this mechanism. Sandyk (1990a) associates depression with decreased melatonin secretion and suggests that melatonin regulates dopaminergic, cholinergic and GABA-ergic functions. . 5 Why the gender difference? It could be that female sexual hormones provide some defence against depression, or slow down the effects, or there are cultural efects. Possibly women are less affected by geomagnetic storms because their melatonin rhythms and levels are linked with the menstrual cycle, and the pineal has a complex interaction with the sexual hormones. Perhaps we have links here with post-natal depression and menstrual cycle depression.c.f.Women in industrial societies show a peak incidence of schizophrenia a decade later in life than do men, and women in Third World show lower prevalence than men, partly because they are less affected by the loss of land and subsistence life style.
It is also possible that the association between geomagnetic storms and depression
could be due to an indirect association with changes in meteorological factors. Atmospheric ionisation and barometric pressure have been shown to affect measures of 5HT activity. Prolonged exposure to abnormal magnetic fields may also have an effect, acting through a similar mechanism to geomagnetic storms. Depression admissions have been associated with exposure to 50Hz e-m fields in the home.
3.2.2.Role of Circadian Rhythms, Melatonin and Manic-Depression
We have two circadian clocks - one is a biological clock which includes the ventromedial
nucleus of the hypothalamus, the locus ceruleus and the dorsal raphe nucleus - food is the zeitgeber for this clock; the second clock includes the retina, hypothalamic suprachalasmic nuceus (SCN) and pineal gland - light is the zeitgeber for this clock. The two clocks are normally in synchrony but in view of the independence of the two clocks asynchrony is possible, and the affective disorders may be caused by such a dysfunction (Maurizi, 1984). Disturbances of the noradrenergic activity of the central nervous system (CNS) have been related to affective disorders, which are also accompanied by depressed melatonin secretion and sleep disturbances. Manic-depression is associated with a sleep disorder: in the manic phase the person suffers from insomnia, in the depression state they sleep too much. Melatonin is mainly secreted at night through noradrenergic stimulation of beta-receptors on the pinealocoytes. Melatonin secretion can therefore be inhibited by beta-blocking drugs. Melatonin secretion is depressed in mental disorders with sleep disturbances such as the manic phase of certain affective disorders, alcoholic abuse and dts with hallucinations.
There are mixed results regarding melatonin secretion in affective disorders - some find
decreased nocturnal melatonin secretion in unipolar depressed adults, others do not. Lewy et al (1979) reports increased melatonin levels in bipolar subjects through a 24 hour cycle. Lam et al (1990) report decreased nocturnal melatonin production in bipolar patients compared with unipolar depressed and control subjects. Reiter (1982) suggests that manic-depressives have a low melatonin concentration during suicidal episodes and a high melatonin concentration during manic episodes.
Affective disorders involving circadian dysregulation may respond to interventions that
restore a normal sleep-wake cycle. Robertson & Tanguay (1997) describe a boy with bipolar disorder. A trial of melatonin led to rapid relief of insomnia and aborted manic episodes for at least a two year period. Insomnia can be both a symptom and a precursor of mania (Wehr et al, 1987; Leibenluft et al, 1995). On the other hand, sleep deprivation therapy for depression is thought to exert its effect by resynchronising circadian rhythms, while antidepressants and lithium lengthen the pineal circadian cycle period re-synchronising a phase advanced cycle.
In addition, melatonin administration to clinically depressed patients gives negative
effects (Carman et al, 1976). The treatment of psychotic depression with daytime melatonin increases psychotic symptoms and abolishes diurnal mood variation. The timing of this treatment would tend to exacerbate a desynchronised rhythm. De-synchronising circadian rhythms is therefore a possible mechanism for mood switching in manic-depressive illness, and manic-depressive patients have been found to be supersensitive to the suppressing effect of light on night-time melatonin synthesis, suggesting that in these people the pineal gland may be generally supersensitive to environmental factors including geomagnetic storms.
Brismar (1987) studied people on beta blockers because of angina, hypertension, etc.
and found that those with depressed nightly urinary melatonin excretion suffered from CNS symptoms such as nightmares and hallucinations. Not many people suffer these effects.
Another possible site of action for melatonin is the dorsal raphe nucleus. (LSD also acts
on the dorsal raphe nucleus.) Melatonin could enhance 5HT levels by acting as a MAO inhibitor in the synapses of the dorsal raphe nucleus.
Abnormalities in circadian rhythm organization are consistent features in manic-
depressive illness (Wehr & Goodwin, 1980). Wetterberg et al (1981) suggest pineal involvement. Manic-depressives have an earlier onset of melatonin secretion during depression, with this secretory onset being even earlier in mania (Lewy & Kern, 1984). Manic depressives are also super-sensitive to light with 50% reduction in melatonin production on exposure to 500 lux. Normally one needs 2500 lux for this suppression whereas manic-depressives have complete melatonin suppression at 1500 lux (Lewy & Kern, 1984). It is possible that supersensitivity to light with alteration in retinal perception of light could contribute to a phase advance of those rhythms that are entrained to the light-dark cycle and thus lead to alterations in those function that are influenced secondarily by such rhythms (for review see Kripke & Risch 1986; Rosenthal, 1986; Thompson, 1987).
Thus melatonin, as an integral aspect of our circadian rhythm is implicated in manic-
depression. 3.2.3. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
SAD is the name given to the hypothesis that decreasing daylight desynchronises the
pineal rhythm of melatonin synthesis. Non-psychotic depression does show some bimodal seaonal variation. In line with the idea that psychosis is the extreme end of a normal mechanism, manic depression is thus an extreme response to a bimodal variation with season that is very common amongst people living in latitudes with variable daylength.
Arendt (1985) has shown that those who suffer from depression can be helped by sun
lamp treatment. To ameliorate SAD symptoms intensity of light must be sufficient to suppress melatonin synthesis and secretion. Some SAD patients respond to levels as low as 200 lux. Alternatively one can use melatonin treatment in pill form.
More generally the pineal plays an anti-stress function and "forms part of a broader
neurohormonal feedback mechanism linking the stress response of the hypothalamus - hypophysis neuroendocrine complex." (Reiter, 1982).
Thus, as with schizotypy and schizophrenia there is a normal aspect of a behavioural
pattern that we call a disorder, manic depression. We can see that both these forms of psychosis are at the extreme end of a continuum but do not differ in form from experiences common to many people. We are all of us more active in the long, light summer days, and more inclined to hibernate during the dark, cold winter. 3.2.4. Melatonin and Dreams
Melatonin per se may well, directly or indirectly, be of importance for normal sleep
rhythm and for ordinary dream activity during sleep. REM sleep has been sugggested to be induced by the actions of CSF (cerebrospinal fluid), melatonin and vasotocin on the dorsal raphe nucleus and the locus ceruleus. Melatonin and vasotocin have been noted to be in rhythm with REM sleep (Pavel et al, 1979; Birkeland,1982). Maurizi (1984) speculates that the synaptic enhancement of monoamines induced by melatonin causes feedback inhibition of the locus and raphe nuclei in REM sleep. A cycle of neuropeptides and neuromodulators in the CSF has been suggested to pace the 90 minute dream rhythm (Maurizi, 1984). Intranasal application of vasotocin and also of melatonin induces REM sleep in humans.
Maurizi (1987) suggests that REM sleep, which is under brain stem control, facilitates
the transfer of intermediate-term memory into long-term storage in the neocortex. Psychotics 6 Vasotocin is present in the pineal gland and in the subcommisural organ. Vasotocin, vasopressin and oxytocin are all neuropeptides that vary by single amino acid substitutions. The circulation of CSF neuropeptides has been suggested to be important in many biologic behaviours including memory. Vasopressin and oxytocin seem to have opposite effects on behaviour and memory. Vasotocin emulates the amnesic effect of oxytocin when injected into the cerebral ventricles. The dorsal raphe nucleus is a site of action of both vasotocin and vasopressin. Melatonin is a releasing agent for vasotocin (Pavel
suffer memory loss, so do mediums in trance, hypnotised people and those on psychedelics, and it is notoriously difficult to remember dreams. Findings suggest that REM sleep over a prolonged time period is a requisite neurobiological mechanism for the processing, maintenance, and storage of long-term memory. In humans, recall of complex associative information is significantly better after REM sleep than after non-REM sleep or wakefulness. In elderly humans a positive correlation of REM sleep with mental functioning has been demonstrated, and people with learning difficulties have decreased REM sleep. REM sleep benefits the consolidation of emotive memory, high association value memory, or memory that calls for more divergent procesing. Emotional memories and emotional events seem to be resolved by REM sleep.
Patients suffering from narcolepsy, which is thought to be a disorder of the mechanism
that controls REM sleep, frequently have hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations. These are more than likely the emergence of REM dreams into the waking state. Drugs, such as chlorimipramine, are particularly effective in blocking hypnagogic hallucinations.
The delusions of mania are suggestive of dreams. If manic behaviour is the
consequence of REM sleep chemistry intruding into the wake period, then perhaps grandiosity and a “flight of ideas” during normal REM sleep are mechanisms for imagination and creativity. 3.3. Serotonin (5HT) and Schizophrenia
Whilst melatonin is made only at night, 5HT is made during daytime. 5HT is a wake
state enhancer and REM sleep inhibitor. Thus, in the northern hemisphere, we have increased levels of serotonin in the summer and decreased levels in winter. Animal data indicate that 5HT is a major neurotransmitter involved in the control of mood, aggression, pain, anxiety, sleep, memory, eating behaviour, addictive behaviour, temperature control, endocrine regulation, and motor behaviour. There is also evidence that abnormalities of 5HT functions are related to Parkinson's disease, tardive dyskinesia, akathisia, dystonia, Huntington' disease, familial tremor, restless legs syndrome, myoclonnus, Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome, multiple sclerosis, sleep disorders and dementia, schizophrenia, mania, depression, aggressive and self-injurious behaviour, obsessive compulsive disorder, seasonal affective disorder, substance abuse, hypersexuality, anxiety disorders, bulimia, childhood hyperactivity and behavioural disorders in geriatrics (Sandyk, 1992b).
The highest concentrations of 5HT have been found in the pineal glands of
schizophrenics. A dysfunction of central 5HT metabolism in schizophrenia has been repeatedly suggested, and is also implicated in the cyclic seasonal nature of manic-depressives, since there are higher concentrations of 5HT in the summer during the manic phase of seasonally affected people. Schizophrenics often exhibit sleep disturbances; insomnia may be the first symptom of a relapse, whilst changes in REM sleep and in EEG patterns during sleep have been observed. Also arousal level, thus implicating the reticular activating system (RAS), is altered in psychotics. Pathologists have found that the brains of suicide victims are deficient in 5HT. When 5HT levels are low there is an increase in the tendency for people to behave in uncharacteristic ways (Elliott & Holman, 1977).
This dysfunction of 5HT metabolism in schizophrenia has been suggested from studies
measuring concentrations of 5HT in urine and blood, in post mortem brains, in cerebrospinal 
b)that neither 5HT nor dopamine covers any single process indicates that other neurotransmitters are involved in each of the processes, and 5HT and dopamine are also involved in other processes. Yet the overlap of 5HT and dopamine indicates their interaction.
In conclusion, 5HT and melatonin are all implicated in the state of consiousness we call
the dream state, a state which has profund similarities to the psychedelic induced state such as is used by shamans for healing and psychic purposes, and
ocurring and distressing state experienced by people who in our culture are labelled psychotic. This action of melatonin and 5HT on this primary process consciousness is highlighted by the action of pinoline which is made in the pineal from 5HT, and has been hypothesised as the neurochemical trigger for dreaming.
Figure 1. The limbic system, considered the emotional part of the brain, includes the hippocampus, fornix, mammillary body, anterior thalamic nucleus, cingulate cortex and entorhinal cortex. Electrical stimulation of the entorhinal cortex elicits dream-like memories. The hippocampus constitues a main part of the archicortex, the old arc of cortex, lying on the medial surface of the temporal lobe and composed of the dubiculum, Ammon’s horn, and dentate gyrus. It receives fibres from the medial and lateral entorhinal cortex, the medial septal nucleus, the locus ceruleus, the dorsal raphe nucleus, and the contralateral hippocampus. Passage of information through the hippocampus is necessary for the storage of new memories. Serotonergic input from the median raphe nucleus seems to have a role in modulating adrenergic receptors in the hippocampus. The hilus of the dentate gyrus receives heavy innervation from both raphe nuclei and the locus ceruleus. GABA has an inhibitory role in the dentate gyrus. A feature of hippocampal physiology is the production of theta rhythm which is related to learning and memory and during REM sleep. 3.4. Pinoline:the link between dreams, psychosis, psychedelics and the shamanic state of consciousness
A tryptoline is a beta-carboline and these are competitive inhibitors of serotonergic
uptake, and of the degradative enzyme MAO (Elliott & Holman, 1977). This means 5HT does not degrade properly or get taken up properly which leads it to form compounds such as DMT which is a potent hallucinogen. Naturally occurring beta-carbolines such as pinoline show psychotropic and physiological effects in mammals (Klinker et al, 1997). Pinoline (6methoxy-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-beta-carboline) is a naturally occurring compound in the mammalian body (Pahkla et al, 1997).
Pinoline has its highest concentrations in the pineal and has been reported to fluctuate
in phase with melatonin (Kari, 1981; Kari et al, 1983). It is exceptionally active in that it can
potentiate the activity of 5HT by both inhibiting its presynaptic reuptake and by inhibiting its metabolism by blocking MAO-A. Both of these are used as treatment modalities for depression. (Marcusson & Ross, 1990/2?) Pinoline has also been shown to behave like a hormone (Airaksinen et al 1984) and specific binding sites for pinoline exist in the adrenals as well as the pineal and the brain. Pinoline is probably made from 5HT either via 6-HO-THBC and HIOMT, or via melatonin, 5-MeOT and cyclization (Callaway, 1994). Pinoline is found in the arcuate nucleus, retina and pineal gland (Kari et al, 1983) It has been shown to be an effective benzodiazepine receptor ligand, associated with ethanol dependence, and binds to opiate receptors.
Several people have suggested that the beta-carbolines may play some sort of role in
psychosis since they have hallucinogenic effects, but concentrations of pinoline in blood serum and CSF are identical in schizophrenics and controls. Both show a wide range between people, some having 16 times as much as others, and the levels do not correlate with such variables as age, sex, subtype of schizophrenia or duration of illness (Rimon et al, 1984).
Verheij et al (1997) compared plasma levels of the beta-carboline norharman ( a
harmala alkaloid), concentration of platelet 5-HT, trait measures of anxiety, and measures of coping and defense mechanisms for patients with panic disorder. Platelet 5-HT concentration was positively correlated with the subjectively reported anxiety. Plasma norharman concentration was negatively correlated with defense mechanisms and positively correlated with coping strategies. It was concluded that norharman might reflect intrapsychic and coping processes.
The key factor here concerning pinoline function is that it is chemically almost identical
with the harmala alkaloids found in a psychotropic drink, called ayahuasca, used by Amazonian peoples for the purpose of out-of-body experiences, clairvoyance, divination and shamanic healing. In those tribes that have shamans the shaman uses the ayahuasca specifically for connecting with their spirit guide for psychic purposes. The primary function of harmala alkaloids in ayahuasca is to allow for the oral activity of DMT by inhibition of MAO-A, and further permits accumulation of 5-HT and other neurotransmitters. On their own harmala alkaloids have only weak psychoactive effects (Callaway, 1994) but Kim et al (1997) found that the harmala alkaloids which occur in ayahuasca were the most effective inhibitors of purified MAO-A. The psychedelic effects of ayahuasca probably manifest primarily through the serotonergic effects of DMT on the CNS and through increased levels of unmetabolised biogenic amines. Pinoline potentiates the activity of methylated tryptamines and this is the probable mechanism behind ayahuasca (Callaway, 1994) .
Investigation of long term users of ayahuasca showed a statistically significant
difference between control group and users with a higher binding density in blood platelets of 5-HT uptake sites in the ayahuasca drinkers. No other pharmacological agent is known to significantly alter values of Bmax binding density, though the density of 5-HT uptake sites may vary considerably from one individual to another. Therefore it is likely that other parameters of the serotonergic system are analogously affected. This indicates a modulatory role for pinoline (the endogenous equivalent of ayahuasca) in the CNS. An upregulation of the serotonergic system is exactly what current antidepressant medications attempt to do, i.e. increasing synaptic 5-HT by preventing its reuptake.
The possibility remains that long term users of ayahuasca may find relief through the
tea for inherently high densities of 5-HT uptake sites and that this condition allows them to better tolerate the serotonergic effects of this mixture. In this case ayahuasca can be seen as a form of self-medication for depressive psychological problems. Thus it is possible that ayahuasca may be useful in the treatment of affective disorders (Callaway, 1994).
Betacarbolines are produced from biogenic tryptamines. The search for endogenous
THBCs as biochemical explanations for mental illness began in the early 1960s as an extension of the transmethylation hypothesis for schizophrenia (Osmond & Smythies, 1952). Pinoline has been shown to bind to sites in the interpeduncular nucleus. The interpeduncular nucleus, a small area in the basal mid-brain, and its connection to the habenula are essential
for REM sleep. When these connections are cut in rat brain, REM disappears or decreases dramatically.
It has been suggested that mental states of hallucinatory psychosis, psychedelic drugs
and dreams all share common features. Callaway suggests that psychoactive tryptamine derivatives in the CNS of mammals play a role in the manifestations of visual and emotive phenomena during normal dream sleep. The endogenous activity of these rapidly metabolised methylated tryptamines is suggested to be promoted through the regular and periodic inhibition of MAO-A by endogenous betacarbolines. The hypothesis is extended to include psychoses by suggesting that hallucinatory psychotic episodes may result from a desychronised dream mechanism, where the individual essentially dreams while awake (Callaway, 1994) . 3.4.1. The 40Hz EEG links between schizophrenics, ayahuasca users and psi experiences
Don et al (1989) report increased 40HZ EEG activity associated with clairvoyance
hitting in an exceptional psychic, this being repeated with another person in a later study (McDonough,1989). Don et al (1996) recorded EEGs from 11 members of a Brazilian shamanistic religion which uses ayahuasca. Analyses showed increases in power in the 40 HZ region, consistent with reports that ayahuasca intensifies visual imagery. They interpret these results as supporting the proposal by Llinas & Ribary (1993) that the 40HZ rhythm is linked with the consciousness-generating mechanism which produces the REM state, hallucinations and daydreaming states, and further suggest that this “may also underly the conscious elaboration of initially unconscious or preconscious psi information.” They think that the claimed psychic effects of ayahuasca are due to 40 Hz brain activity making unconscious psi information available to the conscious mind.
Don & Moura (1997) analysed the EEGs of people claiming contact or abduction UFO
experiences who later spontaneously had altered states of consciousness or trance experiences. This showed a state of hyperaroused trance in which the muscles were relaxed and immobile whilst their EEGs exhibited high frequency 40 Hz beta activity at all 19 electrode sites, with maximum activity at the prefrontal and adjacent loci. There were intermittent trains of rhythmic approximately 40 Hz activity attaining very high amplitudes at times exceeding 40 microvolts, which was distinct from muscle discharge, significantly more in trance than in baseline. Also the dominant alpha frequency increased during trance. There have been numerous observations of increased fast beta activity in schizophrenia patients (Itil, 1977) but this tends to include delta, theta, alpha and low beta activity as well. Also in schizophrenia the beta activity is observed mostly at sites posterior to the frontal scalp. Most importantly UFO experiencers can voluntarily commence and terminate the high frequency activity which was only present in the trance condition; voluntary control is not found in schizophrenics. Das & Gastaut (1957) found a similar EEG in a yogi in advanced meditation, in the state of samadhi. They suggest that UFO experiencers enter this ecstasy trance state, some of the experiencers reporting feeling that they were linked to a higher consciousness and sometimes connected with a non-human being or even with God. The difference is that samadhi is experienced after years of training whereas the UFO people experienced it as a result of their abduction of contact.
Llinás has proposed that the thalamic intralaminar nuclei which comprise the diffuse
thalamic system generate 40 Hz activity which integrates corticothalamic activity and so bears importantly on consciousness. Sheer (1984) found that scalp-recorded 40 Hz was associated with focused arousal and learning tasks. It appears that as the focus of attention sharpens, the integrative activity of the thalamic system increases through the action of 40 Hz rhythms. Apparently when attentional focusing becomes laser-like an extreme state of corticothalamic integration occurs and with it an amplification of normally unconscious brain activity, with a higher-order self or personality prevailing which seems to transcend time and space. However the UFO experiencers did not show the high frequency brain activity widely spread all over the
scalp as did the yogis. Theirs was centred on the prefrontal loci of the brain. In samadhi one experiences Divine Union. The UFO people experienced a wider range of phenomena.
This EEG research suuports the neurochimical findings with regard to the
commonalities between the various primary process states of consciousness of psychics, spiritual people and visionaries. In section 4.2. we will look at Llinas hypothesis which links these with the dream state of consciousness. 4. States of Consciousness: The Link between Psychosis, the Psychedelic Experience and Dreams
What is central to the psychedelic, the shamanic and the psychotic is a state of
consciousness often described as hallucinogenic or hallucinatory. In this state of consciousness one experiences reality in mythic archetypal thought patterns, often called primary process thinking. Many scientists, such as Noll (1983), consider that: “Hallucination almost invariably carries with it the frightening connotation of psychosis, especially if it occurs repeatedly.” Yet, this state of consciousness is experienced by all humans every night when we are dreaming. Every 90 minutes we experience a dream lasting on average 20 minutes; therefore 19.4% of every night's sleep is spent dreaming with an average of 4 - 5 dreams a night. The fear surrounding hallucination is profound in our culture but is not so marked in cultures whihc regularly use spychotropic plants. Our fear has led us to consider hallucinations as unreal and delusions. However, they are frequently used by primary process consciousness to impart information to us in the mode whihc is appropriate for that state of consciousness and the more familiar we become with that state the less frightening is the hallucinatory mode.
The link between dreams and psychosis has been remarked on often through millennia,
e.g. Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Freud. Moreau (1845) remarked also on the similarity with drug induced hallucination. Thalbourne (1996) has proposed the concept of transliminality to describe the state experienced, which he defines as:
“Transliminality, or the ability to cross the threshold, is the name that has been given to
the common factor that has been found to underlie creative personality, mystical experience, psychopathology of the schizotypal and manic-depressive kind, and belief in and alleged experience of the paranormal. Other core constituents of transliminality are religiosity, frequency of dream-interpretation and fantasy-proneness, dream recall and hyperaesthesia.”
Since the 50’s there has been speculation that sleep, dreams and psychosis are
interrelated. Dement (1960) in the classic study on dream deprivation in which 8 young men were awakened every time they started dreaming, for several consecutive nights, found that on the first night of dream deprivation, the return to sleep initiated a new sleep-dream cycle, and therefore there were 4 - 5 attempts to dream. On each subsequent night the time elapsed between returning to sleep and starting to dream decreased dramatically, i.e. there was a progressive increase in attempt to dream for all subjects, from 11 - 30 awakenings in a night. Every subject had the first minute or two of dreaming so the deprivation was 65 - 75% complete.
Then they were allowed recovery nights when they could sleep and dream without
disturbance: the first night they dreamt for 26.6 - 29% of the sleeping time. They required up to five nights before a return to normal patterns was complete. If one is woken in between dream periods there is no subsequent increase in dream times so these effects are not due to repeated awakenings affecting sleep pattern.
Psychological disturbances such as anxiety, irritability, and difficulty in concentrating
developed during the period of dream deprivation. Three subjects stopped early - one after two nights and two after four nights, presumably because the stress was too great. One subject exhibited severe anxiety and agitation, 5 developed a marked increase in appetite. These
changes disappeared as soon as they were allowed to dream again. "It is possible that if the dream suppression were carried on long enough, a serious disruption of the personality would result" (Keshaven et al, 1990).
Granek et al (1988) consider that sleep disorders generated by chronic use of
psychostimulants, such as opium or khat, may generate, in the long term, hypnagogic experiences during daytime. REM suppression and subsequent REM rebound have been described among chronic users of amphetamine and cocaine. The striking similarity between daytime hallucinations of the psychotic and dream experience has prompted research in the EEG patterns of schizophrenia patients during sleep. The hypothesis is that intrusion or leakage of REM sleep phasic events into waking would contribute to a disorder of attention and perception.
A large majority of schizophrenics complain of poor sleep; they show a fragmentation of
sleep and decrease in total sleep time (see section 3.3.2). Schizophrenics have a reduction in stage 4 sleep (delta slow wave sleep (SWS)), this being found also in normal elderly people, in those with major depression, mental retardation, when under stress and those with chronic dementia. The major deficit in delta occurs in the first NREM period. Adolescence, which is frequently when schizophrenia begins, is characterised by quantitative decline in sleep, the time spent in stage 4 (SWS) declines by 50%, the amplitude of delta waves declines by 75% between 10 - 16 years of age. SWS deficit may also be related to anxiety or to overarousal rather than to psychosis, (Keshaven et al (1990). 4.2. Shamanic trance characteristics
The following characteristics are typical of shamanic experiences, though every culture
has some differing characteristics which are peculiar to that culture: a) Belief in aerial voyage of trancer - this is probably the most consistent belief across all cultures linked with the shamanic experience; b) spirit helpers of plants, e.g. mescalito by users of the peyote cactus, are evoked by users; c) healers divine the future and make prognosis of illness, this has already been exemplified by traditional usage of ayahuasca; d) rituals associated with trance state: all shamanic cultures use ceremony and ritual in conjunction with the psychedelic plant, or other methods of achieving the trance state of consciousnsess; e) music an integral part of ritual - this is commonly chanting or drumming; f) the song guides the trance - this is especially true with ayahuasca ceremonies; g) women are involved in healing rituals generally after menopause - presumably because pregnancy requires the women to abstain from psychedelic plant usage and hallucinogenic plants are not given to pre-adolescent children; h) man/animal transformations utilising plant; i) recruitment to shamanistic role is idiosyncratic based on personal attributes - this I shall look at more fully in a moment; it may also run in families; j) no metaphor of possession by alien spirit force; (Dobkin de Rios, 1986)
Dobkin de Rios also mentions the following characteristics which are found also in
psychotic and psychedelic experiences: experience of time as highly accelerated or imperceptibly slowed; death of ego/rebirth phenomena reported;
quality and intensity of altered state unpredictable; fear of death.
Since the turn of the century psychiatrists have noticed the similarity between acute
psychotic breakdown and shamanic trance states. It is an interesting historical exercise to read through the reports over the past 50 years, because one sees primarily how the same data is
interpreted according to a changing Western attitude. Initially one had titles such as “Shamans as Neurotics” (Devereux, 1961) , in which the shamanic trance state was identified as psychopathological. The following quote is a good example of the sort of thinking at this time. Devereux lists various authors, poets, composers who were considered to be mentally unstable and offers the opinion that their insanity was a part of their creative genius, and that “the problem is . . . we view the finding that neurotics and/or more or less latent psychotics can perform culturally valued social functions, as a slur and as an aspersion on culture and society.” Interestingly this attitude still holds today - but today shamans are seen as healthy members of their culture, and I am now arguing that many psychotics in our culture could be healthy and valued members of our culture, if only they were assisted through their initial breakdown and taught how to grow through and ground their experience, rather than being hospitalised and treated with drugs.
Part of the shift in attitude is seen in the 1980’s when great efforts were made to show
that shamanic trance was not the same altered state of consciousness as the psychedelic or psychotic experience, that it could in itself be psychotherapeutic and that the shaman was not neurotic or psychotic (Noll, 1983). This is valid. All states of consciousness are unique to themselves. What I am trying to show in this paper though is that they are on a continuum from teh dream state through the psychedelic and shamanic states to acute psychotic breakdown, and the same underlying primary process, mythic mode of thought is common to all.
The visionary state is considered to be the essence of the shamanic complex. I think
that many young people have an inherent and strong urge to experience ASCs. Noll (1983) also remarks on this. The shamanic trance is a state of consciousness that has been utilised among many human cultures across human history. More pertinent to my thesis here though is the famous “initial call” of some shamans, which mark the person out as having a particular gift, a “greater lability to easily experience ASCs in whatever form, thus marking him or her as a prospective candidate for shamanic training.” (Noll, 1983) The important fact here is that after the initial call experience the budding shaman is then taught by the reseident shaman how to control their gift for the good both of their society and for the person who has the initially uncontrolled experience. The tragedy in our society is that people having this experience are not recognised and not helped to control the experience.
Always in human behaviour there is an interaction between state vs trait factors,
between personality and behvaiour derived from genetic, constitutional traits (Allport, 1966 et al) and behaviour which is best understood within the context of psychological states linked with the environment (James, 1890) in whihc the interaction of the person and the situation accounts for more variance in behaviour than the person or situation alone. Thus in a shamanic culture the experience of an uncontrolled ASC will be interpreted and dealt with completely differently from someone having that experience in the modern Western culture. An experience within an ASC cannot be easily regarded as “legitimate” or “real”, the interpretation is almost totally culture dependent.
For example the Western medical model “views behavioural disorders as displays of
symptoms of underlying psychological “disease entities.” Labelling someone as “ill” places then in a dependent and therefore inferior role in our society. Such labelling may have dire consequences for the person stigmatised by the disease syndrome tag. The ASC experience by orthodox Western psychological standards is “sick”, “inferior” or “pathological”. Tart (1975) notes that an implicit assumption in Western cultures is that deliberately “cultivating ASCs is also a sign of psychopathology.”
I am not the first to note this comparison. Silverman (1967) argues that the onset of
acute schizophrenia in our culture is analogous to the “initial call” of the shaman, as described by Eliade (1964) and others. Eliade’s chapter on initiatory sicknesses and dreams centres on their importance in Siberia and elsewhere as a transformation process :They transform the profane, pre-choice individual into a technician of the sacred.” Laing (1967) claims that “no age in the history of humanity has perhaps so lost touch with this natural healing process that implicates some of the people we label schizophrenic.” Shamanic techniques are described as
closely resembling certain psychotherapeutic techniques in our own culture by Murphy (1964) who sees “the process of shamanism as ‘whole man’ therapy” and by Peters and Price-Williams (1980) who compare it with the various types of “waking dream” therapies, especially with the process of “active imagination” in Jungian psychotherapy. Both shamanism and schizophrenia are subject to colouful romanticization 4.2.1.Differences between the Shamanic State of consciousness (SSC) and schizophrenia Volition
“By far the most important distinction between the SSC and schizophrenic state is that
the shaman voluntarily enters and leaves his ASCs while the schizophrenic is the helpless victim of his.” (Noll, 1983)
The shaman willfully induces his ASCs, and the evidence suggests that except in the
case of the ingestion of certain hallucinogens, the shaman can also willfully return from his altered states. The shaman has a conscious, purposive, social function for entering the SSC. Control of the shaman’s ASCs is the most important criterion. Hartner (1980) adds: “Indeed, the ability of the master shaman to operate successfully in two different realities is seen as evidence of power.” This “shamanic balance” has been lauded by others and is a sign of the high adaptability of shamans in maintaining ther levels of social and occupational functioning despite repeated ecstatic experience in altered states.” (Noll, 1983) Form and content of thought
The negative, involuntary themes of intrusion so common in schizophrenia are absent in
shamans. However, similar themes are found in states of involuntary or unsolicited “possession trance” or “spirit possession.”
The distinction between the baseline, or ordinary SOC, and nonordinary states,
between the outer and the inner, is a distinction that the schizophrenia simply cannot always make. This does not appear to be true of most shamans studied by ethnographers, and probably results directly from their many years of training. The validity of both realms is acknowledged by the shaman, whose mastery derives from their ability to not confuse the two. Perception
All experiences in ASCs are ultimately hallucinatory from the cognicentrist point of view.
For example, the schizophrenic may be victimised by voices, mercilessly criticised and mocked by them, and the voices cannot be made to stop through the volition of the schizophrenic. For the shaman, there is an auditory component to the SSC, but it is usually of a positive, helpful, healing nature, and the advice given by “spirits” is willfully sought out by the shamans. This is due to the positive emotional psychological state of the shaman versus the frightened, confused state of the psychotic. What we experience in our minds is so strongly derived from what we heard as children from family, peers and society in general. Western society in general is so sick that our hallucinations torment us. Affect, sense of self, and relation to the external world.
Murphy notes . . that “for a shaman to become a successful healer he had often to
display an exceptional ability in emotional control and in taking responsibility.” Butt (1966) says that among the Akawio, any shaman who manifested psychopathy (such as loss of emotional control and inappropriate expression of affect) “would be regarded as inappropriate and likely to scare away patients rather than encourage them to apply for aid.”
The point that comes across so strongly here is that shamans are healthy people, who
have not been subjected to abuse, not been told that they are sick, stigmatised, put down, so they can utilise the experience rather than being terrified by it and losing control over it, with the voices being helpful rather than condematory, their emotions being healthy rather than having to cut off from feeling because it is all so scary. What are we doing to these senistive peole in our midst? What tragedy is being committed to so many sensitive souls that they have to live a nightmare rather than fulfilling their birthright and growing into spiritually whole people?
4.2.1.Specific commonalities between psychotic and psychedelic states of consciousness
a) the initial acute incidence of schizophrenia is marked by visual hallucinations, which are similar to psychedelic hallucinations. In longer term chronic patients one gets more auditory hallucinations; b)The experience of heightened sensory awareness is common to psychedelic states and to acute psychosis. This shows up in psychophysiological, e.g. GSR, studies. There are two related reactions: i) ordinary intensity stimuli are experienced more intensely than normally, ii) less sensory information is necessary in order to report that a stimulus is present. c) Awareness of “significance,” the sense of special significance, the experience of expanded relevance or meaning, is the initial stage in the development of delusional thinking. The primary delusional experience is fundamental to psychedelic states and in incipient psychosis. d) The behavioural withdrawal of some schizophrenics is similar to those who unwittingly ingest hallucinogens without knowing they are doing so and who then become extremely frightened and withdraw. e) Both psychotics and those taking a psychedelic trip have difficulty expressing thoughts: rambling, incoherent, word salads become charged with symbolic meaning so that one may effect a union between the word and its object. f)The earliest affective changes in schizophrenia are often pleasurable and exhilarating like a pschedelic trip. Anxiety and dysphoria occur later as people feel they are losing control over their thoughts. One gets the same in LSD use.
daydreams, are prototypical of this: internal processes can no longer be distinguished from external ones; sensory phenomena strike the weakened ego boundaries with unaccustomed impact; colours and sounds appear to have increased intensity; the distinction between self and non-self is blurred; the notion of causality is affected.
4.2.2. Psychological Correspondences between Dreams, Psychosis and Psychedelic States of Consciousness
The psychedelic state has its basis in a primary loss of ego boundaries. Accurate
perception of reality depends upon the ego’s continuous synthesis of self-representations to form a constant frame of reference, a continuous coherent self. The disruption of this in dreams, psychedelic states and psychosis leads to a chaotic condition in which various ego states succeed one another without a common reference point. This renders a loss of temporal continuity to experience, characterised by a weakening of the ego’s identification with the self - a separation of body and soul, e.g “I feel like I’m a bystander watching myself.” The observing self becomes dissociated from the experiencing self. Eventually the connections may be lost; the ego may identify with one or another self-representation, but can no longer identify with a coherent self. This estrangement is the fundamental process which is seen alike in dreams, psychedelic states, acute psychosis and even in everyday daydreams. Our whole relation to the external world, to reality, depends on our ability to distinguish between perceptions and ideas, and this depends on our capacity for reflective awareness. Reality testing requires an ability to represent oneself as thinker of the thought - reflective self-representation. In dreams, hallucinogenic drug states and psychosis reflective self-representation is lost and primary process thinking predominates.
a)the capacity to maintain a constant inner representation of the self and of objects; b)the capacity to distinguish between self and object and thus between internal and external phenomena; c)the capacity to shift from “thing-presentation” to “word-presentation.”
In primary process thought one is unable to transcend immediate sensory impressions
and so move on to secondary process thinking and the level of concepts and abstraction. In a dream everything is experienced much more immediately. In primary process thinking images predominates, i.e. thoughts (word-presentations) are transformed into images (thing-presentations) (Fischman, 1983). “The relationship to objects, including people, takes on an unusual quality and depth and an immediacy which dissolves the ordinary experience of continuity” (Fischman, 1983). It is this quality of vivid, immediate sense-imagery which characterises the primary process.
In dreams, in LSD states and in psychosis, words undergo condensation and
displacement via the primary process. Words are not conceived as symbols of objects but as objects themselves. In dreams visual percepts are treated concretely as objects and as such, are subjected to the transformations of the primary process. In all three states (dreams, schizophrenia, LSD) the net effect of these transformations is a tendency toward concretization, which one also gets to some extent in the hypnagogic state. Abstract thought thus becomes mythic thought.
All three show an altered experience of time: timelessness, time standing still or time
slowed down. The dreamer’s time sense is in the present. Only the present is real - past and future are exceedingly remote. All thinking occurs in the present tense. To differentiate memories and expectations from present events, one must appreciate the relationship between the self-representation associated with the memory or expectation, and the self-representation associated with the present thought. If this relationship is not appreciated the distinction between past, present, and a future dissolves. In dreams, psychedelic states, and psychosis, the normal continuity of experience is disrupted.
Also similarities between certain stages of psychoses and psychedelic states are worth
noting. Ideally the psychedelic chemicals hold out a hope for understanding and perhaps improving certain aspects of mental health. The psychedelics exhibit a high therapeutic index and their use has not been associated with physical dependence. DMT is a normal component of human blood. Psychedelics influence the mind in such a profound manner because their structure is very similar to naturally occuring compounds; the mere capacity for such an experience suggests that the psychedelic state is inherently fundamental to aspects of our psyche that are normally inaccessible during the waking phase of our lives (Callaway, 1994) .
Source: http://www.psi-researchcentre.co.uk/documents/worldwalking%20-%20latest%20v.pdf
Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Vol. 17, No. 2, pp 123–125©2001 The American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Inc. Destructive Eyelid Lesions in SarcoidosisMuhammad Moin, F.R.C.Ophth.,*† Robert C. Kersten, M.D.,*‡ Francesco Bernardini, M.D.,*§ *Department of Ophthalmology, University of Cincinnati, Ohio; †Department of Ophthalmology, Mayo Hos
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