Humans Have Been Experimenting With and Fascinated

¶ … humans have been experimenting with and fascinated by the various states of consciousness. It is common knowledge that man regularly moves through these different states of being. Equally known is the ability to intentionally change one's experiential level. Such is man's attraction to altered consciousness that some religions, chiefly Eastern ones, have incorporated into their repertoires philosophies of and activities towards attention manipulation. Science, particularly biopsychology, has also recognized the value of managing consciousness. Biofeedback, meditation, and sleep are examples of the relationship between attention and one's state of being.

Biofeedback involves electrically monitoring involuntary responses to stimuli. In other words, one's heartbeat, muscle tension, and brain wave activity are recorded while specific conditions occur. By analyzing and correlating this data to an individual's physiological dysfunctions, professionals are able to prescribe explicit and effective therapies. The belief guiding biofeedback treatment is that spontaneous reactions can be harnessed and modified thereby enabling one to quell physical discomfort. Naturally this involves directing one's attention. More precisely, it requires an acute awareness of one's bodily experiences. It is not surprising that treatment revolves around training patients to first focus their attention on physiological responses and then to modify them. The result is considerable control over physical reactions and the skills to eliminate disruptive conditions.

Although attending to distinct phenomena than those found in biofeedback therapy, meditation nevertheless affords another illustration of the bi-directional nature of attention and consciousness. Primarily a spiritual practice, meditation aims to bring an individual into a peaceful state of being by blocking out many, if not all, external stimuli. Said differently, during meditation fixation on one sound, motion, sensation, or idea allows an individual to quiet all other operations, be they physical, emotional, or mental. Only through an external stillness is an internal tranquility possible. This intense and sustained focus permits one to alter his consciousness, moving from a reactive state to a more restful one.

As with meditation, sleep attends to inner experiences. External stimuli are largely ignored so that body and mind can focus on internal demands. Obviously humans require ample time to rest, repair, and assimilate previous activity. Since this is not viable, or greatly inhibited, during periods of continual interaction with the environment, humans experience a low level of consciousness (called sleep) so that such internal housekeeping is possible. In other words, while an individual sleeps, he is mostly unaware of environmental conditions; this ignorance allows his body and mind to perform the necessary maintenance and recuperation that will keep him functioning during the waking hours.