State Of Altered Consciousness Essay

There are four main states of altered consciousness that differ from our normal state, sleep and dreams, hypnosis, biofeedback, and meditation. These states, while having identified them and having a general grasp of them, are still studied and observed to find out the definitive reason for why each and every one of them occur and what we can do with these states, whether it be medicinal or spiritual.

The first state of altered consciousness that I will talk about is sleep and dreams, a state that we have many hypotheses about, but not too much fact. We do know that sleep and dreams are resulted from being awake for too long. Sleep is a mandatory function of the human body, and without it, many health problems arise. Without enough sleep, we can lose our sanity, lose all concentration, see hallucinations, and eventually die. A lot of hypotheses behind sleep are based on different things, some being that sleep is used to recharge batteries and reformat the body, preparing it for the next day, as well as having the body grow and repair itself. Another idea is that sleeping is to let us dream, which are images and experiences you have in your mind when you sleep. Nobody knows the factual reason behind why we sleep, only that it could mean anything or nothing. A lot of people think that dreams are premonitions,
An example of biofeedback would controlling your heart rate. Biofeedback can be used to treat many disorders and their symptoms, some examples being sleep disorders, depression, traumatic brain injury, headaches, and chronic pain. Biofeedback is used as a treatment by a lot of medical centers, and there are even some people who have managed to do it in different ways, an example being a man in the alaskan area heating his body temperature so that he can walk in the extreme temperatures with only a pair of shorts on, nothing