Altered States of Consciousness aka the 8 Fold Path
Altered States of Consciousness
Also known as the "Eightfold Way," are a series of 8 different techniques used in Wicca to perform magick. [2]
Medical Definition of altered state of consciousness: any of various states of awareness (as dreaming sleep, a drug-induced hallucinogenic state, or a trance) that deviate from and are usually clearly demarcated from ordinary waking consciousness [5]
Consciousness can be characterized as a state of mental alertness and awareness. Conscious people experience concurrent, retrospective, or prospective awareness of events in their environment—an awareness that exists even in the absence of their ability to report it to others. Consciousness can also be characterized as the experience of voluntariness. People experience themselves as deliberately focusing attention on one object or idea rather than another and choosing among them to respond to environmental demands or to achieve personal goals—goals of which they are aware. A person is in an altered state of consciousness to the extent that these monitoring and controlling functions have been modified or distorted (Farthing, 1992; Kihlstrom, 1984). [6]
Nearly all societies are known to engage in practices that lead to altered states of consciousness. However the methods, functions, and cultural context vary widely between societies. One major variation is whether societies believe in possession by spirits or in one’s soul fleeing or going on a journey. [4]
An altered state of consciousness (ASC) can include hallucination, hypnotic states, trance states and meditation. In contemporary North American culture, these wakeful ASCs are thought of either as unusual events or pertaining to practices of specialists—hypnotic states induced by therapists or magicians, trances entered into by mediums conducting séances, meditation in yoga classes, or drug-induced hallucinatory experiences. The idea that bodies might be possessed by demons, witches, or spirits also exists as a popular theme in media and in some religious traditions. However, contemporary mainstream North American culture does not embrace these practices in rituals, healing practices, or as part of ordinary life. In other words, ASCs are not institutionalized (Winkelman 1986). [4]
Occasionally an ASC can trigger what is known as an abreaction in someone. Entering the ASC removes the barrier the person has put between their conscious mind and a traumatic experience they've had. As a result the person suddenly goes through the experience again, bursting into tears, yelling with anger, shivering with fear, and so on. This sort of reaction needs to be dealt with therapeutically; telling the person to forget it only makes the experience and any problems it has caused, worse for them. Not only does the person controlling a group ASC experience need to be able to handle such abnormal reactions, but he or she also needs to be able, when putting a new group into ASCs, to recognize individuals with borderline psychoses. The reason is that putting such people into an ASC, especially trance states, can push them over into a full-blown psychosis. For example, putting an epileptic into trance can trigger epileptic seizures. [7]
What is an Altered State of Consciousness?
Altered states of consciousness, sometimes called non-ordinary states, include various mental states in which the mind can be aware but is not in its usual wakeful condition, such as during hypnosis, meditation, hallucination, trance, and the dream stage.* Altered states can occur anywhere from yoga class to the birth of a child. They allow us to see our lives and ourselves with a broader lens and from different angles of perception than the ordinary mind. [3]
While there are measurable changes in brain waves that accompany some altered states, and much has been said about what those specific brain wave states are most conducive to metaphysically, there is also considerable pseudoscience and straight-out bullshit that has been published on the matter. [1]
Four features:
- operationally, as the product of a particular induction technique; [6]
- phenomenologically, as an individual's subjective report of altered awareness or voluntary control; [6]
- observationally, as changes in overt behavior corresponding to a person's self-report; [6]
- physiologically, as a particular pattern of changes in somatic functioning. In principle, every altered state. [6]
Examples in Archaeology
Pre-Columbian Maya society ritually consumed balché, a mead-like drink made with the hallucinogenic plant Longocarpus longistylus. [4]
The Olmec used “hallucinogens such as native tobacco (Nicotiana rustica) or the psychoactive venom found in the parathyroid gland of the marine toad Bufus marinus. Bones of this totally inedible toad appeared in trash deposits at San Lorenzo, while the magnificent kneeling figure known as the ‘Princeton Shaman’ has one of these amphibians incised on the top of his head”. [4]
In the South Pacific, Maori religious specialists employed Maori kava (Macropiper excelsum) in religious ritual and Polynesian groups such as the Hawaiians and Tongans used ‘awa (Piper methysticum) as an aid to communing spiritually with ancestors. [4]
Iron Age Indo-European groups such as the Scythians and the Dacians utilized Cannabis sativa and melilot (Melilotus sp.), which have been found charred in vessels and pouches accompanying burials and were described by the Greek historian Herodotus (5th century BCE) as part of a consciousness-altering repertoire for spiritual purification. [4]
The priestly caste at Chavín de Huantar, a Peruvian site occupied by the pre-Inca Chavín culture, used psychoactive substances such as mescaline-bearing San Pedro cactus (Trichocereus pachanoi) and vilca snuff (Anadenanthera sp.) in ceremonial contexts. Similar substances and accoutrements have been found at priestly burials in Tiwanaku, Bolivia. Scholars suggest that in a number of pre-Columbian Andean cultures, “social linkage…revolved intensely around cults and shared religious experience” that may often have been brokered by religious specialists who included wakeful hallucinogen-induced ASC as an important part of their spiritual repertoire. [4]
Artistic motifs at a number of late Neolithic megalithic ceremonial complexes in northern and western Europe (approximately 4000-2000 BCE) are thought to have been derived from entoptic hallucinatory imagery. Irish passage tombs or dolmen such as the site of Knowth, County Meath, are likely to have been designed as “multisensorial experiences” in which darkness and acoustic resonance could produce altered states of consciousness. [4]
Use in Witchcraft
Altered states are an integral part of witchcraft. Not so much a tool as a natural consequence, one will find themselves entering an altered state of consciousness as part of many magickal acts. In fact, it can be argued that an altered state is essential in order to feel the energy currents about oneself and to wield them to effect change -which is the basic premise of magick. [1]
The use of ASCs in magic and ritual has many benefits. By means of a guided visualization or path-working you can have experiences that would harm you or be impossible in the mundane world. Entering an ASC is normally part of the process of stepping onto the astral plane, reaching the Otherworld, tapping racial memory or the collective unconscious, contacting inner guides or obtaining information from your own unconscious. To raise power, many enter an ASC by dancing, chanting or using breathing techniques. It's then much easier to focus your concentration, draw on energy, and let it flow through you and into the object of the spell. Like many things, ASCs are tools, often valuable, but also dangerous. One danger is not coming out properly at the end of a ritual. Being in an ASC can feel wonderful and it can be tempting to stay there. [7]
Ways of Altering Consciousness
Meditation or Concentration
Trance
Rites, Chants, Spells, Runes, Charms, etc.
Intoxicants: Incense, Drugs, Wine.
Dance
Blood Control, Breath Control, and similar practices.
Flogging or other similar practices
Sex
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