We uncritically accept a virtual pharmacopoeia of over-the-counter remedies as a staple of modern life. As long as a drug seems to somehow enhance physical functioning, we see the drug and our motive for using it as good. We are more ambivalent about drugs that enhance mental and emotional functioning, such as the psychotropics, but in general they fall within the limits of cultural acceptance or even approval. However, drugs used to induce non-ordinary states of consciousness, such as the psychedelics, and our motives for using such drugs are generally regarded as bad.

In the last article (see June 97 issue, sorry not on Web yet!), I pointed out that Western culture has been unique in excluding exploration of non-ordinary states of consciousness to facilitate the pursuit of knowledge and healing. Typically, primal cultures use these states of consciousness to develop an ongoing sense of the sacred as well as a dissolving of boundaries between persons, the physical world, and the spiritual world, so these states promote a sense of meaning and relatedness for them.

Primal or indigenous people treat the need to experience these non-ordinary states as a normal and necessary feature of human existence and fully integrate these experiences into the framework of their cultures.

The Western mind bogs down when attempting to understand such phenomena. Michael Harner, author of The Way of the Shaman and founder of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, has called this notion cognicentrism (that ordinary states of consciousness are the only legitimate states of awareness). Viewed from a cognicentric frame of reference, the only motive for changing one’s consciousness is escape, and the state of consciousness produced is considered psychotic.

It is apparent that such a view also represents the western world’s ignorance of our own nature. In the 1960’s Robert Keith Wallace published in Scientific American a study of the physiological effects of Transcendental Meditation, in which he defined specific physiological measures characteristic of a meditative state. He proposed that this transcendent state be considered a fourth major state of consciousness (the others being waking, dreaming, and deep sleep). He argued that since deprivation of any of the other three states produced serious imbalances and symptoms, deprivation of the transcendent state might similarly compromise a person’s well-being.

The implication is staggering - that the culture as a whole is transcendent-state-deprived. So, what we regard as normal is, from a broader perspective, pathological because of deficiency in a basic "nutrient," a healthy, integrated life. In addition, if the systematic and integrated induction of non-ordinary states is a fundamental need of the human organism and if that need is culturally prohibited, then it will manifest in maladaptive ways. This is true of any basic human need that is suppressed.

Many of us in the Transpersonal Psychology field contend that transcendence deprivation is intimately connected with a spectrum of human distress, including problems with addiction. This view is expressed in addictions field literature in The Thirst for Wholeness by Christina Grof and The Wide Open Door by Tav Sparks. Grof as the co-developer of Holotropic Breathwork? and Sparks as a Breathwork? trainer have tracked the progress of hundreds of recovering addicts using Breathwork?, a non-ordinary state. Clearly, when an individual is able to transcend ordinary awareness in a safe and supportive setting, a healing process is set into motion that includes a problem-solving component as well as a sense of connection with a higher reality.

This is not a "substitute high." The transcendent state, in fact, may not be blissful at all since it may take one into layers of anger, grief, shame, etc., which have been thwarting progress. It releases the personal agenda and allows innate transpersonal sources of wisdom and healing to work in unfettered ways.

In addition to facilitating personal growth and healing, Holotropic BreathworkTM and the Transpersonal Psychology field represent a dynamic within which we can be freed from cognicentrism and reintroduced to a fuller range of consciousness options. Fortunately, these options can be offered without drugs. Interestingly enough, in indigenous cultures which practice shamanism, only about 20% employ psychoactive plants to induce non-ordinary states. The other 80% use non-drug methods such as sonic driving (drumming). If as a culture we find safe and reliable ways of connecting with deeper aspects of the human experience and have deeper experiences of connection, perhaps we can begin to see some real healing in our culture, not by waging war on drugs but by declaring peace with our need for transcendence.