Unconscious States and Creativity (II)

Out of consciousness or towards the unconscious

Aldous Huxley, one of the greatest philosophers of the twentieth century, in his essay "Heaven and Hell", compares the emergence from states of consciousness to a distant, uncharted journey, and argues that a person can go to the Australia of his own psyche and look around, but he cannot control who he will meet there (52). This idea seems to be close to Thacker's already expressed idea that in order to know the non-human world, the only way to approach it is to become a mediator, a conduit. This means that one must give up any consciousness inherent in the human species, which, as Huxley argues, is the protection of the human species, so that the whole universe does not open up to us and so that the human being does not lose his basic survival instincts, which are dictated by consciousness and are necessary for the survival of the species.

As for the methods of leaving consciousness, Huxley stresses that none is perfect, but that the latter are reliable, simple and safe enough to justify the trust of those who know what they are doing. In the former, the soul travels long distances with the help of a chemical substance, mescaline or lysergic acid. In the second case, a vehicle of a psychological nature is used, the journey to the Australias of everyday consciousness is made through hypnosis. Both vehicles transport the consciousness to the same region, but the drug operates over a longer distance and transports the passengers deeper. Mescaline is thought to disrupt normal brain activity, reducing the brain's effectiveness as an instrument for dealing with the problems of life on this planet. A certain class of events that would otherwise be prevented because they are useless for the purpose of humanity's survival may then have entered consciousness. Similar intrusions of biologically worthless but aesthetically and sometimes spiritually valuable material can occur in times of illness or fatigue, for example, by starvation (53).

Andre Breton, in his Surrealist Manifesto, also mentioned that the hormone ghrelin, produced when we are hungry, stimulates learning and memory. On the third day of starvation, our digestive process is completely reversed and the energy we get is now 100% from body fat and ketones, which opens the way to unconscious states54. In general, fasting reduces sugar intake and inhibits the biological efficiency of the brain. Vitamin deficiencies lead to the removal of nicotinic acid, a known vision inhibitor, from the blood. The vision of a person exposed to mescaline or lysergic acid is interrupted by high doses of nicotinic acid, which explains well how starvation causes vision (55). A similar, but slightly faster, effect can be produced by restricting certain stimuli or otherwise creating sensory deprivation. Being indoors, in complete darkness and silence, for example in a well-insulated, darkened music recording studio, can produce a similar effect. Although there is little research on sensory deprivation today, because of the potential residual effects of such experiments on human subjects, a wide range of human studies were still acceptable to research participants in the 1950s. Donald O. Hebb, professor of psychology at McGill University in Montreal, identified how sensory deprivation affects human cognitive function. The results showed that many of the participants in the experiment were unable to think clearly about anything for long periods of time, and post-experiment tests of cognitive functions showed that the volunteers' mental abilities were indeed temporarily impaired. The isolated subjects also reported experiencing supernatural phenomena, anxiety and vivid hallucinations. It is important to note that the subjects' hallucinations were not purely visual: one volunteer repeatedly heard music; another claimed to have heard a choir singing to accompany his vision of the sun rising over the church; and another felt an electric shock in his vision when he reached out his hand to touch a door handle. The study was planned to last for 6 weeks, but the longest lasting participant stayed within 1 week (56). It is true that sensory deprivation studies are really difficult to organise, but episodes of an experiment carried out by the BBC in 2010 are available online (57). In this experiment, 3 volunteers were deprived for 48 hours in a completely dark and soundproof room. Although the experiment can only be observed in a very episodic way, the results are remarkable: after spending some time in a confined space, the participants start to experience hallucinations (58), which only confirms the findings of the 1960s on the experiences caused by deprivation.

In fact, psychology claims that if a person is trapped in a restricted environment - no light, no sounds, no smells - and placed in a warm bath, which remains the only thing that is barely distinguishable to the touch, he or she will soon start to "see" images and "hear" voices, and experience changes in the body. Sixty-five participants (14 men and 51 women) took part in an experiment in which they were randomly divided into control and intervention groups. The study took place over a seven-week period, during which the intervention group received twelve flotation sessions. Questionnaires measuring psychological and physiological variables such as stress and energy, depression and anxiety, optimism, pain, stress, sleep quality, attentiveness and degree of altered states of consciousness were used. The results showed that stress, depression, anxiety and pain decreased significantly, while optimism and sleep quality increased significantly in the flotation group. No significant results were observed in the control group. Also, there was a significant correlation between mindfulness in daily life and altered state of consciousness during bath relaxation (59).

52 HUXLEY, Aldous. Suvokimo durys. Dangus ir pragaras. Vilnius: Kitos knygos. 2019. p.152. ISBN 9786094273667

53 Ibid. p. 76

54 SHEEKY, Mark. 21st Century Surrealism: A Guide for Artists and Creative People. Edinburgh: Pentangel Books, 2018. P.142. ISBN 9780957194762

55 HUXLEY, Aldous. Suvokimo durys. Dangus ir pragaras. Vilnius: Kitos knygos. 2019. p.152. ISBN 9786094273667

56 ROSNER, Cecil. Isolation. [Žiūrėta 2022 m. balandžio 2 d.]. Prieiga per internetą: https://www.canadashistory.ca/explore/science-technology/isolation

57 BBC Studios. 48 hours of total isolation - Horizon - BBC. [Žiūrėta 2022 sausio 8 d.]. Prieiga per internetą: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfdN_megX4E&t=28s

58 BBC Studios. 48 hours of total isolation - Horizon - BBC. [Žiūrėta 2022 sausio 8 d.]. Prieiga per internetą: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nnekxGE0nM&t=21s

59 KJELLGREN, Anette; WESTMAN, Jessica. Beneficial effects of treatment with sensory isolation in flotation-tank as a preventive health-care intervention – a randomized controlled pilot trial. BMC Complementary and alternative medicine. 2014. t. 14. P. 417 ISSN 25344737