Inner Worlds

Abstract

Abstract This chapter provides an introduction to consciousness, and explores how our subjective experiences change during a variety of altered states of consciousness. An overview of cognition is given, outlining the processes involved in the construction of our experiences within the ‘stream’ or ‘theatre of consciousness’. Next, the main varieties of altered states of consciousness are discussed: psychosis, psychedelic experience, dreaming, hypnagogic hallucinations, sensory deprivation, meditation, trance, and hypnosis. Using existing dimensional models, these can be understood not as discrete states, but as points on a continuum, which significantly diverge from ‘normal waking consciousness’. For the purposes of Inner Sound, these altered states of consciousness can be represented or induced with the aid of sound and music; here an initial outline of how this may occur is given.