States of Consciousness
Charles T. Tart
19. Ordinary Consciousness as a State of Illusion
A belief common to almost all spiritual disciplines is that the
human being is ordinarily in a state of consciousness described
by such words as illusion, waking dreaming, waking hypnosis, ignorance,
maya (Indian), or samsara (Buddhist). The realization of this
unsatisfactorily nature of one's ordinary d-SoC serves as the
impetus for purifying it and/or attaining d-ASCs that are considered
clearer and more valuable. This chapter considers the nature of
samsara[1] (illusion)
form the viewpoint of a Western psychologist. This interpretation
does not present a full understanding of the concept of samsara
or related concepts, but is simply a way of expressing it that
should be useful to other Westerners. This understanding flows
partly from the systems approach developed in previous chapters.
Consciousness, as we ordinarily know it in the West, is
not pure awareness but rather awareness as it is embodied in the
psychological structure of the mind or the brain. Ordinary experience
is of neither pure awareness nor pure psychological structure,
but of awareness embedded in and modified by the structure of
the mind/brain, and of the structure of the mind/brain embedded
in and modified by awareness. These two components, awareness
and psychological structures constitute a gestalt, an overall
interacting, dynamic system that makes up consciousness.
To most orthodox Western psychologists awareness is a by-product
of the brain. This primarily reflects a commitment to certain
physicalistic concepts rather than any real understanding of what
awareness is. In most spiritual disciplines, awareness is considered
to exist, or have potential to exist, independently of brain structure
{128}.
Let us now take a Western, psychological look at how ordinary
consciousness can be a state of illusion, samsara. Figure 19-1
represents the psychological processes of a person we shall call
Sam at six succeeding instants of time, labeled T1 through T6.
The vertical axis represents stimuli from the external world received
in the six succeeding instants of time; the horizontal axis represents
internal, psychological processes occurring through these six
succeeding instants of time. The ovals represent the main psychological
contents that are in the focus of consciousness, what Sam is mainly
conscious of, where almost all the attention/awareness (energy)
is. The arrows represent information flow; labels along the arrows
indicate the nature of that information flow. The small circles
containing the letter A represent internal psychological associations
provoked by the external stimuli or by other internal associations:
they are structures, the machinery of the mind.
Figure 19-1 is a flow
diagram of what happens in Sam's mind, how information comes in
to him and how this information is reacted to. Some of the effects
are deliberately exaggerated to make points, so Sam appears psychotic
in rather paranoid way. As is discussed later, this example is
not really so very different from our own ordinary consciousness.
In terms of the external world, a stranger walks up to Sam and
says, "Hi, my name is Bill." For simplicity,
we assume that this is all that happens of consequence in the
external world, even though in everyday life such a message usually
accompanied by other messages expressed in gestures and bodily
postures, modified by the setting in which they occur, etc. But
the defined reality here is that they stranger says, "Hi,
my name is Bill." This utterance occupies the first five
sequential units of time.
At time T1 the oval contains the label Primary Meaning, indicating
that the focus of conscious awareness is the word Hi. Although
this is shown as a simple perception it is not a simple act. The
word Hi would be a meaningless pattern of sounds except
for the fact that Sam has already learned to understand the English
language and thus perceives not only the sound qualities of the
word Hi, but also its agreed-upon meaning. Already we are
dealing not only with awareness per se, but with relatively permanent
psychological structures that automatically give conventional
meaning to language. Sam is an enculturated person.
The straightforward perception of the meaning of this word in
its agreed-upon form is an instance of clear or relatively enlightened
consciousness within the given consensus reality. Someone
says Hi to you and you understand that this is a greeting
synonymous with words like hello and greetings.
We can hypothesize that a relatively clear state of mind in the
period T1 through T5 consists of the following. At each instant
in time, the stimulus word being received is clearly perceived
in the primary focus of consciousness with its agreed-upon meaning,
and there is a sufficient memory continuity across these instants
of time to understand the sequence. Information from each previous
moment of consciousness is passed clearly on to the next, so that
the meaning of the overall sequence of worlds is understood.
For example, at time T2 not only is the word my perceived clearly
but the word Hi has been passed on internally from time
T1 as a memory, so Sam perceives that the sequence is Hi, my.
Similarly by time T5, there is primary perception of the agreed-upon
meaning of the word Bill, coupled with a clear memory of Hi,
my name is from the preceding four instants of time. This
simple message of the speaker is thus perceived for exactly what
it is.
Figure 19-1, however, shows a much more complex process than this
clear perception of primary stimulus information. my own psychological
observations have convinced me that this more complex process
takes place all the time, and the straightforward, relatively
clear perception described above is a rarity, especially for any
prolonged period of time. So, let us look at this diagram of samsara
in detail.
Again, we start with the primary meaning reception of the word
Hi at time T1. At the T2, however, not only is there a
primary, undistorted reception of the word my, but internally
an association has taken place to the word Hi. This association
is that PRICES ARE HIGH. This is deliberately an illogical (by
consensus reality standards) association, based on the sound of
the word and involving some departure from the primary meaning
of the word Hi used as a greeting. In spite of our culture's
veneration of logic, most of our psychological processes are not
logical.
(Ignore the label DEROPP'S "WATCHMAN AT THE GATE" ENTERS
HERE for the time being.)
The association PRICES ARE HIGH is not obviously pathological
or nonadaptive at this point. Since prices on so many commodities
have risen greatly, it is a likely association to hearing the
word Hi, even though it does not strictly follow from the
context of the actual stimulus situation. The pathology begins,
the mechanism of samsara begins operating, in the fact that this
association is not made in the full focus of consciousness but
on the fringes of or even outside consciousness. Most attention/
awareness energy is focused on the perception of my and
the memory of Hi, so they are perceived clearly, but some
attention/ awareness energy, too little for clear consciousness,
started "leaking" at T1 and activated an association
structure. The primary focus of consciousness at time T2 is on
the stimulus word my. The association PRICES ARE HIGH, operating
on the fringes of consciousness, is shown as sending some informational
content or feeling about money in general into the primary focus
of consciousness at time T2, but it is secondary content, with
too little energy to be clear.
If associational activities decay or die out at this simple level,
the state of samsara will not occur. But psychological processes
that operate outside the clear focus of consciousness tend to
get out of hand, acting much the same as implicit you are totally
controlled by it as it does not occur to you to question it.
Let us assume that the association PRICES ARE HIGH triggers a
further association during time T2 because of the word HIGH, and
this is an association of the sort I NEVER GET HIGH. This second
association then connects up at time T3 with emotionally charged
concerns of Sam's, represented by the arrow as PREPOTENT NEED/DRIVE
#1. Given the particular personality and concerns of this person
(he worries because he never gets high), this is a constant, dynamically
meaningful preoccupation with him and carries much psychical energy.
In colloquial terms, Sam has had "one of his buttons pushed,"
even though there was no "good" reason for it to be
pushed. Uncontrolled attention/awareness energy activated a structure
to which other psychological/emotional energy was connected. Now
we begin t o deal not just with simple information but with information
that is emotionally important. In this particular example, this
information is activating and has a negative, depressed quality.
At time T3, when this prepotent need is activated, psychical energy
flows into the main focus of consciousness. Also, the activation
of this prepotent need/drive activates, by habit, a particular
chain of associations centered around the idea that PEOPLE TAKE
ADVANTAGE OF ME. This kind of associational content also begins
to flow into the main focus of consciousness at time T3.
Now let us look closely at time T3 in terms of the primary focus
of consciousness. In terms of how we have defined relatively clear
functioning of this system of consciousness, the information Hi,
my should be and is being delivered from the previous moment
of consciousness at time T2 to provide continuity. However, the
relatively irrelevant association of money and the price of things,
represented by the dollar sign, is also being delivered as
if it were primary meaning, coming from the preceding primary
focus of consciousness, even though it actually represents associational
meaning that has slipped in. Because it was not clearly perceived
as an association in the first place, it gets mixed up
with the primary perceptions as memory transfers it from T2 to
T3. A general activation energy of negative tone is flowing in
from the prepotent need that is active at this time as well as
the associational contents that PEOPLE TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ME. Because
of the highly charged energy that goes with these associational
contents, the primary focus of consciousness at time T3 is labeled
semidelusion; the primary focus of Sam's consciousness now begins
to center around associational material while under the mistaken
impression that it is centering around actual information coming
in from the world. By identification with this associational material
and the prepotent need activated, Sam begins to live in his associations,
in a kind of (day) dream rather than in a clear perception of
the world.
Psychologists are well aware of the phenomenon known as perceptual
defense, of the selectivity of perception, of the fact that
we more readily see what we want to see, tend not to see what
we do not want to see, and/or distort what we do perceive into
what we would to perceive. What we would "like to" perceive
may often seem unpleasant, yet it has secondary advantages insofar
as it is supportive of the ego structure.
To indicate distortion of perception, a partial misperception
of the actual stimulus is shown (the word name at time
T3) in that the a gets dropped out of name as it
enters primary consciousness. While much of the original stimulus
gets through and provides materials (in this case the other letters)
for later processing, some of it drops out. This process of filtering
perceptions, rejecting some things, distorting others, is a major
characteristic of samsara. We tend to perceive selectively those
elements of situations that support our preexisting beliefs and
feelings.
Having reached a state of semidelusion, we now see that instead
of the real information Hi, my name, a distorted mixture
is being transmitted, consisting of some of the actual information
hat came in plus some of the associations and emotional energy
that have come via the associations. Some fragments of stimuli
coming in are being distorted to fit in with the beginnings of
delusion brought about by the prepotent need and associational
chains. Thus the S quality of the dollar sign $ becomes
more an S, and the Hi turns into a HIS, and
the my then becomes opposed to the HIS in a classic dichotomy.
The letters m and e from name now stand in
isolation, affected by the emotional charge of the dichotomy HIS
and my, so it becomes HIS and ME. Because of the intensity
added by the flow of energy at time T3, all the components of
stimuli may be arranged to spell the word ENEMY, further reinforcing
the HIS-my dichotomy. Elements of the situation are automatically
reworked by the Input-Processing subsystem to fit the emerging
theme of consciousness.
Thus at time T4 the primary focus of consciousness may be considered
fully delusional in the sense that the internal, charged processes,
the associational and emotional processes, distort perception
so greatly that we can truly speak of Sam as being deluded or
out of contact with the world. We now not only have selective
perception in the sense of filtering and rejection, shown as the
fourth stimulus word is being totally rejected here, but we now
begin to get the psychological process known as projection,
where internal processes become so strong that they are projected
onto the environment and wrongly perceived as actual perceptions.
Internal processes and memories are fed back into Input-Processing
and reemerge in awareness with the quality of perception added.
In this case the feelings about the conflict between HIS and my
and about ENEMY and about PEOPLE TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ME now begin
to be experienced as stimuli coming in from the environment, rather
than as internal associations. Other associational chains dealing
with DANGER are triggered by this process, including one, discussed
later, that keeps out competing associations that do not fit it
with the delusional scheme.
By the time the stage of projection of delusions with the negative
content of ENEMY and PEOPLE TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ME is reached, we
tap into Sam's general energy sources and get an overall activation.
It is not only that he has some specific need to think that people
take advantage of him, he has now become so convinced that someone
is actually taking advantage of him that he gets generally activated,
generally uptight, in order to deal with this danger! this general
up-tightness not only pours a great deal of energy into the specific
focus of consciousness, it also acts as positive feedback, reinforcing
the prepotent need to blame others for not getting high that started
the whole chain in the first place. The fact that Sam now clearly
feels himself getting up-tight as this general energy flows into
him acts as a justification for the need to worry about people
taking advantage of him in the first place, further reinforcing
the whole delusion. He would not feel so up-tight unless something
were wrong, would he?
Thus by time T5, when the real stimulus is simply the name Bill,
Sam's primary conscious awareness is more a picture of a dangerous
warrior attacking, with the whole dichotomy of HIM versus ME in
the fore. This is not a simple "cognitive" content,
but is charged with energy and emotion, as represented by the
spikes on his shield and helmet. Further rejection and distortion
of actual input occur to enhance the delusional system. This is
shown as t he B being rejected from Bill and the internal
processes adding a K, so that Sam in real sense hears this
stranger say the word KILL. This again is projection of a delusion
that is mistaken for actual sensory input.
The same DANGER associational chains triggered off in time T4
continue to be triggered off. A pair of associational chains that
were separate are shown linked up to represent a tendency for
the delusion to further draw together internal structures and
so consolidate itself.
Now at this point we would certainly be tempted to say that Sam
is a paranoid psychotic, so out of touch with reality that he
should be institutionalized (unless is particular culture values
that sort of thing and instead makes him president). But this
might not actually true in social terms: there might be strong,
built-in inhibitions in the structure of his mind against expressing
hostility, and/or such strong conditionings to act nicely,
that Sam would make some sort of socially appropriate response
even though he was internally seething with fear and anger and
hatred.
At this point Sam is clearly in a state that can well be called
samsara or waking dream.
The fact that conditioned inhibitions may keep a person from acting
in a socially inappropriate way should remind us that this process
is not an exaggeration that has no application to you and me.
Some of our own processes may be just as distorted and intense.
Although processes have been intensified to a paranoid, psychotic
level in this illustration to make points clearer, my own studies
of psychological data, plus my own observation of myself, have
convinced me that this is the basic nature of much of our ordinary
consciousness.
The presentation of samsara so far has been oversimplified by
assuming there is only one prepotent need or drive that motivates
us. Most of us have many such drives. Let us add a second drive
to produce a state of conflict and further show the nature of
samsara. Suppose after the activation of the prepotent need to
blame others at time T3, these associations themselves activate
further associations to the effect YOU'RE BEING PARANOID, and
this in turn activates a need not to be paranoid. This latter
need might arise from a healthy understanding of oneself, or it
might arise from the same kind of mechanical, social conditioning
that governs the rest of the process. We need not consider the
source of this need at the moment, but can simply say that it
activates some further associations on the order of DON'T TAKE
PARANOIA SERIOUSLY, along with energy from the second prepotent
need.
Figure 19-1 shows these associations of not taking paranoia seriously
trying to affect the primary content of consciousness in time
T4, but, because Sam is already in a highly delusional state and
his consciousness is completely filled with highly energetic paranoid
associations, this conflicting associational message cannot influence
his consciousness. The particular route by which it tries to enter
is blocked by the associations triggered off by the primary, delusional
consciousness. There is no conscious conflict.[2]
The same association DON'T TAKE PARANOIA SERIOUSLY continues to
be put out at time T5 and, by coming into the focus of consciousness
by a different route, actually gains some awareness. There is
now a conflict situation: Sam "know" that this very
dangerous person may be threatening to kill him, and another part
of him is saying that he is being paranoid and should not take
this kind of paranoia seriously.
Time T6 is shown as a question mark because we do not know what
the resolution of this conflict will be. If the bulk of energy
and contents of consciousness are taken up by the paranoid delusion,
the thought DON'T TAKE PARANOIA SERIOUSLY may simply be wiped
out or repressed for lack of energy to compete with the delusion.
This, then, is a picture of samsara in six consecutive instants
of time. The process, of course, does not stop with six instants
of time; it continues through one's lifetime. The consensus reality
in which a person lives limits the reality that impinges on him:
the physical world is generally known; people generally act toward
him in "normal" ways. The internalization of consensus
reality he learned during enculturation, his "normal"
d-SoC, matches the socially maintained consensus reality. so culturally
valued experiences continue to happen to him. This is shown schematically
in Figure 19-2.
The horizontal axis represents the flow of time, bringing an ever-changing
succession of events, people, interactions, things. The wheel
rolling along the axis of time is you. The culturally conditioned
selectivity of your perceptions and logics and actions is like
a set of selective filters around the periphery of the wheel.
If the right filter is activated (perceptual readiness) when a
corresponding event occurs, you perceive, experience, and react
to it in accordance with your ordinary d-SoC structure (which
includes your personality structure). If the current interplay
of your prepotent needs and associated structures does not produce
a perceptual readiness to notice and respond to the way reality
is stimulating you at the moment, you may not perceive an event
at all, or perceive it in distorted form, as in the example of
what can happen to "Hi, my name is Bill." In
terms of Figure 19-2, you have the appropriate perceptual category
built in, but the dynamic configuration of your mind, the position
of that category on the wheel, is not right.
Some kinds of experiences are actively blocked by enculturation,
not simply passively neglected: these are represented by a pair
of bars between some categories within the wheel and the rim of
the wheel. You will not experience certain kinds of things, even
if they are happening, unless you are subjected to drastic pressures,
internal or external.
Similar structures inside the wheel are shown is interconnected.
Recall from the earlier discussion of loading and other kind of
stabilization that attention/awareness energy is constantly flowing
back and forth, around and around in familiar, habitual paths.
This means that much of the variety and richness of life is filtered
out. An actual event, triggering off a certain category of experience,
activating a certain structure, is rapidly lost as the internal
processes connected with that structure and its associated structures
and prepotent needs take over the energy of the system. Thus,
the word Hi triggers such processes in our hypothetical
person, Sam, as do similar words like HIGH whenever they occur.
His dynamically interacting, energy-consuming network of structures
and needs insulates him from the real world.
Similarly, if your cultural conditioning has not given you any
categories as part of the Input-Processing subsystem to recognize
certain events, you may simply not perceive them. Thus real events
are shown on the time axis that have no corresponding categories
in the person; so the wheel of your life rolls over these events
hardly noticing them, perhaps with only a moment of puzzlement
before your more "important' internal needs and preoccupations
cause you to dismiss the unusual.
Figure 19-2 depicts cracks in the continuum, following Pearce's
analogy of looking for cracks—ways out—in the cosmic egg of
your culture. A crack may be a totally uncanny event, something
for which you have no conditioned categories, a chance to see
in don Juan's sense. If you experience such an event, though,
the cultural pressures, both from others and from the enculturated
structures built up within you, will probably force you to forget
it, to explain away its significance. If you experience something
everybody knows cannot happen, you must be crazy; but if you do
not tell anyone and forget about it yourself, you will be okay.
Shah {56, pp. 21-23} records a Sufi story, "When the Waters
Were Changed," that illustrates this:
Once upon a time Khidr, the Teacher of Moses, called upon mankind
with a warning. At a certain date, he said, all the water in the
world which had not been specially hoarded, would disappear. it
would then be renewed, with different water, which would drive
men mad.
Only one man listened to the meaning of this advice. He collected
water and went to a secure place where he stored it, and waited
for the water to change its character.
On the appointed date the streams stopped running, the wells went
dry, and the man who had listened, seeing this happening, went
to his retreat and drank his preserved water.
When he saw, from his security, the waterfalls again beginning
to flow, this man descended among the other sons of men. He found
that they were thinking and talking an entirely different way
from before; yet they had no memory of what had happened, nor
of having been warned. When he tried to talk to them, he realized
that they thought he was mad, and they showed hostility or compassion,
not understanding.
At first he drank none of the new water, but went back to his
concealment, to draw on his supplies, every day. Finally, however,
he took the decision to drink the new water because he could not
bear the loneliness of living, behaving and thinking in a different
way from everyone else. He drank the new water, and became like
the rest. Then he forgot all about his own store of special water,
and his fellows began to look upon him as a madman who had miraculously
been restored to sanity.
Finally, in Figure 19-2 time's arrow is shown as turned back upon
itself to form a closed loop. This illustrates the conservative
character of culture, the social pressure to keep things within
the known. Events from outside the consensus reality are shown
as deflected from entering it. This does not mean that no change
is tolerated; it indicates that while outward forms of some things
may change there is immense resistance to radical change. Fundamental
assumptions of the consensus reality are strongly defended.
Fortunately we do make contact with reality at times. There are
forces for real change in culture so the conservative forces do
not always succeed. I have great faith in science as a unique
force for constantly questioning the limits of consensus reality
(at least in the long run), for deliberately looking for cracks
in the cosmic egg that open on to vast new vistas. But, far more
than we would like to admit, our lives can be mainly or completely
tightly bounded wheels, rolling mechanically along the track of
consensus reality.
This is a brief sketch of the way one's whole lifetime in a "normal"
d-SoC can be a state of samsara. I cannot yet write more about
it. I recommend Pearce's book, Exploring the Crack in the Cosmic
Egg {50}, for a brilliant analysis of the way our culture
can trap us in its consensus reality, even when we believe
we are rebelling.
Footnotes
[1] I use the Buddhist term samsara in a general
sense to indicate a d-SoC (ordinary or nonordinary) dominated
by illusion, as detailed throughout this chapter, rather than
in a technically strict Buddhist sense. I express my appreciation
to Tarthong Tulku, Rinpoche, for helping me understand the Buddhist
view. (back)
[2] Note an implicit, quantitative assumption
here that in the competition of two processes, whichever has the
greater energy (both attention/awareness energy and other kinds
of energies) wins, subject to modification by the particulars
of the structures involved. Certain structures may use energy
more effectively than others. This line of thought needs development. (back)
Figure 19-1. Development of samsaric consciousness.
(back)
Figure 19-2. The wheel of an individual's
life rolling through consensus reality. (back)
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