Consciousness Alteration as a Problem-Solving Device: The Psychedelic Pathway John R. Baker first published in Yearbook for Ethnomedicine and the Study of Consciousness Issue 3, 1994 edited by Christian Ritsch & John R. Baker pages 51-88 VWB - Verlag fiir Wissenschaft und Bildung, Berlin 1995 (reprinted by kind permission of the publisher)tt Consciousness Alteration as a Problem-Solving Device 51 = Joun R. BAKER Consciousness Alteration as a Problem-Solving Device: The Psychedelic Pathway! Zusammenfassung, BewuBtseinsveriinderung als Problemlésungsmittel: Der psychedelische Pfad Ein Individuum kann im normalen BewuBtseinszustand die Dinge der realen Welt wahmehmen, sie interpretieren und darauf reagieren. Mit wachsenden Erfahrungen konstruiert sich ein Individuum ein persénliches Universum um das generelle Universum zu erkliren und um ein Geriist zum Handeln zu erhalten. Die eigentiimliche Natur dieses Geriistes bedeutet allerdings, da8 das persénliche Universum immer unzureichend bleibt, um das generelle Universum zu erklaren. Die Verhaltensweisen und Uberzeugungen, die von einer Person als Mitglied einer Gruppe erwartet werden, fishren zu Spannungen im persénlichen Universum. In verdnderten Bewuftseinszustinden kénnen die kognitiven Modelle, die das persdnliche Universum ausmachen, von ihrer Giltigkeit enthoben werden und die jeweiligen Uberzeugungen, die mit diesen Modellen verkniipft sind, gelockert werden. In solchen Zustinden werden die Komponenten des persénlichen Universums zuginglicher fiir einen eigenen ProzeB, der die Spannungen im persénlichen Universum und die inneren Diskrepanzen mit der eigenen und der auGeren Welt mindert. So gesehen kann die BewuBtseinsverinderung eine konstruktive Handlung sein. Im Kontrast zu anderen Methoden, um freiwillig das eigene BewuBtsein zu veriindern, haben Psychedelika die Eigenschaft sehr schnell andere, gelockerte Zustinde zu produzieren. In diesem Sine kénnen sie, wenn sie in einer angemessenen Weise eingesetzt werden, starke Werkzeuge zur Wiederherstellung des Gleichgewichtes zwischen Individuum und Gruppe darstellen. Abstract In “normal” states of consciousness, an individual is able to perceive, interpret, and react to events occurring in the “real” world. As experience accrues, a person constructs a “personal universe” to explain the “general universe” and provide a framework for activity. The idiosyncratic nature of this framework, however, means that the personal universe will always be inadequate for explaining the general universe. The conflicts between the various behaviors and attitudes expected of a person as a member of a group will also produce tensions within the personal universe. In “altered” states of consciousness, the cognitive models which make up the personal universe may be stripped of the possibility of verification, and the affective charges attached to these models can be loosened. In such states, the components of the personal universe become more tractable to an innate process which can reduce the tension within the personal universe and the discrepancies between it and the world. Thus, altering consciousness can be a constructive activity. In contrast to other methods of voluntarily inducing alterations in consciousness, psychedelic substances are capable of rapidly producing “desemanticized” states; when used in an appropriate manner, they thus represent powerful tools for restoring individual and group equilibrium. Jahrbuch f, Ethnomedizin 199452 JR. Baker \ Outline Introduction The Role of the Brain in Reality Construction . The Mind and Its Relationship To the Brain . “Normal” and “Altered” States of Consciousness |. The Desemanticizing Action of Psychedelic Substances . Psychedelics as Problem-Solving Devices . Discussion and Conclusions Notes References AvWAWNES 0. Introduction The near global universality of methods for inducing altered states of consciousness (BOURGUIGNON 1973:9/f.) indicates that some profound aspect of what it means to be human is addressed by such states. Indeed, WEIL (1972) has argued that the human urge to alter consciousness is as innate and powerful as the drive for food or sex (cf. also SIEGEL 1989). If this is true, then we could expect such a drive to fulfill an adaptive function as important as eating or reproduction. In this paper, I will consider this ubiquitous feature of culture as it relates to a deep-seated aspect of the human condition: the need to adapt to an ever-changing world. I will argue that consciousness alteration can help to uncover and resolve discrepancies between an individual’s perception of the world and the world itself. In this sense, consciousness alteration can be seen as a problem-solving device. Among all the methods available for altering human consciousness, perhaps the most radical are those substances commonly referred to as “hallucinogens” or “psychedelics“. The rapidity of onset and the nature of their effects — and their lack of toxicity — predispose these compounds for human use (in fact, the abilities of one of these substances, LSD, to break down established patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving are so great that it has been explicitly characterized as “the problem- solving psychedelic”; STAFFORD & GOLIGHTLY 1967). In order to more fully understand why psychedelics can be of such profound constructive importance, however, it is first necessary to consider the context within which they elicit their effects. As we shall see, these substances are significant because they somehow affect the “normal” functions of the brain and/or its associated nervous system. This in turn leads to drastic changes in the ways in which the world — both the world within and the world without — is perceived, evaluated, and responded to. Thus, I shall begin with a discussion of some fundamental questions having to do with the role which the brain plays with respect to the world around it. This will lead to a consideration of the nature of the relationship between the mind and the brain, an operational definition of which makes it possible to approach the process of consciousness alteration and to understand how psychedelic compounds affect ‘Yearbook f. Ethnomedicine 1994Consciousness Alteration as a Problem-Solving Device 53 + consciousness. This in turn permits some general principles to be advanced as to why consciousness alteration — including but not limited to that produced by psychedelic substances — can be seen as a problem-solving device. My intention is to point a way towards a more all-inclusive view of conscious- ness alteration in general and psychedelics in particular. While the model presented herein necessarily represents a simplified view, it does suggest possibilities for superseding and integrating the dramatic — but nevertheless provincial — insights offered by neurophysiology, psychiatry, evolutionary biology, and ethnology alone. It is a tenet of anthropology, the holistic study of human beings, that activities which exhibit cross-cultural commonalities may reflect “precultural”, i.e., biological or “hard-wired” features of our species. Such features are often referred to as “human universals” (cf. BROWN 1991). Human biological universals, however, are manifested through idiosyncratic cultural institutions (MALINOWSKI 1944:91ff). Thus, the extensive and cosmopolitan use of psychedelic substances (DOBKIN DE Rios 1990; FuRST 1990) should indeed be symptomatic of some fundamental human needs. As a result, any cross-cultural similarities in the manners in which psychedelic substances are used and in the effects they elicit may be expected to point not only to intraspecific similarities in the biological substrates they are affecting (especially the brain), but also to certain intrinsic suprabiological (i.e., psychological, social, and/or religio-philosophical) human needs. A number of reasons have been advanced to explain why humans use psychoac- tive compounds. WEIL (1972:17-38) surveyed a variety of methods for inducing altered states and concluded that periodically escaping from “ordinary, ego-centered consciousness” may help the individual in his or her psychic development, SIEGEL (1989:310ff) described many drug users’ activities as self-medication, and argued that psychoactive drugs can be considered “adaptogens” when they are used to help a person adjust to the psychological or physical changes which they experience. More recently, BLATTER (1993) has delineated seven functions of drug use, including hedonistic/recreational, identity-building and group-cohesive, compensatio- nal, medical, religious, economic, and political functions. The function that is being discussed in the present paper — consciousness alteration as a problem-solving device — is one which accords with WEIL’s and SIEGEL’s views and cross-cuts several of BLATTER’s functions, in particular the identity-building/group-cohesive, the medical, and the religious. The end effect of this process can be characterized as “re-creational” (cf. STAFFORD 1985) because it can serve to reduce the discrepancies between an individual’s interpretation of the world and the world itself. 1, The Role of the Brain in Reality Construction One need shared by humans and all other animals is to construct a reality within which to live. To understand this, it is useful to think of animals as “predatory behavior machines” (PANTIN 1968:156). Regardless of whether it derives its Jahrbuch f. Ethnomedizin 1994