States of Access Consciousness

Stati des Bewusstsein

Dualitt bedeutet:
Richtig und Falsch Gut und Schlecht,
sind Bewertungen unseres Verstandes
Die Dinge sind wie sie sind, als auch die Umkehrung gilt.
Dies ergibt sich aus den Spiegelgesetzen und den Hermetischen
Gesetzen.
Things never were the way they used to be.
Things will never be the way its going to be someday.
Things are always just the way they are for the time being.
And the time is always in motion.
Alexander Evangeli Xenopouloudakis

Was ist Bewusstsein, Gewahrsein ?

What is consciousness? Awareness ?

Awareness of ones own mental activity

Personal
Can be selective
Consciousness is continuous
and ever-changing
Klinger (1978)

In performing an experiment like this one on man

attention car it house is boy critically hat important
shoe that candy the old material horse that tree is
pen being phone read cow by book the hot subject
tape for pin the stand relevant view task sky be red
cohesive man and car grammatically house
complete boy but hat without shoe either candy
being horse so tree easy pen that phone full cow
attention book is hot not tape required pin in stand
order view to sky read red it nor too difficult

Attentional Processes

Selective Attention

The ability to focus awareness on a single

stimulus to the exclusion of other stimuli
Cocktail party phenomenon

Divided attention

The ability to distribute ones attention and

simultaneously engage in two or more activities

Access Consciousness - Awareness

Is awareness of both external and internal

stimuli or events.

It refers to our mental content (thoughts and

feelings) which we are aware.

Degrees of Conscious Awareness

Conscious
Preconscious - is part of the conscious mind
and includes our memory. These memories
are not conscious, but we can retrieve them
to conscious awareness at any time.
Unconscious- is a reservoir of feelings,
thoughts, urges, and memories that outside of
our conscious awareness.

Levels of Consciousness
High Level of

Requires attention, controlled processes

Awareness
Low Level of

Automatic Processes- minimal attention

Awareness

Day dreaming- between consciousness and

dreaming while sleeping

Altered states of

Awareness produced by drugs, trauma,

Consciousness

fatigue, meditation, and sensory deprivation.

Sleep and dreams- low level of consciousness

No Awareness

Unconscious mind- Freud

Coma, disease, being knocked, anesthetized

Mental Control & Thought

Suppression

Wegner and colleagues (1987)

Can we at suppress our thoughts?

Rebound effect

IV: 2 (order:expression/suppression X
suppression/expression)
DV: # of rings of bell (to indicate thinking of white
bear) and mentions of white bear
Stereotypes, dieting

Generally good control but

sometimes we fail

Sleep IQ Test
1. During sleep your brain rests.
2. You can not learn to function normally with
one or two fewer hours of sleep a night than
you need.
3. Boredom makes you feel sleepy, even if you
have had enough sleep.
4. Resting in bed with your eyes closed cannot
satisfy your bodys need for sleep.
5. Snoring is not harmful, as long as it doesnt
disturb others or wake you up.
6. Everyone dreams at night.

Sleep IQ Test
7. The older you get, the fewer hours of sleep you
need.
8. Most people dont know when they are sleepy.
9. Raising the volume of your radio will help you
stay awake while driving.
10. Sleep disorders are mainly due to worry or
psychological problems.
11. The human body never adjusts to night shift
work.
12. Most sleep disorders go away, even without
treatment.

Sleep IQ Answers
1. During sleep your brain rests.
False: While your body rests, your brain doesnt.

2. You can not learn to function normally with one or

two fewer hours of sleep a night than you need.
True: Sleep need is biological. While children need more
sleep than adults, how much sleep any individual needs is
genetically determined.

3. Boredom makes you feel sleepy, even if you have

had enough sleep.
False: Boredom only unmasks sleepiness, but it doesnt
cause it.

Sleep IQ Answers
4. Resting in bed with your eyes closed cannot satisfy
your bodys need for sleep.
True: Sleep is as necessary to health as food and water,
and rest is no substitute for sleep.

5. Snoring is not harmful, as long as it doesnt disturb

others or wake you up.
False: Snoring may be a signal for sleep apnea (which can
be fatal if untreated).

6. Everyone dreams at night.

True: Every person dreams every night its just that some
of us cant remember much of our dreams.

Sleep IQ Answers
7. The older you get, the fewer hours of sleep you
need.
False: Although we tend to sleep less, our need for sleep
doesnt decrease as we age.

8. Most people dont know when they are sleepy.

True: We are not very good judges of our biological need
for sleep.

9. Raising the volume of your radio will help you stay

awake while driving.
False: The only short-term solutions are to pull over and
take a nap or to have a caffeinated drink.

Sleep IQ Answers
10. Sleep disorders are mainly due to worry or
psychological problems.
False: Sleep apnea is caused by relaxed muscles and
narcolepsy appears to be genetic.

11. The human body never adjusts to night shift work.

True: No matter how long you work a night shift, sleeping
during the day remains a challenge because of our
circadian rhythms that operate on the light/dark schedule.

12. Most sleep disorders go away, even without

treatment.
False: On average, sleep disorders do not disappear
without treatment.

The Stages of Sleep

Stage 2

Sleep spindles
Lasts about 20 minutes

Stages 3 & 4

Delta wave
Deep sleep
Last about 30 minutes

The Stages of Sleep

REM

After reverting back through stages 3 and 2, the

brain enters the REM (rapid eye movement) stage
Marked by more vivid, detailed, and storylike
dreams

We dream during all stages but these are more visual

Each cycle lasts roughly 90 minutes

Approx. 4 to 6 cycles per night

The first time through the cycle, you only spend

about 10 minutes in REM which increases to 30
to 60 minutes by the last cycle

Why do we sleep?

Restorative theories

Sleep rejuvenates us

Amount of slow wave sleep depends on how

long weve been awake

Circadian theories

Evolutionarily, it has survival value

Amount of REM sleep depends on circadian

rhythm

What are dreams?

Dreaming permits each and every one of us to
be quietly and safely insane every night of
our lives.
Charles Fisher

What are dreams?

Electrochemical events that involve the

brainstem, areas of the cortex, and the eyes

What do we dream about?

Dream content

Most common themes: falling, being

chased/attacked, repeatedly trying but failing to
do something

What influences the dreams we have

Concerns of your
everyday life
External stimuli
Yourself

Lucid dreaming

Why do we dream?

Wish fulfillment (Freud)

Activation-synthesis (Hobson & McCarley)

Manifest content
Latent content

Activation: random neural signals firing in the

brainstem that spread up to the cortex
Synthesis: the brain then creates images and
stories in an effort to make sense out of these
random signals

So whos right?

Sleep Disorders

Insomnia

Chronic problems in getting good sleep

Difficulty in falling asleep, staying asleep
Causes

Stress, depression, health problems

Solutions

Sedatives arent always effective and should never be a

long-term solution!!!
Dont take naps during the day
Avoid alcohol, caffeine, and cigarettes within 5 hrs before
bedtime (avoid exercise within 2 hrs)
Keep a rigid schedule going to bed and waking up at the
same time

Sleep Disorders

Hypersomnia

Being sleepy during the day and sleeping too

much at night
Narcolepsy

Parasomnias

Sleep apnea
Nightmares
Night terrors
Sleepwalking

Hypnosis

An induced state of consciousness

Franz Anton Mesmer

Highly suggestible state

Can influence thinking, feeling & behavior
Animal magnetism

Two stages of hypnosis

Induction
Suggestion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5coUgy03ug0

Hypnotic Susceptibility

Hilgards Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility

Scale

Roughly 10% highly hypnotizable

Roughly 10% not hypnotizable at all

Effects of hypnosis

Perceptual effects

Cognitive effects

Altering smells
Pain relief
Hypermnesia vs. psuedomemories

Behavioral effects

Posthypnotic suggestion

Chemically Altered Consciousness

Psychoactive drugs

Induce changes in thinking, perception &

behavior by affecting neuronal activity in the
brain

Four general categories

Depressants
Stimulants
Hallucinogens
Opiates