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Abstract
When we move, we get connected. Even if we are moving alone, we can exit the
world of ordinary consciousness and enter a realm, where a meaningful connection
to ourselves, to others and to the world around us is possible in ways that are often
missing from our everyday lives. In fact in any kind of altered state of consciousness
(ASC) we get the possibility to not only experience, but also practice a rich diversity
of connectedness to different levels of our existence. Because of this, we hope to
draw the conclusion that entering an ASC is a basic human necessity that enables
psychological maturation and well-being and it should be a common and regular
practice in our lives.
To investigate this statement, we will look at the phenomenon of movement-evoked
ASC from various perspectives, drawing upon literature from neuroscience, through
psychotherapy, to transpersonal psychology. Then we will try to discover proof of
these theories in real-life descriptions of outstanding dance-experiences.
The title of the lecture, a line from Rumi portrays the connection-experience in ASCs.
The following quote from Antonin Artaud expresses its purpose: Art does not
imitate life, but life imitates a transcendent principle with which art reconnects us.
all feel alone in unique ways. The meaning of solitude is different for everyone, and it
depends not only on the person in question, but on where they are in their lives, too.
We do not usually think of loneliness as a social phenomenon. Yet the 19th Pszinapszis
will try to delve into a topic which may seem quite startling at first. Is it possible to be
together alone?
Consider an average day in our lives: we walk down streets, get on trams or do the
shopping all by ourselves. So many people surround us, yet we feel that its just us and
our feelings. Is there anybody who has never felt lonely even amongst friends and
family? Solitude may be a welcome visitor from time to time: sometimes we might
wish to embrace its tranquility. On the other hand, we may fear the silence it brings.
We all know these feelings because they are essential parts of human existence. We
are all trapped in our personal mazes made out of glass. We see through the walls, we
see others struggling to find their paths in their own labyrinths, yet we are alone in
our efforts. Sometimes we cross each others path, sometimes we find someone who
will join us on the journey.
In April 2015, we will explore this intricate phenomenon with the help of psychology
and other disciplines. Join us in trying to understand what sharing our solitude means,
and how we can be together if we are alone.
When preparing for today I had a really hard time formulating what
exactly I should talk about.
Based on my research area it was obvious I would share some thoughts about the
ASC evoked by dancing and somehow about the experience of connection during
that state but that is pretty much covered by the quote in the title of the
presentation So I started to go deeper into the question and ask myself:
this thirst that we feel for connection: what are we really looking for?
The fact, that to every human being, feeling connected is a basic and necessary need
for wellbeing and survival seems to be without question: it is like the axioms in
mathematics, we pose no questions, we dont ask for explanation.
Love and belongning is in the Maslow pyramid, right above physiological needs and
safety. Freud talked about Eros and Thanatos. Glasser claimed love to be one of the
four basic needs of humans, next to power, freedom and fun. In the unified theory of
motivation, amongst cognitive, affective, spiritual, etc. we can find social
motivations, including the need to imitate positive models, acquire effective social
competence skills and be a part of a dyad, group, institution, or community. And
we look for relationships for positive feelings, for support, help in survival, generally
pyschological and physiological wellbeing. In fact it was said, that:
Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.
Erich Fromm: The Art of Loving
But what exactly should I be looking for in my research? I brought you today three
different researches from the past 5 years: healthy professional contemporary
dancers, healthy general public who goes out and dances every now and then and a
group of oncology patients who are memebers of a belly-dancing club. All of this
researches work with a mixed method of using both quantitative and qualitative data,
ie questionnaires and open-ended questions, numbers and letters at the same time.
The latter means, that we pose an open-ended question and do something called
content analysis, which is basically reading texts overandoverandoverandover again
to discover recurring patterns. And during this process of content analysis, you have
to make a lot of decisions on what you consider as supporting evidence: what do you
consider to be a sign of connectedness? What should I be looking for besides the word
love? I will show you the restults later, but what I have realized is that its easier to
answer, if I turn the question around and ask:
What are we detached from?
They are detached from a place called home: never existed or abusive and
conflicted. A person needs a stable, ever existing stillpoint that they might
never return to, but can use as point of reference and to anchor their selfdefinition to.
They are detached from regular feedback from people: spend a lot of time
literally alone and even when with people, their true self can not be shown,
experienced and be connected to others. The time spent looking inward
enhances all emotions and thoughts like in mindfulness meditation, but there
is no return or anchoring to reality. People serve as mirrors that dont only
show who we are, but on a basic level show us that we are, that we exist.
Without such reflections that serve as stable points of reference, the mind
runs wild, disintegration and loss of the sense of reality can occur, where the
person starts to question everything about their own existence.
The source of the data, the source of the answers I will show you today:
altered states of consciousness.
But what happens exactly? What is an altered state of consciousness?
Myth: An ASC is a definite, from normality clearly separated state of mind,
which operates like an on-off switch: it either happens or it doesnt.
Instead: ASCs are a completely natural and everyday experience. In fact, its
better to say that they are just one way to operate, that we are less conscious
about or practiced in but its not unknown to anyone.
For example (from left to right): playing or listening to music, excursions and
getting immersed in nature generally, sex, dreaming and daydreaming,
creating or observe art, doing sports or dancing, sickness, etc.
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Instead: ASCs are a natural category (Kihlstrom, 1984): no definitive categorymembership pre-requisites, rather the rate of similarity to a prototype that contains a
list of typical characteristics none of which is essential but all of which are enough on
their own to evoke such an experience.
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Induction: there is an optimal level of attention that maintains our normal way
of cognition and consciousness. Both under- and overstimulation of attention
induces an alternate functioning. During dancing there is a multimodal
overstimulation: proprioceptive and physical, audiotiry, visual and social. Thus
the focus shifts to unusual subjects and the span narrows: the amount of
attention we execute changes which results in the quality of experience
changing: it indicates that the situation demands a different way of
functioning.
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Functions of ASC: Farthing (1997) claimed that all ASCs can provide us with
benefits in 3 areas: learning and knowledge, social and healing.
Example: psychiatric patients lacking integrity of self can heal by immersing
into and connectiong to a bigger unity than themselves, that entails harmony,
balance and integration.
Willig (2008): Through enabling us to exit our commonly practiced reality,
ASCs offer the possibility for us to explore parts of the world and ourselves
that otherwise we have no access to or knowledge of.
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point to one neural area though, that creates the difference in experience: the
activation of the anterior cingulate gyrus indicates to the conscious, that it is I who is
executing the behavior and not someone else. Should this area deactivate, actions or
psychological states of mine and others dont have such a strong separation. This is
the basis of empathy, of simulation and of the deep sense of connection.
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This strong connection between body and mind continues to influence the set of
psychological experiences that we operate on: cognitive and developmental
researches have proven that every psychological behavior has an antecendent in
physical reality. Basically we build up our complex experiences using building blocks,
that once were internalized representations of actual, external behavior.
SUM: Any psychological action has a basis and origin in physical action. Thus physical
action and experience can influence psychological action and experience. (Basis of
movement- and dance-therapy or any therapy that involves actual action and
behavior, like work-therapy or psychodrama.)
The only way in which the world can be grasped ultimately lies, not in thought, but
in the act, in the experience of oneness. Thus paradoxical logic leads to the
conclusion that the love of God is neither the knowledge of God in thought, nor the
thought of one's love of God, but the act of experiencing the oneness with God.
Fromm: The Art of Loving
THUS Experiencing ourselves can reinforce the sense of self and its potentials in
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serve the purpose of embedding our identity into the texture of our history: the
narrative of our self includes cognitive, affective and motivational aspects that
describe our past, present and future.
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I will present results from the research completed on a subclinical population, via an
online questionnaire registered through a snowball-sampling method. This resulted
in 115 experience-descriptions: 87.5% of which came from women, 82% were under 24,
73% were universtiy students or had a college degree.
The open-ended question was: Describe one of your outstanding dancing
experiences to me in a way, that I can imagine it too.
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A quote from another research: a longer interview with a professional dancer: male,
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