Head Trip: Adventures on the Wheel of Consciousness

401 Pages·2007·5.47 MB·English

by  Jeff Warren

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THE HEAD TRIP
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T H E H E A D T R I P
ADVENTURES ON
THE WHEEL OF CONSCIOUSNESS
WRITTEN AND ILLUSTRATED
BY
JEFF WARREN
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A Oneworld Book
First published in Great Britain by Oneworld Publications 2008
Copyright © Jeff Warren 2007
The right of Jeff Warren to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved
Copyright under Berne Convention
A CIP record for this title is available
from the British Library
ISBN 978–1–85168–561–5
Cover design by Keenan Design
Printed in Great Britain by T.J. International Ltd., Padstow, Cornwall
Oneworld Publications
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Oxford OX2 7AR
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For Kelly
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CONTENTS
Author’s Note....................................................................................................1
Introduction.....................................................................................................5
Trip Notes: The Wheel of Consciousness.......................................13
part one NIGHT
1: The Hypnagogic.........................................................................................19
Trip Notes: The Slow Wave.............................................................55
2: The Watch ................................................................................................63
Trip Notes: The rem Dream .........................................................99
3: The Lucid Dream ....................................................................................111
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part two DAY
Trip Notes: The Hypnopompic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .159
4: The Trance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .165
Trip Notes: The Daydream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .207
5: The smr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .217
Trip Notes: The Zone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .263
6: The Pure Conscious Event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .273
Conclusion: Emergence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .317
Epilogue: A Phenomenological Map of Consciousness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .331
Appendix: Variations of Consciousness Special Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .340
Notes and Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .343
Select Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .374
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .378
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AUTHOR’S NOTE
To deny the truth of our own experience in the scientific study of ourselves is not
only unsatisfactory; it is to render the scientific study of ourselves without a sub-
ject matter. But to suppose that science cannot contribute to an understanding
of our experience may be to abandon, within the modern context, the task of
self-understanding. Experience and scientific understanding are like two legs
without which we cannot walk.
—Francisco Varela, Evan Thompson, and Eleanor Rosch, The Embodied Mind
The book you are holding is not a typical book on consciousness. It’s not about
qualia, or the language instinct, or what it feels like to be a bat.
Nor is it a typical brain book—describing how fear works, or the uses of the
cerebellum, or what happens when you electrocute your amygdala.
While all these subjects are fascinating, they are philosophical and neurologi-
cal discussions that are occurring elsewhere. And yet, both these kinds of books
have contributed to this one, for occasionally as I have leafed through them, the
author would remark (in a dry, offhand manner) on some aspect of subjective
consciousness—the feeling of time slowing down, perhaps, or the strange body
twitches that happen at sleep onset—and I would nod, and look up, and think,
“Yeah, that’s happened to me!”
Well, this book is in part an encyclopedia of “that’s happened to me” moments,
organized by adventures through various familiar and less familiar states of con-
sciousness. For this reason, this book is also about you, because you have these
moments too. And I’ll say this outright: you won’t believe where you’ve been, and
where you’re capable of going.
AUTHOR’S NOTE 1