The Women Warriors

[RawMahdiyah]

Altered States of Consciousness and Emotional Occurences


The contents of altered states of consciousness seem to correspond to a basic universal schema just as much as the accompanying emotional states do. For example, according to Motoyama (Superconsciousness, p. 60), in the course of meditation there is at first a spontaneous re-experiencing of emotionally charged events from one's past before reaching the next stage, which is characterized by peace and tranquility (*1).
The gradual expansion of consicousness, the "journey of the soul," is described from one culture to the next as occuring in stages. The symbolism employed for this succession of levels veries, but the essential and obviously universal content does not (*2). In the Yoga tradition, for example, one also speaks in this context of the chakras:

Furthermore, they determine the quality of consciousness. As soon as universal consciousness is manifested in the form of a chakra, a specific frame of context results through which the individual experiences the world...The varying concentrations of energy from person to person and time to time share responsibility for individuals' different experiences of the world and for their differing experiences at different times (Rama, in White, p. 24 (*3)).

In Islamic terminology, one speaks of a mutually interwined sequence of "states" (ahwal) and "stages" (maqamat) or of "veils" that are gradually lifted. Other concepts used include "valleys," or 'oceans" that must be crossed. The number of levels generally stands at seven, but can go as high as forty-five (Al-Qushairi, d. 1074) or even one hundred! (Ansari, d. 1089).
Ahwal- the plural of hal (*4), that is, "states" - can neither be called forth nor kept at bay by the will. They count as gifts of God and can be compared with the "peak of experiences" of humanistic psychology (*5), though they are not to be equated with them. These indescribable transcendent "states of bliss," whether ecstatic of characterized by inner peace of a previously unknown extent, are often the harbingers of the maqamat (stages) to come. The levels, in contrast to the stages, are reached through a person's own disciplined "hard work" and are also then permenent, that is, one can't fall back to a lower level.
Although theoretically ahwal (states) and maqamat (stages) are clearly bounded areas of experience, in practice there is a complementary relation between them:

A hal must be seen as a mystical experience according to its whole being and in line with its dual character as a gift and as a fleeting phase: a flash of light that lights up a person's heart for a while and then vanishes again. It can just as well come upon a beginner as upon the most perfected Sufi/Arif; it can happen at any given spot along the way. This flash can light up the section of the heart hidden by the veils; it can spur a person on to reach the next permanent stage...The permanent character of the maqamat strongly suggests that they are linked one to another in a hierarchical order. As Hujwiri (d. 1071) already said, one can't go on from one stage to the next till the earlier one has been fully assimilated (*6), till it has been fully made one's own and till the obligations that go with it have been fulfilled. In fact every maqam, even when transcended, stays in the full possession of the seeker, who in addition is radically changed by each of these experiences...Every maqam that a person encounters must finally spill over into flesh and blood, altering the person radically (Kielce, Sufismus, pp. 65, 66).

Altered states of consciousness, in ancient traditions, are not pursued as an end in themselves, but as auxiliary tools in the process of spiritual development.


~This and the following Commentaries are found mostly in Michaela Ozelsel's beautiful book and diary, Forty Days.






*1) Motoyama, Superconsciousness, p. 87) - "When the practitioner is able to transcend the astral world and achieve oneness in the karana dimension, he will experience a kind of sublimity that goes beyond simple emotion. After accomplishing a difficult task or attaining a hard sought goal, most people have a sense of accomplishment in which there is pleasure but very little emotion per se. On the other hand, when a parent greets a child after a long absence from home, the feeling of joy that coincides with a returning loved one is analogous to "feeling good" in the astral dimension, while the sense of accomplishment that is experienced after completing a difficult task is analogous to "feeling good" in the karana dimension."
Relief ~ Peace (Salaam).


2) The two lowest chakras - according to Rama, in White - represent the simplest form of expressing energy and are considered to be the states of consciousness most closely bound up with the physical world and the material plane of existence. The next two chakras embody love and sympathy on the active plane, that is, accompanied by a deep wish to give oneself for other people. Chakras five and six embody a turning to the world of "pure-forms," as expressed though creativity, intuition, and wisdom. Finally, the chakras determine the experience of "pure consciousness." The corresponding experience of self-transcendence - not at all expressible in words.


3) Cf. J. White (ed.), Kundalini Energie (Kundalini Energy).


4) Such an unexpected experience of hal can be the event that puts someone on the path. Nonetheless, surprising though it seems, these overwhelming states very often have no further effect. An explanation of this lies precisely in the indescribability and extraordinary nature of such experiences. For the person affected, it is just as impossible to make their experience understandable to someone who has not had any such experience as it would be to describe a drug experience to someone who has never had one. What's more, Western rational thinking offers no structure of explanation - except that of a psychotic episode - into which such an experience could be integrated. When a person so affected has no plausible model of explanation at hand, he or she will make a few - usually rather frustrating- attempts to share the experience and then, as a rule, give up. As time goes on and he or she looks back, everything may look very improbable and eventually fade and be forgotten.


5) A. Maslow, Further Reaches of Human Nature.


6) This corresponds to the contemporary mode of observation of developmental psychological process. Cf. Piaget's concept of the mutually conditioned process of assimilation and accomodation in cognitive development (J. Piaget, "Piaget's theory," in Mussen, ed., Carmichael's Manual of Child Psychology).





RawMahdiyah
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"Cast down what is in your right hand. It will swallow up what they have wrought. Verily they have wrought only a sorcerer's stratagem; and a sorcerer does not succeed (no matter) from whatsoever (skilled group) he may come." (Quran-20:69)