Consciousness expansion

This is a general term used to denote a wide variety of processes and techniques of: self-actualization, self-realization, peak experience, personal awakening, psychedelic experience, altered states of consciousness, and meditation.

Consciousness expansion is aimed at awareness of the unity of all things and at seeing the contradictory nature of considering the universe as fragmented into individual, unrelated, separate bits, of which men (inhabited by their individual egos) should be the top, controlling species. It is characterized as follows: 1. Sensory level: subjective reports of alterations in space, time, body image and sensory impressions< 2. Recollective-analytic level: novel ideas and thoughts concerning the individual's psychodynamics or conception of the world and his role in it.

3. Symbolic level: identification with historical or legendary personages, with evolutionary recapitulation, or with mythical symbols.

4. Integral level: religious or mystical experience in which an ultimate being is confronted or in which the individual dissolves into the energy field of the universe.

Expanded states of consciousness may occur spontaneously or may be induced through hypnosis or sensory bombardment. They are frequently brought about experimentally by the use of psychedelic drugs.