Variations in Consciousness

Physiological psychologist Karl Pribram lists the following states of consciousness:
states of ordinary perceptual awareness; states of self-consciousness;
dream states; hypnagogic and hypnopompic states (the transition states,
characterized by vivid dreamlike imagery, that occur as one goes into and
comes out of sleep); ecstatic states (such as the orgiastic experience); socially
induced trance or trancelike states; drug-induced states; social role
states; linguistic states (for example, a multilingual person thinking in one,
rather than another, language); translational states (as when one linguistic
universe is being recorded or translated in another); ordinary transcendental
states (such as those experienced by an author in the throes of creative
composition); extraordinary transcendental states that are achieved by special
techniques; other extraordinary states (such as those that allow “extrasensory
awareness”); meditational states; dissociated states, as in the case
of pathological multiple personality; and psychomotor states manifest in
temporal-lobe epilepsies. To that list could be added the following additional
states: sleep; the hyperalert state, characterized by increased vigilance
while one is awake; the lethargic state, characterized by dulled, sluggish
mental activity; states of hysteria, with intense feeling and overpowering
emotion; regressive states, such as senility; daydreaming with rapidly occurring
thoughts that bear little relation to the external environment; coma;
sleep deprivation; sensory overload or deprivation; and prolonged strenuous
exercise. This list is by no means exhaustive.

Some of these states clearly represent greater degrees of alteration of the
“normal” consciousness than others. There is, however, no universal agreement
on what constitutes the normal state of consciousness. Charles Tart
and other authors have suggested that what is usually called “normal” consciousness is not a natural, given state but a construction based mainly on
cultural values and inputs. In any case, some altered states of consciousness
are experienced on a daily basis by everyone, while others are much more
rare and may require great effort or special circumstances to achieve.