Lucid Visions: The Forgotten Fourth State of Consciousness – PART 2
Garnet Dupuis > Lucid Studios
May 12, 2022
Lucid Visions as a Source of Insight, Creativity and Healing
Of all the many procedures that appear to bring about an equivalent of the naturally occurring Lucid Visions Fourth State of Consciousness and which, in turn, facilitate the emergence into awareness of visual imagination images, the easiest, safest and potentially most precise in its effects, is photic stimulation.
Lucid Visions are known to also enhance lucid dreaming, and other forms of creative thinking. Examples have been reported for thousands of years in various religions and by many philosophers.
During Lucid Visions, the mind is free to make creative associations and to assimilate verbal and imaginative information without the usual critical screening that is so ever-present in our waking state.
As an example, Charles Dickens was a prolific and ingenious 19th-century English writer who, along with being an insomniac, employed Lucid Visions as his central narrative structure as the experience served fundamentally to his work process, social engagement, and fantasy.
Both artist Salvador Dali and writer Edgar Allan Poe also sourced the Lucid Visions/Fourth State/hypnagogic state for creative stimulation and exploration.
Poe writes:
“There is, however, a class of fancies, of exquisite delicacy, which are not thoughts, and to which, as yet, I have found it absolutely impossible to adapt language. I use the word fancies at random, and merely because I must use some word; but the idea commonly attached to the term is not even remotely applicable to the shadows of shadows in question. They seem to me rather psychal than intellectual. They arise in the soul (alas, how rarely!) only at its epochs of most intense tranquility — when the bodily and mental health is in perfection — and at those mere points of time where the confines of the waking world blend with those of the world of dreams. I am aware of these ‘fancies’ only when I am upon the very brink of sleep, with the consciousness that I am so.”
One for the most famous modern “monsters”, Frankenstein, came to author Mary Shelley in The Fourth State.
She writes:
“I saw with shut eyes, but acute mental vision—I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life ...”.
Albert Einstein was a famous napper, and he relied on them heavily to help him solve problems. That’s because a short nap can consist mostly of hypnagogic Fourth State Lucid Visions.
The Brain’s Innate Recovery Process
Earlier in this paper, the proposal was made that we humans have a natural dynamic capacity for psychological and physical resolution and self-healing.
Furthermore, if all four states of consciousness are harmonized, this dynamic capacity will enable us to fluidly resolve many of our psychological and even physiological challenges.
Lastly, this harmonized dynamic is the actual hidden enabling influence of many applied techniques and therapies.
The key position in this paper is that because of modern lifestyles, we commonly lack the Lucid Visions/Fourth State of Consciousness and consequently have an inadequate natural response in trauma resolution.
One form of enforcing our innate recovery process was first developed over 130 years ago in Berlin and is known as Autogenic Training.
Essentially, Autogenic Training helps a person learn to move consciously from the “exteroceptive Task Mode” and into the “interoceptive Non-Task Mode”.
In a way, it has certain similarities to the 1975 “Relaxation Response” of Herbert Benson.
Autogenic Training is not a direct Lucid Visions technique but it does teach us a lot about the neurology of “interoceptive Non-Task Mode” states.
The goal is to allow maximum opportunity to the self-regulatory processes of the brain so, in that way, it does share some common features with the Fourth State of Consciousness.
In Autogenic Training, various types of spontaneous brain-discharge expressions can occur:
- visual pseudo-hallucination of colors, patterns;
- small muscle twitches and jerks of the limbs;
- feelings of heaviness and lightness;
- warmth and cold;
- tingling and electrical sensations;
- feelings of pulsation and electric current;
- distortions of body image;
- detachment or displacement of body parts;
- dizziness, spinning, floating, turning.
In certain traditions of meditation, these same phenomena are called “kriyas” (Sanskrit term) and are regarded both as “stress releases” and “Kundalini” activities.
The basic attitude towards these expressions is positive and persons are encouraged to welcome them as evidence of progressive benefits.
In some persons, the phenomena may trigger an anxious reaction which will dissipate as the process becomes more familiar.
Autogenic brain-discharge was intensively researched it was found that the seemingly random and chaotic brain-discharges become over time increasingly coordinated, developing into a meaningful, hallucinatory, waking-dream process.
The Lucid Visions Fourth State of Consciousness reliably emerged over a period of guided training sessions.
Here, it is proposed that the eventual harmonized emergence of Lucid Visions can be accelerated by the inclusion of well-crafted photic stimulation experiences.
Luthe and the Brain’s Self-Healing Capacity
Luthe, a leading researcher in innate self-healing dynamics, attempts to summarize the brain's extraordinarily precise and complex capacity for functional self-healing:
The brain acts with:
- selection of disturbing material,
- timing and limitation of release of specific neuronal records,
- brain-directed management of multidimensional thematic combinations,
- gauging the dynamic force of material released and its correct adaptation to the system's level of tolerance,
- thematic repetitions and changes,
- self-confrontations and integrative dynamics,
- verification of its own progress and efficiency,
- programming and self-termination.
Luthe hypothesized that autogenic brain-discharges are the outcome of a self-regulatory “pressure principle” causing the brain to release and off-load disturbance.
Chaos Theory currently models the “pressure” as a critical hypersynchronous state reached by neuronal ensembles before discharging as neuronal avalanches.
Persons generating Lucid Visions using photic drivers such as the neuroVIZR Brain Engagement device, often times describe an exciting “pop” experience that has a full body “rush” and a pleasurable shift in the color/pattern displays.
Fourth State & the Entropic Brain Model
The Entropic Brain Model developed by Carhart-Harris and team at the Centre for Psychedelic Research, Division of Brain Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London is an excellent example of an advanced brain model that merges a number of modern scientific perspectives.
This model is here utilized and adapted to represent the Lucid Brain Model that includes the integration of the Lucid Visions Fourth State of Consciousness factor.
The human/mammalian brain developed “from the bottom up” and has an extensive sub-cortical set of functions and structures.
This zone can be thought of as the Proto-Brain and results in a Proto-Consciousness.
This Proto-Brain/Consciousness is also Pre-Ego self-awareness which is a cardinal characteristic of this state.
This type of consciousness is more “perceptual’ than “conceptual” information processing and relies more on direct sensory and emotive experience than on neocortex generated ideation and rational thought.
We still today maintain this Proto-Brain and Proto-Consciousness.
Our nervous system builds on hierarchy for modular operations. The later development of the neo-cortex completed the Current-Brain and permits a complementary set of “top down” functions.
The Fourth State of Consciousness relies heavily on the sub-cortical Proto-Brain and Proto-Consciousness. The Entropic Brain Model rests upon such a view.
The original brain of the early human being went through a remarkably fast neurological expansion. Our homo sapiens brain became a more free-wheeling organ that allowed conscious processing to more easily enter upwards into less defined certainty of consciousness (in the model, towards more disordered chaos aka “entropy”).
Such “entropic” expansion offered a new wide range of possibilities while also paradoxically introducing higher degrees of uncertainty.
As a consequence, further brain evolution demanded a counter-measure that would suppress the entropic expansion and maintain a regular ordered state.
Essentially, our brain evolved a “limiter function” for the biological efficiency of survival at the expense of radical exploration.
Fortunately, we kept the key for expansion hidden in our neurological back pocket.
The state involving the early entropic expansion is called Primary Consciousness and the counter-measure entropic suppression is Secondary Consciousness.
Primary Consciousness is characterized with uncertainty, disorder, increased possibilities, new learning and creative insights.
Secondary Consciousness is characterized with certainty, regularity, order, predictability and repeatability.
Generally speaking, Primary Consciousness is related to the Proto-Consciousness described above.
We normally function in well-ordered state of Secondary Consciousness because it serves us well for biological survival.
We also have the ability to shift into Primary Consciousness and do so every night when sleep invites in our dream states.
Waking experiences of Primary Consciousness are more uncommon or “non-ordinary” (NOCS) and are often labeled as “altered states” (ASC).
However just because Primary Consciousness is “non-ordinary” does not make it abnormal.
With the appropriate conditions, we humans have the “normal” ability to shift from everyday Secondary Consciousness into periods of Primary Consciousness.
The dance between Primary and Secondary Consciousness is called “criticality”.
When enough energetic stimulation is introduced into the brain, the stability of the ordered Secondary Consciousness begins to “wobble” and at a critical point, a shift begins to occur and access to Primary Consciousness starts to open up.
Criticality is functionally more of a “zone” than a strict point or line. (Analogy – think of the critical shift from solid ice to liquid water)
The Lucid Visions Theory
So, the basic burning question is why did the brain of the early Homo Sapiens rapidly expand both in capacity and size? No one knows with certainty.
One theory that has gained attention is The Stoned Ape. Terence McKenna proposed the Stoned Ape Hypothesis.
McKenna posited that psilocybin caused the primitive brain's information-processing capabilities to rapidly reorganize, which in turn kick-started the rapid evolution of cognition that led to the early art, language, and technology written in Homo sapiens' archeological record.
In this paper, another different theory is offered – the Lucid Visions Theory.
The Lucid Visions Theory can stand as either an alternative to The Stoned Ape Theory or as overlapping joint theory.
Consider that all early Homo Sapiens experienced much of their daily circadian cycle in sustained periods of darkness.
Depending on the season and especially in higher latitude temperate climates, the daily period of night time darkness would range anywhere from 8 to 18 hours.
Shelters would mostly consist of enclosed structures and certainly caves.
The only source of light as well as survival warmth would come from open fire sustained over some hours but not constantly.
An open flame from a natural source like wood and not disturbed much by things like wind tends to flicker at a rather predictable rate.
The tendency regardless of flow rates and size is remarkably constant at about 10 – 12 Hz.
These flicker rates seem to calm and almost wipe the mind free of thoughts. Calm and clear – and relaxing.
The fire flicker rates are inducing what is technically called The Frequency Following Response.
After gazing at the flames for 5 to 10 minutes without distraction, the brain will start to shift to alpha dominance in the visual cortex.
The result is mesmerizing “trance-like state” in which sustained staring is enabled.
Even closing the eyes will actually increase the alpha frequency amplitudes.
To be clear, the sustained alpha flicker rate of the fire did not cause the emergence of the Fourth State.
Quite the contrary, the alpha dominance in the visual cortex is actually an “internal visions suppressor” which is well-known from psychedelic neurological research.
The “fire flickering” will help to calm the active mind and nothing more.
The mind may then move from exteroception “task mode” more easily into interoception “non-task mode” which is a gateway that opens to permit the emergence of Lucid Visions.
Neurologically it is known that the waking dreams of hypnagogia abandon the alpha brain wave activities and move into other frequency ranges.
For a variety of reasons, the periods of darkness would also have mixed periods of waking and sleeping.
In the periods of darkness, the waking periods would be a combination of the visual experience of flickering flames of the fire and open-eyed staring off into the absolute blackness of the dark night.
As we know with certainty, this is the perfect formula for generating rich and elaborate Lucid Visions of the Fourth State of Consciousness.
The “Prisoner’s Cinema” and Dark Retreat
Actually, the phenomenon gained a certain legendary status in more recent times and is known as the “Prisoner’s Cinema” – when a person was confined to a dark cell over long periods of solitary confinement, the prisoner would regularly experience complex “entoptic” (colors and patterns) as well as “eidetic” (faces and places) visual imagery when gazing off into the featureless darkness of the cell.
In certain traditional meditation practices, this circumstance is known as a “Dark Retreat”.
The fascinating archeologist, David Lewis-Williams, explores in elegant detail the probable profiles of the developing Neolithic Mind against the backdrop of the flickering flames of the dark cave.
Once the early human being experiences the images against the mental screen in absolute darkness, the urge to capture these patterns and forms as the early cave wall art images seems entirely expected.
To contrast the Lucid Visions Theory with the Stoned Ape Theory seems simple.
Every early human would be exposed to the unique neurological influences of the Fourth State of Consciousness essentially every day regardless of their age or gender.
The impact must necessarily be profound.
Contrast this with the proposal of the Stoned Ape Theory in which an early human would have to ingest psilocybin mushrooms on a very regular basis in order, over many continuous multiple generations, to make any kind of reliable neurological change of any degree.
It is reasonable to assume that ingesting some magic mushrooms would most certainly augment the “fire in the dark” experience.
Yet the broad-based regularity across both age and gender of mushroom consumption seems unlikely to impact powerful significant brain changes with any degree when compared to daily circadian exposure to all persons regardless of age or gender.
The Fourth State of Consciousness & Schizotypy
Technically, the healthy separations between the four states are known as “differentiation” – as in, they are “different” yet enjoy a dynamic interrelationship.
In some persons, there is a certain amount of porousness between the states so the “invisible line” is perhaps more like a “soft zone” than a strict boundary demarcation.
In advancing brain science, this “porous” quality is called “schizotypy” (pronounded – “schi – zo – TYPE – ee”).
Schizotypy sounds pretty bad because the word can remind us of “schizophrenic”. Actually, there is a relationship but it must be put in context.
Schizotypy is likely to be a genetic disposition meaning some people have more or less of schizotypy in their nature.
It can be put into context as being on a spectrum or a scale by degree.
In and of itself, schizotypy is not necessarily a bad characteristic.
In the negative extreme, it does manifest as a serious pathology however, in the positive aspect of the spectrum, schizotypy manifests as heightened creativity and insightful analysis.
Schizophrenia could be considered an extreme maladaptation of a basic entropic dynamic mechanism of the normal brain.
Along this line of thought, an opposite extreme of a severely fixed and rigid mind set could be considered as a pathological opposite to schizophrenia.
Statistically, urban and industrialized societies have both a higher incidence and severity of schizophrenia.
Because values can differ greatly between industrialized and non-industrialized societies, we must be cautious to not quickly assign any particular cause to the disparity.
The stigmatization of hallucinatory and visionary experiences is much less prevalent in non-industrialized societies so absolute values and attitudes are impossible to apply across all situations.
Traditional and non-industrialized societies circumstantially also spend larger amounts of regular time in darkness, semi-darkness and exposed to the flickering light of fire.
These conditions are conducive to Fourth State Consciousness (Lucid Visions/hypnagogia).
Such image-rich reverie is highly supportive of the processing of emotionally-charged memories, traumas, creative problem solving and spiritual experiences.
If the schizotypy spectrum is, in fact, real across populations, it may well be a combination of cultural reinforcements and multi-generational genetic dispositions.
Persons, for whatever reason, that have a more “porous” zone of Criticality (Entropic Brain Model) will have a higher “daily requirement” of Fourth State/Lucid Visions experiences.
Considering that in our normal human Circadian Cycle, we all move into and through two periods of Fourth State every 24 hour period.
The transition from waking to sleep is hypnagogic and the transition from sleep to waking is hypnopompic.
“Waking dreams” is as natural and purposeful as “sleeping dreams”.
Interestingly, as our waking dreams become more “lucid”, automatically our sleeping dreams also become “lucid”.