Psy201 Consciousness Assignment

PSY201

Consciousness Assignment

When describing hypnosis, meditation, in connection with drug use and the possibilities it has on altering states of consciousness. It will first be necessary to review the subject with critical thinking and logic in mind before making any assumptions.

When searching for some answers to this question, I came across several useful resources. My first discovery was an article provided by the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis (ASCH), they provided a great deal of insight into hypnosis in general. Moving even further in this discussion, the ASCH described hypnosis as a state of inner concentration, focused attention and suggests, that when our minds are in this state, the mind is more powerful, allowing for increased mental potential. The ASCH also mentioned that current research has shown a connection between hypnotic communication, and effective aspects of an individual's physiological and neurological functions (American Society of Clinical Hypnosis , 2010).

Moreover, when breaking the word "meditation" down to meditate, Merriam Webster defined it as, mental exercise that allowed an individual to experience a level of heightened spiritual awareness (Merriam-Webster, 2012). Now when we start to consider the mentioned material it is easy to find a common ground between the psychological, neurological, and mental connection that exist in both, meditation and hypnosis. Furthermore, taking a close look at what role drugs could possibly play in this equation, led me to this handy report dealing with drug abuse, and associated altered states of consciousness published by Schaffer Library of Drug Policy. The article described certain drug categories such as, narcotics, hallucinogens, and even marijuana and their various effects on states of consciousness (Schaffer Library of Drug Policy).

In closing, compiling all of the research and data collected allowed an individual to make a clear association between hypnosis,...