This practice-as-research project (a) invents, examines and self-reflects upon two techniques - 'Whirling in Pain' and 'Neurobreathing' - that the author has developed for dealing with pain in performance, (b) creates a framework for the qualitative analysis of pain retraining techniques by conducting an interdisciplinary study of the parameters that describe Somatic Practices and the psychology of Altered States of Consciousness, (c) establishes a taxonomy and classifications for describing and assessing techniques of pain management in the performing arts, (d) qualitatively assesses the training techniques of three practitioners —Antonin Artaud, Jerzy Grotowski and Marina Abramović—who have used Somatic Practices and Altered States of Consciousness in their techniques, and draws out patterns and themes in their practice, (e) distils generic principles of practice that are essential for training pain perception and could be used by other practitioners for developing their own techniques, or to better embody the techniques that the author has developed. These transferable principles are: reinforcement, exhaustion of pain-processing resources, inquisitive modes towards otherness, embodied knowledge, surrendering, Sisyphean reiteration, and music’s capacity for fascination. This dissertation considers the issue of dealing with pain in performance beyond the limited area of theatre pedagogy, suggesting an interdisciplinary approach and expanding its scope into the wider realms of theoretical discourse around culture and pain. This dissertation argues that since pain is not only a biochemical process but one that is culturally constructed, it is therefore possible to retrain or un-train the perception of pain through the facility of Somatic Practices that induce Altered States of Consciousness. Such retraining of pain perception has wider socio-political ramifications that challenge the pervading modern and neoliberal culture around pain, which understands it only through a reductively biological model and relies heavily on the use of exogenous analgesics to alleviate pain. Finally, this dissertation proposes that dealing with pain is possible not only by transcending and moving attentional focus away from pain, but also by entering a plane of immanence, achieved through working synergistically with pain in order to find the coping mechanisms and hidden reserves that lie dormant within the individual. The practical element of this submission consists of: (a) a Manual for Practitioners that describes the techniques step-by-step, and explains the principles behind them, and, (b) two performance videos that exhibit how the author has used the two techniques to create and manage pain within performances.

”A finger pointing at the moon is not the moon...” -Buddhist Quote ”...but it can point you in the right direction.” -Charles Tart, American psychologist In this Master’s Thesis I will be presenting the idea of an Inner Gaze as an inherent witnessing system used in artistic practice. I will be mirroring my own practice as a Musician/Artist/Sound-Designer in the teachings of Hypnosis and The Science of Consciousness. Further I will share and analyze the collected data gathered from interviews with artists from different artistic fields, in order to gain a better understanding of how they experience their creative and performing minds. Is there any coherence in how we experience creativity? How common are the sensations of altered states of consciousness among artists? Can other artists relate to the idea of an inner gaze? Is this something we long to further explore and develop and would such a concept be beneficial for the artist and its works?

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Background: Psychonautics is a scientific method used to describe intoxication and effects of psychoactive substances and a form of recognition used by some in order to achieve self- experience and transcendence. Hallucinogenic and psychedelic substances most commonly used for this purpose can possess therapeutical, but also destructive potential, how many researches on the psychedelic therapy topic have shown. During auto-experiments, these substances are being used in nonclinical environment and often without professional or other control, which can lead to many risks, but also benefits. Aim: The goal is to understand the way of psychonautics self-defining through statements and actions of psychonauts. The main goal is to describe a pattern of drug use, subjective consequences and meaning of psychoactive substances use in the lives of the psychonauts from their point of view. Sample: Research set consisted of 5 respondents chosen based on two methods - the snowball method and intended selection. Methods: The used method of data collection was a semistructured interview, in which the collected data was analysed by the clustering method and pattern recording method and an online questionnaire that has been evaluated based on descriptive analysis principles by an answer sheet. Results:...

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T19:20:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Carlos Augusto Trinca Morini.pdf: 829096 bytes, checksum: 52f68d07a17d90eafa7e0ecba41d9f2e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-10-25 / The somatic-sensorial stimulus, like music, dance, candles, scent and clothe´s colors have been wide used in many religion´s rituals along the history, helping people thereselves to connect with the Sacred. The goal of our study is analyse why these elements seem to be so efficient to induction altered states of conscience. Our study will be delimited and direct to the Umbanda rituals, choosen by planty of sensorial elements presents in it´s practices and also by the presence of the mediunic trance, mandatory in all the spiritual jobs. The methodology used is the bibliographic revision, complited by field research, made througt questions application togheter Umbandistc meduins, submmiting after the data to a quantitative analysis / Os estímulos somato-sensoriais, como a música, a dança, as velas, os aromas e as cores das roupas, têm sido largamente utilizados em rituais de muitas das principais religiões ao longo da história, para auxiliar os participantes a se conectarem com o Sagrado. O objetivo do presente estudo é analisar porque tais elementos parecem ser tão eficientes na indução de estados alterados de consciência e está circunscrito e focado nos rituais da Umbanda, escolhida pela abundância de elementos sensoriais presentes em suas práticas e também pela presença obrigatória do transe mediúnico em todos os trabalhos. A metodologia utilizada é a revisão bibliográfica, complementada por pesquisa de campo realizada mediante a aplicação de questionários junto a médiuns umbandistas, submetendo depois os dados a uma análise quantitativa

Grisi Siknis est le calque miskito de l’anglais "crazy sickness". Au-dessous de cette étiquette opaque se cachent une série de crises de transe de masse se reproduisant depuis plus de cinquante ans dans la région de la Moskitia, entre le Nicaragua et le Honduras orientaux. La grisi siknis est un raptus de transe involontaire qui atteint de préférence les jeunes femmes miskitos, une ethnie afro-indigène de langue Misumalpa. Au cours de la transe, les attaqués de grisi siknis (lasa praprukra) tombent en proie à un comportement agressif et/ou auto-agressif associé à des hallucinations récurrentes, ce qui est généralement interprété comme l'attaque d'un esprit maléfique. La diffusion de la maladie est perçue par les affectés comme une épidémie contagieuse redoutable aux thérapies controversées. Néanmoins, le comportement des lasa praprukra présente un certain degré de ritualisation. L’objectif primaire de cette étude, qui s'est appuyée sur une année de recherches ethnographiques au Nicaragua, est de décrire la force de propagation de la grisi siknis, en analysant sa dynamique interactionnelle et la constitution de l'imaginaire qui l'impulse. L’imaginaire iconique lié aux hallucinations de la grisi siknis a été étudié en proposant aux attaqués de dessiner leurs contenus hallucinatoires. Cette pratique, en analogie avec certains traitement chamaniques locaux, a été appréhendée comme une forme de thérapie. Le corpus iconographique produit est analysé dans son double statut de représentation et d’imaginaire incarné doté d’agentivité. En deuxième lieu, la thèse décrit les soubassements neurocognitifs de la crise de transe en esquissant un modèle bayésien de l'induction d'hallucinations sans prise de psychotropes dans des sujets sains. Enfin, le statut social des attaqués de grisi siknis est comparé à ceux de spécialistes rituels tels que les chamanes et des guérisseurs. Une place importante est accordée à la nature ontologiquement instable des esprits impliqués et au rôle de la métacognition dans les modifications psycho-physiologiques qui en favorisent l’expérience et la croyance. / Grisi siknis is a Miskito calque of the English expression « crazy sickness ». Behind this secretive label lies a series of mass trance seizures that have been happening for more than fifty years in the Moskitia region, between Eastern Nicaragua and Honduras. Grisi siknis is an involuntary trance attack, mainly affecting young Miskito women, an afro-indigenous population whose language belongs to the Misumalpa family. During the trance, those attacked by grisi siknis (lasa praprukra) show an aggressive/auto-aggressive behaviour associated with repeated hallucinations, which is generally interpreted as the attack of an evil spirit. The spread of the disease is seen by those affected as a dangerous epidemic which therapies are still controversial. Nevertheless, the lasa praprukra behaviour presents a certain degree of ritualization. The main goal of this study, which relies on one year of ethnographic research in Nicaragua, is to describe grisi siknis propagation by analysing its interactional dynamics and the constitution of the imagery impulsing its spread. The iconic imagery of grisi siknis has been studied by proposing to patients to draw their hallucinatory contents. As it shares some analogies with local shamanic treatment, this practice has been apprehended as a form of therapy. The iconographic corpus of grisi siknis drawings is analysed both in representation and in agentive embodied imagery terms. Secondly, this thesis describes the neurocognitive processes behind the seizure by sketching a Bayesian model of the induction of hallucinations in healthy subjects without psychotropic intake.Finally, the social status of lasa praprukra is compared to those of some local ritual specialists as shamans and healers. An important place is accorded to the fluctuating ontology of the spirits mobilized during the trance, as well as to the role held by metacognition in the psycho-physiological modifications encouraging spirits experience and belief.

Esta pesquisa investiga a multiplicação dos diagnósticos de doenças mentais junto aos Wajãpi do Amapari e, concomitantemente, o aumento gradativo e discreto de prescrições de medicamentos psicotrópicos. A fim de compreender este fenômeno, são analisadas as explicações fornecidas pelas famílias acerca dos estados alterados de seus parentes, bem como os vários caminhos trilhados na tentativa de reversão dos mesmos. Nestes, as famílias estabelecem relações com os mais diversos agentes: pajés, médicos, psicólogos, missionários, pastores e curandeiros. Todas as relações abordadas nesse trabalho reforçam que, para os Wajãpi, só é possível viver realizando composições. / This research investigates the multiplication of mental illness diagnosis among the Wajãpi of Amapari and in parallel the gradual and discrete rise in prescriptions of psychotropical medications. In order to understand this phenomenon, the study analyzes both the family explanations about the altered states of their relatives and also the different paths taken to try to reverse such states. In doing so, these families establish relations with very different agents, such as: shamans, doctors, psychologists, missionaries, pastors and healers. All the relations described in this study reinforce the idea that, to Wajãpi, it is only possible to live realizing different compositions.

Thesis (MPhil (Information Science))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / This thesis explores phenomena surrounding the creation of knowledge, employing a multidisciplinary approach. To start with a view on the physical location of knowledge is discussed. This helps highlight the problem of defining knowledge and simultaneously introduces a set of fundamental and conceptual questions about the phenomena surrounding the creation of knowledge . The set of questions are then focussed on the process of knowledge creation. The investigation starts in the field of archaeology, in particular at the dawn of modern civilisation, with views on the earliest forms of knowledge creation. From there the investigation moves on to aspects of contemporary neurology. This allows for a comparison between humans from the ancient past with humans of today thereby identifying a neurological link between these periods. Based on current research within the field of behavioural neurology it is posed that knowledge creation is a process initiated by the impact of electromagnetic fields on the brain. A review of the medical research within the neurological sciences on the effects of electromagnetic field stimulation shows it to be effective as a treatment modality, a behavioural modifier, a suppressor and facilitator of cognition, as well as a sensory modulator. The interaction of the brain with electromagnetic fields is shown as a form of transduction similar to that of regular sensory transduction. Since the transduction of electromagnetic stimuli can functionally modulate sensory reception, cognition, behaviour and some neurological conditions, the creation of sensory perception, cognition, behaviour and neurological conditions (all phenomena surrounding knowledge creation) can be shown as functionally dependant on the electro-chemical process of ferromagnetic transduction (magneto reception). The ferromagnetic transduction model may then be seen as the sensory mechanism that initiates and modulates the process of knowledge creation. The modulation of this process is revealed cognitively in savants, behaviourally in some of the greatest thinkers in history and on a planetary scale as a force of nature. The implications of these findings is that if the keys to the creation of knowledge have been found, great care needs to be taken when deciding to implement any type of artificial or natural modulation to neural firing rates not only because of the total effect modulation can have on the individual but also because of the social consequences resulting from those who wish to socially discriminate according to the ability of and beliefs arising from the knowledge creating process.

Pokorný, V., To think from psychedelic experiences. Transdisciplinary interpretation. Diseration Thesis, Departement of General Anthropology, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University Prague, 2016 Abstract: The goal of this text is to think from and according to psychedelic experiences. To think from psychededic experiences means to introduce a transdisciplinary model of psychedelic domain. This model is based on autoethnographic, cognitive, phenomenological and psychopharmacological types of analysis. These analyses allow to demonstrate: 1) place of psychedelics in contemporary globalised czech society; 2) possible heuristic (theoretical and experiemental) value of psychedelic experience for understanding human situation. This text interprets psychedelic experience as a process of deteritorialization and reteritorialization that occurs on different, intertwinned levels of our experience, and, thus, it is a contribution to explication of a philosophical concept of intertwinning. Keywords: psychedelic experience, transdisciplinarity, autoethnography, cognitive anthropology, anthropology of experience, enactivism, phenomenology, embodiment, analogy, intertwinning

Pokorný, V., To think from psychedelic experiences. Transdisciplinary interpretation. Diseration Thesis, Departement of General Anthropology, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University Prague, 2016 Abstract: The goal of this text is to think from and according to psychedelic experiences. To think from psychededic experiences means to introduce a transdisciplinary model of psychedelic domain. This model is based on autoethnographic, cognitive, phenomenological and psychopharmacological types of analysis. These analyses allow to demonstrate: 1) place of psychedelics in contemporary globalised czech society; 2) possible heuristic (theoretical and experiemental) value of psychedelic experience for understanding human situation. This text interprets psychedelic experience as a process of deteritorialization and reteritorialization that occurs on different, intertwinned levels of our experience, and, thus, it is a contribution to explication of a philosophical concept of intertwinning. Keywords: psychedelic experience, transdisciplinarity, autoethnography, cognitive anthropology, anthropology of experience, enactivism, phenomenology, embodiment, analogy, intertwinning