Rumi: A 13th-century Persian poet, jurist, Islamic scholar, theologian, and Sufi mystic.

Abstract
When we move, we get connected. Even if we are moving alone, we can exit the
world of ordinary consciousness and enter a realm, where a meaningful connection
to ourselves, to others and to the world around us is possible in ways that are often
missing from our everyday lives. In fact in any kind of altered state of consciousness
(ASC) we get the possibility to not only experience, but also practice a rich diversity
of connectedness to different levels of our existence. Because of this, we hope to
draw the conclusion that entering an ASC is a basic human necessity that enables
psychological maturation and well-being and it should be a common and regular
practice in our lives.
To investigate this statement, we will look at the phenomenon of movement-evoked
ASC from various perspectives, drawing upon literature from neuroscience, through
psychotherapy, to transpersonal psychology. Then we will try to discover proof of
these theories in real-life descriptions of outstanding dance-experiences.
The title of the lecture, a line from Rumi portrays the connection-experience in ASCs.
The following quote from Antonin Artaud expresses its purpose: Art does not
imitate life, but life imitates a transcendent principle with which art reconnects us.

About the event

The Pszinapszis Budapest Psychology Days is the biggest psychological conference
in Europe organized solely by students, and it is back for the 19th time this year to be
held on 17-19th April, 2015. The event originally started off as a series of university
lectures with only 100 visitors. Today, it has grown to an extent, where it attracts
more than 3-4000 visitors each year. Our visitors are not just professionals in
psychology, but also layman interested in the field of psychology. Not only the
number of our visitors, but also the number of our organisers has grown over the
years. The event, which originates from the University Eotvos Lorand now has
helpers from other Hungarian universities as well, such as the Pzmny Pter Catholic
University, Kroli Gspr University, Corvinus University of Budapest and Budapest
University of Technology and Economics. As many as 74 volunteer students have
been working together for 8 months to bring the best programs to you! The legal
and infrastructural backgrounds of the Pszinapszis are covered by the Pszichodik
Foundation.
This year we chose Together Alone as the main theme of Pszinpaszis. We would like
to invite our guests to think about the nature of solitude and what being alone really
means.
Solitude is a feeling we all experience to some extent in our lives. Sometimes we
need it, sometimes we run away from it. But since no two human beings are alike, we

all feel alone in unique ways. The meaning of solitude is different for everyone, and it
depends not only on the person in question, but on where they are in their lives, too.
We do not usually think of loneliness as a social phenomenon. Yet the 19th Pszinapszis
will try to delve into a topic which may seem quite startling at first. Is it possible to be
together alone?
Consider an average day in our lives: we walk down streets, get on trams or do the
shopping all by ourselves. So many people surround us, yet we feel that its just us and
our feelings. Is there anybody who has never felt lonely even amongst friends and
family? Solitude may be a welcome visitor from time to time: sometimes we might
wish to embrace its tranquility. On the other hand, we may fear the silence it brings.
We all know these feelings because they are essential parts of human existence. We
are all trapped in our personal mazes made out of glass. We see through the walls, we
see others struggling to find their paths in their own labyrinths, yet we are alone in
our efforts. Sometimes we cross each others path, sometimes we find someone who
will join us on the journey.
In April 2015, we will explore this intricate phenomenon with the help of psychology
and other disciplines. Join us in trying to understand what sharing our solitude means,
and how we can be together if we are alone.

When preparing for today I had a really hard time formulating what
exactly I should talk about.
Based on my research area it was obvious I would share some thoughts about the
ASC evoked by dancing and somehow about the experience of connection during
that state but that is pretty much covered by the quote in the title of the
presentation So I started to go deeper into the question and ask myself:
this thirst that we feel for connection: what are we really looking for?
The fact, that to every human being, feeling connected is a basic and necessary need
for wellbeing and survival seems to be without question: it is like the axioms in
mathematics, we pose no questions, we dont ask for explanation.
Love and belongning is in the Maslow pyramid, right above physiological needs and
safety. Freud talked about Eros and Thanatos. Glasser claimed love to be one of the
four basic needs of humans, next to power, freedom and fun. In the unified theory of
motivation, amongst cognitive, affective, spiritual, etc. we can find social
motivations, including the need to imitate positive models, acquire effective social
competence skills and be a part of a dyad, group, institution, or community. And
we look for relationships for positive feelings, for support, help in survival, generally
pyschological and physiological wellbeing. In fact it was said, that:

Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence.
Erich Fromm: The Art of Loving
But what exactly should I be looking for in my research? I brought you today three
different researches from the past 5 years: healthy professional contemporary
dancers, healthy general public who goes out and dances every now and then and a
group of oncology patients who are memebers of a belly-dancing club. All of this
researches work with a mixed method of using both quantitative and qualitative data,
ie questionnaires and open-ended questions, numbers and letters at the same time.
The latter means, that we pose an open-ended question and do something called
content analysis, which is basically reading texts overandoverandoverandover again
to discover recurring patterns. And during this process of content analysis, you have
to make a lot of decisions on what you consider as supporting evidence: what do you
consider to be a sign of connectedness? What should I be looking for besides the word
love? I will show you the restults later, but what I have realized is that its easier to
answer, if I turn the question around and ask:
What are we detached from?

As a therapist I get to work with foreigners living in Hungary: mostly students,

academics and artists who stay here for one or more years of studying and
projects. The problems and experiences they share show us vividly, what
happens to a person, when detached.

They are detached from a place called home: never existed or abusive and
conflicted. A person needs a stable, ever existing stillpoint that they might
never return to, but can use as point of reference and to anchor their selfdefinition to.

They are detached from regular feedback from people: spend a lot of time
literally alone and even when with people, their true self can not be shown,
experienced and be connected to others. The time spent looking inward
enhances all emotions and thoughts like in mindfulness meditation, but there
is no return or anchoring to reality. People serve as mirrors that dont only
show who we are, but on a basic level show us that we are, that we exist.
Without such reflections that serve as stable points of reference, the mind
runs wild, disintegration and loss of the sense of reality can occur, where the
person starts to question everything about their own existence.

The experience we have when standing at the seashore sheds a light on an

interesting phenomena: if there is nothing to compare ourselves to, to be
different from, the borders and sense of self slowly start to dissolve. And the
feeling of Me, of identity can be lost.
So when we talk about the existential necessity of connecting, its not an
overstatement: not connecting can actually threaten the way we as a person,
exist.
And this is what I found during my research. In the verbal answers provided, I
was looking for and found evidence about the fact, that we can get detached:
The bigger picture around us in space and time: familiar heritage, culture
and transcendence.
From others, from people: comes first to mind. Difficulties with familiar
bonds, romantic relationships, friendships or just generally, people (alien).
From ourselves: body, emotions, desires and true motivations, goals and
purpose in life our identity.
I believe that when we are dancing, we have the possibility to address most of
these detachments.

The source of the data, the source of the answers I will show you today:
altered states of consciousness.
But what happens exactly? What is an altered state of consciousness?
Myth: An ASC is a definite, from normality clearly separated state of mind,
which operates like an on-off switch: it either happens or it doesnt.

Instead: ASCs are a completely natural and everyday experience. In fact, its
better to say that they are just one way to operate, that we are less conscious
about or practiced in but its not unknown to anyone.
For example (from left to right): playing or listening to music, excursions and
getting immersed in nature generally, sex, dreaming and daydreaming,
creating or observe art, doing sports or dancing, sickness, etc.

Can we define altered states by defining the normal state?

No, because consciousness is the most commonly shared and least commonly
understood phenomena of human experience. Defining difficulties regard the
what and the how.

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Unity of consciousness is an illusion:

We have the illusion that we know what we know: all research on implicit
memory or learning proves, that we are not completely aware of the
information that we operate on.
We have the illusion, that we consciously decide and control our behavior,
while in fact the conscious awareness of a motoric action is actually the last
element of the neural process. What action we will execute is decided much
earlier than it reaches the conscious experience of having made the decision.
THUS: Dissociation is not pathological, its a necessary function!
Neodissociation theory: Ernest R. Hilgard (1973):
We operate based on hierarchially connected control systems. During ASCs
some of these control systems get disconnected, dissociated: which means
they are fully functional, are processing input and output as well, but not to
all otherwise connected systems.
ASCs are reversible within seconds, which would be impossible if systems
would be deactivated: instead the awareness of their functioning is what
changes.
NEOdissociation theory to separate itself from previous models labeling
dissociation as a negative function.

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Instead: ASCs are a natural category (Kihlstrom, 1984): no definitive categorymembership pre-requisites, rather the rate of similarity to a prototype that contains a
list of typical characteristics none of which is essential but all of which are enough on
their own to evoke such an experience.

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Induction: there is an optimal level of attention that maintains our normal way
of cognition and consciousness. Both under- and overstimulation of attention
induces an alternate functioning. During dancing there is a multimodal
overstimulation: proprioceptive and physical, audiotiry, visual and social. Thus
the focus shifts to unusual subjects and the span narrows: the amount of
attention we execute changes which results in the quality of experience
changing: it indicates that the situation demands a different way of
functioning.

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Subjective experience: Bnyai (2007) the dominant quality of cognitive functions

changes from abstract (verbal) to concrete (graphic, expressive). This means that
subjective experiences will be filled with intense, colorful images, both emotions
and bodily experiences become highly accessible and in the forefront of
attention. The sense of self looses importance and emphasis, its borders faint and
become more permable, enabling an easier conenction. In connection with loss of
self, changes in the body-representation can occur as well. And since there is
noone to monitor, evaluate and judge whats happening or constantly connect
experiences to average reality, changes in thought processes can arise: awake
logic is exchanged for trance-logic, similar to that of the unconscious: there is no
need for justification, opposing arguments can co-exist. The lack of the self as
anchor- and reference-point, time and space are experienced differently as well:
they might shrink or enlarge unrealistically.
Once the persons state of mind changes back, these experiences will be difficult
to recall, express and integrate into the everyday lifes narrative.
Example: visual illustration of these slides include manipulated photos depicting a
surrealistic world: they dont make sense rationally, but do make sense in an
altered understanding.

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SUM: the induction of ASC because of alterations in attention are a physiological

necessity, it always happens, always results in changes of cognition, emotions,
behavior and physiology. Shamans and goa-dancers go through the same
induction: what they do with it is what differs.

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Functions of ASC: Farthing (1997) claimed that all ASCs can provide us with
benefits in 3 areas: learning and knowledge, social and healing.
Example: psychiatric patients lacking integrity of self can heal by immersing
into and connectiong to a bigger unity than themselves, that entails harmony,
balance and integration.
Willig (2008): Through enabling us to exit our commonly practiced reality,
ASCs offer the possibility for us to explore parts of the world and ourselves
that otherwise we have no access to or knowledge of.

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Why is movement-evoked best to repair detachments?

Marton (1970): when executing a motoric behavior the visual and postural
(information about the position of the body) stimulus and feedback resulting from
the action is stored and they are stored together. In addition, when the action is
started a parallel feedback signal is activated to indicate which of the changes from
the external world are connected to the self-induced action and which are the ones
merely coinciding. This forewarning signal prepares the sensory and motoric areas of
the brain to register the relevant changes and stimuli. Thus after many repeating
experiences, these patterns of experience are stored in our minds together: the
representations include information about the necessary motoric impulses to
execute the behavior, the bodily experiences connected to the action and the
resulting visual changes in the external world. The overlap of the set of these
representations is what finally creates our integrated body-image. This sense of our
body, acting as sole source of self-induced, controlled action will serve as anchor for
the later developing sense of self and identity and as reference point for
perception.
Kulcsr (2006) on the level of physical action, the experiences resulting from the
agency of self the actions we feel we are doing have similar neural correlates as
do experiences resulting from representing actions of another. Most researches

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point to one neural area though, that creates the difference in experience: the
activation of the anterior cingulate gyrus indicates to the conscious, that it is I who is
executing the behavior and not someone else. Should this area deactivate, actions or
psychological states of mine and others dont have such a strong separation. This is
the basis of empathy, of simulation and of the deep sense of connection.

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Why is movement-evoked best to repair detachments?

This strong connection between body and mind continues to influence the set of
psychological experiences that we operate on: cognitive and developmental
researches have proven that every psychological behavior has an antecendent in
physical reality. Basically we build up our complex experiences using building blocks,
that once were internalized representations of actual, external behavior.
SUM: Any psychological action has a basis and origin in physical action. Thus physical
action and experience can influence psychological action and experience. (Basis of
movement- and dance-therapy or any therapy that involves actual action and
behavior, like work-therapy or psychodrama.)
The only way in which the world can be grasped ultimately lies, not in thought, but
in the act, in the experience of oneness. Thus paradoxical logic leads to the
conclusion that the love of God is neither the knowledge of God in thought, nor the
thought of one's love of God, but the act of experiencing the oneness with God.
Fromm: The Art of Loving
THUS Experiencing ourselves can reinforce the sense of self and its potentials in

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behavior and emotions.

Through proporoceptive and external body-stimulation, endogen opiats release into
our system when dancing: these contribute to pain relief, positive emotions, anxiety
of separation decreases. It also helps to keep the attention focused and detached
from reality. Kulcsr believes it imitates our early experiences of trustful symbiosis
with our mother.

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How do we make use of such experiences?

The 3 researches I mentioned provided very different results regarding how
much the experiences influence the way a person sees and operates themself
and the world around them. Professional dancers had the biggest difficulty
formulating the meaning of their experience, while patients who arrived to
rehabilitate themselves through belly dancing had a well-formulated and
obviously already conscious answer.
dASC-experiences can become self-defining memories.
The psyche does not think or work in lists: when we think about ourslves,
others or the world, we dont list knowledge like in a test or a CV: the psyche
knows images.
So we recall defining moments of our lives to realize in the present: what we
want and how we can reach it.
Conway (2005) coined the term self-defining memories, which describe a
special set of experiences, that are 1) represented in a detailed, vivid,
sensarorily rich way, 2) are recalled frequently and by recall 3) activate intense
emotions and 4) serve the purpose of reinforcing and guiding These memories

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serve the purpose of embedding our identity into the texture of our history: the
narrative of our self includes cognitive, affective and motivational aspects that
describe our past, present and future.

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The bridge of image: experiences of ASCs are inherently difficult to verbalize

or integrate into normal consciousness. So how we can learn and take most
out of such experiences is if we 1) make them conscious, 2) use the image
bridge to verbalize the story, what we learnt or received from the experience.
Qualitative research:
Since experiences stem from not conscious, but trance-logic: research can not
be done solely by searching for the proof of our theories.
Deductive method: bulding up from blocks of experience.
SUM: Implicit memory takes a long time and several repeats to overwrite. So
while the experience in itself is enough, we can enhance the effects if we
create images and stories from the experiences and share it with others, thus
integrating them into the narrative about ourselves and our lives.

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I will present results from the research completed on a subclinical population, via an
online questionnaire registered through a snowball-sampling method. This resulted
in 115 experience-descriptions: 87.5% of which came from women, 82% were under 24,
73% were universtiy students or had a college degree.
The open-ended question was: Describe one of your outstanding dancing
experiences to me in a way, that I can imagine it too.

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21

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A quote from another research: a longer interview with a professional dancer.

Woman, 32.
Notice the signs of the change in cognition during the recall of the event.

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My PhD research aims to elaborate on the specifics of this, so details will be

published later, stay tuned

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A quote from another research: a longer interview with a professional dancer: male,
22.

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A quote from another research: a longer interview with a professional dancer:

woman, 27.

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A quote from another research: a longer interview with a professional dancer:

woman, 27.

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In conclusion, entering an altered state of mind through movement and

dancing used to be a common practice of humanity since we as a species exist.
I believe the wish to exit consciousness was born at the same time, when
consciousness was born.
In our current cultural environment these practices have mostly vanished, so
dancing and loosing our mind a little doing it is generally considered as
recreation and after a certain age, not so appropriate. Luckily during the last
5 years, practices allowing such experiences are becoming more common: goa
and shamanistic gatherings, holotrope breathing, dance therapy groups,
freedance groups, etc..
I hope by now you could see through this lecture, that regularly entering an
ASC is a basic human motivation and necessity to maintain and further develop
ourselves, our relationships and our understanding to the world that
surrounds us.
So make sure that every now and then you visit the sea that is inside all of us,
for your own and all of our sake.

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