A test of the psychedelic model of altered states of consciousness. The role of introspective sensitization in eliciting unusual subjective reports
H. T. Hunt and C. M. Chefurka
The term "psychedelic" applied to "altered states of consciousness" would
imply that such subjective anomalies are direct expressions of normal
psychological functioning. The anomaly in such experience would depend in
the first instance on sensitization to qualities of immediate subjective
state. Such sensitization should in itself be considered nonadaptive,
cutting off the "intentionality" of psychic functioning at a
microgenetically primitive level. This hypothesis was experimentally
confirmed, in a setting involving isolation and inactivity for a period of
ten minutes, by the striking incidence of anomalous subjective reports in
groups provided instructions involving direct sensitization to immediate
subjective state compared with nonsensitization groups. In addition, as
would be predicted from a "psychedelic" model of altered states, a study of
the experimental protocols of the early introspectionists revealed
subjective anomalies similar to those found in drug and meditational
states.
