Altered states

There is a second positive aspect of the new image of human beings that
will allow us to see ourselves in a different light. It is the unfathomable
depth of our phenomenal-state space. The mathematical theory of neural
networks has revealed the enormous number of possible neuronal configurations
in our brains and the vastness of different types of subjective
experience. Most of us are completely unaware of the potential and
depth of our experiential space. The amount of possible neurophenomenological
configurations of an individual human brain, the variety of possible
tunnels, is so large that you can explore only a tiny fraction of them
in your lifetime. Nevertheless, your individuality, the uniqueness of your
mental life, has much to do with which trajectory through phenomenalstate
space you choose. Nobody will ever live this conscious life again.
Your Ego Tunnel is a unicum, one of a kind. In particular, a naturalistic,
neuroscientific image of humanity suddenly makes it obvious not only
that we have a huge number of phenomenal states at our disposal but
also that explicit awareness of this fact and the ability to make use of it
systematically could now become common to all human beings.
Of course, there is an old shamanic tradition of exploring altered
states of consciousness. More-or-less systematic experimental consciousness
research has been conducted for millennia—by the yogi and
the dervish, by the magician, the monk, and the mystic. At all times and
in all cultures, human beings have explored the potential of their conscious
minds—through rhythmic drumming and trance techniques,
through fasting and sleep deprivation, through meditation and the cultivation
of lucid dreaming, or through the use of psychoactive substances from herbal teas to sacred mushrooms. The new feature today is that we
are slowly beginning to understand the neural underpinnings of all such
alternate-reality tunnels. As soon as we have discovered the neural correlate
of consciousness for specific forms of content, we will be able, at
least in principle, to manipulate these contents in many new ways—to
amplify or inhibit them, to change their quality, to generate new types of
content. Brain prostheses and medical neural technology are already
under way.
Neurotechnology will inevitably turn into consciousness technology.
Phenomenal experience will gradually become technologically
available, and we will be able to manipulate it in ever more systematic
and effective ways. We will learn to make use of these discoveries to
overcome the limitations of our biologically evolved Ego Tunnels.
The fact that we can actively design the structure of our conscious
minds has been ne glected and will become increasingly obvious
through the development of rational neuroanthropology. Being an autonomous
agent and being able to take responsibility for your own life
will take on a completely new meaning once neurotechnology starts
to unfold into neurophenomenological technology, or what might be
called phenotechnology.
We can definitely increase our autonomy by taking control of the
conscious mind-brain, exploring it in some of its deeper dimensions.
This particular aspect of the new image of humankind is good news. But
it is also dangerous news. Either we find a way to deal with these new
neurotechnological possibilities in an intelligent and responsible manner,
or we will face a series of historically unprecedented risks. That is
why we need a new branch of applied ethics—consciousness ethics. We
must start thinking about what we want to do with all this new knowledge and what a good state of consciousness is in the first place.