03-10-2025, 08:01 PM
In this part I will be connecting some rituals and practices found in virtually all religious, spiritual, and esoteric groups, by reducing them to how they relate to the purpose of achieving altered states. Most readers are probably aware of a number of common practices. Some, like vocalizations, already featured or were implied by the resonance frequencies amplified by the Neolithic sites. Here we extend this to ritual dance, fasting, self-flagellation, and other things that cause physiological changes in hormone responses related to the brain.
My wife told me a story about a family tradition (not hers, I don't believe) of cutting one end off a brisket to square it before putting it in to roast. This may even be an old folk tale, but it illustrates my point. Why did they do it? Well, they didn't know and it was just how they had always made brisket. At some point either great-grandma was visiting from the old country or some other family matriarch was over when the brisket was going in and they asked why in the world the end of the brisket was cut off.
Come to find out, great-grandma only cut the end off the brisket because their pot was too small to cook a whole roast.
I can forgive those still practicing rituals from centuries ago their ignorance of the true origins of their rituals. Rituals can be important for reasons that go beyond their original purpose. I am skeptical that any ritual or practice is entirely without practical purposes, even if that purpose has been lost to time or has been deemed mere superstition. What I'm interested in though, is ritual that plausibly helps induce altered states.
You don't need to read all the links as I'll be pulling relevant data from a number of them and presenting them together.
Altered States of Consciousness during an Extreme Ritual
What ties together dance, extreme rituals involving physical pain, fasting, asceticism, sleep deprivation, and even the extreme sexual deviancy found at the fringes of occult practices? Stress. Stress and the hormones associated with it, broadly. The class of hormones is called catecholamines. The main types are dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine. These can be amplified by increased levels of cortisol, which is also released during stress. The stress can be physical or emotional, intentionally induced or caused by environmental conditions.
Neurology is complicated, but the rough idea is that as stress increases the brain gets flooded with these stress hormones. A common situation in which this happens is when the "fight of flight" response is triggered. If your experience with it is anything like mine, you'll be familiar with the tingling rush of adrenaline pouring into your system and a perceived slowing of time. It can elevate heart rate, increase glucose metabolism, and decrease reaction times. It's a good thing when you have to react fast... but there can be too much of a good thing. There is a U-shaped dose response to these hormones and when you have too many circulating it begins to impair the functions of the prefrontal cortex.
Catecholamine Influences on Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortical Networks
The effects of stress exposure on prefrontal cortex: Translating basic research into successful treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder
The next set of hormones that come into play are endorphins. Endorphins are a neural inhibitor and painkiller. Specifically, in the prefrontal cortex, they result in a relaxed state and increased alpha waves. It's not unlike the effect of opioids. This, along with endocannabinoids and dopamine, are the probable source of "runner's high". This isn't limited to running through, rather it is in response to prolonged physical stress. They can be released during fasting as well. The other thing that happens is that there is a shift to the amygdala, away from the top down executive control normally exerted by the prefrontal cortex. The amygdala is related to more primitive functions, but it heavily ties into the rest of the brain and the basal ganglia.
The basal ganglia receive input from the caudate and putamen, which showed increased neurons (5x,10x, even 15x) in Nolan's study of UAP witnesses. Important to note is that it is not causal, that is the UAP event is not what caused it. Rather, the increased neurons seem to be an existing condition that would seem to make one more likely to see a UAP. There's no real clarity here yet, how this all ties in. I believe that the UAPs in question, those that present as high strangeness events, are not native to our 3D reality as commonly observed. They can be seen, but only sometimes. I would offer conjecture that there is some relationship, too complex for us yet to model with what we know of the brain and consciousness, between how much these UAP harmonize or modulate to our 3D space that is on a sliding scale for our perception. That is to say there is some way to measure the perception based on the individual observer's brain architecture and then map it against how much the observer sees. There are probably thousands of other factors that need to be calculated in there and thousands more interaction between them that also need to be understood.
We don't have to fully understand it though, not to exploit it. The psychiatry industry is massive and is rooted in exploiting neurological effects from pharmaceuticals without having any clear idea how it's actually working.
Human EEG response to beta-endorphin
Stanford Professor Garry Nolan Is Analyzing Anomalous Materials From UFO Crashes
So, as a synopsis we now have two things that we know inhibit the prefrontal cortex.
1. 110 Hz frequency
2. Stress
I have almost no data on herbs, synthetic psychoactive compounds, and alkaloids, just yet. I'll be looking for more on that. I consider everything, including the various drugs, to all be synergistic. There is no requirement for any specific part or method to be present, but each can help contribute to the overall success any individual might have. Drugs are sometimes also a stressor, a toxin, so it has dual action. Most of the time I have seen ritual induction of altered states using drugs it has been for one of two purposes. First, it is used as an initiation for some important milestone like becoming an adult or vested member of a group. Second, it is used by those already initiated when doing significant works like divination or evocation. The initial experience is to open a doorway. Future experiences are meant to go through the doorway to bring back whatever it is you're looking for.
What has been left out so far and has been an important part to historic practitioners of esoteric arts, is education. That, like drugs, is also a difficult part to summarize because education outside the ritual and lore associated with any particular brand is everything else in your life. Education covers everything about the world around and inside you, physical and emotional. Those worlds are an ever-present teacher and almost universally beneficial to explore through mundane means. Read, experience, ponder. Where they disagree is often on the core educational requirements, the absolute minimum, and that often involves specific lore or history relevant to that group creating the standards.
I may shift into what starts happening as you enter altered states, how to prepare, how to explore, and some of what you might expect to experience for part three. That's a little tough too, but unlike drugs and education I can write it free form without relying on outside sources. These first two gave data and provide a foundation for understanding, which in turn helps fortify belief. Belief is important, but it has to be fortified with information and experience to reach its full potential.
Quote:When ethnographers ask people why they perform these ceremonies, the most common answer is some version of the following: “It’s just what we do. It is our tradition. It’s who we are.” Anthropologists who study rituals have found that these traditions survive because they fulfill primordial, deep-seated human needs and serve important functions for individuals as well as for society. So what are some of these functions?Source
My wife told me a story about a family tradition (not hers, I don't believe) of cutting one end off a brisket to square it before putting it in to roast. This may even be an old folk tale, but it illustrates my point. Why did they do it? Well, they didn't know and it was just how they had always made brisket. At some point either great-grandma was visiting from the old country or some other family matriarch was over when the brisket was going in and they asked why in the world the end of the brisket was cut off.
Come to find out, great-grandma only cut the end off the brisket because their pot was too small to cook a whole roast.
I can forgive those still practicing rituals from centuries ago their ignorance of the true origins of their rituals. Rituals can be important for reasons that go beyond their original purpose. I am skeptical that any ritual or practice is entirely without practical purposes, even if that purpose has been lost to time or has been deemed mere superstition. What I'm interested in though, is ritual that plausibly helps induce altered states.
You don't need to read all the links as I'll be pulling relevant data from a number of them and presenting them together.
Altered States of Consciousness during an Extreme Ritual
What ties together dance, extreme rituals involving physical pain, fasting, asceticism, sleep deprivation, and even the extreme sexual deviancy found at the fringes of occult practices? Stress. Stress and the hormones associated with it, broadly. The class of hormones is called catecholamines. The main types are dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine. These can be amplified by increased levels of cortisol, which is also released during stress. The stress can be physical or emotional, intentionally induced or caused by environmental conditions.
Neurology is complicated, but the rough idea is that as stress increases the brain gets flooded with these stress hormones. A common situation in which this happens is when the "fight of flight" response is triggered. If your experience with it is anything like mine, you'll be familiar with the tingling rush of adrenaline pouring into your system and a perceived slowing of time. It can elevate heart rate, increase glucose metabolism, and decrease reaction times. It's a good thing when you have to react fast... but there can be too much of a good thing. There is a U-shaped dose response to these hormones and when you have too many circulating it begins to impair the functions of the prefrontal cortex.
Catecholamine Influences on Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortical Networks
The effects of stress exposure on prefrontal cortex: Translating basic research into successful treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder
The next set of hormones that come into play are endorphins. Endorphins are a neural inhibitor and painkiller. Specifically, in the prefrontal cortex, they result in a relaxed state and increased alpha waves. It's not unlike the effect of opioids. This, along with endocannabinoids and dopamine, are the probable source of "runner's high". This isn't limited to running through, rather it is in response to prolonged physical stress. They can be released during fasting as well. The other thing that happens is that there is a shift to the amygdala, away from the top down executive control normally exerted by the prefrontal cortex. The amygdala is related to more primitive functions, but it heavily ties into the rest of the brain and the basal ganglia.
The basal ganglia receive input from the caudate and putamen, which showed increased neurons (5x,10x, even 15x) in Nolan's study of UAP witnesses. Important to note is that it is not causal, that is the UAP event is not what caused it. Rather, the increased neurons seem to be an existing condition that would seem to make one more likely to see a UAP. There's no real clarity here yet, how this all ties in. I believe that the UAPs in question, those that present as high strangeness events, are not native to our 3D reality as commonly observed. They can be seen, but only sometimes. I would offer conjecture that there is some relationship, too complex for us yet to model with what we know of the brain and consciousness, between how much these UAP harmonize or modulate to our 3D space that is on a sliding scale for our perception. That is to say there is some way to measure the perception based on the individual observer's brain architecture and then map it against how much the observer sees. There are probably thousands of other factors that need to be calculated in there and thousands more interaction between them that also need to be understood.
We don't have to fully understand it though, not to exploit it. The psychiatry industry is massive and is rooted in exploiting neurological effects from pharmaceuticals without having any clear idea how it's actually working.
Human EEG response to beta-endorphin
Stanford Professor Garry Nolan Is Analyzing Anomalous Materials From UFO Crashes
So, as a synopsis we now have two things that we know inhibit the prefrontal cortex.
1. 110 Hz frequency
2. Stress
I have almost no data on herbs, synthetic psychoactive compounds, and alkaloids, just yet. I'll be looking for more on that. I consider everything, including the various drugs, to all be synergistic. There is no requirement for any specific part or method to be present, but each can help contribute to the overall success any individual might have. Drugs are sometimes also a stressor, a toxin, so it has dual action. Most of the time I have seen ritual induction of altered states using drugs it has been for one of two purposes. First, it is used as an initiation for some important milestone like becoming an adult or vested member of a group. Second, it is used by those already initiated when doing significant works like divination or evocation. The initial experience is to open a doorway. Future experiences are meant to go through the doorway to bring back whatever it is you're looking for.
What has been left out so far and has been an important part to historic practitioners of esoteric arts, is education. That, like drugs, is also a difficult part to summarize because education outside the ritual and lore associated with any particular brand is everything else in your life. Education covers everything about the world around and inside you, physical and emotional. Those worlds are an ever-present teacher and almost universally beneficial to explore through mundane means. Read, experience, ponder. Where they disagree is often on the core educational requirements, the absolute minimum, and that often involves specific lore or history relevant to that group creating the standards.
I may shift into what starts happening as you enter altered states, how to prepare, how to explore, and some of what you might expect to experience for part three. That's a little tough too, but unlike drugs and education I can write it free form without relying on outside sources. These first two gave data and provide a foundation for understanding, which in turn helps fortify belief. Belief is important, but it has to be fortified with information and experience to reach its full potential.
