Patterns of Occurrence of Four States of Consciousness as a Function of Trait Absorption.

People experience four unusual states of consciousness—the hypnagogic state (falling asleep), hypnopompic state (waking up), lucid dreaming (knowing one is dreaming), and out-of-the-body experiences (sensing the world from outside the body)—in different patterns. A cross-sectional study of 251 participants examined how trait Absorption relates to these patterns. Two opposing predictions were tested: that higher Absorption increases differentiation among these states, or that it decreases differentiation. Both predictions were supported: moving from slightly below to slightly above the median on Absorption increased differentiation, but very high Absorption compared to very low Absorption decreased differentiation.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Four states of consciousness are considered here: the hypnagogic state (the transitional state between waking and sleeping); the hypnopompic state (the transitional state between sleeping and waking); lucid dreaming (insight to the fact that one is currently dreaming); and the out-of-the-body experience (perceiving the world from a location outside the physical body). There are different patterns of occurrence of experience with these states of consciousness, and the present data set deriving from a cross-sectional study (a convenience sample comprising 251 participants who had completed a battery of questionnaires, as reported in Glicksohn & Barrett, 2003), enables one to plot these configurations. There are two contrasting positions on the relationship that trait Absorption will bear on the pattern of occurrence of these different profiles of subjective experience, or configuration of profiles of states. One is that higher Absorption will entail more differentiation among these states of consciousness; the other is that higher Absorption will entail less differentiation among these states. Both positions find support in the present data set: higher Absorption entails more differentiation as one moves from those respondents scoring slightly lower than the median to those scoring slightly higher than the median on Absorption, whereas very high Absorption entails less differentiation relative to very low Absorption.