# Altered stated of consciousness

**Altered States of Consciousness (ASCs)** are **transient, reversible, and multidimensional shifts** in perception, emotion, cognition, and self-awareness—**subjectively recognized** by the individual as distinctly different from ordinary waking consciousness. Documented across human history since the Paleolithic era, ASCs can be natural or endogenous (e.g., **sleep, deep creative focus,** exercise), pharmacologically induced (e.g., general anesthesia, **psychoactive substances**), induced by other means (e.g., **meditation, hypnosis, music, sensory deprivation**), and pathological (e.g., epilepsy, disorders of consciousness). Far from being anomalies, they are **natural expressions of the brain’s adaptive capacity**, marked by measurable changes in neurotransmitter activity (serotonin, dopamine, endorphins), hormonal balance (notably cortisol), and autonomic nervous system regulation between sympathetic and parasympathetic states. Each ASC carries a **unique phenomenological fingerprint**—a pattern of brain-body coherence revealing how consciousness can reorganize itself to heal, learn, and evolve<sup>1-3</sup>

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### References

1. Fort, L. D.; Costines, C.; Wittmann, M.; Demertzi, A.; Schmidt, T. T. Classification schemes of altered states of consciousness. *Neurosci Biobehav Rev* 2025, *175*, 106178. DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2025.106178  From NLM Medline.&#x20;
2. Cofre, R.; Herzog, R.; Mediano, P. A. M.; Piccinini, J.; Rosas, F. E.; Sanz Perl, Y.; Tagliazucchi, E. Whole-Brain Models to Explore Altered States of Consciousness from the Bottom Up. *Brain Sci* 2020, *10* (9). DOI: 10.3390/brainsci10090626  From NLM PubMed-not-MEDLINE.
3. Vaitl, D.; Birbaumer, N.; Gruzelier, J.; Jamieson, G. A.; Kotchoubey, B.; Kubler, A.; Lehmann, D.; Miltner, W. H.; Ott, U.; Putz, P.; et al. Psychobiology of altered states of consciousness. *Psychol. Bull.* 2005, *131* (1), 98-127. DOI: 10.1037/0033-2909.131.1.98  From NLM Medline.