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TMI JOURNAL 2012 In short, SAM is distinct from other audio-guidance technologies intended to facilitate shifts in consciousness in the listener in that (1) SAM works more quickly than other methods, (2) SAM technology utilizes a distinct signal format from other audio technologies, and (3) the SAM signal format is unique in its increased flexibility in breadth and arrangement of signals (specifically, its carrier frequency, modulation frequency, peak phase deviation, and the angular presentations). This allows for increased options for creating a greater number of signal “symphonies,” thereby also allowing for a wider variety of psychological-subjective and neurological effects in the listener. References Budzynski, T. H. (1986). Clinical applications of non-drug-induced states. In B. B. Wolman & M. Ullman (Eds.), Handbook of states of consciousness, pp. 428–460. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company. Empson, J. (1986). Human brainwaves: The psychological significance of the electroencephalogram. (London: The Macmillan Press Ltd.) Hameroff, S. (2010). The conscious pilot: Dendritic synchrony moves through the brain to mediate consciousness. In Journal of Biological Physics, Vol. 36, No. 1. January, 2010. Hameroff, S. & Penrose, R. (1996). Toward a science of consciousness: The first Tucson discussions and debates. Eds. Hameroff, S. R., Kaszniak, A. W., and Scott, A. C., pp. 507–540. Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press. Hink, R. F., Kodera, K., Yamada, O., Kaga, K., & Suzuki, J. (1980). Binaural interaction of a beating frequency-following response. In International Journal of Audiology, 19: 36–43. Hunt, V. V. (1996). Infinite mind: The science of human vibrations. Malibu: Malibu Publishing Company. Jenny, H. (2001). Cymatics: A study of wave phenomena and vibration (3rd ed.). Epping, NH: Macromedia Press. Luria, A. R. (1970). The functional organization of the brain. In Scientific American, 222: 66–78. Newman, J. (1997). Putting the puzzle together Part I: Towards a general theory of the neural correlates of consciousness. In Journal of Consciousness Studies, Vol. 4, No. 1, 47–66. Oster, G. (1973). Auditory beats in the brain. In Scientific American, 229: 94–102. Smith, J. C., Marsh, J. T., & Brown, W. S. (1975). Far-field recorded frequency-following responses: Evidence for the locus of brainstem sources. In Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology, 39: 465–472. Smith, J. C., Marsh, J. T., Greenberg, S., & Brown, W. S. (1978). Human auditory frequency -following responses to a missing fundamental. In Science, 201: 639–641. Swann, R., Bosanko, S., Cohen, R., Midgley, R., & Seed, K. M. (1982). In The brain: A user’s manual. p. 92. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. Tart, C. T. (1975). States of consciousness. pp. 72–73. New York: E. P. Dutton & Company. Tice, L. E. & Steinberg, A. (1989). A better world, a better you. pp. 57–62. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Woolf, N. J, .& Hameroff, S. R. (2001). A quantum approach to visual consciousness. In Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 5: 472–478. Yagi, Kamimura, Kaniya. (1994). MTs vibrate (100-–650 Hz) with nanometer displacement. In Cell Motility and the Cytoskeleton 29:177–185. Zaidel, E. (1985). Academic implications of dual-brain theory. In The Dual Brain. New York: The Guilford Press. Next Page 6 TMI JOURNAL 2012 DIFFERENT THEMATIC APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF CONSCIOUSNESS By Cam Danielson Cam Danielson is a partner at MESA Research Group, a management consulting company, where his work focuses on assisting leaders and management teams to revision future direction and opportunity amid the turbulence of personal, organizational, and societal change. For twenty years he led the Office of Executive Education at the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. His recent research study, entitled, “The Effects of Long-Term Participation in The Monroe Institute Programs” was published in the TMI Journal (Spring, 2008) and the Integral Leadership Review (Spring, 2011). T he topic of consciousness elicits a wide range of responses, given the lack of consensus on its definition. Underscoring the challenge is the dialectical dilemma posed by Western scientific approaches versus various mystical traditions, both Western and Eastern. It is basically a subject-object problem: How can a dualistic state of being observe a nondualistic state of being? To further complicate the matter, even this description of the problem is unsatisfactory to those who would argue that consciousness is nothing more than ego consciousness. Carl Jung, who is considered rather mystical in his scientific orientation, nicely illustrates the subject-object problem of consciousness. He writes that, “consciousness is inconceivable without an ego; Nonetheless, the it is equated with the relation of contents to an ego. question of what If there is no ego there is nobody to be conscious of anything. . . . The Eastern mind, however, has no difficulty in conceiving of a consciousness without an ego. Consciousness is deemed capable of transcending its ego condition; indeed, in its ‘higher’ forms, the ego disappears altogether. . . . I do not doubt the existence of mental states transcending consciousness, but they comes first, the brain lose their consciousness to exactly the same degree that they transcend consciousness.” (“The Difference between Eastern and Western Thinking,” in The Portable Jung, ed. Joseph Campbell, 1976, p. 491.) or consciousness, can Jung’s proposition that consciousness has limitations comes from a man whose robust definition of the psyche includes the ego (differentiated consciousness), the personal unconscious (undifferentiated consciousness), and the only be answered one collective unconscious (transpersonal consciousness). Clearly a time-space continuum is not a limiting factor in consciousness (ego awareness), but then way for logical positivists. Next Page 7 TMI JOURNAL 2012 what are the mental states transcending consciousness, or is this merely a case of linguistics, and we would all be better served by good comparative analysis of terminology? For those literal adherents of the scientific method, consciousness is framed by the physical boundaries of the earth-life system. Of course the definition of our physical boundaries is constantly under revision, but the approach is one of “empirical verification.” In essence, only what is observed through our physical senses is the proper study of science (laboratory instruments are extensions of our senses). Philosophically, this orientation is known as logical positivism and shows up in universities under the umbrella of cognitive studies. For these individuals, the study of consciousness is the study of the brain and its functioning and the effects on human behavior that result with changes to brain functioning. A worthy endeavor, in which most everyone will agree that brain chemistry does have an impact on ego development and altered states of awareness. Nonetheless, the question of what comes first, the brain or consciousness, can only be answered one way for logical positivists. Then there are those who want to start looking for a definition of consciousness somewhere between a religious (mystical) and a scientific (empirical) orientation. For these individuals (whom I call Human Potential advocates), evidence of extraordinary human functioning (out-of-body experiences, remote viewing, death-defying feats of endurance, etc.) illustrates aspects of consciousness that extend beyond the laws of a physical universe. They start with events or experiences and create models or theories based on inductive reasoning or inference. These are not “scientific” theories in the traditional use of the term (independently verified by other scientists), but rather are theories verified by repeated individual experiences or collective patterns of experience. For those in this middle orientation, consciousness exists across a spectrum extending beyond space and time in which “an individual observer” is present (pure awareness), though the question remains as to who or what that observer is and how it relates to the unique ego-based personality bound by space and time. To this last point, developmental psychologists have noted that the ego continues to evolve throughout our lives (the idea that there are elements of personality fixed after a certain point in time remains true, though it is not immutable). The ego has a regulating function in integrating the different aspects of personality. Introducing the concept of an “observer” in the experience of Self is part of the emergence of greater personal-efficacy (what might be described as inner guidance). Ego development is therefore critical to the translation (integration) of transpersonal experiences. As one psychologist notes about the direction of human growth and development: “In the Judeo-Christian cosmology there is the Garden of Eden at the beginning and the Kingdom of God at the end. The two are not the same. The Garden of Eden is the original pre-ego state of mind. The Kingdom of God is a return to our original condition but as ego-conscious individuals. . . . The point is to break through to an insight into our original nature as mature adults and to integrate that insight into our conception of ourselves and of the world. This cannot be accomplished without an ego.” (V. Walter Odajnyk, Gathering the Light: A Psychology of Meditation, 1993, pp. 65–66.) From a developmental perspective, consciousness is not only a spectrum but an expanding spectrum that enriches what has come before as the ego extends its linking or integrating mechanism to incorporate new ele- ments of the Self. Table Outlining Different Orientations to Consciousness Studies on next page Next Page 8 TMI JOURNAL 2012 Table Outlining Different Orientations to Consciousness Studies Table Outlining Different Orientations to Consciousness Studies Mystical or Human Potential Developmental Logical Positivism Contemplative Movement Psychology Traditions Within the major The title of this The idea that The term “hard religions, a mystical section originates underlying human sciences” may element exists with a with the West Coast nature is a drive imply a high long history in and writers such as towards self- standard of inquiry, practices requisite to Aldus Huxley, realization is the but in effect, it