From the author: According to the classical definition, altered states of consciousness are states that differ from the usual and habitual state for a particular individual. It is worth understanding that the normality of a state is not synonymous with staticity, since even during the day every a person undergoes tangible changes in his condition. The perception of the world is completely determined by the subjective state of a person - in moments of joy everything is seen differently than in moments of sadness. As the Eastern sages said, “everything is in the eyes of the beholder.” Thus, when we talk about altered states of consciousness, the starting point is the average state that is usually present in a person - a certain range that is familiar to him. In this context, altered states can be understood as all those that differ from the range of usual ones. Under the influence of substances, strong shocks, falling in love, serene peace or severe nervousness. Also, altered states of consciousness, being unusual for the individual, can cause incapacity or inadequacy, since the latter does not have the experience and skill of being in such a state. A person who has felt in love for the first time can behave completely unusually for himself and others. Someone who is under the influence of drugs is able to begin to do or say things different from what he is used to saying while in his usual state. One way or another, altered states of consciousness are those states that do not last long and over time pass, returning a person to his usual boundaries. No matter how amazing the experiences that a person can experience under the influence of altered consciousness may seem, they are always temporary. But the experience that a person receives in these states often has an extremely beneficial effect on his life and can change the scope of his usual state. From a physiological point of view, a change in consciousness is a change in brain activity and its operating modes. Technically, a person does not become someone else - all images and ideas come from his own depths, but his manifestation outside, as well as his perception of the world, changes. It may turn out that what could previously be considered an altered state becomes natural. All these things stem exclusively from a person’s sense of self, and his sense of self is connected with his perception of the outside world. These two relationships - to oneself and to the world - undergo changes simultaneously and it is impossible to say where it begins, since these are two sides of the same mirror. Any experience is good, because it allows a person to perceive something from an unusual side, from which he has not looked before. A problem arises at the moment when an experience becomes a habit, when it wants to be repeated. In this case, we get the brain’s dependence on certain states of consciousness - the desire to repeat something that seems pleasant. Addiction to games or heroin have the same nature - in the sense that it is a dopamine stimulation of the brain, which undoubtedly refers to altered states of consciousness. Also, the memory of an altered state in a normal state is highly distorted and does not reflect the real state of affairs. In a certain sense, this is a trick of the brain. Imagine something that makes you want. For example, chocolate. When you look at her, you want to feel the sweetness. Try to start eating a chocolate bar and observe your own feelings - you will find that pleasure is felt in a tiny moment when the receptors of the tongue transmit information to the corresponding areas of the brain, which reacts to this with a surge of neurotransmitters, as an action of reward. But as soon as the chocolate is over, you cannot understand why there was any interest in eating it. As it was, so it remains. However, after a while, the memory of the pleasure you received distorts the real state of things, and you buy a new chocolate bar because in your memory it gave more pleasure than it actually was. On this.