I want to expound upon all this for clarity!
I’m sorry, I don’t quite understand your comment. My point was that only western cultures advocate that altered states of consciousness is a “mental illness”. And most all non-western cultures consider experiencing realities, apart from what western main stream psychiatry insist is “normal”, according to their narrow-minded paradigms – is “normal accepted behavior”. Matter of fact all non-western indigenous cultures consider “an altered state of consciousness” as a spiritual gift. And many of those cultures will take members of their community who exhibit such behavior and initiate them into shamanic training – for the benefit of the community!
“Pathological”, according to the online Oxford English Dictionary is defined as: 2) Involving or caused by a physical or mental disease. (emphasis mine) I am in no way shape or form advocating that “any” state of consciousness is “pathological” or “a mental illness”. I am merely pointing out the contrasting paradigms between two different cultural mentalities as it relates to the subject of this thread. As far as my mention to “how” any state of consciousness is obtained, your reference to the methods mentioned being “physiological” is correct. Because, again according to Oxford’s online English dictionary, physiological is defined as: 1.1) Relating to the branch of biology that deals with the normal functions of living organisms and their parts. . (emphasis mine)
Also, I did not, never have, and never will advocate that any “altered” state of consciousness is a “symptom” of mental illness. I do however believe, there are those in our western culture which are considered “normal”, who actually do exhibit “symptoms” of mental psychosis as it relates to their everyday life. The fact that “cultural conditioning” leads people to complete dependence on “the system” for cognitive reasoning instead of “thinking for themselves” is a prime “symptom” of mental illness. (i.e. – neruotypicals and some members of the spectrum that “overly condition” themselves to “mask” NT "normal" behavior)
You have inferred that “a drug-induced break from reality that lingers long after the effects of the drugs have worn off” is a symptom of “mental illness”. I ask you rhetorically; “How do you define reality?” If someone gets “stuck” in a drug-induced reality and does not return to what our fixed paradigms calls our everyday “normal” reality, then by what standards of conscious experiences are you defining what “reality” consist of. I know that question is confusing, so please allow me to give a very simple example of an “expanded sense” of reality or an altered state of “humanity’s” consciousness.
Today we have many technological advancements. For instance, we have machines that can detect “sound” far beyond what the human ear can detect. We have machines that can detect “light” frequencies that exist far beyond what our eyes can perceive. We have machines and instruments that can make observations far beyond the narrow band of the electromagnetic spectrum in which humanity's five sense reality is limited. Elephants are capable of communication among their species using ultra-low sound frequencies that humans can’t hear. The K9 world can hear high pitched sounds that humans cannot detect. Can we as humans with our “limited” five senses refute that these animals have an “expanded” reality? Again, there are some moths and insects that manifest colors that reach into the ultraviolet and infrared color spectrum, in which humans cannot see. But the world of birds can detect these light frequencies. How then, can we refuse to believe that these creatures that we share this world with do not have an expanded reality? And these realities, that humans are not detecting, are “normal” for these creatures. So, who has a “true” definition of reality? Are we going to narrow our perceptions based on the “narrow-minded” paradigms of psychiatry and other "mental health" gurus – these “authorities” who define what “reality” is?
