Professor Hobson has written a lucid, novel, and authoritative guide to the neurobiology of altered states of consciousness. This well-written, enjoyable, information-packed culmination of Dr. Hobson's lifetime of scientifically based work in this fascinating area will be of intense interest and value to anyone interested in altered states of consciousness—whether induced by or associated with dreaming, psychoses, hallucinations, alien abductions, prescription medications or recreational drug use.
It expands and clarifies our concepts of altered states of consciousness and neurodynamic psychology. Allan Hobson. Search Search. Search Advanced Search close Close. Allan Hobson An investigation into the brain's chemistry and the mechanisms of chemically altered states of consciousness. Add to Cart Buying Options. Request Permissions Exam copy.
Overview Author s Praise. Summary An investigation into the brain's chemistry and the mechanisms of chemically altered states of consciousness.
July August He draws on recent research that enables us to explain how psychedelic drugs work to disturb that balance and how similar imbalances may cause depression and schizophrenia. He also draws on work that expands our understanding of how certain drugs can correct imbalances and restore the brain's natural equilibrium.
Hobson explains the chemical balance concept in terms of what we know about the regulation of normal states of consciousness over the course of the day by brain chemicals called neuromodulators. He presents striking confirmation of the principle that every drug that has transformative effects on consciousness interacts with the brain's own consciousness-altering chemicals.
In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript. On certain nights Allan Hobson, the author of The Dream Drugstore , puts on a cap at bedtime and goes to sleep. Embedded in this nightcap is a device that continuously records the movements of his head. Another device attached to the cap and taped to one eyelid continuously records the movements of his eyeballs.
From the data it can be determined when he is awake both head and eyes move , in deep sleep neither head nor eyes move or in the dreaming state, called rapid eye movement REM sleep, when the eyes are active but the head is still. Deliberate or spontaneous awakening during REM sleep allows him to relate what he is dreaming about into a tape recorder.
Hobson and others use this approach to examine individual patterns of sleep and to sample the content of dreams throughout the night. They find that the thought processes in dreaming have the same irrational features that are characteristic of the psychotic thinking of people with schizophrenia or severe mood disorders, and of the psychosis induced by drugs like LSD.
To understand how psychosis can occur naturally, the best approach is to explore the physiology of normal consciousness and learn how the normal psychosis that is dreaming is engendered. To Hobson, as to many others, a common feature of dreaming, drug-induced psychosis and the psychosis of mental disorders is a change in the comparative activities of serotonin, norepinephrine, dopamine, acetylcholine and other brain chemicals. Called neurotransmitters, these chemicals are released by activated nerve cells, and bind to specific receptors on other nerve cells, thereby transmitting a signal.
Hobson reviews the evidence that during REM sleep there is reduced activity of nerve cells that release serotonin and norepinephrine, and a relative preponderance of activity of nerve cells that release acetylcholine.
He also reminds us that certain drugs that influence the actions of these neurotransmitters can induce psychosis, whereas others are anti-psychotic. None of this is really new, and Hobson has dealt with much of it very effectively in a series of earlier books. For those not familiar with the physiological and neurochemical changes during sleep, he provides a valuable review, although his treatment of other states of consciousness is more limited.
The distinguishing feature of The Dream Drugstore is its emphasis on drugs—both the illegal ones, such as LSD, and the legal ones, such as Prozac and related drugs, called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors SSRIs. Hobson's major complaint about SSRIs is that they increase REM sleep, and that this effect sometimes persists after the drug is discontinued.
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