So - we are talking about altered states of consciousness - how to attain them independent of any drugs.

The key to understanding this begins with understanding a very specific aspect of schizophrenia.  The movie "A Beautiful Mind" can tell you a lot about this disease - many schizophrenics live partly in their own world and partly in the world that we all share.  They see things others don't see, hear things (often voices) others don't hear, and often feel they are controlling the world or something in the world is controlling them.

i don't want to focus on the psychological aspects of schizophrenia, however.  I want to focus on the genetic aspects - schizophrenia has a significant genetic component.  What does this mean?  It means that schizophrenia tends to run in families, and that there is a definite physiological basis that is carried from generation to generation in the genes.

Here is why this is interesting and significant...

There are many genetic conditions that are caused by mutations.  Most of them are "bad".  most involve some gene that gets ruined, and so some biochemical capability gets ruined, and the person who has this gene has some sickness.  Thallasemia.  Some kinds of dwarfism. 

The folks who have these genes just don't do as well as everyone else when it comes to passing their genes to the next generation.  So, over generations, these mutations are eliminated.  They are only replenished in the population by the counteracting force of mutation.  So, mutation and selection come to equilibrium, and they exist at a relatively constant but LOW frequency in the human population. Typically 1 in 400 or 1 in 1000 or much less.  These are rare conditions.

There is a notable exception among these genetic conditions - sickle cell anemia.  This is a single gene mutation that really is bad for the people who carry it.  They can't run as hard, they aren't as hardy or healthy.  But the sickle cell anemia gene has a high frequency in many African (and therefore African American) populations.  Why?

Turns out malaria is a terrible disease in Africa.  It is REALLY bad, much worse in it's impact than the negatives of sickle cell anemia.  And the sickle cell gives a significant resistance to malaria.  So, it is better to have the sickle cell gene than it is to have malaria, in terms of surviving and passing your genes to the next generation.  So, there are three forces acting on this gene:

• There is a pressure to eliminate the gene, because sickle cell anemia hurts a person's health
• There is a very slight positive pressure, by new mutations that put the sickle cell gene back into the population.
• There is a very large pressure to keep the gene, because people with it survive malaria much better than folks without the gene.

So, this BENEFICAL EFFECT of a negative gene produces a much higher frequency that genes that are just bad.

So - here is the point:

schizophrenia has a frequency in the human population of 3% or so.  It is not uncommon.  It has a significant genetic component (not a single gene like single cell anemia, but nevertheless there are genes that give a person a significant tendency to this disease).

So the question is:  WHAT BENEFIT DOES SCHIZOPHRENIA GIVE A PERSON (OR A COMMUNITY) THAT KEEPS THE GENES FOR SCHIZOPHRENIA IN THE POPULATION?

The question can be asked for other psychological conditions as well.  Bipolar II is MUCH more common in entrepreneurs than the rest of the population, and populations that have a significant migration IN have more bipolar II. 

The asnwer to this question gives an AMAZING INSIGHT into the real social and psychological landscape that users of hallucinagenic drugs find themselves.  And I hope to  take this up in my next post....