PSYCHOLOGY OF MYSTICISM - MOOJAN MOMEN

Roland Fischer has collected data from both his own work and the work of others in order to describe the psychological and neuro-physiological of various mystic states.[5] He has described two directions in which consciousness can be altered, he describes these two pathways as the ergotropic pathway of increasing arousal culminating at the extreme in mystical ecstasy and the trophotropic pathway of decreasing arousal culminating in deep trance. These two pathways can be simulated by drugs such as L.S.D. and mescaline for the ergotropic and alcohol and diazepam for the trophotropic and in other ways. These two pathways can be desonatrated to be different in that, for example, the electroencephalogram (EEG) shows increasingly higher frequency discharges on the ergotropic and increasingly lower frequency discharges on the trophotropic pathways; saccadic eye movement increases while the just-noticeable difference in sensory input decreases along the ergotropic pathway while the opposite occurs along the trophotropic pathway.[6] However, these two pathways should not, for reasons that will become clear presently, be considered as opposite for they are in fact paths that proceed in parallel. Some of the features of these two pathways can be seen in the following diagram adapted from Fischer:[7]


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