States of Consciousness Redefined as Patterns of Phenomenal Properties: An Experimental Application

Abstract

Although so-called states of consciousness have been the focus of considerable contemporary multi-disciplinary interest, this concept is neither well defined nor sufficiently understood. While definitions of “consciousness” usually distinguish it from its content, definitions of “states of consciousness” typically confuse consciousness and its contents by explicitly stating that a state of consciousness is the content (i.e., mental episodes) available to conscious awareness. In other words, the term “states of consciousness,” along with the intimately related term “altered states of consciousness,” rests on a conflation of consciousness and content whereby consciousness is erroneously categorized in terms of content rendered perceptible, presumably by consciousness “itself.” This error, which we call the consciousness/content fallacy, may be avoided if one supplants “[altered] states of consciousness” with a new term, “[altered] pattern of phenomenal properties,” an extrapolation of the term “phenomenal field.”