A Flash Dance Gorilla: Exciting New Science on Altered States of Consciousness

I can relate so well to this gorilla, and to what is presented and proposed in this study: LINK


Here is an article that also refers to the research in the study along with other research by primatologist Jane Goodall: LINK

I have always loved to spin. I did it as a kid, because it felt cool, and the dizzy, funny way I felt afterwards induced reams of laughter. Now, as an adult, it has taken time and training to love to turn and spin and to do it without getting so dizzy. This is an activity (like many) where graded exposure makes a difference. With time, regular small doses of turning, spinning, rolling or other types of vestibular stimulation, the inner ear/cerebellum/eyes adapt and tolerate more much more of these movements than one who has stopped these activities. Most kids do some form of this spinning play (my puppy does!) and somewhere along the years of maturation we stop unless we are dancers, artistic athletes, or athletes in general, depending upon the sport.

Many--if not most--forms of social dance include turning, and spinning, and it is prevalent in many forms of ecstatic, or ritual dance like the whirling dervishes of Sufism.

This quote is from the abstract of the study mentioned above:

"When spinning, the apes achieved speeds sufficient to alter self-perception and situational awareness that were comparable to those tapped for transcendent experiences in humans (e.g. Sufi whirling), and the number of revolutions spun predicted behavioral evidence for dizziness. Thus, spinning serves as a self-sufficient means of changing body-mind responsiveness in hominids. A proclivity for such experiences is shared between humans and great apes and provides an entry point for the comparative study of the mechanisms, functions, and adaptive value of altered states of mind in human evolution."

For years one of my favorite fluid pose movements in yoga was Viparita Chakorasana. I am pretty sure it was because the repetitive circular movement in the sagittal plane was giving my brain something it desired. However, there weren't much, if any, repetitive turning movements (horizontal plane) or dynamic movements in like cartwheels (frontal plane). I vividly remember craving multiplanar dynamic movements that included locomotion or just relating to space in a different way after years of being a dedicated Iyengar practitioner. The practice, as wonderful as it can be, did not offer these types of inputs. It wasn't only my body that wanted to move in a dynamic, multiplanar way, and experience some of the rolling, turning, spiraling, or spinning movements that I so loved as a kid, a teenager, and young adult. It was my brain!

Movement is medicine for the brain as much as the body!

So, I started incorporating these movements back into my practice. I went back to dance class.

I became curious and started studying the relationships between movement and neuroscience in addition to the more biomechanics related movement science that I had been immersed in. I learned that movement could deliver important stimuli to our visual, vestibular, and proprioceptive systems, long with feeding other parts of our brain (like our cerebellum) with the type of stimulation and challenges that keep us feeling and functioning well regardless of age.

Now, you don't have to get in a pool and/or spin like this gorilla or hang from a vine and spin like this orangutang. Some slow graded exposure to turning, rolling, spinning, spiraling movements can not only nourish the systems mentioned above, but, depending on how you do it, potentially alter states of consciousness, even in a small way! You know that "what a feeling!" feeling...

I LOVE the way I feel (in body and BRAIN) after a dance class. Sure, there are moments and movements that challenge my ability to orient myself in space, but I think that along with the multifactorial, biopsychosocial nature of the whole experience, it is the multiplanar movement variety and the turning, spinning play might play a part of why I feel so good afterwards. I feel like my brain has been through some type of synaptic clarification. Movement is medicine, for the body and brain!

This study proposes interesting things, and I, a human ape, can relate to the apes in the video. 

I have never done pole dance (I know some of you do) but the whirling around the pole of the expert pole dancers, or circus artists, looks something like the spinning of the orangutan above. And I bet it feels absolutely incredible and induces something like the altered states of consciousness described in this study.

For me...dance does this. Playful movement can do this. AND we don't have to go beyond our current capacity to reap the benefits. 

A little playful movement goes a long way. 

Here are the concluding remarks from the study:

"The findings reported here show that, like humans, great apes voluntarily seek and engage in altered experiences of self-perception and situational awareness. In our last common ancestors, these behaviors probably enhanced the nervous system and musculature (Byrne 2015), which helped to expand the range of action patterns, but also momentarily altered the inner world, range and patterns of perception, emotions, and (self- and other-) awareness of these individuals."

"The empirical evidence presented here provides some grounding for the intriguing possibility that the self-induced altered mental states of our ancestors could have shaped aspects of modern human behavior and cognition, as well as mood manipulation and mental wellbeing."