Alter Your Consciousness (and Relax) by Tensing Your Muscles

The Book of Highs 255 Ways to Alter Your Consciousness Without Drugs

Altered consciousness can be achieved in ways beyond drugs and alcohol and Edward Rosenfeld is here to guide you through 255 of them.

Here’s number 98…

Tensing

Feel your muscles relax and awaken.

Relax. That’s the first thing to do when tensing. Tensing is the deliberate, conscious play of the musculature. There are many methods that will teach you how to relax; what is fundamental is to learn how you don’t relax.

You can try it now by sitting down in a chair with your back straight. Put your right hand on the back of your neck so that you can feel the different muscles there. Relax. While still touching and feeling your neck with your hand slowly raise your left leg off the ground, bring your knee as close to the chest as possible, without altering your position. Could you feel the muscles in your neck tense and shift as you raised your leg? Could you experience how you use muscles that are not directly connected with the action you are carrying out?

While still sitting, totally relax as much as possible. Now deliberately tense the muscles in your right forearm by making a very tight fist. Continue to increase the tension until your arm begins to quiver and shake. Then relax. Repeat this process two more times until you can experience the dynamics of your tension/relaxation cycles. Try the same procedure with other sets of muscles.

About The Book of Highs 255 Ways to Alter Your Consciousness Without Drugs

Call it altering consciousness, call it getting high, or call it mindfulness. Humans are hardwired to seek ways to transcend the limits of everyday awareness, whether it’s the little kid spinning in circles to get dizzy or a runner experiencing the day’s first rush of dopamine. And you don’t need drugs—as Edward Rosenfeld shows, the “high” is inside, and there are literally hundreds of perfectly natural ways that we can use to find it.
An encyclopedic survey of all the ways humans try to achieve altered states of consciousness, The Book of Highs is a complete update of a book published in 1973, after the government outlawed psychedelics. Here are recent developments—Virtual Reality and Brainwave Machines—and positive techniques such as Self-Hypnosis, Alterations of Breathing, Fervent Prayer. And “negative” techniques—Self-Flagellation, Sleep Deprivation. Methods derived from religious and mystic traditions—Transcendental Meditation, Tantric Sex. Techniques that involve devices, whether nonelectric like Mandalas, Metronome Watching, Body Confinement—or electric and electronic—Bio-Feedback, Stroboscopes, the Psychedelic Bathtub, Moire Patterns, Brain Music. Whether you’re out for a life-changing adventure—Skydiving, Fire-Walking, or Kayak Disease (which occurs when you spend three days in a kayak off the shore of Greenland)—or just want to have a break in your everyday routine with a Zen Morning Laugh or by Jumping Up and Down, this book is guaranteed to blow your mindfulness.