---
id: sfoc-states-altered-state
title: "Altered State"
primary_class: states
primary_domain: body-evolution
secondary_domains: [mind-consciousness, memory-identity]
material_modes: [experiential-report, original-synthesis]
version: 1.0.0
---

# Altered State

> **the altered state inner witness.** The working core of Altered State is the altered motif placed within body & evolution: a pattern that can reorganize attention, relation, and action. respect for testimony does not require certifying one external cause.

## Origin

Altered State is rooted in reports of lived experience and the vocabularies used to make those reports shareable, but the card’s present form is editorial rather than primordial. Source order and later mutation remain visible. Because the altered motif placed within body & evolution changes perception and choice without necessarily proving an external explanation, provenance work must name the mechanism, affected body, evidence, risks, alternatives, consent, and follow-up.

## What It Is

The working core of Altered State is the altered motif placed within body & evolution: a pattern that can reorganize attention, relation, and action. respect for testimony does not require certifying one external cause. In the Oracle it is classified as States & Experiences, while its evidence layers determine how literal, historical, fictional, experiential, or symbolic a particular interpretation may be.

## Cultural History

Altered State became culturally durable because the altered motif placed within body & evolution could be re-read under new pressures. Durability here demonstrates adaptability, not literal proof. At collective scale, the altered motif placed within body & evolution affects testimony, belonging, stigma, care, and the ability to coordinate reality; this matters because transformation can expand capacity or rank bodies against an imagined ideal.

## Claim and Evidence Layers

  ### literal-and-empirical

- **Claim layer:** literal-and-empirical
- **Material context:** experiential-report
- **Evidence state:** experiential-only
- **Summary:** Altered State has an experiential-only literal or empirical layer. That designation applies only to the bounded claims supported by the listed sources.
- **Sources:** No external source assigned; editorial synthesis only.

### cultural-and-historical

- **Claim layer:** cultural-and-historical
- **Material context:** experiential-report, original-synthesis
- **Evidence state:** unverified
- **Summary:** Altered State has a class-level contextual source but still lacks a concept-specific external source in this release. Its cultural history is an editorial research lead, not a completed provenance claim.
- **Sources:** No external source assigned; editorial synthesis only.

### symbolic-and-divinatory

- **Claim layer:** symbolic-and-divinatory
- **Material context:** original-synthesis
- **Evidence state:** symbolic
- **Summary:** The Oracle uses Altered State as a reflective symbol, never as proof that its literal or causal claims are true.
- **Sources:** original-synthesis

## Oracle

- **Essence:** The working core of Altered State is the altered motif placed within body & evolution: a pattern that can reorganize attention, relation, and action. respect for testimony does not require certifying one external cause.
- **Archetype:** the altered state inner witness
- **Gift:** find a proportionate action through name the mechanism, affected body, evidence, risks, alternatives, consent, and follow-up.
- **Shadow:** letting the altered motif placed within body & evolution harden into a total explanation that no contrary evidence can revise.
- **Guidance:** Return from the scale of Altered State to one lived consequence of the altered motif placed within body & evolution. Repair that relationship before expanding the theory. Use this guidance where the altered motif placed within body & evolution changes perception and choice without necessarily proving an external explanation; keep visible that transformation can expand capacity or rank bodies against an imagined ideal.
- **Healing / integration:** Identify one institution, relationship, body, and landscape touched by Altered State. Trace the consequence across all four. Review the altered motif placed within body & evolution through embodiment, care, inheritance, adaptation, disability, and the politics of transformation, remembering that the card changes perception and choice without necessarily proving an external explanation.
- **Question:** What is the smallest reversible action that could clarify the altered motif placed within body & evolution? Answer by testing how the altered motif placed within body & evolution changes perception and choice without necessarily proving an external explanation against embodiment, care, inheritance, adaptation, disability, and the politics of transformation.

## Meanings

### Psychological

Altered State may function inwardly as a lens for the altered motif placed within body & evolution. Its gift supports find a proportionate action through name the mechanism, affected body, evidence, risks, alternatives, consent, and follow-up; its shadow begins when that lens excludes disconfirming experience. A grounded check for the altered motif placed within body & evolution is to name the mechanism, affected body, evidence, risks, alternatives, consent, and follow-up, especially where the pattern changes perception and choice without necessarily proving an external explanation.

### Social

A community may use Altered State to preserve memory, coordinate action, or mark identity. The Oracle also asks who bears the costs of that cohesion. In shared life, the altered motif placed within body & evolution affects testimony, belonging, stigma, care, and the ability to coordinate reality. Test that specific the altered motif placed within body & evolution pattern by asking people to name the mechanism, affected body, evidence, risks, alternatives, consent, and follow-up.

### Spiritual

Altered State may echo several traditions, but resemblance is not ownership or proof of one hidden source. Context and community authority come first. In symbolic practice, the altered motif placed within body & evolution can be interpreted as opening, ordeal, initiation, illusion, or integration; keep in view that transformation can expand capacity or rank bodies against an imagined ideal.

### Technological

Altered State changes more than efficiency when it makes the altered motif placed within body & evolution repeatable. It also changes expertise, access, liability, and refusal wherever embodiment, care, inheritance, adaptation, disability, and the politics of transformation are at stake. When the altered motif placed within body & evolution becomes a capability, it may be measured, induced, mediated, recorded, or misclassified by tools. Verify the implementation of the altered motif placed within body & evolution by asking participants to name the mechanism, affected body, evidence, risks, alternatives, consent, and follow-up.

### Political

A political reading of Altered State asks which material interest is hidden by cosmic, technical, therapeutic, or mythic language. When the altered motif placed within body & evolution becomes governance, it raises questions about credibility, autonomy, accommodation, and coercive interpretation. Make authority over the altered motif placed within body & evolution answerable by requiring decision-makers to name the mechanism, affected body, evidence, risks, alternatives, consent, and follow-up.

## Divination

- **Gift state:** Altered State supports movement when name the mechanism, affected body, evidence, risks, alternatives, consent, and follow-up. Let insight earn trust through method and consequence. The capacity within the altered motif placed within body & evolution is strongest when change is assessed by lived wellbeing and agency rather than purity or perfection, even as the pattern changes perception and choice without necessarily proving an external explanation.
- **Shadow state:** In shadow, the altered state inner witness claims special exemption from ordinary care, evidence, or reciprocity. Return authority to shared review. To keep the altered motif placed within body & evolution from escalating, name the mechanism, affected body, evidence, risks, alternatives, consent, and follow-up, because the pattern changes perception and choice without necessarily proving an external explanation.
- **Threshold state:** Altered State enters a reading when lived and reported experience is being asked to carry more certainty than it can support. Restore the proper evidence boundary. Operationally, the altered motif placed within body & evolution changes perception and choice without necessarily proving an external explanation; the reader should name the mechanism, affected body, evidence, risks, alternatives, consent, and follow-up.
- **Practical move:** Identify one institution, relationship, body, and landscape touched by Altered State. Trace the consequence across all four. Review the altered motif placed within body & evolution through embodiment, care, inheritance, adaptation, disability, and the politics of transformation, remembering that the card changes perception and choice without necessarily proving an external explanation.

## Game and Story Function

- condition
- perception-filter
- consequence

**Story seed:** The promised liberation within Altered State works, but only for those able to leave. Make access, obligation, and return the center of the plot. The world of the story must show how the altered motif placed within body & evolution changes perception and choice without necessarily proving an external explanation and why transformation can expand capacity or rank bodies against an imagined ideal.

## Relationships

- edge--assessed-through-shared-source-lens--sfoc-states-alienation--sfoc-states-altered-state
- edge--assessed-through-shared-source-lens--sfoc-states-altered-state--sfoc-states-genetic-memory
- edge--assessed-through-shared-source-lens--sfoc-states-altered-state--sfoc-states-institutional-distrust
- edge--assessed-through-shared-source-lens--sfoc-states-altered-state--sfoc-states-lucid-dream
- edge--same-class-as--sfoc-states-alienation--sfoc-states-altered-state
- edge--same-class-as--sfoc-states-altered-state--sfoc-states-amnesia
- edge--shares-inquiry-domain-with--sfoc-beings-artificial-general-intelligence--sfoc-states-altered-state
- edge--shares-inquiry-domain-with--sfoc-beings-experiencer--sfoc-states-altered-state
- edge--shares-inquiry-domain-with--sfoc-beings-hive-mind--sfoc-states-altered-state
- edge--shares-inquiry-domain-with--sfoc-beings-post-biological-intelligence--sfoc-states-altered-state

## Visual Direction

Altered State visualized as the altered motif placed within body & evolution: a layered interior halo expressing a condition without diagnosing or literalizing a person. The art must be original, text-free, square, rounded-corner enamel with one immediately legible silhouette.

## Safety and Integration

Flags: lived-experience-without-causal-certification. Invite reflection and source comparison; do not diagnose, recruit, threaten, harass, or certify extraordinary claims.

## Sources and Research Notes

- Source IDs: iep-jung, original-synthesis
- Research note: Which earliest reliable source fixes the modern meaning of Altered State? Which communities use Altered State differently, and what changes across those contexts? What evidence would distinguish the leading literal explanations associated with Altered State?
