Research Study shows Integration Training Week Induces
Profound Altered State of Consciousness (ASC)

In 2024, as part of Richard Bolstad’s degree in Archaeology and Ancient History, he studied the 7 day Integration training run by Transformations International in Paphos, Cyprus. His aim was to simulate the internal experience of pilgrims attending the sanctuary of Aphrodite Kypris in Palaepaphos during the Archaic Age (750-500 BCE) and evaluate this using a well established research tool. This experience included use of massage and inhalation of essential oils (Cinnamon, Myrrh, Frankincense, etc), Shamanic nature rituals and journeys with drumming, Chi-Kung-like body posture and movements, ecstatic dance and chanting, and trance-work. The effect of these processes had been studied in Crete by archaeologists such as Christine Morris (Morris and Peatfield, 2001) – the Minoan cult there had many overlaps with ancient Cypriot cult activity. We had course participants fill out the 32 question “Hoods Mysticism Scale” and answer several open questions about their experiences over the week. The scale gives an assessment of how profoundly different from normal consciousness the people’s experience was, where the result is expressed as a ratio (a ratio of 1.000 would mean that the person had experienced the most profoundly “altered state” of consciousness imaginable, and 0.200 would mean they had a complete lack of such experiences). The ratios from the “normal” population over their lifetime were 0.683 for men and 0.746 for women, meaning that most people have had some times when they felt at one with everything, or when they felt a sense of awe or bliss etc. (Hood, 1975). When this well researched scale is used with people who have just had a psilocybin (hallucinogenic) experience, the ratio resulting from their experience is 0.875 (Griffiths et alia, 2006:277). In our study the ratio was 0.894, which is to say, attending Integration was, for these 12 people, at least as profound on average as taking a psychedelic drug. This is confirmed by many of the comments about their experience in response to the open questions, where people said, for example:

  • “totally freeing, I lost the sense of time/awareness, was totally one with the universe.”
  • “overwhelming sense of emotion generated from initial connection to love. Compassion and connection, tears flowed, can’t describe the feeling, words are not enough.”
  • “I feel I have had a quantum shift in personal awareness and spiritual connection.”

Two months after the training, one participant posted this comment on social media, unsolicited: “I’m walking, talking, breathing, sleeping (etc.) the incredible, noticeable, benefits and it’s only been a couple of months! Busting up and through my negatively leaning preconceptions due to my trust in your science/history/fact-based teaching styles led to me having a deeply profound, completely Transformational experience. Yes, there is room/space for everything without stepping into the kind of charlatan ‘woo’ that can commonly seep into these practices. Thank you.”

The research study will be published in 2025 after review by the University of Leicester Department of Archaeology and Ancient History.

Bibliography:

  • Bolstad, R., 2025, University of Leicester, Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Undergraduate Dissertation “What were the components of ritual practice at the Archaic Age Sanctuary of Aphrodite in Palaepaphos, and what biopsychosocial effects might they have induced in participants?”
  • Griffiths, R.R., Richards, W.A., McCann, U., and Jesse, R.. 2006, “Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance”. Psychopharmacology 187, p. 268–283 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-006-0457-5
  • Hood, R. W., Jr. (1975). The construction and preliminary validation of a measure of reported mystical experience. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 14, 29-41.
  • Morris, C. and Peatfield, A. 2001, “Feeling Through The Body: Gesture in Cretan bronze Age Religion” p. 105-120 in Hamilakis, Y., Pluciennik, M. and Tarlow, S. eds. Thinking Through The Body: Archaeologies of Corporeality New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, ISBN: 978-1-4613-5198-6