RAW conceives of it within Leary's 8 circuit model as part of the 5th (neurosomatic) circuit imprint
Negative neurosomatic circuit effects are experienced by amateur yogis, by many pot-heads, and by a large number of schizophrenics. The neurosomatic feedback loop, in these unfortunate cases, reverses the above description. Sensory experience becomes unpleasant (any sound or touch is painful), sensuality turns into acute discomfort with the entire body, perceptions warp into nightmare, and general anxiety is imprinted. Light is particularly terrifying and painful, often associated with Hell or with "mind-control" manipulated by unscrupulous enemies.
Gopi Krishna, a Hindu bureaucrat who took up yoga originally only for health reasons, was abruptly catapulted into a negative neurosomatic state for several years. All sensations were so painful that he many times thought he would die. The details, in his autobiography, Kundalini, are pathetic, and sound much like schizophrenia. He came out of this finally, entered a positive neurosomatic state, and has been writing blissful books about the Perfection of the All, typical of this circuit, ever since.
Nikola Tesla, the Yugoslav genius, went through the same "Hell" or schizoid state, without yoga, in his teens. He came out of the horrors with the scientific theory of alternating currents worked out, a belief in extra-sensory perception, a superhuman memory, and a streak of visionary humanitarianism that led him
into continuous conflicts with the corporations that financed his more-than-100 major electrical inventions. (He earned over $1,000,000 before the age of 30, at a time when $1,000,000 was a lot of money, and he died broke, trying to sell an invention he said would abolish poverty.)
Most shamans, and many mystics, have been through similar negative-to-positive neurosomatic sensitization. Christian Scientists call it "chemicalization." St. John of the Cross called it, poetically, the Dark Night of the Soul. Cabalists call it "crossing the Abyss."
In Kazanzakis' The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel, Odysseus sees a statue which seems to him urgently meaningful. The statue was Kazanzakis' symbol for the evolution of these circuits, which have been known (more or less) in various symbolisms for a few thousand years. E.g., the "seven souls" of the Egyptians, the ten "lights" of the Cabalists, etc. The Kazanzakis statue shows an animal (Circuit I), a warrior above the animal (Circuit II), a scholar above the warrior (Circuit III), a lover (Circuit IV), a face in agony ("chemicalization" the "Dark Night of the Soul", the "crossing of the Abyss" which equals the entry to Circuit V the hard way), a face in bliss (successful Circuit V reimprinting) and a man turning into pure spirit (Circuit VII). Circuit VI is missing in the schemata, as Circuit IV is missing in Jung, and everything above Circuit III is missing in Carl Sagan.
Some lucky souls jump to Circuit V bliss without passing through the horrors of "chemicalization" and the "Dark Night of the Soul."
I'm not sure I always agree with the 8 circuit model, although it can be useful when trying to reconcile mystical results and traditional psychology.
