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Detachment plateaus
This article does not represent an individual subjective effect component but a levelling system which applies to the simultaneous experience of the disconnective effects which are commonly found within dissociatives. The process of sensory and cognitive detachment can be broken down into 5 distinct levels of increasing intensity:
- Partial detachment - This can be described as feelings of surreality and general detachment from the external environment. It is often accompanied by a sense of mild to moderate energetic stimulation.
- Partial detachment from environment - As the detachment increases, the environment starts to become physically further away in distance and increasingly disconnected from a person's sensory perception. Blurred vision sets in while anaesthetic-like effects and tactile numbness begin to take place. At this point, motor control, coordination and balance become suppressed in a way that is proportional to dosage. In terms of sound, hearing also seems to become muffled and distant.
- Total detachment from environment - This is complete disconnection from the body. It is here where the user finds themselves undergoing an out-of-body experience as they enter the dissociative hole.
- Detachment from self - The level of dissociation and detachment that occurs during this point results in a process in which the brain's neurons become so disconnected that a person's sense of "I", self and mind ceases to exist, resulting in ego death.
- Detachment from awareness - The highest level of detachment occurs when the neurons within a person's brain have become so disconnected from each other that the tripper literally passes out into total unconsciousness. This consistently leaves extended gaps in a person's memory and large periods of amnesia which are generally impossible to recall once the experience is over. It's at this level that dissociatives are used in medical procedures for their analgesic effects.