To begin with, the latter doesn’t seem like something one grows into with increased “social intelligence”, but rather “quantum jumps” that are taken at unpredictable moments that one cannot engineer. Secondly, it is not clear to me at all that people who integrate a greater understanding and dexterity with cooperation in their personal lives have any higher chances of reaching these altered states of consciousness.
I agree, and I don’t mean to suggest that increased “social intelligence” would automatically take one to altered states, nor that increasing one’s ability for cooperation would necessarily lead one to them. The connection is more the other way around. The states are ones in which something like the algorithm for cooperation is activated unusually strongly, so if one can get to those states and get an experience of what that mindstate is like, then it can be easier to try to achieve that kind of a mindstate in “real life” and increase one’s ability for cooperation there.
That being said, it’s not a completely one-way connection, since once certain prerequisites have been unlocked then practicing the mindstate in “real life” also makes it easier to get into the altered states, since the mind is already more inclined in that direction. (I’m simplifying things quite a bit here since a proper elaboration of this caveat would require another essay.) Also having the mind strongly inclined in that direction already can make it easier to unlock the prerequisites and reach the altered states—for example, some people go quite easily from loving-kindness meditation to bliss states, in part because they’ve already practiced (maybe without being consciously aware of it) habits of mind that make it easy to incline themselves towards loving-kindness.
I agree, and I don’t mean to suggest that increased “social intelligence” would automatically take one to altered states, nor that increasing one’s ability for cooperation would necessarily lead one to them. The connection is more the other way around. The states are ones in which something like the algorithm for cooperation is activated unusually strongly, so if one can get to those states and get an experience of what that mindstate is like, then it can be easier to try to achieve that kind of a mindstate in “real life” and increase one’s ability for cooperation there.
That being said, it’s not a completely one-way connection, since once certain prerequisites have been unlocked then practicing the mindstate in “real life” also makes it easier to get into the altered states, since the mind is already more inclined in that direction. (I’m simplifying things quite a bit here since a proper elaboration of this caveat would require another essay.) Also having the mind strongly inclined in that direction already can make it easier to unlock the prerequisites and reach the altered states—for example, some people go quite easily from loving-kindness meditation to bliss states, in part because they’ve already practiced (maybe without being consciously aware of it) habits of mind that make it easy to incline themselves towards loving-kindness.