5-Dimensional Altered States of Consciousness Rating Scale

The 5D-ASC is a 94-item self-report scale that assesses the participants’ alterations from normal waking consciousness with a Cronbach’s alpha range between 0.88 and 0.95 (Dittrich 1998; Dittrich et al. 2010; Studerus et al. 2010). The participant is asked to make a vertical mark on the line below each statement to rate to what extent the statements applied to their experience in retrospect (i.e., from 0 “No, not more than usually” to 100% “Yes, more than usually”), and the score ranges from 0 to 100%. The 5D-ASC measures 11 subscales; experience of unity spiritual experience, blissful state, insightfulness, disembodiment, impaired control and cognition, anxiety, complex imagery, elementary imagery, audio-visual synesthesia, and changed meaning of perception. Moreover, the 5D-ASC measures 5 key-dimensions which include oceanic boundlessness that identifies mystical-type experiences and has been compared with the “heaven” aspect of Huxley’s mescaline account (Dittrich 1998), anxious ego dissolution, visual restructuralization, auditory alterations, and reduction of vigilance.