Great apes' spinning behaviours could provide clues about the role of altered states for the origins of the human mind.
Great apes deliberately spin themselves in order make themselves dizzy and the discovery could provide clues about humans’ drive to seek altered mental states, a new study reveals.
Researchers came across a viral video of a male gorilla spinning in a pool, and as they continued researching YouTube, came across more videos of gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans all engaging in spinning behaviours.
Analysing over 40 online videos of apes spinning on ropes and vines, the experts found that on average the primates revolved 5.5 times per episode of spinning, with the average speed 1.5 revolutions per second and the primates did this on average three times.
Spinning is a way in which great apes can change their state of mind and, since these apes share with humans the tendency to create such experiences, our discovery offers the tantalising prospect that we’ve inherited this drive to seek altered mental states from our evolutionary ancestors.
Publishing their findings in Primates, researchers from the Universities of Birmingham and Warwick compared great ape spinning speeds - discovering that they can spin while holding on a rope as fast as professional human dancers and circus artists, as well as Dervish Muslims who take part in whirling ceremonies to achieve a spiritual trance.
Dr Marcus Perlman, Lecturer at the Department of English Language and Linguistics of the University of Birmingham who co-led the research, commented: “We experimented ourselves with spinning at these speeds, and found it difficult to sustain for as long the great apes did in several cases.
“Apes became noticeably dizzy in many of the videos, and they were likely to lose their balance and fall. This would indicate that the primates deliberately keep spinning, despite starting to feel the effects of dizziness, until they are unable to keep their balance any longer.”
“Spinning is a way in which great apes can change their state of mind and, since these apes share with humans the tendency to create such experiences, our discovery offers the tantalising prospect that we’ve inherited this drive to seek altered mental states from our evolutionary ancestors.”
In the videos analysed, the primates were using ropes or vines to spin, which the authors believe enabled them to achieve such fast speeds for such an extended period of time. Researchers analysed the videos and compared the apes’ behaviour to videos of purposeful human pirouettes, for example, ballet dancing, traditional Hopak dancing, and aerial silks performances.
Dr Adriano Lameira, Associate Professor of Psychology at The University of Warwick who co-led the study, commented: “Every culture has found a way of evading reality through dedicated and special rituals, practices, or ceremonies. This human trait of seeking altered states is so universal, historically, and culturally, that it raises the intriguing possibility that this is something that has been potentially inherited from our evolutionary ancestors.
“If this was indeed the case, it would carry huge consequences on how we think about modern human cognition capacities and emotional needs. Spinning alters our state of consciousness, it messes up with our body-mind responsiveness and coordination, which make us feel sick, lightheaded, and even elated as in the case on children playing in merry-go-rounds, spinner-wheels, and carousels.”
The researchers sought to understand whether spinning can be studied as a primordial behaviour that human ancestors could have engaged in to tap into other states of consciousness. If all great apes seek dizziness, then our ancestors were also highly likely to have done so.
Previous studies which attempted to understand human motivation for self-inducing dizziness focused on substance use such as alcohol or drugs, but it is uncertain whether these or other substances would have been accessible to human ancestors, either because those substances were not available in their environment or because individuals and communities didn’t have the technical and cultural knowledge to produce or process psychoactive substances. Scientists say this new study could be more relevant to explain the role of altered states on the evolution of the human mind.
The scientists say that further research is needed to understand primates’ motivations for engaging in these behaviours, to understand why our own ancestors might also have been driven to seek out these spinning and mind-altering experiences.
For more information or an embargoed copy of the research paper, please contact Tony Moran, University of Birmingham on +44 (0)782 783 2312. Out-of-hours please call +44 (0) 121 414 2772.
The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the world’s top 100 institutions, its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers and teachers and more than 8,000 international students from over 150 countries.
‘Great apes reach momentary altered mental states by spinning’ - Adriano R. Lameira, Marcus Perlman is published by Primates.
Associate Professor in Linguistics and Communication
Biographical and contact information for Dr Marcus Perlman, Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Communication at the University of Birmingham.
