Odyssey of Consciousness: Dr Hubert Larcher’s Unidimensional Dual-Aspect model of Altered States of Consciousness (“Anthropodynamics”)

Renaud Evrard

Laboratoire Interpsy, University of Lorraine, France

— and assistant

The Contribution of Dr Hubert Larcher

Hubert Larcher (1921–2008) was a French physician and parapsychologist, noted for his study of various altered states of consciousness that can occur between life and death. He was a member of the Institut Métapsychique International since 1956, and its director from 1977 to 1995.

At the age of twenty, Larcher coined the term “hagiology” to describe the investigation of the biology of saints. He became an expert in mystical and ascetic phenomenology, and especially paranormal psychophysiology. But Larcher was also a specialist of the varying states between life and death, an interest which led to him becoming, in 1966, a co-founder of the French Society of Thanatology. He dedicated his medical doctoral thesis on the auto-embalming process, which, in some circumstances, gives rise to the appearance of preservation of life for an extended period. Mixing hagiology and thanatology, he developed in an article called “The Odyssey of Consciousness” a model of psychophysiological states (altered states of consciousness) and termed this study of trance states in humans “anthropodynamics”.

Unfortunately, this model is never discussed in Anglo-Saxon literature, probably due to language barriers. According to classification processes, this model can be labelled unidimensional as it uses a single parameter according to which states of consciousness are evaluated and subsequently classified. Here, however, this parameter is polarized, and the two poles sometimes present complementary relationships, as if they were two aspects of the same process. Beyond the continuum of this dimension, Larcher identifies 10 discrete psychophysiological states that differ in nature. The notion of trance is then conceived dynamically as the passage from one state to another, thus avoiding confusion between (stable) states and (unstable) transitions of consciousness.

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Renaud Evrard is a clinical psychologist and assistant professor of clinical psychology, habilitated to supervise doctoral research at the University of Lorraine (Nancy). He is a member of the laboratory Interpsy (EA 4432) and the president of the association AnHomalies.

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Published on October 14, 2026