Charles T. Tart, PhD, is emeritus professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis, as well as the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. He is a past-president of the Parapsychological Association. He has published over 100 scientific papers in parapsychology. He is editor of several anthologies including Altered States of Consciousness, Transpersonal Psychologies, Mind at Large, and Body Mind Spirit: Exploring the Parapsychology of Spirituality. Books that he has authored include Psi: Scientific Studies in the Psychic Realm, States of Consciousness, The End of Materialism, Learning to Use Extrasensory Perception, On Being Stoned, Waking Up: Overcoming the Obstacles to Human Potential, and Open Mind – Discriminating Mind.

Here he reflects upon his classic article, published in Science in 1972, on “states of consciousness and state-specific science”. His ambition, not yet realized, is to inaugurate a new approach to science in which researchers would enter into altered states of consciousness. He examines the obstacles to realization of this novel objective — particularly the human tendency to cling to ideologies. The discussion includes meditation, hypnosis, dreams, and the use of psychedelic drugs.

(Recorded on October 23, 2018)

Published on October 24, 2018