Altered States/Dissociation Record Type: Review   ID: 367
Science and Altered States of Consciousness Hardy, Christine
This book develops the possible relationships between parapsychological and psychophysiological investigations of altered states of consciousness (ASCS). Five states of consciousness, which have been subject to extensive investigations, are reviewed: the dreaming state, the out-of-body experience, meditation and relaxation, hypnosis, and the hypnagogic state. The section on dream research reviews psychophysiological investigations of the dream state, lucid dreaming research, and clinical and experimental investigations of dream telepathy or precognition. The parapsychological OBE literature is then examined and the different viewpoints regarding its nature reviewed. In the following section an overview of diverse meditative practices is provided, followed by psychological, physiological, and parapsychological investigations of meditative states. The next section begins with a review of the debate concerning the nature of hypnosis and then presents parapsychological research involving hypnotic induction procedures. Finally, psychological and physiological aspects of the hypnagogic state are examined, along with parapsychological research involving a hypnagogic-like state (the Ganzfeld). After a review of theories attempting to model ASCs, the book concludes with a discussion of the possibility that alterations in our state of consciousness may imply shifts in both subjective and consensual realities.
Publisher Information:	Paris: Editions du Rocher, 1988. 265p. Bibl: 253-264; 7 illus

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