A Festschrift for a Consciousness Hummingbird: Charles T. Tart

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31156/jaex.25346

Keywords:

Charles Tart, consciousness, altered states of consciousness, anomalous experience, anomalous cognition, parapsychology

Abstract

Charles Tart was arguably the most important theoretician and researcher of altered states of consciousness (ASC) during the second half of the 20th century. His vast output included books and articles extending the frontiers of study of states of consciousness in general, and of the hypnagogic state, dreaming, meditation, hypnosis, and minor and major psychedelic drugs, among others. Rather than a specialized scientist, he was a fast and agile hummingbird who did not visit only a flower or two but extracted noetic nectar from many more and proceeded to pollinate a wide field of study that had mostly lain barren since the early contributions by William James and a few others. In this editorial I provide a general introduction to his work and its influence on mine.

Author Biography

Etzel Cardeña, Lund University

Etzel Cardeña was born and raised in México. He has been elected Fellow of APS and APA, among other organizations, and holds the endowed Thorsen Chair in psychology at Lund University, Sweden, where he leads the Center for Research on Consciousness and Anomalous Psychology (CERCAP). His areas of research include alterations of consciousness and anomalous experiences (including psi), dissociative processes and posttraumatic reactions, the neurophenomenology of hypnosis and transcendent experiences, and the stream of consciousness during waking and altered states. His Ph. D. is from the University of California, Davis (under Charles Tart) and he was a postdoctoral fellow and scholar resident at Stanford University. He has more than 400 publications, some in top journals in psychology and related disciplines such as American Journal of Psychiatry,  American Psychologist, Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Journal of Experimental Psychology, Psychological Bulletin, and others. Various professional organizations have given him awards for his research, theoretical, historical, and pedagogical work. He was the Founding Editor of Mindfield, Past Editor of Journal of Parapsychology, and Senior Editor of the books Varieties of Anomalous Experiences, Altering Consciousness, and Parapsychology: A Handbook for the 21st Century. He has also worked professionally as a theatre director, actor, and playwright.

References

Cardeña, E. (2005). The phenomenology of deep hypnosis: Quiescent and physically active. International Journal of Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis, 53(1), 37-59. Doi: 10.1080/00207140490914234

Cardeña, E. (2019). What the Taller de InvestigaciÛn Teatral revealed to me. In N. N˙Òez, Anthropocosmic theatre (pp. 215-218). University of Huddersfield Press. https://doi.org/10.5920/anthropocosmic.09

Cardeña, E., Jˆnsson, P., Terhune, D. B., & Marcusson-Clavertz, D. (2013). The neurophenomenology of neutral hypnosis. Cortex, 49, 375-385. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2012.04.001

Ludwig, A. (1966). Altered states of consciousness. Archives of General Psychiatry, 15

Ornstein, R. (1973). The nature of human consciousness: A book of readings. W. H. Freeman.

Tart, C. T. (1969). Altered states of consciousness: A book of readings. John Wiley.

Tart, C. T. (1970). Transpersonal potentialities of deep hypnosis. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 2(1), 27-40.

Tart, C. T. (1971). On being stoned: A psychological study of marijuana intoxication. Science and Behavior Books.

Tart, C. T. (1972). States of consciousness and state-specific sciences. Science, 176, 1203-1210.Tart, C. T. (1975). States of consciousness. E. P. Dutton.

Tart, C. T. (1998). Six studies of out-of-body experiences. Journal of Near-Death Studies, 7(2), 73-99.

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Published

2023-08-29

How to Cite

Cardeña, E. (2023). A Festschrift for a Consciousness Hummingbird: Charles T. Tart. Journal of Anomalous Experience and Cognition, 3(2), 222–227. https://doi.org/10.31156/jaex.25346

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 2 (2023):

Section

Editorials

License

Copyright (c) 2023 Etzel Cardeña

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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