Altered States of Consciousness and Psi

I have spent most of my professional career investigating our ordinary state of consciousness and d-ASCs, and I can only touch on the ideas I have developed in these connections here. Although this chapter can be read by itself, the discussions will have greater meaning if the reader will refer to my recent States of Consciousness [173]. 

One way of looking at how consciousness functions and how psi may manifest through it is to observe the functioning of our own minds and listen to the reports others give us of the way in 

We deal with two major classes of information in perceiving and reacting to the world information about the environment or external world and information about what is going on in our own bodies. Information about the external world is taken in through the subsystem labeled Exteroceptors, the receptors for external stimulation. These include the eyes, ears, nose, and the other familiar sense organs. The network of receptors and 

Input Processing draws heavily on some kind of memory. That is, you need stored criteria of what is important in order for Input Processing to do its work. Much of this is implicit. 

Ordinarily, we think that after we are faced with a situation and become aware of it, we may remember some relevant information, evaluate the nature of the situation and make a decision about it, and then act in some fashion, initiating Motor Output through our muscles to affect the external world or our own bodies. Sometimes, we consciously experience those special 

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Altered States of Consciousness and Psi Research Results on Psi and Altered States... 

Investigation of Altered States of Consciousness and Psi Phenomena. In R. Cavanna (ed.). Psi Favorable States of Consciousness Proceedings of an International Conference on Methodology in Psi Research. New York Parapsychology Foundation, 1970, pp. 3-10. 

I end this survey of psi and altered states of consciousness, then, in a most unsatisfactory way, leaving the reader s appetite whetted with what I believe are very real and important possibilities, but without being able to supply more concrete results. Again, my States of Consciousness [173] will greatly expand the view of altered states presented here, and I have given specific research ideas for the parapsychological investigator in two other papers [168,180]. 

In postulating this radical theory of consciousness, I have drawn primarily on two sources my investigations of altered states of consciousness, in which I have explored some of the very radical alterations in the ways in which people perceive themselves and the world, and psi phenomena. 

Caine, D.B. Horowski R. McDonald, J. Wuttke, W. Lisuride and Other Dopamine Agonists Raven Press (1983) ISBN 0-89004-867-3 Cavanna, R. Ullman, M. PSI and Altered States of Consciousness Garrett Press (1968) LC 68-8909... 

Hypnosis, Psychedelics, and Psi Conceptual Models. In R. Cavanna and M. Ullman (eds.). Psi and Altered States of Consciousness. New York Garrett Press, 1968, pp. 24-41. 

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